Toyota Automatic Transmission Fluid - ATF History Part 5

Hello, I'm John Kelly and this is the WeberAuto  YouTube channel. In this episode, we are going   to look at the history of Toyota automatic  transmission fluids in 1995 I was invited   by Toyota to visit Japan and different Toyota  historical sites in Japan and one of the most   amazing places that I was able to visit was  the Toyota commemorative Museum of Industry   and Technology in Nagoya in Nagoya Japan and this  museum was housed in the first assembly plant for   Toyota vehicles it was a great big building and it  was clear full of historical artifacts related to   of course Toyota Motor Corporation history but  one of the most interesting parts of that to me   was a section on the history of Toyota automatic  transmissions and if you're ever in Japan down by   Nagoya I would highly recommend that you visit  there and Nagoya is not too far from Toyota   city where the Toyota Motor Corporation world  headquarters is located in several assembly plants   are in that area so in that museum I was able  to see Toyotas very first automatic transmission   actually it was a semi-automatic transmission  developed for the 1959 model year and this was   called the Toyo Glide and it was a two speed  transmission and when I say semi-automatic I   mean it did not automatically shift from first  gear to second gear you had to move the gear   selector to go from first to second but there was  no clutch pedal involved it used a fluid coupling   and the name ToyoGlide if you've seen my video  on the 80 year history of General Motors automatic   transmission fluids you know that there were  several versions of the General Motors Powerglide   transmission and this original 1959 Toyota light  transmission has an awful lot of similarities with   the general motors power client if you look at  this photo here you can see these on the side view   here you can see a couple of little bumps on the  Toyo Glide and then look at this photo here from   the cast iron GM power glide from 1958 here in  our shop and you can see a lot of similarities the   planetary gear sets inside look almost identical  the transmission case isn't the same length and   obviously there'll be a little bit of differences  but it was obviously patterned after if not   just blatantly copied from the General Motors  Powerglide transmission so the first Toro Glide   from 1959 was called the A10 in 1962 for the 1963  they made some updates and made that Toyo glide   automatically shift from first to second gear they  called it the A20 transmission and it was first   used in the Toyota corona now I found a brochure  for the original 1963 Toyota corona and it has   the optional two-speed Toyoglide transmission  listed in it says and would you believe automatic   transmission here's the first import of its  class to offer an optional 2-speed torque   converter automatic transmission what a thrill  to unlock the torque of a corona fill its surge   of power and pick up and enjoy it automatically  women especially will enjoy the driving ease and   freedom it affords she likes it automatically just  a fingertip touch and then the corona shifts for   itself it handles with silken smoothness ladies  love and of course they're not alone men find that   the Corona with automatic has all the getaway  and go they like Plus effortless handling   in traffic cross town or cross country it's  simply the easiest import in the world to drive so women especially would like this so it's  got some great photos as you can see here of   the dash with the gear selector for the two-speed  Toyo glide and it tells us in the specifications   section here on the back that it comes with  a standard three-speed manual transmission   but an optional two-speed automatic coupled  to a torque converter that was Toyota's very   first automatically shifting transmission the  two-speed toil glide I have a service manual   for a 1967 Toyota Corona with this toil glide  transmission in it and if I open up and look at   the recommended fluid for this transmission  it shows that the fluid required for this   transmission is the Type A Suffix A fluid that  General Motors developed so Toyota like all other   automobile manufacturers with their own automatic  transmissions use General Motors transmission   fluid specifications until they developed their  own now Ford broke away from General Motors specs   in 1959 Chrysler broke away in 1968 and Toyota did  not break away until 1988 so the type a suffix a   is a General Motors fluid specification and I  have a can of the type a suffix a fluid right   here it is made by mobile it's called the Mobil  fluid automatic transmission fluid and it tells   us right on the top here this is Mobile fluid 200  and it tells us it is a Type A Suffix A  and it gives us an Armor qualification number  of ATF 752A and for those of you who aren't   familiar with Armor qualification numbers  that's the company that General Motors hired   to test fluids submitted by companies like Mobil  to make sure that they passed General Motors fluid   specifications