Right on. When I bought my bmw, they told me the trans was “sealed for life.” As a former heavy line mechanic, I knew better and contacted ZF. They said to service it between 60 and 80k miles. They were even so good as to send me a pdf of the procedure.

Yes John, as a mechanic (now retired) I have been an advocate of regular auto trans servicing irrespective of what the manufacturer says.

Absolutely correct, if the transmission and the car it's in is correctly designed and the engine never overheats transmission fluid can last nearly forever in as much as there's no combustion waste to contaminate it. I've personally driven cars to over 200,000 miles without ever changing the fluid and they never missed a shift. On other cars where the car and the transmissions were designed less well I've seen the fluid turn dark and smell burnt at relatively low miles. Pro Tip: If your car has a dip stick, just check the fluid by seeing if it's still cherry red and smell it. If it is darker or it smells burnt change the fluid ASAP! Also, if your engine overheats, change the transmission fluid immediately. Once the fluid gets roasted, it's no good anymore and this can happen very quickly when the engine overheats. As to not changing the transmission fluid on cars with high miles for the first time. There is a myth that changing the fluid in cars that haven't had a fluid change before can actually kill the transmission. And there's a basis in truth as I have seen some high mileage automatic transmissions crap out right after a fluid change. But people don't tend to tell you why they were changing the fluid in the first place. In each case where transmissions failed right after a fluid change, the transmissions weren't shifting properly or more often, already slipping before the fluid change. So to be clear, the transmission was already failing and the fluid change didn't fix it. It's not that the new fluid killed the transmission. I've changed the fluid in older transmissions that were shifting sluggishly, where the fluid wasn't toasty and it has helped to improve shifting by cleaning the varnish out of the throttle body. The transmission will tend to improve over a few thousand miles. It's not an instant fix. Fluid changes usually do more good than bad and can sometimes help some high mileage transmissions. If your transmission fluid change kills your transmission, it was likely amongst the walking dead already. Next... Some shops here in the US offer "transmission flush" services. For the most part when you change your fluid, you only change about half of the fluid in your transmission. The rest pretty much stays in your torque converter unless it has a drain plug. This is still pretty much OK. If the fluid in your trans isn't toasted the new fluid adds detergents and improves the lubrication properties of the fluid overall. So why isn't a flush better? Because many shops just do it badly. They use dirty equipment, that often may contain some fluid left over from a different vehicle, or they might use a chemical flush that can damage the delicate components of your particular transmission. Done correctly a 100% fluid change is a good thing and if done by an expert a flush might help if sludge and varnish are your problem, but for the most part, when offered by a discount oil change place the risks outweigh the benefits. Of course, again one of the big reasons why flushes and changes fail is because the people buying the service are bringing in transmissions that are already trashed. If you hear some old timer, like me, tell you that changing the fluid will wash out the grit that's making your clutches work... you're missing the point. If your clutches need grit in the fluid to work, your transmission is already shot. Lastly... Always change your dang transmission filter when you change your fluid! In my experience the old filter can weigh a whole lot more than your new one. It's full of clutch material and other contaminants that have worn off your clutches over time. This wear is normal and new clutches come with more material than they actually need to work. The clogged filter will decrease oil flow in your transmission that will increase heat and reduce lubrication. Replacing a clogged filter will often improve your transmission's performance immediately. Bonus points: Many transmissions have a magnet inside to catch fine metal debris. Don't forget to clean the magnet. The more debris on the magnet the weaker the magnetic field at the fluid interfacing surfaces and the less well it's working... so always clean and replace the magnet, regardless of what the owner's manual tells you to do. (Some car manuals claim the magnet is only there to remove metal from the manufacturing process. Even if this is true, replacing the magnet will never do any harm.) And I'm sure it goes without saying use only the correct transmission fluid for your car.

Thanks for covering this topic! We ran a fleet of chauffeur cars as a business and would change the transmission fluid and filter every 50,000k’s. This resulted in cars easily reaching 500,000k’s on the original box still shifting well. Other people in the same business wouldn’t do the same and at around 150-200,000k’s they’d be up for a new one.

