....just recently.


Had the tran cooler blow last summer. Dreaded strawberry milkshake. Felt weird for two days so i went to The tranny guy who found the proble. He said to rebuild the whole thing to the tune of 3-5K. I flushed the green and the red and replaced the radiator/cooler and it worked like new. Just this past month downshifts were becoming a bit harder so I went to the same guy and he said it was slowly dying. Is there any little adjustment he (or someone else) can make? I have an appointment for fluid and filter on Wednesday. I thought about adding a bottle of a fluid conditioner. Bad idea?

Am I getting the shaft? I know some things... but trannys aint one of them.


What would be a fair market price to rebuild? I live outside Providence.

Thanks, DD

2001 4runner 139K Stock as stock can be.

 

Probably would be cheaper to buy a used one and swap it in.

 

I had the same kind of problem with my 4runner. Hard shifts into 1st and I was also getting a nasty studder when it would shift while going up hills. I was a qt. low on atf so I added some. That made a difference for a while, but it came back after a couple weeks. Then I dropped the pan and changed the filter and that did not help. So then I flushed the entire system (torque converter and all) with Amsoil synth atf and no more hard shifts into first and no more studdering.

I figured since you were going to get your pan dropped/filter changed anyway, you might ask them to flush the t.c. too (I used the best synth atf $$ can buy for added assurance). Flushing made all the difference for my truck.

If you're into the DIY thing here's a really good step-by-step writeup on how to do the entire service - check out the flushing procedure at the end, it's really easy to do yourself if you want to save the $$ on that part.

 

http://home.centurytel.net/stevenjac...sh/tranny.html

 

I will look into Synthetic super-crap as my friend Hans puts it. Also, The fluid level is high and the tranny guy said "they say it's preferrable/OK to have it high" Is he high?


DD

 

High is o.k., just try not to go over that. Too much can blow seals.

I doubt your trans is on it's death bed. The strawberry milkshake is no good, but it doesn't always kill the tranny and yours has been fine for a year so far.

As far as fluid conditioner, Lucas treatment is good stuff. Just suck or drain a little ATF out 1st since you are already at the high mark.