so right here in the book  it lists for different recommended brands of the   Type A Suffix A fluid it calls for Caltex Texamatic fluid so Caltex was the California   version of Texaco back in the early 60s it calls  for Esso standard automatic transmission fluid the   Type A Suffix A it calls for British Petroleum  Type A Suffix A it calls for that exact can that   I just showed you of Mobile fluid 200 which is  what that one was it also called for the Shell   Donax T-6 Type A Suffix A fluid so it lists looks  like five different possible fluids that were   approved by Toyota for use in therefore very first  two-speed automatic toil glide transmission okay   in 1966 for the 1967 model year, Toyota released  a brand new transmission called the A30 and this   is the three-speed Toyoglide transmission a  fully automatic transmission three-speed and   in this service manual repair manual that I have  here for that transmission if I open it up to the   recommended fluids it lists six different fluids  so the recommended fluids out of this manual here   call for the Cal Tech's Texaco Type-F fluid  Castrol British Petroleum Esso Mobil or shell   Type-F fluids and Ford licensed there Type-F fluid  specification the same way that General Motors did   except Ford had a different licensing number  scheme that started with a 2P for the license   numbers rather than the AQ that General Motors  used so the very first Toyglide three-speed   Toyoglide that came in the 1967 Toyota Crown  and Corona Mark II used Ford ATF Type-F so we   started out with General Motors Type A Suffix a  then we went to a Ford fluid next to an interesting   sidenote out of this Toyoglide repair manual is  it calls for a special service tool kit right here   for the Toyoglide and Weber State University has  had a partnership with Toyota for many years and   have a Technical Training Center here for their  dealerships and one of the leftover toolsets from   the training programs that we've run here over  the years is the old Toyota Toyoglide toolset   right here and I find that's amazing that we still  have this toy of light to toolset as you can see   here in these photos, it's almost complete there's  just one little ring that's missing in the   lid here unfortunately I don't have a toy glide  transmission to work on I've looked on eBay I've   searched everywhere I can find for an old  toyoglide automatic transmission but those have got   to be pretty rare because Toyota didn't produce  that many vehicles back then with an automatic   transmission it was optional I would like to get  my hands on an old two-speed or a three-speed   Toyoglide if any of you know where one is make a note  in the comments below and let me know I'd like   sure like to get my hands on one okay the next  fluid specification that Toyota adopted was in   1968 Toyota adopted the General Motors Dexron  automatic transmission fluid specification now   the Dexron spec had been just released in 1967 and  this fluid supersedes the previous Type A Suffix A  fluid that was used in the early two-speed  Toyoglide transmission but it does not supersede the   Type-F fluid that was used in the three-speed  Toyoglide transmission so as you can see Toyota   was doing some experimenting with fluids and  transmission designs and as a matter of fact in   1970 they developed what I believe is the world's  first electronically controlled transmission so   in the Toyota Historical Museum I told you about  in Nagoya Japan they list an A32 electronically   controlled automatic transmission it's abbreviated  the EAT, and I forget them the actual model that   it went in as an optional transmission but it this  transmission actually had shift solenoids in 1970   now to my knowledge nobody else was playing  around with shift solenoids until the early   80s and so this was an incredible thing you  know Toyota transmissions are made by a company   called Aisin and Toyota owns either the totally  owns Aisin or is the majority shareholder but the   Aisin transmissions if you get a Toyota vehicle  you've got an Aisin transmission most likely   that is not a hundred percent true for every  possible vehicle ever made but most of the time it   will be an Aison transmission so in 1972 Toyota  partnered with BorgWarner corporation to develop   some automatic transmissions and they call that  the Aisin-Warner corporation as you can see here   in some of these photographs, there's the letter AW  on this early automatic transmission, I have here   in the shop and then I have a fairly new a 2015  8-speed automatic transmission here that has the   letters a W on there apparently Aisin kept the  AW symbol but later on eventually and I forget   exactly what year they dropped the partnership  with BorgWarner but kept the aw probably for   recognition sake but I don't know so anyway Toyota  adopts the Dexron automatic transmission fluid   now this is the Dexron B fluid as I refer to it  because all the license numbers of the original   Dexron start with the letter B and this has  a license number of B10001 so Dexron was the   automatic transmission