Dear John, Greetings from Austria (the roo free Oz). I've been a fan of your channel for some time and really enjoy the topics you cover. I wanted to say a BIG thankyou for this video. I have a vehicle with one of these 9 speed auto transmissions. Nothing in the manufactures information or service schedule about changing the transmission fluid. But, I've had my vehicle for 5 years and had noticed more and more clunky gear changes. After I watched your video, I did some more research and after my local dealer quoted me 850€ to change the transmission fluid, plucked up the courage to change it myself. €65 for parts and a couple of hours on a sunny Sunday later. The fluid is swapped out and this has transformed the vehicles behaviour, it feels like new once more. So, thanks a bunch ! Anytime your in my neck of the woods, free beers for you !

Hi John, amazing video, great info. A couple of years ago I hit this apparent “sealed for life” issue when I owned an Audi A4 with CVT. As I was aware of the negative comments on the internet about these transmissions I tried to find a drain/fill hole in the casting. When told I would never need to drain and change the fluid I was immediately sceptical (given remembering some dim distant college thermodynamics education!) Had a chat with my decent local mechanic who pretty much said the same as you and we changed the oil every 60,000, no towing just a lot of hill use. Never had any problem and I believe the CVT is still going strong. Your presentation was excellent and really covered the whole topic....should be made mandatory watching at “mechanics school”. When I was a lad when hotting up our cars back in the UK we always fitted remote oil coolers to the engine and auto if needed for just the reasons you outlined. Putting them at the bottom of the radiator was never effective. Keep up the great work mate, I always really enjoy the videos.👍😎🇦🇺

Thanks John for your down to earth advice. I have young sons and of course they are swept up in all the 4WD mods etc. I show them your video's for they reinforce my advice. I have been a mechanic for 20 + years and of course what does dad know? But someone else i.e subject matter expert does penetrate that young stubbornness. Cheers Mate, Love your work!!

When I bought my Pathfinder they told me it was sealed for life and I was like WTF? Anyway, it was under lease so I was stuck to the Nissan dealer who I had to convince to to the trans service at 80k (i got lazy and left it). When I picked the car up he was like " oh, the oil was in good nick....here look its a nice coffee colour". Again i was like WTF????. I said to him that it should be a cherry red and when it get to that colour that its screwed and he looked at me like I was an idiot (which I am not.....been in the motor trade for 20 years at that stage). Anyway, 5 transmission services and 250k later we are still going strong.

Thank you for putting this into simple, understandable terms.

A Masterclass in Slush-boxery, Mr Cadogan. $hit, even I can understand it now. Well done!

Back in the "Dark ages of Auto's" we used to recommend a trans service at 20k or 12 Mths. Traumatics and BW 35/40. When fitting a cooler, the radiator was bypassed, and put a bung in the inlet and outlet of the bottom tank. Another quite good reason for doing this was vibration of the cooler lines (metal) could fracture the cooler core and allow trans fluid when hot to get into the cooling system and contaminate the coolant. Then, when the engine was switched off, trans fluid pressure would drop and coolant pressure (13-16 psi) would force that liquid into the transmission lines resulting in lovely pink coloured fluid, which for some reason was not considered too good for the transmission internals. For every 10c the fluid was lowered, transmission life was extended markedly. Keep up the great info stuff.

