Hi folks. Have a Camry 94 V6 with obvious tranny slipping issues. Not terrible at this point and still driveable...slips slightly taking off from idle but then is smooth after gaining rpm's. Is there an external band adjustment for this transmission? And if so is there a writeup procedure on here somewhere for it? Hope it's not toast....the car runs perfectly otherwise and only has 119K miles on it. Body is in great shape, no rust to speak of. It's my son's first car. It was very low on fluid (don't know why yet...have to check further this weekend) and was slipping really badly and not driveable. I filled it with fluid and some Lucas stop-slip and now driveable but still slipping slightly as described above. Plan to drain it and replace trans filter and fluid this weekend but I'm guessing that won't make much difference. Thanks for any help
Check the trans fluid again. In my experience, it'll check low a few times, needing a top-off until it's right. Seems like they burp air for a while when they're run low, or after a drain/refill.
Replace trans filter and gasket, use a good one. I've had good luck with Beck/Arnley (044-0280, $17 on RockAuto) and Wix (58614, $13 on RA). Drain and refill twice or three times with a good fluid, I recommend Valvoline MaxLife or Dex III. I've used Dex VI in several of these and it works great, but introduces momentary slippage sometimes that may worry some people (shifts and works fine, though).
I saw this recently in a '96 V6 granny car (35k miles). I'm guessing this is due to the car not being driven enough over its lifetime. The MaxLife has more seal conditioners than other fluids and this might help with issues caused by seal degradation. HTH
Hi...thanks. I plan to replace the filter, drain and refill it this weekend. But...do you know if there is a band adjustment and if so is there a procedure on here that shows how to do it? Is it difficult to do? Or...is there no external adjustment at all? Thanks again
Look on the transmission dip stick. It will tell you what specific type of transmission fluid to use. If it says to use the T-IV type fluid, use that only. T-IV is not the same as ordinary transmission fluid ... different friction coefficient or something.
As mention, before going doing anything, check the transmission fluid. How is it? Red? Pink? Brown? Black? Black with metal specks?
Dropping the pan will give you a very good ideal on the transmission condition. If you see black sludge around the magnets in the transmission pan, just take em off and clean them. If it looks like a Christmas tree with metal particle, you got more issues...
Prolong as the car isn't being driven roughly while the transmission is slipping (i.e. revving until it slowly 'locks' into gear), I'd say do a few fluid drain and refills. I've used Supertech ATF fluid (it's marked as Dextron III compatible) a few times for the drain and refill then when it starts to look good, fill it up with MaxLife ATF. I've 'revived' my friends transmission in her 1995 V6 w/ 320K twice as it started to do a slow slip in drive.
Thanks. As I mentioned....the car was very low on fluid so there was nothing to check! At that point it would not even engage at all in drive. I filled with fluid and Lucas stop-slip and now it drives but is still slipping slightly upon initial takeoff from idle. I am going to drop the pan Saturday to replace filter and refill so I'll see if anything obvious shows up there. I don't know why it was low/empty as I don't see any obvious leaks but I'll have to check that as well when I work on it Saturday. The Valvoline Maxlife ATF is actually what I put in it yesterday. But...I haven't drained and refilled it a couple of times, so again I'll do that Saturday. I hope it helps...feel bad for my son since this car is in such great shape otherwise and has served him well. Hasn't cost him a dime other than normal maintenance and it runs great otherwise. I actually wouldn't mind tackling a tranny replacement but....you never know what you're getting with a used transmission which might very well have more miles on it than this one and who knows how long it would last. Have to weigh that against the cost plus my labor/time to do the job and how much more life would he get out of it? It's a risky proposition. Thank you for the advice again.
I also will log in as doubting the transmission is worn out with only 119,000 miles.
I'm always interested in transmission questions here. I'm trying to urge my transmission to keep hanging in there so it may last as long or longer than my engine.
Please post your ultimate problem resolution so we may be able to apply that to our situations later!
I will write back after I work on it tomorrow. But....the only recourse I have at this point is to drain/refill and change the filter. If that doesn't work then I'm out of luck and gotta think about what to do with the car. Not sure why folks are doubtful the tranny could be trash after 119K? It's not only the mileage but the age of the car as well...22 years old is a lot of abuse on it, and who knows how it was driven or cared for before I got it. I mean....something is causing the slipping obviously, and I've already filled it with fluid, so I don't really see how simply draining it and refilling again would make a difference? I could see if a car is slipping ONLY because the fluid is low....but then once it is filled again it should be fine. In this case it's still slipping so...logically thinking....draining and refilling the fluid can't fix worn clutch plates, right?? Or...I don't know? What else can cause slipping? Faulty solenoid? But are those replaceable without dropping the tranny?