fluid used after 1969 1970  in Toyota automatic transmissions now there was a   change in automatic transmission fluids in 1973  automatic transmission fluids up to that point   had been using sperm whale oil as a corrosion  inhibitor a rust preventer and they had to quit   using that by the 1974 model year and so there  was a revised Dexron and it was called the Dexron   to see fluid because the license numbers started  with the letter C and Toyota of course has adopted   that and then in 1975 they made a change to that  fluid specification and called it the Dexron 2D   fluid and Toyota and Aisin produced many automatic  transmissions too many to list and all of those   with the exception of the one that used the Ford  Type-F fluid used GM Dexron automatic transmission   fluid versions and they continued using that all  the way up through Dexron 3 automatic transmission   fluids now in 1988 Toyota finally developed their  own automatic transmission fluid specification for   a certain transmission but not all transmissions  and this transmission model was the A241H   now if you're familiar with Toyota automatic  transmissions if the model number ends with the letter  E then it's either rear-wheel drive or front wheel  drive only if it ends with the letter F then it's   a four-wheel-drive vehicle if it ends with the  letter H then it's an all-wheel-drive vehicle so   this A241 transaxle in the 1988 Corolla it was  an optional transaxle it was an all-wheel-drive   system this was their first all-wheel drive  system developed and that transmission required   a special fluid called the Type T fluid there's  a service bulletin right here from April 1st   of 1988 announcing the Toyota type T automatic  transmission fluid for the A241H transmission   so I have a can of Type T fluid as you can see  here Toyota ATF type T and it's an interesting   can it's been sitting on our shelves here since  1993 when we ordered it let's say we ordered it   in August of 1993 from Larry H Miller Toyota in  Murray Utah not too far from here and that was I   believe his first dealership and that that group  has grown into a giant automotive powerhouse as   far as car sales and this Type-Fluid came in this  can it says it's 4 liters of fluid an interesting   thing on the top here it has a little peel tab  that you peel off want to be real careful with it   a little plastic pill tab and then it has a funnel  right there and then you pop this lid off of here   and use a little funnel to pour the fluid into  another funnel to get it into your transaxle so   this was the Toyota Type T fluid for 1988 for the  all-wheel drive Corolla and that was Toyota's very   first automatic transmission fluid specification  now other vehicles that did not use the type t   fluid specification continued to use Dexron fluid  specifications so here is a, we just bought this a   couple months ago Toyota automatic transmission  fluid it says here on the front and on the back   label here it tells us that it's formulated  to replace Dexron 2 or Dexron 3 in applicable   Toyota models please consult your owner’s manual  to ensure correct application so Toyota is selling   fluid today that met the previous Dexron 3H  automatic transmission fluid specification   now that specification had been discontinued  by General Motors in 2011 because they wanted   everyone to quit using Dexron 3H and move to the  better quality Dexron 6 automatic transmission   fluid but Toyota still offers fluid that meets  that specification although it's not licensed   because you can't license Dexron 3 fluid anymore  General Motors won't do it so here's Toyota Dexron   3 & 2 equivalent fluid now the next Toyota fluid  specification change came in 1993 and I have a   technical service bulletin here from 1993 it tells  us that the transmission model A340E I that came   in the Turbo Supra for 1993 was designed to use a  new fluid called the Type T2 fluid Type T2 so we   have the type T back here they didn't call it the  type T1 but apparently it was because now there's   a Type T2 fluid that's available and it shows  us here right on this bulletin that the dipstick   handle has printed on it Type T2 fluid it shows  us that the drain plug has a T and then a 2 in   Roman numerals after it reminding people that the  Toyota Turbo Supra from 1993 takes this special   fluid in this new four-speed transmission it also  tells us that their non-turbo Supra continued   using Dexron - automatic transmission fluid so  that's the Type T - fluid from 1993 then in 1995   another fluid specification change occurred I  have an SAE document here that from the Society   of Automotive Engineers its document number 95 23  48 and the name of it is development of automatic   transmission fluid for slip controlled lock-up  clutch systems and what that means is that the   torque converter clutch will now be allowed to  slip so starting in the mid-90s that there was   a phase into the onboard diagnostics generation  2 requirements by the EPA and by 1996 all vehicles   sold in the united states had to meet the OBD2  specifications so to avoid