Recently, I been reading up all these repair manuals for replacing my trans' fluid (it is my first time doing it). But I ran into couple problems. 1. I am not sure where is the Transmission Pan under the car. 2. I know you will have to replace the Trans' fluid filter, but i am troubled with the word "strainer", what excatly is that ?
3. I went to a dealer and they said something about my differential should get replaced because it is a part of the transmission fluid? so should i go head and replace that while draining my tran's fluid?
Please help!:headshake

Welcome to the AF!

Replacing the transmission fluid is not as easy as it sounds. If you drain the transmission pan, you are only getting rid of a portion of the fluid that is in the transmission. There is much more than that (drained from the pan) held up in the torque converter and in the valve body. To fully replace all the transmission fluid, you have to flush the transmission. Flushing the transmission entails first draining and replacing the fluid in the transmission pan, and then pumping the old fluid out of the tranmsission through a tube attached to the transmission fluid cooler in the radiator, while simultaneously replacing that pumped out. There are machines that will do that at transmission shops, and you can also do it quart by quart. Alternatively, you can replace the fluid in the pan periodically and keep it clean enough by partial replacement.

In a Toyota, the transmission pan is to the driver's side of the engine oil pan.

The strainer is another word for the transmission fluid filter. Toyota recommends that it be changed periodically, but many people feel that that is unnecessary unless you have a serious problem that has potentially clogged it. It is rather coarse and not designed to filter out fine particles like the engine oil filter.

Your differential is right next to (behind) the transmission (where the drive axles exit the transmission assembly). In your car, your differential must have a separate oil reservoir from the transmission. Since the differential uses ATF identical to what is used in your transmission, it sometimes shares the same oil supply as that used in the transmission.

Your differential fluid is easy to change once you are under the car to drain the transmission fluid. The transmission fluid is filled through the dip stick tube. The differential must have a separate fill plug and drain plug. It is wise to make sure you can remove the fill plug before you loosen and drain the fluid - for obvious reasons. Sometimes the fill plug is quite difficult to remove. I have found that the differential fluid stays much cleaner than the transmission fluid, so I would say that replacing the differential fluid is optional. Maybe do it every other tranmission fluid change. In any case, it might be wise to at least check the level of the differential fluid by removing the fill plug and making sure the fluid level is up to the bottom of the fill plug with your finger. If needed, you will have to add the the differential fluid with a tube from above the engine, or with a pump of some kind. It is impossible to pour fluid into the differential directly from a bottle.

By the way, in subsequent posts, please specify the year and engine model of your vehicle so that we can be more specific.

These pictures may help answer some of your questions. Click on them to blow them up: http://www.autozone.com/shopping/repairGuide.htm?pageId=0900c152800923ba

Have you read the Toyota factory manuals listed at the top of the forum? I would think they would clear up any questions you have.

You always have the option of skipping the filter change and just draining the fluid. Not sure on a 2000 but on earlier models all the filter is is a metal screen inside a metal housing. Looks like fine mesh window screen. A tech at my local dealer said 80% of the time they just swish them around in a solvent and put them back in unless there's evidense of larger particles. Imagine that. A dealer saving you money. Unfortunately, they POd me several times since so I avoid them.

The tranny filter is very easy to change if the pan has already been dropped and they are inexpensive. But if the tranny has a drain plug, then I would list it as optional if the fluid being drained did not look particularly bad (brown color, opaque, burned smell).

However, another good reason to remove the pan is to clean the little magnet of particulate build-up and inspsect it for accumulation of larger particles...it's really your call. Hope this helps!