It takes my trans a while, like 15 miles to shift into OD. Sometimes. It's like it needs to warm up. After it finally does shift, it works fine.
In the mornings I drive on roads, then get on the freeway, so I don't really notice it. In the evenings I get on the freeway immediately, and some days it takes a while to shift. Like I said once it shifts, it works fine.

Any ideas?

 

how's your fluid level?

 

Toyota locks out overdrive until a certin operating temp is reached. normal operation.

 

You are right. Water temp comes up then it allows OD. They are all like that. My gf's echo, my truck and my runner were like that. Otherwise if you were having speed sensor problems it could do that as well, but that generally has odd shifting along with the OD problem.

 

Thanks guys. I was reading up in the FSM, and it said something like 158F is when it kicks in. My rig doesn't run very hot, but with factory gauges, you can't really tell what the real temp is.

 

Follow up to this post:
The non shifting is related to coolant temp. Now when temp gauge is reading cool and it's not shifting into OD, I can slide the heater temp control over to hot and watch the gauge climb rapidly to the center position (operating temp), the truck shifts into OD, I slide the temp control back to cool, and all is well for the rest of the journey!
Any ideas on this phenomenon?

 

Replace thermostat with OEM.

 

I don't understand what the thermostat would have to do with when the heater valve is open, it makes the gauge show hot?
If the thermostat were closed, the water temp would not be hot. Well, only the coolant in the block. Opening the heater valve, it seems, would maybe circulate the hot coolant from the block through the heater coil, but that doesn't explain the gauge.
Maybe I need to look at a diagram of what coolant flows where.

 

Sometimes the heater core can cool the water enough to close the thermostat. Sounds like it's not fully closing when it cools down after shutting it off, and the temperature fluctuation when you turn the heater on after running it for a few minutes may be breaking it free, allowing it to close all the way and in turn heat up faster.

I'd pull the thermostat and at minimum test it. If that's the problem, replace it with OEM...far superior to aftermarket units and only a few dollars more.

 

FWIW, I had new OEM Toyota thermostat installed and seems to have fixed overdrive shifting issues that I had.

 

Sounds good. I'll give that a try...one day.

 

I had similiar issue as well as eratic shifting while already hot on the highway, first thing i did was a fluch of the radiator an cooling system ..not once but twice in a tow week period, also changed the thermostat twice, still acted up, wound up installing a new temperature sensing control sensor its on top of the manifold but beneath an in the back of the plenum.I also replaced that and wound up replacing that sensor twice..then with a Snap On MT2500 analyzer hooked up i found the temp jump all over when wiggling the wires connected to it..i had previous had a splice installed on some damged wiring that goes into a harness.
I checked that splice an wound up finding someone elses repair where they soldered a splice, took out my hunting knive an cut the wires, got a heat shrink crimp..walla problem solved ..i didnt mention that it took about six months off an on to figure this out an a bit of cash ,but i learned a lot and i love my 4runner. hope this helps
Tight Lines
Rick Wallace

 

I was having this problem with my 92 runner. It would take a long time to heat up to full operating temperature, therefore making it impossible to shift into OD until such time. It would take 15-20 minutes, also it would run rich the entire time lowering fuel economy until it fully warmed up.
I went to Toyota and bought a new thermostat, which was almost 40 bucks with gasket, replaced it and that was it. Fixed. The truck warms up in 3-5 minutes even on cold mornings now and its working fine. Its seems the thermostat that was in there was stuck open, it was also installed with the jiggle valve at 3 oclock instead of 12 like toyota recommends, but it was one of those cheap aftermarket ones. It was worth spending a few extra bucks on the oem part. The improved fuel economy alone will cover that quickly. Best of luck