possible false misfire   trouble codes the P300 for a general misfire and  then P301 through P3 whatever for the number of   cylinders you have manufacturers came up with a  way to partially disconnect the engine from the   transmission by not having the torque converter  clutch fully lock up and engage which means the   engine crankshaft would be solidly connected to  the transmission input shaft on a controlled slip   torque converter clutch that solid engagement  isn't there there's a slight amount of slip   allowed to take place that helps prevent these  faults trouble codes for misfires so they needed   a new fluid that would prevent what was called a  shudder so a shudder was as the torque converter   clutch was slipping very slowly it would slip and  then grip slip and grip slip grip it would cause   a vibration as you drive and so Toyota like  other automobile manufacturers had to develop   a new transmission fluid to try to address that  shuttering and I've joked in the other videos that   we had shuttering in the mid 90s we had shuttering  in the in early 80s as the original torrent lockup   torque converter clutches engaged and released  and we still have shutter issues today but   Toyota developed a new fluid called the type T-3  fluid now in all my research I have not found any   place where it calls for the T-3 fluid in any  Toyota technical service bulletins or repair   information but yet in this document it describes  the T-3 fluid and there's also in the T-4 fluid   document your refers to this earlier document and  it calls it the T-3 fluid so it's a little bit of   a mystery I don't know that it ever actually made  it into a vehicle or not but I know that it was   designed to I don't know if it finally made it  through and then in 1998 Toyota announced the   T-4 fluid specification so I have an SAE document  here document number 97 for 1997 29 27 and the   name of this is next-generation high-performance  ATF force lip controlled automatic transmission   and apparently the Type 3 fluid didn't work out  too well and they needed to upgrade the fluid   make it a little better and they released the  type T-4 fluid so here's a bottle of ATF type   T-4 fluid from Toyota and this fluid supersedes  and replaces all previous type T anything fluid   that so the type T 1 2 & 3 fluids were replaced  by this but this fluid did not replace the Dexron   fluid those two fluids are not compatible should  never be mixed there's a service bulletin released   by Toyota and Lexus telling you do not mix those  and it shows you a little chart of which fluids   are compatible with each other and they've updated  that chart over the years as each type T fluid has   come out but the type T-4 would seem to be a much  better fluid than anything in the past and as a   matter of fact in this SAE document on the type T  for fluid according to their testing there in that   document it was a better fluid than the Dexron 3H  fluid so this fluid eventually replaced the Dexron   fluid and phased it out totally now that didn't  mean that you put this in vehicles that had Dexron   because this was a different fluid than  Dexron it just meant that future transmissions   designed were designed for the Type T for fluid  rather than the Dexron fluid specifications from   General Motors so Type T for fluid came out in  1998 now Toyota publishes lists and there's all   kinds of charts of all the different transmissions  that they've released there are hundreds   of transmissions the Aisin transmission company  has produced a lot of automatic transmissions   and they're used by almost every other vehicle  manufacturer in the world in certain vehicles   if you get a ram pickup truck with the common  engine you get an Aisin transmission it's used   in some General Motors vehicles I've seen it in  Cadillacs I've seen it in Volvo's I've seen it in   a number of other vehicle manufacturers vehicles  Aisin is a supplier of automatic transmissions   to anyone that wants to buy one all right the  next fluid to come along came out in 2002 and   this is called the world standard or WS fluid from  Toyota this bottle has actually has a 2002 label   on it so this is an early bottle that I purchased  let's see this is 2019 so that would have been 17   or so years ago that I purchased this there's  a service bulletin from Toyota talking about   the release of the 2002 world standard fluid and  it tells us that the WS fluid is not compatible   with it with the for fluid and that almost every  Toyota vehicle with ice and transmissions built   after the 2004 model year would use the WS fluid  so they were phasing out the type T-4 fluid but   obviously it's still available to purchase for  those earlier than 2004 vehicles but this fluid   specification has stood and is still used today  in a 2019 vehicles now when this fluid came out in   2002 we still had four speed transmissions we had  some five speeds six-speed transmissions didn't   come along until 2007 or 2006 for this 2007 model  year we had 8-speed transmission come out in 2007   Aisin developed the first 8-speed transmission