I am SO glad you did this video. I have been an advocate of fluid changes for many decades. (I'm retired) One time, I got a '94 Buick with a 4T60E where I could plug in an early scanner that tapped into the transmission temp. I experimented on different driving and in different terrain and found the temp changing within less than one minute. Before this car, I used to tap in a sensor into the cooling line to watch the temp. Same result even before I started using a scanner. Whenever I buy a car, the first thing I do is find out when the T/C engages in various gears. I do this because when I encounter a hill, I'll shift into whatever lower gear necessary, manually, usually just out of O/D, depending on how many speeds this tranny has and let the T/C re-engage, then go up the hill with ease. The engine spins faster but with less effort and the tranny is locked up. It eliminates heating up drastically. I also have a permanent vacuum gage on the dash. That too aids in watching what's going on under the hood. Eliminating engine and tranny strain ALWAYS prolongs my drivetrain life. I live in a very hilly area, so keeping strain out of the picture saves me big repair bills and affords me high mileage vehicles. Fluid changes I toss a coin on per vehicle because that new fluid may cause slipping, but I AM a very strong advocate of fluid changes on cars people have with low mileage. No one listens. These CVT's REALLY need it, but again, no one listens. Referring strictly on cars from the early 60s, whenever I changed the fluid on cars with miles on them, they slipped soon after and I had to change the tranny out. Chrysler vehicles with the Torqueflite 727 and 904 back then didn't seem to have that problem, very strong, but GM and Ford did. On these newer cars, I may siphon out 1 quart every 5-10k miles and put a new quart in and so far, I've been "lucky". With the replacement cost of buying another tranny or vehicle, I don't want to take a chance. I SO hate these new cars. Again, thank you again for doing these very necessary videos. If only more people would watch them and learn something.

Excellent information and so important to spread this message. Please keep up these types of educational vids mate. Thanks.

Great advice. Got a full service done to my sealed unit when purchased at 70,000km and just got another done at 150,000km which I felt was a bit late. Never understood how people can not get it done and just ignore it.

Hey John, over the last two years I have been trying to find someone in Brisbane to service my Subaru Forester XT 2013 transmission from 60000klm as it was the first model to use the FA2.0 turbo with the CVT and 90000klm fast approaching I finally found someone that had the competence to do the job. Massive shout out to (Reliable Automatics & Automotive - Albion) This company not only knew everything about Automatics and CVT they also used to rebuild them for Subaru Australia. I cannot start to count how many phone calls and emails I sent to different Subaru dealers and workshops over the two years and simply never got a reply. One and half hours later, job done and I will return every two years for longevity. Don't forget some transmissions also have filters and mine was also replaced in the service. My final thoughts are I have had the Forester since new and over the seven years and 95000klm I can confirm the gear changes are far more smoother after the service and just feels much better.

Very well explained. One of the most important videos every car owner must watch (and off course, follow the message). Thanx John; and cheers from Canada!

"Sealed for life" is a self fulfilling prophecy

I have a 06 Pathfinder (the one with the dodgy radiators) and knew this when buying it 2nd hand. I was going to use it for towing a boat (750kg max) up and down the escarpment near Wollongong so decided to bypass the radiator for the transmission and ran a Davies-Craig trans cooler with thermo fan setup. The thermo temp is set to 95c to turn the fan on. Only twice did the thermo fan kick in while towing up the escarpment. Main reason was the peace of mind that if the radiator did collapse inside, it wouldn't dump the coolant into the transmission. I did have an EL Falcon that sometimes would have the trans light come on while towing up there as well, so knew that towing there would increase the temps in the transmission a fair bit.

I first saw *that* T-shirt at college nearly 30 years ago. It's an oldie but a goodie.

Thank you very much for this information. Currently driving my first automatic transmission vehicle. Bought new earlier this year and I will definitely remember that 60k km interval as I have no real experience with the things and I'd hate to have it fall apart.

My owners manual says change automatic transmission fluid every 45,000km, but i do mine every 40,000km because i choose to. Transmission fluid is cheap, a rebuild isn't. Sealed for life is nothing but "bullshit", no transmission is perfectly sealed. Atleast in my humble opinion. Factoring in how harsh our climate can be, i'd rather have an external transmission cooler for piece of mind knowing my temps are more consistent, because transmission coolers plumbed through radiators can only extract so much heat before returning to the auto, where as an external transmission cooler helps maintain temps within my vehicles operating range. Even if i'm not towing, it's brilliant to have Lower temps, better fluid life & automatic transmission life ! Hope you're well John !

You make a great High School Physics teacher. Great lesson.

The straight talk! I'll be recommending videos like this one to my bull-headed group of co-workers who incessantly argue with me about "sealed, lifetime fluid!" I even tried to meet them in the middle by conceding, "ok, lifetime fluid can be possible, but a lot of driving variables must be in place," I says. They still wont sway.

Your discussion on the auto trans cooler was bloody interesting. Was gratified when I checked under the bonnet of my three pronged suppository SUV, discovering that it has an air cooled auto trans cooler just in front and at the lower end of the main engine radiator!

