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New TN User
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Spring Valley (San Diego)
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Tranny (or maybe not) question
Hey, been awhile. Anyways, just recently started experiencing some weird issues with my 1993 v6 Camry Wagon. Tranny started feeling a little strange. (160k BTW), so I decided to drop the pan, replace the filter, oil, gasket. Fluid looked shabby to okay, a little metallic to the drained fluid, but not out of the ordinary for 160k. I drive the car 120-130 miles a day to work, ALL freeway, and all non aggressive acceleration and such (tranny is in economy mode).
Anyways, 1st thing to mention, is that NON of this behavior exists when the car is cold. But once it warms up (say 15 miles or so, after being at half temp for some time, not just the temp just reached optimal temp, but you actually need to be cruising for a bit).
So the car is warm, and at my last traffic freeway merge to another freeway, if I gun it from a slow 5-10mph roll, its just acellerating like crap in (drive), almost like it wont shift from drive (in O.D.) down to low to get moving to hop into traffic. So I pull off and find some surface streets to try dead stops to acceleration and some hills to climb. At a stop, I gun it, it runs like a dog, I floor the accelerator (no shift, seems to be in 3rd), I let off gas, floor again, and let off, and floor, nothing causes it to kick down into low, *BUT* if I pull the shifter from D into low, it kicks in and works fine, I shift to 2nd and it kicks into 2nd fine, then drive and into drive it goes fine.
Slow down and right turn into a uphill, from stop, gun it, runs like a dog, almost stalls, WOT, coast, WOT, coast, WOT, coast, never changes gear and almost dies, pull tranny into low manually, 4200 rpm and full wot, into 2nd, 3000 rpm and still racing, into drive and all is good, click overdrive button and it goes into overdrive. Now at the top of the hill and let off gas to start going down other side of hill, rather than coasting, it seems to want to downshift (no throttle, 800rpm while coasting downhill) and then it downshifts with no gas or acceleration (maybe only 1 gear so say OD to Drive, or maybe Drive to 2nd) motor slows car down and thus rpms raise as going downhill.
Get back onto freeway, manually shifting transmission from low, 2nd, 3rd (drive) and when needed O.D. and up to 65-70 and all is good. Stay doing 65 in OD for 75 miles and no issues. Cruise to work. Now driving without any aggression and car drives from stop to 25mph to 35 mph to 55 mph with no issues (of course driving like a 80 year old man). Goto work
Come out of office, hop in car, get onto first open 4 lane road to freeway, accelerates from stop through Low, 2nd, Drive with no issues. Get to next stop sign, 0-15-25-34-55 no issues, 1/8 to 4/10 Cold to hot on the gauge and everything is shifting as it should, stop on side of road, GUN it, takes off just fine, back into 2nd, and drive and moves along (its not over 1/2 way between C and Hot on gauges). And onto freeway (maybe 10 miles) and drive the rest of the way home like normal (slow acceleration and no WOT or any aggressive moves). 60 miles later, pulling off freeway to local streets and when accelerating from stop light, same stuff, accelerates like a dog, like its in Drive and wont kick into L, so I pull into Low manually, hit 3000rpm and move into 2nd, and then to 4000 and drive and as long as I am manually shifting between L/2/D everything works normal.
Would automatically assume its the tranny, except when cold, cant get it to replicate. have tried 5 times, with no replication until almost 1/2 between C / H on the gauge. Its going on 4 days of the same shit and still doing it.
Have been told by our mechanic, that there is 1 valve controller (electronic) that is outside of the tranny and he wants to test that before calling it a internal electric issue with the tranny. If it was consistent, regardless of engine/tranny fluid temperature, I would feel more comfortable that replacing the tranny would fix it, but since it works fine when cold, and then only does it when hot, I am a little confused, I know the 1993 3VZE V6 (Lexus es300 V6) is a little too old to have all kinds of electronics controlling it outside of the electronics on the tranny (i.e. the computer onboard is less likely to be the issue).
I cant afford a rebult tranny, seems they are in the 1400-1800 range, but have located a JDM with 50K on it for an incredible 250.00 + 150 shipping, almost seems like if I going to keep the car to buy it anyway, since the tranny on the car is at 168,000. But I thought I would ask for help here on the forum, anyone with experience or hearing of anything like this?, don't want to spend 800 for a Remove and Replace + 500 for the tranny for something that might be that one other valve controller or something in the ecu. I bought the car at 125k and have been doing all the regular maintenance on it, however, since I drive 160 miles a day to work, I am looking at possibly going after a Prius thinking that the 21-22 MPG on the camry and the 50mpg on the prius, that the money saved on gas alone almost equals the payment on a used 2nd gen prius, since I don't plan on changing where I live and it might be worth it. However, I sure do love my 1993 v6 wagon, have dropped it, put tenseko's on it, with 19" rims and all that.
Any info or opinion on the issue with the car, please debate. I have ultimate trust in all of you, and know that LOTS of 3rd gen V6 camry;s are out there and that I bet a handful out there have all had tranny issues, so let me know what you think and what you did.
On another side note, I redid all the struts on my car, and 15 years ago, actually did a complete engine and tranny swap on a 1970 RS/SS stroked 350 Camaro with a turbo automatic 400 a/t, but have never touched the engine or tranny on the newer ECU'd cars (although 1993 isnt that new, still) the book claims 8.5 hours, how hard is it to do a R&R on a front wheel camry tranny, and what special tools will be needed, is a cherry picker needed, special tools to pull the transaxle, etc, I can read and follow instructions, and have a 2nd car to drive, so no need to do it over the weekend so have some time to take my time, suggestions there?
Thanks all, again, thanks...
John
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