My attempt at 100K maintenance

Those will come in handy for the transmission fluid change.

 

Hang on, you don't have to pull the skid plate? I thought for sure my TRD skidplate would block access, it's bigger than the off-road package skid!

 

I'm referring to the stock skid plate.

 

I am hoping to knock out the coolant tonight. *fingers crossed that the weather holds out to allow this. I am really trying to knock out the rest of the schedule maintenance prior to leaving next week Wednesday for a little road trip.

 

The scanner, yes. The fluid syringe, no.

Go grab two things for the trans fluid swap. One is a simple $5 oil jug adapter that you can get at Walmart.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-Tough-Gear-Oil-Fluid-Plastic-Funnel-Spout-10106/636907435
It screws right on to the Toyota WS jugs. Pull off the short clear hose and toss it in a drawer somewhere.

Go to Home Depot/ Lowe’s/ or similar and buy 5’ of clear vinyl hose from their bulk rolls. You want 1/2” inside diameter with a 5/8” outside diameter.

Shove the Walmart bottle adapter into the end of the hose and slide the other end down behind the driver’s side valve cover from the engine bay. You can grab this end from below and slip it into the trans fill hole that is above the front driveline. Fits real nice like.

When you fill the trans from above, just jab a screwdriver or knife into the bottom each quart of WS to vent it.

 

Ditto on this. See this video - about 2:20 in you'll see how this works.

 

That is actually what I have and plan to do. Great minds think alike. Well the idea came from a video. Haha

Edit: from the above mentioned video

 

Waiting for the engine to cool before I start the coolant! Going to do the brake fluid on Saturday. Hopefully the transmission on Sunday or Monday.

 

I use those on my wife Highlander. Don't use them on the Tundra. They go on top of the jack stands and fit where the jack points are on the body

 

Sorry yes those go on the jack stands. Would like no metal to metal contact if I can help it.

 

Coolant was a breeze. Followed @Ruggybuggy guidance. Longest part was waiting for the radiator to finish draining. About 1 1/2 gallons of Toyota LLC.


Thanks to everyone's advice and guidance these jobs are getting done.

 

I personally like the syringe method. The one I use at home has inlet and outlet. I drill a half inch hole in the cap of a 4 litre container of trans fluid and insert my clear inlet hose then the exit hose in the transmission. Pump the syringe and I can empty the 4 litre container in about six pumps. Faster then waiting for 1 litre bottles to drain. To each his own.

 

Ah-ha. Different syringe from the sound of it. Yours sounds really slick!

 

Anyone done their front diff yet? Curious how much gear oil is needed. I bought 2 quarts. One video I saw said 2.1 quarts. So my question is the .1 really necessary?

 

Did you have any left from the rear diff service?

 

You should be filling it on a level surface, and it should be just overflowing slightly from the fill hole. Should be around 2.1 or 2.2 - if it took less, you might need to let it sit a minute and top it off.

 

If you don't want to wait 10k you could always just do 3 drain and fills back to back within like a week or a months time. Some manufacturers actually suggest this for dirty fluid.

 

No. I made a horrible mess.

 

Recommendation! $20 gets you like a 50? 100? pack of XL absorbent puppy pads on Amazon. These are amazing at helping keep oil off the floor during any fluid changes, throw down 3-4 and toss 'em after. I've had a large box I'm slowly working through over the last 2 years, and that's doing all the fluids for 4 motorcycles, 2 cars and my truck. Work great for cleaning firearms on too.

 

That's a great idea. Thank you!!

 

Probably a better idea than parking over a storm drain in the gutter. Gotta be real careful if you do that. Too easy to drop the drain bolt through the grate, and then you’re in trouble.

 

Fill for me was about 2qt.

Hardest part was getting the drain bolt off. It is a 10mm Allen hex. Needed to use a foot on my breaker bar to get it off. Leard of the Lexus drain bolt and will get that for next time.

 

Would suggest you grab the Kaon drain plug instead. 24mm head on it vs the 14mm Lexus one, and the material's hardened a bit more I honestly believe. It's a $35 thing I hope to not need replace, I've already replaced my drain plug twice now, looking for this to be the last on it. Takes a month to arrive from Australia, but designed for offroad conditions in the Outback.

Model's KS0127 - https://www.kaon.com.au/front-diff-drain-plug-to-suit-toyota

 

When you go to service the front diff, undo the fill plug first then the drain plug. You want to make sure you can get the fill plug open first. Pro-tip, before you insert your allen socket, make sure the it clear of debris. When the allen is inserted, use a small hammer and tap on the end of the allen socket a bunch of times. It helps break the drain plug free. I've never stripped one and I've undone a lot of them.

 

Dave, is there a burping procedure after the drain and fill of the radiator to get the air out? I have been convinced that I can do it, saving the 200+ dollars that the dealer wants. I love this place...

 

Very easy to do. It's unlikely you will get an airlock doing a drain and fill. If you have some car/truck ramps that most shade tree techs do, run it up on the ramps gets the radiator fill the highest point in the cooling system.

 

Sweet thanks!

 

Right stuff ?

00272-1LLAC-01

 

That appears to be the long life coolant. You want the super long life coolant.

 

Ok, Thank you Dave