Back when I had a Crapillac, I used to frequent a Caddy board. A lot of people claimed good results with slipping and shifting issues by using Lucas Transmission Fix.
FWIW
YMMV
MarkDunn...maybe some of us are overly optimistic but my optimism comes from seeing lots of folks here who are still on their first transmission with REALLY high miles. Certainly the type of driving matters a lot, as does the total age, but I'm driving a 2000 V6 with 422,000 miles on the original tranny. The fluid has been changed twice so that's decent and both I and the original owner were adults so that helps too but it would seem like it would take some heavy driving to wear out the same transmission in just over 100K miles. It COULD be that there was a big difference in the 1994 vs. 2000 transmission but....that's ultimately where my optimism comes from. I wonder if the friction plates dried out from being low on fluid and sitting up for a while? Might rejuvenate after some use with full fluid. I have never worked on a transmission so my thoughts are just that...thoughts :>)
...the A540E was used in the V6 Camry until 1998, then they switched to the A541E for the remainder of gen4. These A's are pretty tolerant to abuse, much more so than the U-series they switched to for the VVT-i ES300. At least around here (lot of bad granny drivers whose throttle pedals have essentially never been past 50%), I don't see A-series start to give trouble (with regular maintenance) until well beyond 250k. There're always flukes though.
I get paranoid because I give my cars plenty of Italian tune-ups, but it was drilled into my head at an early age that WOT's are one of the things that wears an automatic...I do regular fluid and filter changes though :smile:
If the car was low on ATF and was driven, then the clutch packs could have burned up. Just try dropping the pan and inspect things, see if there's a coat of sludge and what's on the magnets. Use plain simple dino ATF like Walmart Supertech dino that's about $12 per gallon. Then the next thing is the Lucas fix others mentioned.
Overall the A-series have been reliable. Particularly the late years are pretty bulletproof. Compared to the U-series POS that are still having shift problems.
Well it definitely was driven when low cuz my son told me it was acting up on him that day driving to and from school and I checked it the next day and found it was very low....so low that there was almost nothing on the dipstick. I tried driving it before I checked the fluid and it wouldn't go anywhere, but again after putting fluid and stop-slip in it is now almost back to normal except for slight slippage when starting off. I do fear though that driving it when it was low...who knows how long he was driving it that way....has probably caused some irreparable damage. Anyway...I'll know more by tomorrow afternoon.
Yes, there are subframe bushings. Check TN supporting vendors for price. So you don't plan on pulling both from the top? You can reseal the oil pan, change out the rear main seal, valve cover gaskets, etc etc...
Does reverse work? If so the forward clutch pack is probably fried. I'd change the differential fluid and the strainer when you get it. I'd do the transmission input shaft seal too, but others may disagree.
Yes reverse works fine. I'm sure the forward clutch pack is fried. Yes of course I'll change the filter and fluid on the replacement one and change the axle seals. I ordered an input shaft seal as well...where is that one located? I really don't wanna make this more difficult of a job than it needs to be....would rather not pull the entire engine. I don't have the equipment or the time to do that. I guess I could pick up an engine hoist at Harbor Freight fairly cheaply but....don't really wanna get into that. I can change the rear main seal once I take the tranny off right? Valve cover gaskets can be done any time with the engine in place.
Pull the cam on the throttle body back in order to give the cable some slack and then you will be able to release it from the cam, after that unscrew it from the bracket where it's held down. There is really no need to disconnect it from the bottom unless the other tranny your putting in does not have one, make sure you check the cable before you reinstall everything to make sure it's not damaged, make sure the cable is intact at the bottom where it goes into the transmission because if it gets pulled out of its socket it will cause all kinds of shifting issues
This is what I just did on an A140E. I just made sure it wasn't getting caught or stretched when pulling the trans out on the jack from the driver's side.
Not actually that bad, at least we can do it with the trans on the car and just the pan dropped. Lol, I pulled an AX4N on a Taurus to get at the valve body under the side pan. Now there's a packaging nightmare.
