Tanny58

Hi Lordbug,

Yes, please do keep us informed as to your fuel mileage economy and performance of your AT.

 Cheers 

Steve 

Hi all,

Ron, I'm happy that you got your AT serviced,  sounds as If it's working a treat. Just before I replaced my transmission I had the dealership flush mine, cost $450 (what do they say, "a fool and his money are soon parted"), oh well, lesson learned. 

KAA,  do it mate, don't let it go, small outlay now can save you thousands of $$ later.

LordBug,  I admire your persistence and patience,  I would have thrown a 'wobbly' probably after the first 2 hours. I have the mechanical aptitude of a garden slug.

Take care fellas and safe driving. 

Steve

Hi GDude, 

I wouldn't trust the dealership to do it right, it's not a normal serviceable item, go to an auto transmission specialist. 

My transmission certainly lasted the warranty period,  it's just that the rest of the 'serviceable' mechanical items will last a bucket load longer because they are serviced as per log book and well looked after. 

It will be interesting to see your comments after you have it serviced, your car will probably sound weird.......quieter!!!

Cheers mate,

Steve

Hi LordBug,

I use Nulon in my engine and have done so since new, every service after oil change I put a new bottle in.

I didn't know that it could be added to the AT, or is there 1 specifically for auto transmissions? 

Cheers

Steve

Hi Ron,

I agree, it will add more to your service costs to have your auto serviced at regular intervals, but the potential savings over replacing a gearbox I believe is worth it. 

Cheers

Steve

Hi LordBug, 

Yep, sure does suck, but I simply look at it another way, Toyota have simply polarised a customer, someone that praised their product to someone who will broadcast a warning to as many people as possible. 

We have company fleet vehicle suggestions coming up, guess who I won't be recommending! 

Take care mate.

Cheers

Steve

Hi Trent,

Not using tyre plugs are just my preference,  the tyre bloke said they would be fine too.

Taken on board about the AT service intervals. 

Cheers

Steve

Australian car reviews have added to their site after they looked into my particular case.

U660E: transmission fluid replacement

 http://m.australiancar.reviews/reviews.php#!content=recalls&make=Toyota&model=Aurion&gen=881

Cheers all

Steve

Hi Ron,

My car has always been serviced by the same dealership that I purchased it from.

NEVER have they ever asked or suggested that the auto be serviced or checked, and certainly never given the option to opt out. 

I'm that anal with my car that I replaced all of my tyres (still had 20,000 km left according to the dealer) simply because I don't believe in tubeless plugs and I wanted to keep all wear the same.

Once again, it will never happen twice to me.

Take care mate. 

Steve

Unfortunately not jacko16.

Only if I can prove that there was a manufacturing fault in the bearing.

All i can do is to make sure as many people know about this as possible.

It's a one man crusade

Cheers

Stev

Ron, unfortunately I agree with Trent, Toyotas view is exactly that, the warranty has passed, therefore, unless I can 'prove' that there was a manufacturing defect, then tough.

My point is, and always will be, that Toyota doesn't even have a minimum recommendation for their sealed gearboxes, I've asked them what their mean time between failure (MTBF) or expected life is on the sealed automatic would be, but they didn't and haven't addressed that in their replies to me.

Quite simply, everything else on my car is serviced regularly and is performing admirably, It's funny how the one thing that is 'sealed for life' AND not in the logbook service schedule is the 1 thing that has failed......

Some people 'in the know' realise that sealed for life gearboxes still require some sort of attention,  unfortunately I'm not one of them, as I've said previously,  my expertise is elsewhere.

It's a mistake that I won't make twice, next time I buy a car the bonnet gets popped and If there's not 2 dipsticks then I'll move on.

Cheers

Steve

Hi Ron,

You'll probably find that there's more sludge in your automatic than oil, as Mark said above, dealer price $9000 is a great motivator,  pity you're not in Brisbane,  I would recommend my mechanic.

Good luck mate.

7 hours ago, matt36415 said:

I agree with you Steve, its annoying that toyota dont even recommend servicing that is clearly needed. The only clue for a non mechanical person is in the severe operating part of the service table - from memory it has a trans oil change at 100 000km. 

 

Now that you have a newer gearbox, I would suggest asking the specialty transmission guys who built it what they recommend. They are the real experts on how wear and problems happen as they see the results of it all day. 

 

I used to rebuild transmissions at a holden dealership (15yrs ago) and as a result of that I would never believe an oil could do its many jobs effectively for long enough to be called 'lifetime'.  Although there are undoubtedly better and worse designs, just like many engines which are well serviced have a long life, most autos will too if they just get fluid replacement - even a partial one every 30 or 40 thousand km.