for  light duty vehicles in the world is the one right   behind me here the Toyota AA80E and that came in  some Lexus vehicles for the 2008 model year so an   8-speed automatic transmission right here to my  side I have a 2015 AA80F so this is that was AA and   this is AE so several generations later of the  same 8-speed automatic transmission and you can   still get that in Toyota pickup trucks today the  8-speed automatic transmission and that those all   take this WS fluid Toyota and Aisin developed a  10-speed automatic transmission model number AGA0E,   AGA0E and it uses the WS fluid so this Toyota  WS fluid is kind of a mystery to me because it   came out in 2002 the fluid specification and  there were three SAE documents in a row in   2003 talking about the development of this fluid  here's one right here the development of a new   automatic transmission fluid for a fuel economy  from and then a couple of companies that they   worked with developing that produced documents  of their own talking about this new design of   transmission fluid and it says right in one of  these documents that they were trying to decide   do they use a group three base oil or a group four  base oil I'm pretty sure from the price that it's   not a group 4 it's not a fully synthetic base  oil it's so it's probably a group 3 similar to   the Chrysler ATF +4 fluid is a group 3 fluid  but it doesn't say anywhere in here and I've   searched all over the internet I can't find it  and Toyota does not license their fluids to be   sold under other names and so if you want Toyota  WS fluid you can order it on Amazon and you can   order it on eBay and you can get it from Toyota  dealerships but you're not going to find W s   fluid under the name of Mobil or any other brand  of automatic transmission fluid it's only going   to be Toyota fluid now there's a lot of other  fluids out there that claim to be WS compatible   but you need to pay attention and read the labels  on those because a lot of those say it's also type   T-4 compatibles well Toyota themselves tells us  that WS and type T-4 are not cross-compatible with   each other so that that can't be Aisin actually  the manufacturer of the transmission cells type   T-4 + WS fluids themselves and I would believe  that is the correct fluid as well since   they're the manufacturer of the transmission and  it meets a Toyota fluid specification of JWS3324   or NWS9638 so anyway to have developed a fluid in  2002 and had it never change in 17 years I have   a hard time believing that in all my research  looking at other transmission fluid histories I   know that other transmission fluids have revisions  they still call it the same name but they revise   the fluid and since Toyota is being real private  about this the fluid specs on the WS fluid I'm   almost positive that they've done some revisions  to the WS fluid specification and that a bottle   of 2002 WS fluid is not the same fluid as a  bottle of 2019 WS fluid I think they've just   kept the same name with it there's been  too many technological changes too many changes   in fuel economy regulations and other things  that I am very skeptical I just don't believe   it all right there are two other fluids that I  don't have here and therefore CVT continuously   variable transmissions that Toyota and Scion have  used in 2012 the for the Scion iQ there was a   K41B CVT that used a special fluid called the CVT  fluid TC and I've searched all over the internet   I cannot find that at all I have not checked  with a Toyota dealer but I've I can't find the   CVT fluid TC now there's this in 2013 for the  Toyota Corolla there was a K313 CVT and then   there's a K41B in the Scion iQ starting in  2014 that calls for a new fluid a CVT FE fluid   so the 2012 and 13 fluid was CVT fluid TC but the  CVT fluid for 2013 and above on everything except   that initial Scion iQ calls for a CVT fluid FE  and I did find some of that for sale on eBay and   funny thing if you look at the photograph of that  that I found on eBay it comes in a can that looks   just like this, it has the same top it has the same  funnel on the top of it here it's about $80 for   four liters of this CVT fluid I guess $20 a liter  that's probably a fully synthetic base oil plus   the proper fluid additives Type Fluid so keep  in mind that automatic transmission fluids are   made from a base oil that's either synthetically  produced or refined from crude oil and there are   several different base oil categories you can  look those up but automatic transmission fluid   just like motor oil is made from a base oil and  then automatic transmission fluids have dyes in   them sometimes they might be red that might be  green might be kind of a yellow color and then   they also have what's called an additive package  and there are many different additive packages   to accomplish different things depending  on the type of transmission that you have   so a CVT transmission is going to require a lot  different of an additive package than a regular   planetary gearset style automatic transmission  so buyer beware lookout