My family has a 92 4runner with 330k on the clock (3.0 auto 4x4). It's on its second trans and on really cold mornings it won't go above 2nd gear. About 10 years ago, this same trans would run hot. So hot that you could feel it thru the trans tunnel. I put a trans cooler on it and that solved that issue. Here we are today and until I drive it for 5 minutes it won't go into 3rd.

I dumped the tranny pan and refilled it with new fluid already.

Any suggestions?

 

I *had* the Auto tranny behind my 3.0. I live in Alaska. There would be mornings that it wouldn't shift above 2nd for 10 mins or so. It's morning sickness. Typical for them, do some searching around the forums and you will see you're not alone.

 

i have the same problem and i live in south FL, usually takes like 10 min. i have drained and filled 2x...no dice, wonder if its a senor maybe?

 

A defective transmission temp sensor will cause it not to shift into overdrive, but I don't know if it can affect 2nd-3trd shifts.