96 2wd 4cyl auto taco
Trans started slipping yesterday and today, after a few miles, it decided to not engage at all. Pushed it off the side of the road, yelled for a little while, started it back up and it went right into gear. Threw some Dex IV into it, may have overfilled it a hair and it drove fine. few miles later, same thing. No drive, no reverse. It seems to go into gear when it cools off. Any Idea where I can start diagnosing this trans. I am this close to nabbing an abandoned taco a few blocks away and swapping in the 5spd, but my girlfriend doesn't know how to drive stick.

any help would be appreciated

From New Orleans with love <3

 

How does it smell on the dipstick, dab some on a white piece of paper and see what the colour is, should be red/pink not brown. Drain it and see what comes out, and refill, you'll get about 3.5L-4L doing it this way, and maybe repeat after a few 100miles. What is your routine on ATF changes, when was it last done. Could go a step further and pull the pan and clean the magnets & filter out, if its the original filter you can simply wash it clean with brake fluid and allow to completely dry and reinstall. The DEX IV is a little thin for our application but supposedly they are reverse applicable, DEX IV supersedes DEX III & II but according to the oil spec it is in fact a thinner oil depending on what brand is used. I've been using Valvoline Synthetic DEX IV, so far so good in my A340F trans. I have a 99' so I am able to monitor my trans temps using Scangauge II, it creeps up to 200*F with some spirited driving in stop and go traffic so the fluid does see pretty high temps that can cook it.

 

The fluid was brown before I added new fluid. It doesn't smell like burnt toast. But I could also be smelling the new fluid. I'm not sure of the frequency of trans oil changes. I bought this used and this is the first I'm dealing with the transmission. I'm going to try draining all the oil. I'll see how ambitious I feel and maybe pull the pan and filter.

 

Ya theres like 10L of ATF in that thing, I wouldn't do a flush, but you might consider dropping the pan in this case, couple vids online. And correction I meant to say use Brake cleaner to spray out the filter if its OEM.

 

I flushed 5 gallons thru mine at like 120k miles until it finally passed thru red.

 

^Thats another problem with even passive flushes, your rinsing it out using twice as much fluid that you would need if you just drop the pan. The o'l wives tale is never flush a tranny that is acting up, but it does have some logic to it, drain and fill so you can see whats coming out so you can make an educated decision whether its worth putting new fluid in it, you can do the drain and fill multiple times if you see improvements which would be similar to a passive flush, or drop the pan and due the full service so you can really see how bad it is, brown is bad, its been left way to long if its brown.

 

Just drained some oil. No visible participate. Also, I was putting Dex VI and not Dex IV because I'm DEXlexic apparently [rim shot!]. Anyway attracted is a photo of old oil next to new oil.

 

Just drained some oil. No visible participate. Also, I was putting Dex VI and not Dex IV because I'm DEXlexic apparently [rim shot!]. Anyway attracted is a photo of old oil next to new oil.

 

Depending on which VI it might be ok, they are suppose to comparable/compatable with DEX 2&3, you have to compare the viscosity to OEM recommendations, that ATF is fried, pretty tough tranny though, we provided you with 3 options to see if it's salvageable, all of which may work out, passive flush or pull the pan are probably the best options considering how bad that fluid looks, then all you can do is cross your fingers, so the least expensive option might be ideal in this case. I'm guessing that old fluid has 100,000mi plus on it from the looks of it.

 

Thanks for the info. I haven't gotten around to pulling the pan yet. I've done a lot of automotive work in my life but I have very little experience getting into the meat and potatoes of an auto. Frankly I'd rather throw this trans into the river and install a 5spd. I'm probably going to start with a passive flush seeing this thing still drives fine when it's not up to temp.

 

Yes, pulling the pan, moving the sway bar and separating the dip tube is a PITA, if you have the front skid plate off a passive flush is a pretty quick job and will provide you with the answer quickly. Your filter might need to be addressed in the future though from the looks of it.

 

When you buy it by the 5 gallon jug it takes a lot of the sting out of it.

https://petroleumservicecompany.com/...5-gallon-pail/

 

Just got the filter off and boy howdy! The oil at the bottom of the pan looks like glitter paint and theres debris on trans side of the filter that I can feel with my fingers. like I said, I don't know a lot about automatic transmissions but I'm going to take a guess and say this isn't normal and this transmission is probably done for.

Will upload pics soon