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Hello fellow ETCG forum members, my family owns a 2002 Toyota Sienna CE with approx. 196000 km on it and the transmission oil is black, my father’s friend says its “fine” and that Toyota uses a dark coloured oil. I think this is totally false based on watching Eric’s videos I have come to the understanding that transmission oils are usually red in colour. I would like to change the transmission oil too since I do not know when the previous owner did so. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks
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I’m not an expert, but I’ve never seen a Toyota with black or darker transmission fluid. Again, not an expert, but I think the fluid is burnt…
Transmission fluid should not be black. I caution you
with the fluid being black. The trans may develop issues.
Its a roll of the dice. I believe there is a filter also.Yeah it’s definitely not supposed to be that way. The trans fluid is supposed to be red. The fluid that’s in your sienna is most likely burnt, and that will definitely shorten the life of your transmission, so i’d change it as soon as you can. Hopefully there isn’t a lot of damage already, as a primary cause of burnt trans fluid is too much friction.
You’re gonna need to get every bit of the black trans fluid out, not just a drain and refill once. Either take it to a transmission specialty shop or drain-refill-drive for a few days, and repeat this for a few times to dilute as much of the black stuff as you can.
do a transmission flush asap. i don’t think any fresh fluid is ever black to begin with. if you wait too long, the fluid can turn bitter and hard and turn into sludge.
For Japanese imports, I would not flush the fluid. I would just change the fluid. Drop the pan, clean it and put a new filter in, then new fluid. Drive it for a few thousand miles, then just drain the fluid, put in new, without dropping the pan or change the filter again. Fluid suppose to be red.
I believe that trans fluid goes in red, but then turns black as the clutch material slowly wears away. I believe that this is normal. New fluid does not contain clutch material so the clutches slip more with new fluid. That’s why on all my vehicles I just drop the pan, change the filter, clean the magnet and just replace the fluid that was lost out of the pan.
I work for a Toyota dealership and it shouldn’t be anywhere near black and should be a strong red colour. I suggest you change your fluid and filter ASAP! Otherwise you could be chasing for a new box. 🙂
I don’t work for a dealership, but I do work on quite a few Toyotas, mostly Corollas, and Camrys. I once saw black fluid it an 87 Corolla but I changed the fluid and all was good. All the other cars had red fluid in them.
Automatic transmission fluid becomes black due to burning friction material from the clutches. This usually means the transmission is going to become a problem at some point even if the fluid is changed.
We have the same model/generation van. The oil should be red. There is a drain plug in the transmission pan if you want to do a simple drain and fill which will remove a little more than half of the fluid. I would at least do that ASAP. Or you can drop the pan and change the filter in there. Eric did a video on a Tacoma that is identical to this.
I would not do a power flush at a shop. I simply do a drain and fill every third oil change and t hat seems to be enough to keep it fresh. Valvoline ATF Maxlife has been working very well for me.
A word of caution. Sometimes when you change the fluid after not changing it for some time the transmission can fail shortly afterward. Also, don’t do a flush, just do a drain and refill. If you flushed it at this point it might cause more problems than it would fix. A drain and refill is all you should need. Good luck.
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