The timing on this one is amazing. I've got a 2011 VE Maloo and have suspected for the last couple of weeks that she was starting to slip a little inside the auto. HSV in their infinite wisdom allow you to show tertiary gauges on your info screen and I always have transmission oil temp and intake air temps showing. On 30+ degree days the trans temp stays at around 78 degrees, Ive never seen it go above that, and I figured that must have been too hot. According to your data its actually staying pretty cool. Still going to send her in for a transmission service regardless now because of your 60k recommendation. She's only just cracked 100,000 kms but being second hand I dont know how hard a life she had before I picked her up, being a Maloo I'd suspect it wasn't an easy one.

This was a particularly good episode. Thank you sir!

Thanks,John.Very well explained and clear and simple.Glad we do not have the extreme temps here in N.Z. Summer rarely exceeds 30C in Levin.

Thanks. I’ve been waiting for a video on this topic for ages.

Thanks John, beautifully described as always. I can confirm the scenario through real life experience, as a my (now-ex) Ford Territory six speed sealed-for-life auto gearbox failed at 135,000 after a few years of intermittent towing of a mere 1.6T shittoire on wheels over a period of a few years. Cost thousands to recondition and could have been avoided for a few hundred spent on regular autobox services. And this with a box that had a built-in transmission cooler! (AWD model.)

Thanks John, really informative and easy to understand.

Have you thought about becoming a university lecturer ? Your a natural teacher John. Thank you for sharing.

Great presentation of the facts, preventative maintenance is the cheapest insurance you will ever purchase. While I am seeing others spending thousands on transmission repairs, my miniscule cost to service my auto every 20k is money i can spend elsewhere. Well done John, rock solid advise!

using a obd2 dongle while towing in a 2012 pajero was interesting. using 5th, I could only use very small throttle openings before the torque converter unlocked. within minutes the temp would skyrocket from in to 70s to over 100. locking in 4th, the t/c lock stayed locked pretty much all the time and the temp stayed in the 70s I recently had the trans oil in my y62 changed at 45,000, it was very dark, and didn't look good. definitely worth the $400

Thanks for that. I have always over serviced my cars especially the engine and transmission oils. Every car I've had has done big mileage with never one failure ..

Thank you so much for this video! I have wondered when or if i should change mine. I will get that done at the next service (70,000km) Thanks!

Can confirm every word of your advise, based on personal experience. My VW Phaeton has a top class ZF transmission. All services done on time by an official VW service partner (total rip off). At 150'000 km transmission started to fail. He had it rebuild by a small independent garage for less than 2000$ (I'm not stupid enough to pay another 10'000$). The expert who did the rebuild, confirmed that the fluid was never changed. According to ZF's instructions, it should have been done every 50'000 km.

I use a non contact infrared thermometer and check cv joints. The differential temp temp is overlooked and the non contact infrared thermometer works great too. This guy is giving great advice. Thank you.

When buying used it’s definitely a good idea to change the transmission oil on those sealed shut mystery boxes without paperwork 🤦‍♂️

This is some of the best advice you will ever get about your vehicle! Trust me you'll be happy you followed it. Not only does your transmission last longer it will also work better. Your car will refrain from feeling like garbage. I gladly pay to have my transmission serviced. It has paid off for me. My lady vehicle was a Pontiac Montana SV6 which are known for weak transmissions I got 433000KM out of it and the transmission still worked like new when I sold it because I had it serviced at regular intervals.

I remember when we used to change the oil in the pre-selector box's, (forerunner of the auto box) you had to turn the fluid flywheel to get the drain plug to the bottom to make sure you got all the oil out, and adjust the bands, oil quality has improved a 1000% since then.

About a year after I bought my SV6 VF2 Commodores brand new. I spoke to my local auto transmission guy, about my sealed transmission. I asked him, when should I take the car in for a transmission service. He told me the first service should be by 100,000 klm since I don't use the car for towing. I asked him if that should be a full flush, or just an oil change. He said just a change. My car is currently 4 years old with 45,000 on the odometer.

