Yes, I will use a empty oil bottle next time, so I can see how much exactly I got there.
ATF...Change or not?
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Yes, I will use a empty oil bottle next time, so I can see how much exactly I got there.I can’t speak for all Toyota transmissions but the one in my Lexus GX 460 (Toyota) does require checking at a specific temperature (~115-120F)
One could always try the drain and replace method but the A760F in my GX has an overfill you open at set temperature. When stream goes to a trickle it means you have correct level so you can overfill and still get accurate level. I usually overfill by a 1/2 quart.
You can always weigh fluid as well in case you have temp differences between drained and new fluid.
One could always try the drain and replace method but the A760F in my GX has an overfill you open at set temperature. When stream goes to a trickle it means you have correct level so you can overfill and still get accurate level. I usually overfill by a 1/2 quart.
You can always weigh fluid as well in case you have temp differences between drained and new fluid.
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- Plano, Texas, USA
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- 2016.5 CX-5 GT AWD titanium/black 2016 Miata Club ST MT white
Water going from solid to liquid being the exceptionsorry, had to liven up the mood in here a bit
Yes, that's true, thank you.
Negative thermal expansion.
Silver iodide is another example besides water.
Any thoughts/comments on this video? Toyota biased, but in general...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULcSauSJrsY
He has some good points and some things I don't necessarily agree with.
I'll go through his points and give my thoughts.
1. Parking Pawl- I've only seen two actually broken in my career, good advice to come to a complete stop. The other side of that is to make sure the vehicle is completely stopped when shifting from Drive to Reverse, vice versa as that will damage the one-way clutch.
2. Transmission Maintenance- Agree with what he says regarding no such thing as lifetime fluid. Service them. The other part of this is the mileage limits he is imposing are not really a thing in our experience. Current condition of the fluid is key. If it is burning, don't touch it, if its old replace it. There is not some magic number that suddenly after 100k miles you cant service it.
3. Warm Up- Yes its a good idea to have fluids at operating temp before you beat on the car. Modern TCMs use different strategies when transmission fluid is cold to account for it taking a little while to warm up. For example the transmission will command a higher line pressure to account for the fluid being thicker.
4. Don't Brake- I have never seen any detrimental effect on a transmission that rev matches when downshifting(which the Skyactiv Drive does). Older transmissions that do not do this it can be hard on them because you're causing some slip. Coast down rev matched downshifts are far less stressful on the transmission than a powered upshift.
5. Stuck in Snow- Agreed, it is very taxing a transmission to sit there with tires spinning, you are generating a ton of heat. I live in the desert and sand has a similar effect. We see tons of failed drivetrain components from playing in the dirt/sand and spinning and suddenly getting traction, this will break shafts and planetaries.
6. The Shifter- Spilled fluids in there definitely break things.
7. Neutral- Skyactiv Drives put themselves in neutral at a stop by relaxing pressure on one of the clutch sets. This is called Neutral Idle Control and is used by a lot of OEMs (including Toyota). It is to help fuel economy because you're not putting load on the engine at a stop. I personally don't like it.
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- Plano, Texas, USA
Appreciate your comments. May I ask you why you don’t like Neutral Idle Control? I didn’t know SkyActiv-Drive transmission has this feature. I usually shift the automatic transmission to Neutral while waiting at the traffic light as I don’t like to use the brake to stop the pulling force which means more heat been generated in torque converter and brakes.
Any opinions to CVT especially on reliability part as it’s getting more popular especially on compact cars and hybrid vehicles.
You never experienced the infamous stop light bump where you're stopped at a light and it feels like some one tapped you from behind? I'm assuming this conversation, which had many theories, is related to this feature:
https://mazdas247.com/forum/t/car-jiggles-after-30-sec-at-stoplight.123875951/
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The thread linked is one of the reasons I am careful what I respond to, lots of conjecture and not everyone is open to learning. What they are experiencing is the trans going into "neutral". It does not go fully into neutral but is slipping the low clutch so you don't feel a "full" engagement but you can feel it. The feature is predicated on transmission fluid temperature, current load on the engine, in manual mode and the amount of pressure on the brake pedal.
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I don't like the feel and I don't like the slipping that it is doing while stopping, I'll either keep pressure light on the brake pedal or put it in manual to keep it from happening on my car. Mazda has a better implementation than some other OEMs that do it but I don't care for it personally.
CVTs are great for my mortgage. I would do my best to never own one. We do multiple Nissans and Subarus a month. We've done Toyotas and Hondas but less often.
Would a more aggressive fluid change schedule help the CVT last longer? Or is it just the design thing that makes them naturally problematic ?
Aggressive fluid changes can help, CVT fluid has an incredibly high level of friction modifiers to make it work and they get worked very hard. The design itself is problematic, Subaru for example on the TR690 which is the heavier duty version in the Legacies, WRX, etc exert 145,000 psi on the belt to make the vehicle move. When that pressure deviates it will damage the pulleys, we usually see grooves worn into the pulley surfaces. Heat is very hard on the fluid and transmission itself, mountainous areas see more failures, we usually see the Nissans around 70-80k miles and the Subarus around 100k needing to be overhauled.
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- Denver, CO
Man, lifetime fluids. I asked MazdaUSA what "lifetime" means and they were vague and dodged the question. So you should assume lifetime means the extent of the powertrain warranty at which point any problems after that are your problems. So I definitely believe in changing transmission fluid. I agree at 100k miles maybe do it a little at a time. My first drain/fill was at 71k, so I definitely missed the opportunity to do it at 30-40k, but its been fine. I did 2 more additional drain/fills (a week apart from each other) for that 71k first time, and then since I did one at 118k (over the interval I wanted to do to be fair, but life's life). I'll try to get the next one no more than 30-40k miles.
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- Plano, Texas, USA
No, during few opportunities I drive our CX-5 which is wife’s daily driver, I’ve never noticed this. It could be because I usually shift the gear into neutral waiting at the stop light.
