Installed a Transmission oil filter

Installed an inline transmission oil filter as soon as she's driven back from the dealership. After just a few hundred miles, cut the filter open and shocked to find A LOT of shiny bits (notice snow flake bits everywhere and close to 1 oz settled at the bottom). She has little over 3k miles now and the tranny is so smooth doesn't even feel the gears shifting. Why is inline tranny filter not a factory thing?

 

I've actually seen that recommendation before. That is, installing an inline Transmission filter and then replacing it at around 600 miles. I've got one on my Tacoma, and it works really well. the fluid in my '06 Tacoma was absolutely black, when the drain, refill, pump out at 90K miles. I used 12 qts and went from black to dark cherry red. I then installed an inline filter, which I changed at 30K miles. It's gone from dark cherry red to completely red by 2nd filter. I need to get down and do my 4Runner.
It's whole lot easier to change one of those than it is to drop the trans pan, and clean it and the screen out.
I don’t understand why more people don’t do this.

 

The magnets will capture the initial clutch material during break in and subsequent material. In line filter creates 2 more failure points and isn't necessary in most cases.

 

I agree with you. I dont tow - 90% of my driving is on paved roads. I dont know if I see the value of installing one. If I towed, yes, id consider that

 

magnets inside pan captured all metal gear break-in particles, rest of particles are bronze and clutch material, that actually beneficial to transmission. once filter clogged, failure imminent. those filters from early transmissions, and even then they did nothing better. out of 1.5 millions of T4R on a road, there are enough suckers for almost every imaginable aftermarket gizmos, as long as it says "4Runner". stick with OEM

 

This transmission has been in more than 2 million 4Runners for the past two decades with almost no changes. It doesn't have a dipstick and Toyota doesn't really advocate changing the fluid, and here you add a filter that needs to be replaced every year?

Does your added filter have a bypass valve? What happens if the filter is clogged and you neglect to change it?

 

The adapter allows the use of standard Toyota A5 oil filter which has a bypass valve. I plan to change the filter every 20k miles, I religiously maintain all my vehicles on the dot. I also stuck another neodymium magnet to the A5 filter and fashioned the setup to convert back to factory in a few minutes. It's really just peace of mind all that metal has been removed.

 

Interesting thread. Do you have some pictures of the filter installation?

Thanks

 

The destructive shedding gets screened in the internal filter (I replaced the internal filter on my neglected 2014 SR5, 84k and very clean). I wonder if an early drain and fill would perform any benefit. I heard on The Car Care Nut YouTube channel that overly clean transmission fluid is not desirable.

Gut feeling is that all that ended up in the filter would have ended up in the pan magnets' grasp.

I can say this much, the transmission is not as delicate as the engine.

If anything, 5°-10° cooler because of the extra circuitry will benefit the system in warm weather and hurt in cold weather. As long as sufficient WS-ATF is added to keep system levels correct.

 

I don’t dispute the Car Care Nuts statement on fluid that may be too clean could cause shifting issues, but using that argument, how does the transmission in a brand new car with no miles perform so well?

 

The break-in grit was voluminous, according to the OP.

 

I've seen AMD's channel that overly clean fluid can cause issues, but I believe he's talking about complete fluid flush after 80k miles. AMD also said not to change the fluid after 100k+ miles if it has never been done before. This is a brand new transmission with 50 miles on it when the inline filter was installed. What I did notice is gear shifts get smoother every time I drive it and absolute peace of mind there is no aluminum bits getting caught in the valve body and solenoids. Additionally, the microscopic bits needed for the clutch plate to have some friction, the A5 filter still allows 0.5 micron bits to flow through so there's still some in the fluid.

Bulk of the material captured is aluminum so will not be captured by the magnets. Not filtering them out will continuously circulate in the system.

Also, clutch plate clearances are less than 5 micron, the big bits filtered out are 1-100+ micron that does damage to solenoids (scratches the o-ring). I plan to keep this vehicle until I die or last drop of gasoline runs out on this world.

 

I think it's just from normal manufacturing process. But a little surprised at how much stuff is allowed even in modern day production.

 

I'll take some pictures this weekend.