Did this recently on the Mazda 6 at 140,000 Km. They don’t make it easy but the fluid was pretty dark and the magnet in the pan had a little sludge on it. New filter and fluid and it all seems to be working well so far. When I asked the service department about doing this over the years they told me the transmission is sealed and there is no way of doing it.

THANK YOU JOHN FOR THIS USEFULL TUTORIAL. REALLY INFORMATIVE.😀👍

Great video, John. The running knowledge here in the US when towing is shorten the change interval when the trans is operated above 220F like you recommend. I followed a reasonable change interval, and made it over 353,000km before the transmission exhibited symptoms of failure. I was still able to tow my boat back through hilly terrain on a 95F day for 4 hours without failure. I have no doubt the trans would have failed much sooner (and catastrophically) without the cooler and regular changes. Toyota has removed the cooler from newer Tundras and there are many reports of high temps, even when not towing. The overheat alarm comes on around 300F!

Mechanical components are pretty simple really.... if its got gears,moving parts,chains, belts etc. It will require lube, grease, oil or servicing at some point in time dependent on use and regardless of what a manufacturer wants you to believe. Personally, I've always "over serviced" alot of cars, motorbikes, boats, farming equipment etc. When compared to manufacturer intervals and its always treated me well in return.

As an ex BMW Parts Interpreter, the service options with factory sealed transmissions are limited. The factory fluid is extremely expensive, and there's no serviceable parts. If there's any problem the fix was an exchange factory refurbished transmission. Trade mechanics would disassemble them to diagnose, or service them, then discover there's no replacement parts. Dealer labour costs were astronomical, north of $110 per hour. Gotta pay for that shiny showroom somehow, aka the chrome plated mausoleum.

BRILLIANT, just BRILLIANT. 10/10. - What more can I say??? THANK YOU Johno!!!

If I had a hero....and I don't, It would be you, John. Thank you for doing what you do. Cheers Mate.

Sealed for life is fine until the warranty expires. Then, good luck getting the dealer or manufacturers to fix one that shat itself. Engine oil and trans fluid are cheap, engine and transmission replacement costs will make your head spin. Inexpensive insurance, imho

Precision Transmissions have a good few videos on what happens to your transmission's insides if you choose not to service it

Excellent explanations, very practical and still maintaining good sense of humour.

Good video, John. 2014 MB C-350 purchased new. MB sked is: Change trans. fluid every 70K miles. No flush, just drain and fil and replace filter. Replaces about 1/2 of the fluid (6 quarts). Approaching 100K Miles and have followed this sked. So far trans. shifts smoothly. My next change is at 140K miles.

Pro tip: sourcing information from the transmission supplier instead of the car manufacturer can help to decide what’s best. The service intervals are not the same. Very few car manufacturers produce their own transmissions. As an example, for a particular Toyota I had, recommended interval of 60k for cvt oil change (drain and refill). The transmission supplier (aisin) recommends 20k service interval and use a transmission fluid changer to flush the system. Dealerships should be forced to better inform the customer as to servicing requirements before they sell a vehicle

Damn it he said "don't drill a hole and insert a termometer" 6 minutes in. Can you make a video of how to plug a hole in a transmission?

John your knowledge is very helpful I'm always keen to find out more especially if its saving me money down the road many thanks Terry

The most well spoken and factual truth I've ever heard.im a mechanic by trade and like a worn out clutch it needs replacing.just like gladice

In the stream of marketing buff, the words 'warranty period' have been replaced with 'life' So they genuinely are sealed for that life.

Great video! I'd love to see a similar analysis for CVT types too.

Wow, thank you very much, just what I was actively seeking to be educated on (given I bought a brand new Ford Ranger) and looking to do sand driving. 🙏 you’re a champion.

Brilliant work thanks John. Yes, as a mechanic in Brisbane I flushed many Falcon " sealed " transmissions and even at 30,000 k's the fluid that came out was black. The most expensive, overlooked component.

