Brandon Trevino

Hello all, I am newish to the car scene and picked up my 1990 sr5 4Runner 3.0L V6 earlier this year with about 140k miles (AUTOMATIC TRANS). After a couple of months, my tranny doesn't like to shift up from third gear when I'm at highway speeds. I will be going 70mph and will be stuck in 3rd gear staying at about 3500-3900 rpms. After a while of staying at that constant speed (about 5-10- minutes) the trans will finally shift into its next two gears. Only to be in those gears for about a minute or two then go back into third and the process repeats all over again. (sometimes it will stay in 4th or 5th gear much longer than a minute or two) I was reading online on what the problem could be and i came to the conclusion that the solenoids had to be replaced. I replaced all the solenoids, changed the filter and fluid and I still have the same problem. one mechanic I talked to says it could be the governor body. Has anyone else had this issue? I rather not take it to a shop and be charged a ridiculous amount of money and just fix the problem myself.
P.S. if its important, i have no check engine light or O/D light flashing. The truck is RWD. Idles really high at like 1500 rpm when at optimal temp for some reason (adjusting idle screw didn't work for some reason, it stays at 1500+ anyway)

Any insight is very much appreciated and i really need your guys help! feel free to ask me any questions!

Brandon Trevino

could it be this??

scope103

Welcome to YotaTech.
Ah, c'mon! How else is he going to make his boat payment?
Then why did you replace the solenoids?

Yes.

Just to get the vocabulary right, you have a 3-speed plus overdrive (okay, that's really 4 speeds) transmission. The "5th" speed you think you have is lock-up. Lock-up can happen in 2 through o/d, but it's hard to notice it anywhere but in o/d.

So it's time to test your ECT sensor. Here's the page from the manual: http://web.archive.org/web/201311071...40engineco.pdf
[PS a bad ECT sensor could also contribute to high idle.]

Brandon Trevino

Thanks so much! Sorry for the late reply! I replaced the sensor because the one I had in it was cracked and trashed. I also went ahead and adjusted the idle with the idle adjustment screw down to a nice 1000-800 rpm purr Also, does the trans only utilize O/D when the engine is fully up to temp?

thook

just gonna throw this out there, fwiw...

i know you said you changed the filter and drained/refilled, however!!, there's a fair amount in the torque converter that doesn't come out in the drain. i'll share a story to illustrate....

i got a '98 crv from a good friend that had 235k plus at the time. as SOP, i changed all the fluids. i found the AT fluid to be the color of freakin' used motor oil. no joke! my friend had warned/complained the tranny was acting up when trying to shift from 2nd to 3rd and sometimes 3rd into o/d. i found info on bobstheoilguy and applied it. several drain and fills with valvoline max life full synth fluid has pretty much fixed all the issue. it only seldom slips up from 2nd to 3rd under moderately heavy acceleration. much better than it was, though

the max life, as was/is told, is key to the improvement as well as getting as much of the converter as possible. apparently, it has just the right chemical composition to recondition things and really protect under high mileage. run a google on the max life and bobstheoilguy if you wanna read about it. impressive stuff