Hello everyone, I've been lurking here a few weeks and learning a lot, what an excellent forum. I've owned my 4runner for about 20k now. It was here that I figured out the bad thermostat / no overdrive relationship and fixed that problem easily. That was about 12k ago.

Now I'm dealing with a tranny that may be on the way out.
About 1400k ago I got the fluid replaced and drove the mountain passes from Vancouver to Kelowna. I started noticing that I couldn't get the transmission to let me climb those 15k hills without flip flopping the rpm's between 2800 - 5000. All the informative posts here have led me to suspect shift solenoid malfunctions; but when i took it to a local shop ( recommended by a Toy service tech ) for a road test, I started hearing about a seal between the transmission and the t-case that might be gone. Of course, that means a total overhaul, etc,$$$

Anyone ever heard of that?

Here's the symptoms:
- Shifts and drives nice in the morning. i drive anywhere up to 45 min's.
- When i shut down and start up again after a short time, OR at the end of the workday, I get erratic and unpredictable shift points at random speeds, like it doesn't know what gear it's in.
- Highway speed on level ground is fine. Passing kickdown works OK. Uphill as sluggy as it ever was, but not shifting efficiently, I've been dropping out of OD to keep going.
- Increasingly, if i coast from speed to a downhill stop, it won't downshift properly and I start out in 3rd for a little while.
- The shifting's not hard or clunky, just "wrong"
- Manual shifts will get me to 3rd off the line properly.
- Reverse seems OK
- TPS checked out OK
- No codes
- Fluid level good

I did a search for " transfer case seal", "transmission seal", "fluid leak" and others but have not dug anything up.
Any takers?...

 

Sounds like some problems with shift solenoids to me.

AFAIK, the A340H shares ATF between the trans and t-case and there isn't a seal that separates them. I'm not sure on this though.

EDIT: Was it the transmission fluid flushed or just drained and refilled?

 

Hi Mike
You know, this is going to sound silly but I'm looking at the reciept , it says 'road test,remove pan,visual insp.,clean &install pan w/ new gasket, add fluid filter 4x2 a340e 85-up " ... I remeber asking the guy, does this include flush and fill he says in thick Eastern European "Ja".
but isn't that filter incorrect?

eric

 

I'm not sure if those filters are interchangeable or not. All of the A340's are pretty similar, so it very well may be OK. (My FSM isn't here for me to check)

Removing the pan means they at least drained the fluid and refilled it. If the ATF hadn't been changed in a long time, there is the potential for some gunk to build up in there. This gunk can clog shift solenoids. That's why it is important to flush the trans fluid out (they have a machine for it). The Torque converter holds alot of oil that won't come out with a simple drain/refill.

 

Well I guess I better learn how to check those solenoids. :-|

I just went for a spim to the vid store and the whole thing felt rock solid. ( Been sitting for 5 hours.) If the solenoids are only failing when hot how can i catch that?

Is there an easy way to ID them when I get the pan off? There's 3 in there including the lockup solenoid, correct?

 

I have a thread on here somewhere with info about the solenoids. I'll see if i can find it.

 

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...light=Solenoid

 

Thanks Mike
There is a link on that thread to an external site.

 

This one is probably even better - you have to sift through my engine info to find the tranny stuff:

http://www.lextreme.com/forums/showt...light=Solenoid

also

http://www.supras.nl/index.php?optio...d=35&Itemid=52

 

Sound to me like they did not do a flush just a drain and refill....I had many many problem on mine from doing just that......having access to an OIL lab helped me out....I gave a sample of the fluid and they told me what had happen.....there was a mix of ATF fluid and you should not mix them....I had ATF2 ATF3 and some synth ......I scheduled a flush with a shop off base and refilled with ATF3 all of the problems went away.....the shop did the flush twice...once with a cleaning additive drove for 30 minutes to hit all the gears...opened it replaced the filter refilled it...then flushed it again....great shop and great work but it did cost me a bundle.....the joys of being in Japan....There is an official notice from Toyota change the type of trans fluid from 2 to 3 since 2 is no longer produced.....

 

Take it to a Toyota dealer to service the tranny. Ask for the power flush,and get them to adjust the kick-down cable. Should only be around $125 or so. If the shifting problems continue after that I would look at the solenoids. By the way, the Coquahalla will kill any tranny if you push it. Just take it easy, rpms around 2500 to 3000,and move into the slow lane.You can not expect to make it going 100 km/h the hole way up. At least mine won,t.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I will check into the dealership flush ASAP, I'll get them to do the resistance test on the solenoids at the same time...Slowrunner, I actually did take a peek at the cable ending , after looking at a PDF that someone linked to from here ( published by Toyota ) which outlined how to adjust it. The drawing shows the cable stopper protruding 0-1mm past the end of the rubber boot. But on my setup I can't even adjust it that far !! The nuts run out of threads before that point.
Is it possible that the cable is stretched too much, affecting shifting when hot?...sounds a little farfetched but...

As for the Coquihalla it's been 4 years since I've done that. What a great stretch of road that is. I was guessing the average speed of most traffic at 135 km/h. I noticed that I couldn't get the tach to sit nice at 3000-3500, the tranny wouldn't let me, and at 2500-3000 the power just wasn't there, the truck would start to slow down until the gears shifted.

 

well flushin' the tranny made little diff, maybe a c-hair more power at 3000 rpm...
back to square 1 I guess ...

 

OK an update if anyone's going through something similar.
Replaced the TPS,( with a used one cheap $) to see what might happen.
Seems to shift a little more on the ball, and now I'm getting a code 61 on the OD light, where I never did before. That's shift solenoid or wiring fault, if I'm not wrong?

Anybody know of quality replacements for reasonable $ shipping to canada?...

 

i had the same problem and could'nt find any cheap replacements. I think i paid about 190 or so from Downtown toyota when i would still shop there for parts. I went to lordco to try to source the solenoids and had no luck. Napa didn't have anything either. So toyota seems tyo be the only place. I used the dealer out on lougheed just past boundary. Same price but way better service and attitude for me at least. You coulkd also try the used place out in surrrey, i think its called Alpi's. But they are sort expensive for used stuff.

 

Thanks Babypig, what about this brand name http://www.bulkpart.com/Merchant2/me...ct_Code=97420K
I'm still debating whether to get my hands dirty or pay shop rate. I ain't never been inside an AT befo'. Any idea what the book says for time to do this?