I have a 2007 Toyota RAV4 Limited Edition. 3.5 liter V6. 86637 miles. I am the original owner and change the motor oil about once every 6 months with Mobil1 synthetic oil. Overall the car runs very well.
I have not had any transmission issues but I've never drained and filled the ATF. I am about to do so but the Toyota Dealer is charging $22/quart for the ATF. Any concerns using the Valvoline Max life Full Synthetic ATF? The label on the Valvoline container says it's compatible with Toyota and I've read favorable reviews by people using this ATF for their Toyotas.
Any concerns using this ATF or should I just bite the bullet and use the Toyota OEM ATF?
Thanks for your time.
Alan Lau Honolulu, Hawaii.
If other Toyota owner's are not having any problems using this ATF, then go ahead and use it. Valvoline makes good quality fluids.
I always recommend people to use the OEM fluid in automatic transmissions just to stay on the safe side of things. You can never go wrong with the OEM fluid because your transmission has been using it for it's entire life. Not all ATF is the same...different manufacturers use their own formulations that the transmission may not like.
I did see the post by another person in another thread on this website (regarding Toyota OEM WS ATF). Here is the link: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ws-transmission-fluid-is-garbage-get-it-out-of-your-transmission-now.331521/
It presents reasons why the OEM ATF is not as good as Toyota claims. It seems to present some credible reasons why. So now I'm waiting for more opinions.
I was able to chat with a Valvoline technician as well as speak with a person in my local Toyota Parts Dealership. Both people told my my RAV4 does NOT have a CVT transmission. Based on that, the Maxlife full synthetic should be compatible with my RAV4.! 🙂
There was a very long thread at another website for Tacoma owners about what type of ATF to use in Toyotas that specified the WS ATF. The participants had varied backgrounds and there were many engineers in that thread. Many submitted their oils to an independent oil analysis company (I believe it was called Blackstone). In addition they cited specs on several oils and the WS and Maxlife ATF differed mainly in the lower viscosity of the WS fluid. The participants used various ATF's and in fact one use the Mobil 1 synthetic ATF (which did not claim to be compatible, but whose properties were same/similar to the WS fluid). No one reported any problems and the general consensus was that products like Valvoline's Maxlife (or whatever ATF you thought was compatible based on the label) was probably just fine. Mind you this was a forum for Tacoma owners and they were only using in their Tacoma transmissions.
After viewing the video from the Weber State college I was convinced that the Maxlife ATF was not good, but now I am not convinced of that. True, the Maxlife is not "certified" for WS but it looks like there are many people out there using it in their Toyotas without problems. That institution also appears to have a relationship with Toyota, so again there may possibly be some bias.