I performed a full transmission fluid change on my 2011 Toyota Rav4 back in 2016 at 74K miles, using Valvoline MaxLife. Then, around 160K miles, I did a transmission pan-only change. Now, with about 175K miles on the vehicle, everything is running smoothly, and I haven’t encountered any issues with the transmission so far. Hopefully will keep on going.
I suspect Valvoline puts it's name & reputation on it's recommendation to use it for WS appliactions. The argument drums up about how that oil can be a "universal" oil for so many applications, and, they do not have any external certifications to JWS 3324 specs.
The product has been used a lot in AISIN auto trans, I mean a lot. I simply cannot find anyone posting up horror stories where Toyota or some other lab said the trans dies because owner used MaxLife ATF.
Question for you
@UmDaMan , after you switched to MaxLife did the auto-shifting become smoother?
One thing I noticed as a theme with the Toyota WS ATF, is that it supposedly contains a lot more detergents than most oils the meet JWS 3324 specs. Toyota puts more to extend life of the fluid. So, with non-OEM WS I do suspect we should change the ATF in that 40-60kmi range. That's just anecdotal using the info I could find about WS and the others.
I am on 81kmi with OEM WS fill, I need to change it, probably will drop the pan and get UOA from Blackstone, etc.
I have yet to look, does the RAV trans pan have just one bolt, and inside is a riser straw? If so I have an idea to fab a bolt that has an inlet and an outlet on it, one to fill oil while the other allows overlfow to drain out. Something like this illustration. Would this help do a ATF fill? I can 3D print the whole thing.
Edit: I now see from online vids this plug design will not work. The fill stem needs to be in center and small enough to go up into the OEM straw. This was idea of mine, which seems like a no-go. When I did my lexus trans I simply put back exactly what came out, so will probably just do that again on the Rav.