Hi Matt,

My new mechanic has been plying his trade at the same address for 32 years, he does RACQ, NRMA, police cars and a heap of private cars.

As he said to me "20,000 km is when you should be looking at dropping the pan and changing out the auto oil IF you want to keep it top notch condition".

Cheers

Steve

Hi mg85, 

My NEW automatic transmission service centre will be looking after my car from now on. 

He's the same as you, every 20,000 drop the pan and let it drain for a couple of hours and refill.

Take care mate, safe motoring.

Cheers

Steve

Hi trentmeyer23,

Ah, the value of hindsight.

The Toyota dealership were always told to 'do whatever is needed' to keep the car in top running order, just ring me for expenditure approval.

As stated, it accelerates fast, and yes it can and has beaten other cars on the road to legal speed limits ( I also have a clean license).

My point is, everything mechanical on the car has been in the hands of the dealership to make sure that everything runs well, I would never have considered that the automatic was an unserviceable component. 

When you use an authorised dealership,  there is an implied agreement that they will service your car to factory specifications and this is something that they trade on, there is nothing in the service manual that excludes the automatic transmission. 

How is a layman (that hadn't had any trouble with the car beforehand) supposed to know these things, I'm certainly not mechanically minded enough, maybe you are :-)

My speciality is electronic surveillance, there are things in my field that most people wouldn't have a clue about, that's why they rely on my expertise. 

Cheers

Please read:

Beware of Toyota sealed automatic transmissions!!!

Toyota have used factory 'sealed for life' automatic transmissions since at least 2009 in the Aurion and most, if not all, of the Camery series.

These gearboxes don't have an oil level dipstick and is not a 'regular' serviceable item, that means that your service centre does not check the quality of the automatic oil in your automatic.

So what you say, let me tell you my story.

As you can read below in my previous praise of my Aurion, I've always had my car serviced at a Toyota dealership as per logbook requirements,  I've always been guided by the dealerships recommendations and have never skimped on the costs of anything that has been required.

At approximately 171,000 (just 11,000 (mid January 2016) after my last review), I started to hear a slight whirring sound (like the old speedo cables used to do), within a couple of days it got worse so I rang the dealership and booked it in,

imagine my surprise when they phoned me up and said that my automatic transmission was failing, they told me that it would cost $8950.00 to overhaul.

I authorised them to do a 'transmission flush' ($450), they told me that there were metal filings in the transmission oil. I couldn't afford the $8950.00 so I collected my car and rang around and found a transmission specialist that could do me a second hand, fully cleaned auto for less than $3500.00 fully installed.

I contacted Toyota Australia via email to firmly state my case that to have a sealed at factory automatic,  and for it not to even be a serviceable item, has caused it to fail prematurely.  The rest of the car mechanics are in tip top condition because they have been regularly serviced.

Toyota asked the dealership for their opinion, the reply was "It has been advised after inspection, the cause of failure is due to the wearing of the hard coating in one of the bearings in your vehicle. Possible contributors may include but are not limited to misuse of the vehicle, wear and tear, lack of servicing, natural deterioration".

1) I have never misused my car (as evidenced by the mechanical condition of the engine and the rest of the car), yes it accelerates quickly, but misuse? 

2) Wear and tear (5 years,  171,000 km......hmmmm maybe, I know of 20 and 30 year old cars that are still going strong)

3) Lack of servicing,  now this is a good one, you can't even 'check the oil' level yourself and neither can the dealer,  nor is there any service requirement/recommendation in the log book.

4) Natural deterioration (so what is the Toyota expectation of 'natural deterioration'?

I asked them how they could tell what had failed without pulling the transmission apart, unless this is growing common problem (no comment from them).

Toyota Australia gave me a standard reply that my car is out of warranty so basically,  that's my problem.

My gripe is, that if the gearbox was a serviceable item (as are the rest of the car mechanicals), that it would have been unlikely that it would have failed because the oil would have been replaced regularly and maintained sufficient lubricating properties so that the hard coating surface of the bearing didn't fail.

PLEASE be wary of the 'factory sealed for life' gearbox,  all oils break down with time and temperature and to get the gearbox fixed is expensive!!!!!!

Kind regards

Steve

Below is my previous review....

Aurion SX6 Sportivo purchased as new in November 2010.

Never had a problem of any kind, serviced as per logbook (100,000 service a bit expensive),  now up to 160, 000 km on the clock.

Use Mastercraft tyres (same manufacturer as Cooper 4WD tyres, get at least 50,000 km of hard driving out of them)

Will drag the [censored word removed] off most SV6 and XR6.

Love this car

G'day all.

Old new bloke joining up.

Cheers

Tanny58