99 camry, replaced starter assembly, now rough shifting

[HuskyMD]

I bought a used 99 camry v6 about 3K miles ago. It has ~150K miles now. I just had to replace the starter assembly. It was done at my local shop that I trust. It starts great now, but it is suddenly shifting roughly. It's an automatic transmission. When I put it in reverse, it feels like the car is dropping. Putting it into drive after reverse is an experience as well. Once in drive, it shifts a little rough. As the car warms up, shifting improves. Even putting it in reverse seems ok once the car is warmed up. I have noticed sometimes when slowing down (i think it is going from second to first gear), it sometimes seems like it is slipping.

Before going to the shop for the starter replacement, it shifted smooth as butter all the time. No issues. I see no correlation between the starter assembly and the transmission, but called the shop anyway. They said they didn't do anything that would impact the shifting.

Any ideas? The tranny fluid looks a little weird. It is a purplish pink color. Maybe a lavender? I was going to flush it, but now with the shifting issues, I don't dare.

[Mister_Perkins]

The shop is correct when saying that the shifting has no relation to the starter assembly.

Since you've checked the ATF and its dark, I would say that would be a good spot to start. The main reason that it could be shifting so hard when cold is because the vacuum pull is much higher when cold to help the car warm up faster. (Higher RPM when idleing). A motor mount could start to be showing its age and the dropping feeling could be your motor twisting into position.

[JohnGD]

The starter is fairly easy to replace and shouldn't affect the transmission. The only thing may be the throttle linkage cable. See if it's out of adjustment. How's the idle speed?

[Tech1984]

Yes, agree, the TV cable is right there and if it was removed from the throttle body just to get it out of the way, then it could be way out of adjustment now.
Check and see if the little stopper is 1MM from where the cable goes into the sheathing. There should be very little slack in this cable and should pull smoothly and pull back.
I have also seen someone tug on the cable and pull it out of place where it enters the trans.
Either way, this would fully explain your issue.

[HuskyMD]

Thanks for the responses. It seems to be idling just fine. I will check the throttle linkage cable (same as TV cable?). I take a bus into work, so I won't get the chance until tonight...

Is this what I should look for:

To inspect the throttle cable operation, remove the air cleaner and depress the accelerator cable all the way. Check that the throttle valve opens fully. If the throttle valve does not open fully, adjust the accelerator link as follows:

Remove the air cleaner.

Fully depress the accelerator cable.

Loosen the adjustment nuts.

Adjust the cable housing so that the distance between the end of boot and the stopper is 0.04 inch (01mm).

Tighten the adjusting nuts.

Recheck the adjustment.

[Tech1984]

Don't forget, you have 2 cables going to your throttle body.
The thinner one comes from your transmission. That is your TV cable.
(throttle valve in the valve body of the trans)
This one you check when at rest. Just as I described in my previous post.
It is adjusted by loosening the 2 nuts and adj back and forth.

[awmccready]

I tried it (the adjustment) and it seemed to do some good. In any case, it was way out of adjustment, because a garage I never did business with before replaced a slipping transmission with a used one with 40k miles.

However, the check engine light which came on shortly after I picked up the car after the tranny swap, just after I accelerated at a good clip onto an interstate highway.

I've never had that light on the Camry, though I've successfully dealt with on a van.

While I try to find someone to read the diagnostic code, does anybody have any comment on whether the tranny swap could have caused the check engine light?

Thanks.

[fenixus]

Originally Posted by awmccready

While I try to find someone to read the diagnostic code, does anybody have any comment on whether the tranny swap could have caused the check engine light?

it could, but also many things could too. we will never know unless you post that code finally