I went into the dealership for the 40k mile service which involved some fluid changes, tire rotation and brake wear test. I walked out of there $1300 poorer, after they nickel and dimed me for a bunch of other things that came up during the inspection. I even turned down some of the “suggested services.” I won’t be going back there again. Anyone else get this treatment?
It absolutely blows my mind how they recommend 10k intervals for an oil change. I baby my Camry heavily so I err closer to 3k, but never go more than 5k without an oil change. It just doesn’t sound right to go more than that, even if it’s “ultra supreme machine amazing”.
I crossed 100k on the odometer a little bit ago so I inquired about a coolant flush and transmission fluid drain and fill with the nearest dealership, and they quoted me $800 for both services, then slid it up to $950 because given my mileage, a trans flush is recommended at this point. I was totally baffled. Decided to watch CarCareNut and talked with a few other Toyota master techs and they said they were absolutely trying to rob me and very well could have fucked my transmission since they usually like to flush if you’ve flushed at both 30k/60k services, but otherwise just drain and fills to keep from any internal damage.
So I said fuck em and did both myself. Clocked another 5k miles since both and he’s running just as smooth as he was at 50k miles when I had it serviced regularly at the dealership under prepaid services when I bought the car. My records don’t show anything done on my transmission at all over the years, not even a fluid change, so it’s made me way skeptical about having any of my cars serviced by a dealership beyond standard initial <50k mile services.
With quality full synthetic oil, 10k miles is fine. In Europe it’s not uncommon to go 15,000 miles (25,000km) between oil changes. Now, this “partial synthetic” Honda and Toyota dealers use? Yeah, I wouldn’t go more than 5k.
Toyota shot themselves in the foot by marketing the sealed transmissions as having “lifetime fluid”. Fluid analysis has indicated that the cooling properties of the World Standard ATF break down after around 40,000 miles. They are banking on the fact that Aisin transmissions used in Toyota’s (still reliable overall, but comparatively the least reliable aspect of the powertrain) will in most cases outlive the cars themselves before they are written off as totaled by an insurance company or salvage titled over the years.
The Toyota maintenance schedule doesn’t mention transmission servicing at all on most of their vehicles. However, the Lexus maintenance schedules recommend a fluid flush at 120k miles in the severe schedule for some of their cars with an identical engine/transmission (e.g. Lexus ES vs Camry). Meanwhile, both Lexus and Toyota dealerships will happily sell you a transmission flush regardless of the maintenance schedule. I’ve learned nobody really knows what’s best since they’ve omitted key maintenance info for marketing/metric purposes, so you’re best off flushing every 100k miles at most.
Transmission stuff is always iffy, depending on where you go. I asked for some WS ATF from my dealer and they gave me the third degree about whether I needed to actually replace it. It’s as if they didn’t want to sell it to me. I told them the fluid had just started turning a little brown (which was true) and they were okay with that.
In my car it lists replacing the transmission fluid at 75k km (46k mi) for the additional maintenance, though I effectively never drive under the conditions listed for it. Regardless, I’m still changing my engine oil at 7.5k and the ATF at 90k.
The Car Care Nut schedule seems the most sensible. Replace engine oil every 5000 miles. Change transfer case and rear differential gear oil every 30,000 miles. Replace the transmission “drain and fill” every 60,000 miles with WS ATF. The filter never really clogs unless you never change the tranny fluid. I personally will be changing 30,000 miles just to be a little cleaner. Note you should do flushes, or drain and fill every 10,000 miles, as you need some debris to help with gears engaging. Too often and the transmission can slip.
Ignore the dealer as they’ll change whatever they think can extract money from you. And they’ll follow garbage advice like lifetime fluid, or go the other way and recommend flushes or cleaning out sludge or carbon build up.
This is a very, very important note: flushes aren’t necessary if you change the fluids like you’re supposed to. There shouldn’t be gunk waiting to build up in the first place.