The average driver does not appreciate the marvel that is automatic transmission fluid. It is a lubricant AND a coolant AND a hydraulic fluid. That is asking quite a bit for a single fluid, but a proper fluid can easily handle all these jobs. Sure, different transmissions over the years require different types of transmission fluid, but the difference is usually due to different requirements for the friction materials required by the clutch discs and bands, but they all service the same demands. Auto trans are often over-built and can handily manage all but extreme use and abuse, but heat will shorten the life or kill a transmissions life expectancy. I think I can easily assume that the thought and engineering that goes into the formulation of specific auto transmission fluids is a bit of an engineering marvel in and of itself.

Thank you! Excellent and useful information, particularly the temperature/life graph. In the Torque app which I have just downloaded there are three methods of measuring transmission temperature, and three different readings. Does this mean temperatures in three different places, or that there is no temperature sensor, and temperature is calculated from three other proxies?

Appreciate the outstanding sense of humor

Have been researching about this for a while. Mostly got advice to go with what is in the owners manual. Great topic. Thanks.

“Humans die in the snow” as a Scandinavian I would probably last longer in the snow -15*C than in the 50*C Australia outback. That is of corse assuming that I would be wearing proper winter clothes and that I wouldn’t get attacked by a Koala, poisoned by a platypus, kicked by a kangaroo before I even get to the outback.

I'll keep my manual gearbox thanks. Replacing a clutch /pressure plate combination for under $1000AUD every 100k, and not suffer the critical failures of automatics, is my preference. 👍👍🇭🇲

I'm sitting on 145,000km / 13 years with a Aisin 60-40LE in my Astra, following the "sealed for life" mantra. So far, so good.... touch wood.

Great useful info delivered with fun and meaning. Thanks!

I have my transmission and diffs serviced every 40,000kms. Always have. Have never had a failure in my driveline.

this is me... I need a new transmission in my prado. I'm getting it fully rebuilt... not cheep :(

And i love this guy!!Thanks mate.

Excellent and comprehensive John thsnks very much.

Yehhhhhhsssssss. The old format is back (as of yesterday and the new Mighty king 🔧). Now bring back the nuts and bolts episodes and Don't foget the squeaky high pitched Bogan voice

And “changing” the oil by dropping the pan is only changing 20-30% of the total volume of oil. This is no different to any Auto Trans but this is another reason why changing oil often is important. Unless you do a proper “flush” - which a lot of people and places won’t do without having the right tooling so all your going to get is approx 2.5L - 5L of oil changed depending on the vehicle. Even setting the level correctly can call for special dealer tooling if you don’t stick with the logic of “put back exactly what you took out” rule, then pull the level plug at (X) degrees Celsius. (Toyota is usually 40 degrees C which you can take via a IR Temp Gun at the pan, or via the OBD2 port (or for example by jumping a wire across pin 4 and 5 of the OBD2 plug and reading the temperature on the dash in some vehicles) Changing the trans oil on a used car is one immediate “feel good” job because every time I have done it, the car drives so so much nicer. Good topic John and it’s a subject that I managed to finally get 2 Ford representatives to admit that the “Sealed for Life” claim is in fact Marketing bullshit. :)

A++ !!! Thank you so much Sir !!! Now I understand why more and more advise me to open, flush and clean my Nissan Nav 7 gear ATM at 80000 km (I had planne to do it at 150000)

Awesome video as always. Might add that selecting the right gear can also dramatically reduce ATF temperatures without the need of fitting an aftermarket transmission cooler.

10 - 20K AD? For transmission work! I replaced two transmissions in my Mazda B 4000 4x4 and it cost me 2200 USD on the first one and 2800 USD for the second one! The first went out at ~160K miles and the second one at 310K miles! Very little towing but lots of Interstate miles at 70-80 mph.

read the manual, there's a revolutionary suggestion, guru gold right there! Onya JC!

thanks this is really helpful, we just bought a 2013 Lexus es350 with 80k kms on it, and the mechanic suggested we do not need to change the transmission oil so soon, but after watching this, i reckon i must change this, afterall its only $180.

Thank you for the excellent video John.

Perhaps we should go back to specifying a manual transmission when we buy a new vehicle 🤪🇦🇺😎📷

I've heard that if the fluid was never changed after 300,000km, it's better to keep it there. The transmission is probably so worn out that new fluid may cause slippage.

