4WD Driveline Service- TIps and Tricks
Just did a driveline service on my '05 4WD V6. Thought I would post some notes for anyone else thinking of doing this service. Basically, I drained and filled the rear differential, transfer case, and transmission. I also drained and filled the cooling system.
Let's start with the transmission. The book says that the capacity is 3.5 qts. on a drain and refill. I ended up getting six quarts out. I'm a big believer in filters but as others have noted, Toyota uses a screen in their units. A fiber filter is available in the aftermarket so that's an option. In fact, I bought a fiber filter and planned to drop the pan and replace the screen with the filter. Some genius at Toyota designed things so that about 3 of the bolts on the far driver's side of the pan are covered by the frame. Of these, 1 is only accessible with a wrench or you would have to remove the trans mount bracket on that end to get more clearance. In fact, to get enough space to make it easy to get out with a socket, you could remove the mount and raise the trans with a jack. Basically, I decided that things looked like they had never been apart, so I settled to do a drain and flush and leave the metal screen in there. If I really felt compelled to have a filter, I could put a Magnafine filter inline. After draining the pan, I disconnected one of the hoses on the auxiliary cooler and used compressed air to blow out more fluid.
A few tips: You'll need a 10mm Allen socket or wrench; the pan has a drain plug. A "skinny" funnel works great when filling the unit. Keep a rough measure of how much fluid comes out so you have a rough guess of how much to put in for starters. Fluid level is checked with engine running and trans in park. Dipstick has a small tab on it to keep it off the wall of the fill tube. Make sure that tab points to the outside radius of the fill tube so you don't end up getting a false reading by picking up fluid on the walls of the tube. Make sure you are at least at the cold marks before going for a test drive. Fine tune fluid level after taking a drive and using the hot marks on the stick.
The transfer case takes one quart of gear oil and is somewhat of a pain to service. You'll need a 24mm or 15/16 socket. Things are tight, so to ease access, you'll need to drop the exhaust pipe coming from the front bank of the motor. The fit is such that you also have to unbolt the y-pipe that joins the front and rear banks. Things came apart pretty easy except for one of the nuts, which bound up on the stud. The stud ended up coming out of the manifold and I couldn't get the nut off the stud. I tried to put the stud back in when it came time to go back together and ended up messing up the threads in the manifold. A quick run through with a tap and a replacement stud from Carquest and things were good to go.
Tips: There's a drain plug and a fill/fluid-level check plug. Make sure you can get the fill plug out before draining! Buy a decent fluid hand pump from the parts store. The drain plug is magnetic and some material on the plug is normal. Fill takes one quart.
Finally, I got to the differential. There's a Allen drain plug on the bottom and a fill plug on the side. Again, make sure you can get the top one out before draining things. The top plug on mine was corroded making it tough to get my Allen into the plug. You'll also need a long extension if you are using an Allen socket because there's not enough room to get a straight shot in with a ratchet. The drain plug is magnetic and mine had a layer of shavings on it. Fill is 1 quart and requires the hand pump.
This all took longer than I expected. My Highlander has about 60K on it and by the looks of things, changing the fluid in the differential and transfer case was a good idea. Since I used Amsoil, the gear fluid should be good for 100K and I'll do a drain and fill on the trans in another 15K miles, then extend to every 30K.
|
. I did it when I replaced the x-case fluid.!!!
Linear Mode
