For most Americans, the Camry was the vehicle that cemented Toyota's reputation for indestructible automobiles; and that is true, to an extent. But long before the Camry taught Americans the difference between "inexpensive" and "cheap," the rest of the world already regarded the Hilux pickup as "the last truck you'll ever buy." Indeed, the Tacoma that replaced the Hilux in the U.S. in 1995 had some big shoes to fill, and some purists say it fell a bit short. However, those doubters might take note of the fact that the Tacoma's service schedule is one of the few on Earth that includes the words "...change fluid more often if you regularly ford deep water."
The Tacoma formed the basis for most of Toyota's trucks during its first generation, covering the 1995 to 2004 model years. The 4Runner, Tundra, T100 and yes, the foreign-market Hilux, all shared their underpinnings with the Tacoma. Toyota offered this truck with two four-cylinders and a V-6, and two different transmissions. Base trucks came with a five-speed manual, with a four-speed automatic as an option.
Changing the fluid in an automatic transmission is very straightforward. To get the old fluid out, you need only remove the drain plug from the bottom of the transmission oilpan with a wrench or ratchet, and allow it to drain. The automatic doesn't have a replaceable filter, so there's no need to drop the pan as part of regular service. Reinstall the plug with a new gasket, and tighten it down just snug -- about 10 foot-pounds. Refill it by adding fluid through the transmission dipstick tube, as with most other vehicles. Toyota recommends changing the fluid every 25,000 to 30,000 miles for normal driving, twice as often if you operate the truck in harsh operating conditions like off-road, lots of stop-and-go traffic, towing, or in very high or low temperatures.
The manual tranny has two plugs: a drain plug on the bottom of the case, and a fill-and-check plug on the driver side, halfway up. Remove the fill plug first; if you can't get the plug out because it strips or something else goes wrong, it's better to find out about it now than after you drain the transmission dry and find you can't refill it. After you drain the transmission, reinstall the drain plug and torque it to about 10 foot-pounds. You must then use a manual or electric oil pump to pump fluid into the transmission through the fill hole. It's impossible to overfill this transmission; once fluid begins to trickle out of the fill hole, the transmission is full. Reinstall the fill plug with a new gasket and a bit of oil on the threads, and snug it down. Fluid change intervals are the same as with the automatic, though you should also halve the interval if you regularly ford deep water.
The automatic transmission uses a fairly standard transmission fluid; some will tell you to use nothing but Toyota-brand transmission fluid, but this fluid is nothing but Dextron II with a different label. Even the Toyota service manual says to use Dextron II. The automatic transmission should take 1.7 to 2.6 quarts, depending on whether the truck is two- or four-wheel drive, and whether it has the towing package. Manual transmissions will take about 2.6 quarts of GL-4 or GL-5 manual transmission oil -- 75W-90 or 80W-90, respectively. If you opt to drain or refill the transfer case, the drain-and-fill procedure is exactly the same as with the manual transmission, and it uses 1.2 liters of GL-4 or GL-5 gear oil. Same goes for the front and rear differentials, though they use GL-5 only. It's a good idea to change transfer case and differential fluids at every other tranny oil change, though doing it more often won't hurt any.