Thanks for making this informative video John. Love the shirt you're wearing. Ever thought of selling AutoExpert merchandise?

Thank you for the advice.

"Tens of thousands of dollars" for a transmission failure? Are we talking about the largest Mercedes highway tractor truck?

I had a 2005 Adventra, 3.6 V6 Alloytec 5 speed Auto, with about 200,000km on it. I only had it for about 2 years so its history was pretty much a mystery. I was surprised to learn its transmission is "sealed for life" and "no Servicing required" as well as apparently GM sold this slush box to BMW for some models. I think GM's definition of Lifetime is "from birth to death" with no regard to the cause of the latter. So technically they are correct. "We guarantee this won't fail until it does. then you can F*** Off." I considered this to be completely ridiculous, even the manual only specified the ATF type but not the quantity and along with no drain plug there is also no filler since there is no dipstick. How to change the fluid? I had to disconnect the cooling lines from the radiator, run the engine and put the Transmission in Drive to let it pump out the fluid until it stopped coming out one pipe, shut down the engine, measure the quantity collected, and then via the second pipe, pump in that amount using a drill pump and battery drill. Then repeat the exercise and repeat again until clean fluid was being discharged, top up that amount and close it all up. What a pain in the arse.

Good chat JC, Thanks. Yes for towing Prado handbook says Sport/4th gear. About 3k rev at 100k give or take. I’ll drop into 5th downhill with a tail wind ensuring lockup happens. You’ll now this but for others 5&6 are overdrive on Prado.

Excellent as usual - Bravo - Thank you John

City use do them more often. Same with CVTs... if manual says 80k do item at 40k.

Here in Europe we drive manual transmission. That was true like 10 years ago. Now we want automatic. And there is a problem. Manual transmission failure rate statistically is never. Clutch goes bad at 200 000 km and that's it. There is recommended change transmission fluid every 80 000 km but even if you don't do that it's gonna be fine for 300 000 km. It just has to have those 2 liters of oil in it. Now we have experienced; WV dual clutch, Ford dual clutch, Nissan CVT, Honda automatic, Mercedes (king of expensiveness and shitness)... And holly shit those things are bad. Some of them are intentionally designed to fuck you like honda automatic. They have oil filter inside. You have to remove transmission to change oil filter. Labor costs arm and filter costs leg. If you change oil and filter transmission lasts 250 000 - 300 000 km if you don't then it 180 000 - 250 000 km. Just pure fuck you design

Totally agree - don't listen to your owner's manual if it ever says "Sealed for life" or "Never needs changing." I don't use my vehicle harshly and replace it every 90,000 miles along with the transmission filter which is not mentioned here (they do get dirty/worn as well). Since it was still red in color it was not fully worn out at that point. At 200,000 miles still going strong.

the path integrals on the t-shirt and the energy balance on the blackboard take me right back to school; the choice of pointer, a reminder to pay attention!

I shift my auto into manual mode when towing a van at around 2.5t. otherwise the auto will select 5th gear and the torque converter unlocks and the temp of the trans fluid climbs from 79deg to over 95.. I Dont allow the torque converter to unlock and my temp climbs maybe 5 to 10deg at most on a long up hill climb.

At some point you are going to scare me into servicing my Auto! Only got 510,000 km on it so don't want to rush it.

Thanks John just booked my 320k Prado 120 in for possibly its first auto service

Thank you so much for this lecture!

Does this apply to diffs as well?

Make Automatics Less Stressed

Solid practical advice. Clutches will wear regardless, but heat kills.

Great video. I was pretty much aware of all the information except for the oil longevity relative to temperature data, that was very useful information. I tow a 2T boat (not as often as I'd like) in a 2014 BT50. I've completed a transmission oil and filter change with the transmission which is normally a messy process due to having to drop the pan. Not so if you drain the oil first by using a vacuum pump to drain the oil prior to dropping the pan. I'm going to be using this system to flushing the transmission oil every 20k or so and dropping the pan at 40-50k as a safe guard. Auto fluid is cheap and the vacuum pump makes the oil change a doddle.