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Hello, I have a 1999 Toyota Sienna XLE that I recently obtained with 140k miles on it.
I am going to do a Transmission fluid change via drain plug (which I learned it doesn’t completely replace the whole system’s fluid and just a portion of it). And going to pull the pan down to change the mesh strainer since I have no idea what its condition is. And I want to do it because via the Transmission dipstick the fluid smells slightly burned.
So I’ve been looking around on other sites and they stated that the differential shares the same fluid from the transmission (but has its own drain plug). My concern is that I couldn’t get a definitive answer whether or not the differential has its own fill plug or not. I tried looking myself but couldn’t find one that resembles one. Many of them say it could be fed from the dipstick just like the transmission, but I don’t know.
Also, I don’t know for sure whether the drain plug I looked at was for the differential or not. The transmission one is obvious but I’m not so sure about the differential one. So I’ll attach some pictures when I get a chance to lift the car.
Any details/help is appreciated! Thanks!
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If its a FWD van then the trans fluid shares the diff fluid. If its AWD then there would
be a seperate diff fluid. The screen does not need to be replced. Its also not necessary
to remove the pan. a drain and refill will do it. If you wanted to pull the pan to clean the magnets
and the pan then great. Do a drain and refill twice.Better find out what ATF to use first,may use special ATF you have to buy from the dealer only.Todays automatics,the recommended ATF is to use only.
I have a 2001 ce, the drain plug is a 10mm Allen key (I believe, should be across from the oil plug) I believe it uses dextron 3 ( I only use Toyota fluids mainly because from what I understand not all fluids mix well together, plus it costs about the same)
As pointed out there’s likely a difference between AWD and FWD vans. As also pointed out, be sure you use the correct fluid. Sometimes Toyota requires the use of special fluids in their transmissions.
Lastly, I wouldn’t be too concerned about only changing part of the fluid. If you really want to replace ALL of the fluid, I would recommend taking it to a shop that has a machine capable of doing that. Otherwise, I would just do drain and refills of the fluid at regular intervals. You’ll eventually end up with the correct mix of fluid. I mention this because sometimes changing all the fluid is not the best idea. Sometimes it can cause issues with the transmission if it hasn’t been changed in a long time. More info on that here.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-transmission-problems
Good luck and keep us posted.
Thanks for the inputs! and sorry for being late about this. But I did it with no issues, though it took longer than I expected (a couple of hours) from panicking on bolting things into place and thinking if I forgot anything that went before it.
I only replaced the amount that came out, and figured out that the Differential and the Transmission shared the same fluid. When I replaced the filter and plugged the transmission drain, I left the differential one loose and poured new fluid into the dipstick and eventually the differential drain was leaking telling me it was also being filled.
And from replacing the filter and taking off the “drain pan?” from the transmission, a aluminum rod fell out (about 1x2cm), seems to have broken off of somewhere but from the exposed transmission…I couldn’t tell where it came off from. The drain plug was covered in thick sludge (metal particles and oil) so it makes me think that this wasn’t touched and it was still the original fluid. It had the original cork gasket too. So Now I’m wondering if that broken aluminum piece was critical… When driving, I feel like the van needs to rev too much for it to shift. I need to be 2k and above for it to move like traffic. I thought that normal would be between 1.5k and 2k (since other vehicles do). It also seems to stay on a gear for too long, as in it wants to shift but it eventually does..
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