For some reason I've been more careful about my health** and my car
lately, so I checked what xmission fluid my 2005 Solara uses, and it was
Toyota T-IV, so I went to buy some. The top, picture row of google
didn't have anything local iirc, but Amazon had some for 11 to 19
dollars. Seems like a lot.

**Wore a mask and gloves when spraying for crabgrass.


Ebay had a quart for $18, for $13, or for $8.50 (pickup only), and
surprisingly, given how much all the others were, for $4.20 plus $5
shipping, and a second quart's shipping costs only 25 cents. Well,
okay!

Ordered two quarts late on April 18. First 7 steps of tracking on the
19th, including going from Myrtle Beach to Columbia SC.

Then nothing for 10 days.

Don't know how to reach the post office in Columbia so I write the
vendor. Webpage asks if I want the item or my money back. I check I
want the item. Tell him the problem and say "9 days to get from
Columbia to Baltimore? What should I do? What should you do?
Thanks."

Even though I checked "I want the item", within a couple hours Ebay says
my money is coming back. Okay.


But now I'm still a full quart low on fluid, and I don't have any. Plus
I see Toyota has rules against mixing fluids, plus Wikip says my car
likely uses WS but the online owners manual says T-IV. Great idea,
call the dealer. He checks and it's T-IV. Do you have any? Yes, and
it's only $6.14. No postage, no waiting. I should have gone there
first. (Because dealers don't put their inventory on the web, Google
didn't mention a single Toyota dealer.)

Buy two quarts on Friday.

Today's Monday. The fluid from Myrtle Beach arrived. (Tracking shows no
entries between Columbia and my local post office.) Now I have a quart
in the transmission and 3 more quarts, And I have to send the money to
the ebay guy. Plus I had a quart of Castrol Transmax Fully Synthetic
Multi-Vehicle. It says it's good for Toyotas, and that was enough for
me 3 years ago, but this year I'm taking better care of my car, so it
wasn't good enough anymore. Except it's fully synthetic, so maybe it's
even better and I was just suckered into buying the Toyota stuff.

So now I have 4 spare quarts. At the current rate that should last me
about 17 years.