Right....I'm familiar with the axle shaft being longer on the passenger side...just wasn't sure if the shaft/seal sizes should be different on each side. What about this orange plastic disc I see inside the drivers side axle hole on the differential? I can only assume it's supposed to be there since the seal was in place over it and the seal was completely seated properly in the hole.
It didn't come with the cable?? That's scary as in if it's been stored outside it's probably got a ton of water in it because the cable is what seals the hole at the bottom. There is no reason the cable should be missing. Or did someone cut it off and the bottom piece is still there?
^ yeah, who knows that they did to that transmission to be missing the shift cable. But the transmission is here, and the one on the car isn't working.
As far as the orange plastic thing. Never seen it before. Sounds weird, but dunno. Why would anything else besides the side gear even be there?
Yeah I don't think that plug should be there either, it looks like some sort of seal for the trans oil from leaking out while shipping I've done so many axles and I've never seen that plug, I also think they painted it bright orange for a reason..
I would of took my chances on a trans from a junk yard Toyotas around this year are bullet proof I have a 1999 Camry with over 300k miles with every thing original, trans, engine, alt, starter everything is 100% original..
A couple times I had this customer that came in for maint once a year for everything it needed even oil, they would just add oil to the eng.. this was a taco and it had 400k miles and it had everything original it would only get minor things like axles, control arms but never did that truck have any major issues and it only got serviced once a year.. I was in shock....?
Really risky taking a chance on a junkyard tranny...not to mention I would have to go take it out myself and in this weather I wouldn't have looked forward to that. Again this one was only $550 bucks total including shipping and it only has 70K miles on it plus it comes with a one year warranty, soooo....that seemed like the best course of action for me. Would hate to put all that work into pulling one from a junkyard only to find out it's no better than what I have in the car.
Whoa, never seen that before. Earliest gen3/4 V6 trans I've worked on is a '99 and I always assumed the shaft oil seal was what kept oil out, and oil on the shaft past the inner cup. I guess then leave it in?
Take a look at the RH (Toyota calls it front) seal retainer it is shaped differently on the 1994+ units. Top is 1992-1993. You can see the RH seal retainer in the Ebay listing compare it to your transmission.
Take a look at the RH (Toyota calls it front) seal retainer it is shaped differently on the 1994+ units. Top is 1992-1993. You can see the RH seal retainer in the Ebay listing compare it to your transmission.
Sorry...not sure I'm following you? The Ebay picture you sent looks like what I have on my replacement trans with the orange piece inside...
That baffle is used up to 1998 should have just looked that up in the first place. You have the correct transmission, have you dropped the pan to see what's up?
Have I dropped the pan to see what's up where? With what? Sorry....I'm not following your question? You mean in the old transmission? Yes I've been all through that already....replaced the filter and did several fluid changes but still slipping. That's why I'm replacing it.
That's why I was wondering if the old transmission was actually better than the one those guys sent. Looks like the old one WAS, unfortunately.
Yeah, do seriously consider a reman transmission. You know it'll work. 3-years unlimited miles warranty. But it costs. Or call around your local ATRA member shop and find one with a good reputation (some still can be duds). See if one has a transmission dyno, most likely not, but try it. http://www.atra.com/shopfinder
If the current transmission was fine prior to the low ATF level, maybe you can swap out some clutch plates and it'll run like new again. As long as the valve body isn't clogged or worn. Any reason for the low ATF? Leaking gaskets/seals? Transmissions don't usually "use" ATF. https://www.transtar1.com/contact#find-a-branch https://www.wittrans.com/
Sorry didn't see this until now. Yeah it was leaking through the cooler hose line pretty good. I had checked it not too long ago so I think he lost it pretty quickly. I can't justify a reman transmission for a car that's only worth $1500 bucks probably tops. I got a lot of work done this past weekend. I'm ready to drop the subframe now...then I should have the trans out soon after that. I rigged a support on top to hold the engine with straps and cables. Once I drop the subframe there's nothing supporting the transmission on that side though so...guess I'll just put a jack stand under it? Guess I'll just get a couple of jacks under it when I'm ready to detach it from the engine and then lower it down onto a furniture dolly I have waiting for it. Any other tips on getting the thing out? Thanks
I should have spoke up earlier in the thread and recommended you get a used imported jdm transmission, they are always going to have less miles than a us junkyard tranny , there is one for your car on eBay right now for 350 free shipping
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