Gear Oil Changing

[simon_toyota]

Mine is a 1998 1.8GS Avensis

After just paying out BIG service bills, I'm left with a recommendation to change the gearbox oil. (71000mile)

Please can someone inform me where the drain / fill / level plugs are?

After reading the other topics on this site I think many more people may benifit from changing the gear oil before problems strike. It may help..

Thanks

Simon

[simon_toyota]

Well.....

Today I climbed under the car and found the drain and level plugs myself.

Drain is at the bottom, (of course), big hex nut at the engine side of the gear box. You have to get underneath the car to see it. It is hidden behind a small cast web on the box housing.

Level plug, (big hex nut again), can be seen at the engine side of the gearbox when you look down between radiator and engine.

It was easy. You don't even need a jack if you can crawl well!!!

Just undo the level plug, undo the drain plug. Once its all drained, clean the plugs and sealing surfaces, (fit new seal washers if u like, I didn't and they are OK).

Fill with new oil through the level hole. The owners manual tells u which oil to use and how much. Finally, fit the level plug. Drive around a bit and check for leaks of course!!

Hope this helps anyone else thinking of changing the oil.

I'm doing coolant change next. Is it straight forward, or are there tricks I should know, (air bleed hole etc etc).

Simon

[Richard D]

While we are on the subject, has anyone any experience with changing the fluid in an auto box? The car is a 1998 2.0 ltr petrol estate.

Thanks for any help.

:bookworm:

[GT4 BOOSTER]

most autos have no way of draining the oil , its not a sensible thing to do really.

[Richard D]

Why "not sensible"? I had an auto SAAB which had the gearbox oil/fluid changed at regular intervals. The life of this box was said to be about 170,000 miles, mine was still going strong at 221,000 when I sold the car. So I think a fluid change is "very sensible".

That gearbox had a drain plug and a filter fitted and I'm wondering if the Toyota box is similar.

[jamesholden]

The life of this box was said to be about 170,000 miles.

170,000 miles is fairly poor, a bit like when Renault put out a statement last year saying they want to get the useful life of their vehicles upto 190,000.

Now the Japanese made cars that could easily do 300k+ 20 years ago.

As for the gearbox, you don't need to change the oil that often, but it is best to do it every few years, but ensure you don't get any contamination in there otherwise it could cause trouble.

[simon_toyota]

Well....

I took a chance and changed the coolant myself.

It seems that this 1.8 1998 model has one of those stupid coolant systems that you cannot drain enough of the fluid out of in order to make up the correct (50%) antifreeze concentrate back up easily.

There may be a cyl block drain, but I couldn't find it.

Anyway. I took all the pipes off I could find and flushed the whole lot (incl heater) with the hose pipe.

Next I blew down the pipes to blow out as much volume of water as possible.

Having done this blowing procedure, I managed to remove just about 50% of system volume and so topped up with neat antifreeze, (fresh water already in the block, heater, etc from the hose pipe).

After a short run the system bled out what little air there was and the car has ran fine ever since!!!

Hope this may be of some help to you others out there..

Now I have a burst pipe on the air con. I can't do this myself, so more expense!!!

Simon