my girlfriend has a 99 4runner and on our last trip out of town i let her pull the trailer with her truck, well she didnt push the tow/haul button that takes off the overdrive, anyway i didnt know that for a few days until she tells me that her truck is driving weird and when i asked if she pushed the button that i showed her when towing she said no, well now every once in a while at a stop light while in drive the truck wont go when the gas is pushed, it doesnt feel like a slipping though because after a second it will catch and jerk you into your seat and then it will drive alright but when it shifts instead of a slipping there... it like jerks when it shifts... iva had a few other trucks with slipping trannys and this doesnt seem the same..... is this normal for toyotas? or is there somethin i can do to save tha transmission? any help would be great thanks.

 

first thing i would do is drop the tranny pan, replace the filter, and lube the driveshaft

 

She might have overheated the trans fluid. A flush and fill might help.

 

thanks guys, we were planning on selling it soon so im hoping i dont have to put a new transmission is it now, also... what year transmissions fit... i heard you can put the 5spd off the 3.0 on the 3.4 if you do a swap in the older runners. but would an auto fit into hers if it comes down to it?

 

Mine does the same thing you described, but only after sitting all night, or most of the day at work.

At stop lights is a very bad sign.

I have no clue what actually is going on in the transmission, but your not the only one to experience it.

Erich

 

im going to flush it tomorrow and hopefully it will be alright if not... there goes 700 bucks. i'll keep you guys updated

 

I'll be interested to hear your results. I don't know enough about the inner workings of our transmissions, but it's strange that mine won't go in Drive, but I can down shift to Low and there is no hesitation. After 75 ft I can shift back up and its fine. I've also noticed that if I take a different route where I don't do a bunch of acceleration right from the start, it has a hard time moving into third gear. It revs higher than normal, then drops into the next gear.

Wouldn't drive start in low either way? Why would it work to start in low and then shift to drive.

Erich

 

Put in LUCAS TRANS FIX, your problems will be over, take it from me, I know. My rig didn't even move at all, if it did, it slipped like hell. I put this stuff in, and the rig ran great for 3 years, and when I sold it, it was still going. I'm a strong beliver in this stuff.

 

hmmmmmm.... well I hope that flush works for you. I wouldn't do it. Depending on the maintence, etc flushing a tranny that is having issues is one of the last things you want to do. It brings up any and all metal particles and shoves them in places you don't want them to be. It can cause all kinds of problems with a tranny afterwards. I'm sure few if non of you have dismantled and rebuilt an auto tranny and valve body, but they are complicated. The first reply was the closest to the right way to start with a tranny issue. You want to pull the pan, look for excessive metal particles and refill... I'd drain, refill and drive a few times before flushing. I don't know of any filter in the tranny on a 5VZ... and dry driveshaft would give more of a catch and pop sensation, not a lack of momentum. Sometimes when the autos in 3rd gen Runners start to go bad it will pop a solenoid E CEL... good luck

 

well heres what the deal was... the tranny got so hot the cooler inside the radiator busted and the tranny fluid and coolant mixed... i know bad news... so after replacing the radiator i flushed it twice havent changed the filter yet but im going to flush it one more time in a few days and change the filter then... the truck is doing a lot better, it still shifts kinda hard but the "strawberry milkshake" is almost gone... and it isn't stalling anymore

 

Man I hope you are wrong there. I have had a "solenoid E" CEL for about 4 months now, but no bad tranny symptoms. I posted here about it, and didn't really get that much feedback, only that I need to check the connections on my solenoid.

 

That would be wrong. There is a metal mesh filter screen on the A340F tranny pump suction line. It's the first thing you see when you drop the pan.

 

Got any updates? Others having this problem would like to know if the flushing works.