for these Universal   fluids these one fluid fits all multi-vehicle  multi transmission fluids I was at Walmart last   summer and I took a few photographs of some of  the aftermarket fluids that claimed they were   compatible with Toyota vehicles so if you look at  this first one here this photograph is of Castrol   trans max import multi-vehicle fluid and right  on the front of it says for Honda Toyota Nissan   and other imported vehicles so that that sounds  great but if you look here at the rear label and   you read through all of their information  about what fluids they assert or claim that   it's compatible with you'll find that there's only  one fluid specification that's actually licensed   and that's the Ford Mercon five fluid or V as I  called it in that Ford transmission fluid history   video so really what you're buying here in this  Castrol trans Maxx import multi-vehicle fluid for   Honda Toyota and Nissan is a bottle of Mercon  five Ford fluid because that's the only fluid   specification that it's made for so unless you  want to pour forward mark on five fluid in your   in your vehicle that's probably not a good idea  and they are recommending this fluid for use in   vehicles that require and you can see this big  list here but let's get down to the Toyota Lexus   ones Toyota and Lexus type T type T-3 type T-4 and  then it shows many other Chrysler General Motors   and Ford fluids but as you can see there with  the license number of M5120802   that is a Mercon five license number  so obviously Toyota hasn't recommended or used   Mercon five fluid in any of their transmissions  and it's probably not a good idea to pour that   in your Toyota or Lexus transmission and even  if you did buy this to put in your Toyota or   Lexus Castrol is only saying that it's recommended  for the T1 through T-4 fluids which is a vehicle   that's made before 2004 so on the front label  here it sounds like this wonderful fluid that   you can pour in your brand new Toyota but you  got to read that back package label there and   find that no it's not and educate yourself to find  that it's just simply not compatible with newer   Toyota's and it's and as I said it's just Merck  on five fluid and it is not compatible at all do   not pour it in any vehicle that calls for the WS  world standard fluid now one other bottle as you   can see here that I saw on the shelf at Walmart  that claim to be compatible with Toyotas is this   Valvoline max life full synthetic so it must be  good automatic transmission fluid multi-vehicle   so it says right on the front label this multi  vehicle formula is recommended for most GM Ford   Toyota and Honda models but on the rear label if  you scan through there it lists over 24 different   fluid specifications that this magical fluid is  supposed to be compatible with including the type   T type T2 type T-4 and the WS fluids and you'll  notice that there are absolutely zero license   numbers on this fluid so it's not even like the  Castrol at least the Castrol was a licensed merc   on five this isn't licensed anything this is just  Valvoline saying hey we made this fluid and it's   fully synthetic as if that's some magical thing  and that should work in any vehicle that you want   to throw it in and that's just plain ridiculous  I wouldn't recommend this fluid for any vehicle   it's not licensed at all and if you've watched any  of my other four videos on automatic transmission   fluid history you know that I only recommend using  the original factory recommended fluids don't use   any aftermarket fluids if you want your vehicle  to work and act like it did when it was new you   need to have the same parts on it and the same  fluids in it and automatic transmission fluids   do make a difference and if you've changed your  transmission fluid and now your transmissions   acting differently than I used to and you  didn't put the factory recommended fluid back   in it licensed factory fluid back in it then I  would recommend that you've flushed that stuff   out of there and get some good factory fluid in it  alright we've covered a lot here with the 60-year   history of the Toyota automatic transmission  fluids I hope you've enjoyed it have a good day

Channel: WeberAuto

Views: 45,697

Keywords: Guy in wheelchair, WS Fluid, Type T Fluid, Toyota, Weber State University, Aisin, Type T-III Fluid, Type T-IV Fluid, What transmission fluid should I use?, Corona, Lifetime Fluids, Toyoglide, Turbo Supra, Tacoma, Professor, Camry, Aisin-Warner, Aftermarket Fluid Warning, WSU, Scion, Weber State Automotive, Tundra, Type T-II Fluid, AGA0E 10-Speed, John D. Kelly, Lexus, Counterfeit Fluids, Aisin-Seiki

Id: t73jM6mT8sU

Length: 40min 42sec (2442 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 16 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/bittabet]

Really detailed and fascinating.

[u/murgador]

Bookmarking for later viewing and information. Good stuff in the five minutes I watched.

[u/V8-Turbo-Hybrid]

I don’t think no one would put that wine of oil in any new Automatics...

[u/FigBug]

Is it still made out of whales?