2000 Camry Tranny slips occasionally at hwy speeds

[Morley]

Hey everyone,

I've owned my 2000 Camry (1MZFE) automatic for about 8 months now, and it has been a great car.
However for the past 2 months or so, the transmission has been slightly acting up at hwy speeds.

Since we commute 110kms per day to work, we spend alot of time on the highway.

Here are the symptoms:
----------------------------

Cruising anywhere between 80kmh to 120kmh, and the transmission appears to drop down a gear for half a second, and then immediately pops back into overdrive. or 5th or whatever gear is the highest one. (Sorry not a transmission person lol)

When the car does slip down for that brief second, the rpm's will jump about 500-700rpms or so..

I've since taken it in for a full tranny flush, including torque converter drainage and cleansing. This has not made any difference.

I should also note that this problem is very intermittent, it wont happen for 3-4 days,
and then it can happen 4-5 times in one given day.

Any ideas?



I have an apointment at a tranny shop next week, but I've trying to self diagnose the problem first. Hope it's not costly Times are rough for us right now.

Any insight on this issue would be most appreciated.
Happy new year to everyone, and all the best for 2006!

[newbie212]

My 1997 Camry is having the same problem... I had a tranny flush and had mine checked out and they said that they couldnt find anything wrong with it... They suggested that it could be a sensor of some sort but the bill was already high enough so I didnt have them proceed into the diagnostics... Hopefully I can troubleshoot more of it myself. Let me know if you find anything else out because this problem is really annoying.. Thanks

[Morley]

Originally Posted by newbie212

My 1997 Camry is having the same problem... I had a tranny flush and had mine checked out and they said that they couldnt find anything wrong with it... They suggested that it could be a sensor of some sort but the bill was already high enough so I didnt have them proceed into the diagnostics... Hopefully I can troubleshoot more of it myself. Let me know if you find anything else out because this problem is really annoying.. Thanks

Thanks for the response.
I've located this document, which explains alot about the symptom I ma having.
Looks like it might be the lockup converter.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Torque-Con...ckup&id=113485

further down in the document is explains that disconnecting the wire harness to your tranny will correct the issue if in fact it is your lockup converter. But a slight decrease in fuel mileage and rpms may be slightly higher.

I'm willing to try it out.

[Cyorke]

Before even reading the article you posted I was thinking lock up converter. I am not sure where the plug would be though to unplug it. It is definitley worth a shot though. IF it does seem to cure your problem then you could look at having that part fixed in the future. Like the article said fuel economy is probably not going to be a huge factor. I am sure you will notice it but it is not going to make you go broke or anything liek that I am sure.

[Luckynumber5]

I would just leave it be if its not causing any driveability issues, you will only loose fuel economy by disabling it.

[Gary_602Z]

This may not even pertain to Toyota's but on GM's with the 4L60E transmission this is common, The problem on them is a steel valve in the aluminum valve body for the TCC wears the valve body. The fix is to ream the valve body with a special reamer and install an aftermarket sleeve and valve kit. Normally this will happen after the tranny has warmed up quite a bit. Also it will normally throw a PO1870 code and you will notice a harsher 1-2 and 2-3 shift.

Gary

[jhbhatia]

from what i can see, if you are on cruise control and drive on highways which have valleys and hill - while going uphill your car will drop into 3r and rev up to 'retain' the set speed. From what i see there is nothign wrong, its the way the tranny is supposed to work, it seem fine to me.

[xsnrg]

Originally Posted by jhbhatia

from what i can see, if you are on cruise control and drive on highways which have valleys and hill - while going uphill your car will drop into 3r and rev up to 'retain' the set speed. From what i see there is nothign wrong, its the way the tranny is supposed to work, it seem fine to me.

Nope, pretty sure you're wrong about that. I have a 2000 4cyl and it does the same thing. There's a bit of a shudder when it happens though. It's definitely not normal and it didn't always do it.

[foompla]

definately sounds like a torque convertor. might be a bad solenoid. anyone know if you can enable the tc via the obd 2 connector?

[98CamryLE]

This may seem like an obvious thing, but check the transmission fluid level. I recently had a tranny flush, and the shop didn't fill the fluid completely, and my transmission started acting up. It would shift harshly on occasion and often would have trouble 'finding' the right gear.

You probably already checked this, but I figured I'd mention it anyway, as adding fluid to the correct level made my transmission shift like new.

Good Luck.

[Morley]

Originally Posted by 98CamryLE

This may seem like an obvious thing, but check the transmission fluid level. I recently had a tranny flush, and the shop didn't fill the fluid completely, and my transmission started acting up. It would shift harshly on occasion and often would have trouble 'finding' the right gear.

You probably already checked this, but I figured I'd mention it anyway, as adding fluid to the correct level made my transmission shift like new.

Good Luck.

Originally Posted by Morley

I've since taken it in for a full tranny flush, including torque converter drainage and cleansing. This has not made any difference.

I had the full tranny flush done, and checked the fluid level is good.

So here is the scoop on what the tranny shop told me yesterday: "The problem is a variation of RPM in your 4th cluster" "and your pinion in your diferential is making a bit of noise" "The problem is inside your tranny" Can you believe this guy told me this?

I paid 35$ for this nonsense.
I'll never go back there...

Anyway, I have decided just to ride the car and let it do this every once in a while.
From what I can tell the problem has not gotten any worse in the last 2 months - about 8000kms.

I'm just going to ride it out, and if it ever goes on me, I'll get a used one from the wreckers and get that installed, or do it myself.

[newbie212]

The sad thing is that the transmission shop you took your car too probably tells people this everyday just to get business whereas your smart enough to know that they're full of Kaka...

I'm just letting mine go for now as I dont have the funds to get a new transmission.. I'm thinking most likely its the torque converter like you said.. Thanks for the info though...

[COYOTE556]

did anyone ever decide what the fix was for this problem? is it definately a converter issue? and if so, what is the fix? thanks