flare and the adaptive transmission (long)

[robob2]

I've been through a lot with Toyota this year...

I originally purchased a 2007 V6 Camry LE in April of this year. I loved how the car drove and felt and the power was great. At around 1300 miles I started to get the 3-4 flare with up to 1000 RPM surge between shifts. I went through having the tranny replaced, re-flash several time and finally had enough and was going to go through lemon law, but talked to the dealer owner and we agreed I would get a new car instead and bypass lemon law proceedings.

I got my replacement car, another 2007 LE, on August 30th and it had some (minor) vibration problems mentioned in another thread. I took it in for service on 9/6 and the dealer ended up replacing the tires after many, many test drives. The delaer ended up putting close to 75 miles ont he car during their testing.

When I got the car back 9/8 and the vibration was gone, but I noticed a significant flare when shifting from 2-3. There was anywhere from 500 to 600 RPM between shifts. Needless to say this was very alarming. This flare occurred at least 10 times on my way to work that day.

I was at work for about 2 hours and needed to drive to another plant for some work. Again the flare between 2 and 3. The drive is about 50 miles of mostly freeway. When I got there, the flare was gone and things were back to normal with the exception of my knowing it flared. Since then it has been normal.

My theroy is that this has somehting to do with the adaptive transmission. Seeing that the car was driven by several other drivers the transmission had adapted to there style, at least some what. When I drove it again it re-learned my style??? I've read in the tech manuals under transmission testing that the Camry transmission learns to not shock or slip betwene shifts. If it learned to not shock for one driving style, might that end up as a slip for another style?

Sooo, now what to do??? Should I take it in for service? I don't think they will find anything, but at least it will be recorded. This is very frustrating; two cars with a similar tranny problem. What do you guys think?

Thanks!!

[Mike Murrell]

I cannot offer solid advise in this case, but I would include the year of the car. Perhaps someone will then be able to offer a plan of attack.

Hope you get it resolved. I went thru a similar situation with an '06 Avalon. Seems that many of the '05 - '07 Camry/Avalon's have some sort of acceleration and/or shifting problem.

[robob2]

Originally Posted by Mike Murrell

I cannot offer solid advise in this case, but I would include the year of the car. Perhaps someone will then be able to offer a plan of attack.

Hope you get it resolved. I went thru a similar situation with an '06 Avalon. Seems that many of the '05 - '07 Camry/Avalon's have some sort of acceleration shifting problem.

Both cars were 2007, with the newest one being built on August 23rd in Kentucky.

How did your situation turn out?

[Mike Murrell]

Toyota came up with TSB EG029-07 for '06 & '07 Avalons whose VINs were in a given range.

I've read about the 2-3 flare issue in the later model Camry's here and it sounds a bit different than the problem the latter model Avalon's have - similar, but different.

My '06 Avalon would shift too soon coming off a start and "wind up" when trying to accelerate from speed. At times I thought I was being slung from a canon.

I found the fix at a Toyota tech site that you pay a $10 subscription to for one day's use and downloaded all TSBs for that car along with the entire FSM(factory service manual) set. Stored it on my PCs hard-drive

Hard copies in my case are a little over $350.00 so I did pretty good for $10.

Here's a pointer to the tech site. It may list TSBs that are not listed at this forum. Can't say for sure.


http://techinfo.toyota.com

[robob2]

Originally Posted by Mike Murrell

Toyota came up with TSB EG029-07 for '06 & '07 Avalons whose VINs were in a given range.

I've read about the 2-3 flare issue in the later model Camry's here and it sounds a bit different than the problem the latter model Avalon's have - similar, but different.

My '06 Avalon would shift too soon coming off a start and "wind up" when trying to accelerate from speed. At times I thought I was being slung from a canon.

I found the fix at a Toyota tech site that you pay a $10 subscription to for one day's use and downloaded all TSBs for that car along with the entire FSM(factory service manual) set. Stored it on my PCs hard-drive

Hard copies in my case are a little over $350.00 so I did pretty good for $10.

Here's a pointer to the tech site. It may list TSBs that are not listed at this forum. Can't say for sure.


http://techinfo.toyota.com

Thanks!

[robob2]

Here is a clip from the Toyota U660E service manual on initializing the transmission and how it learns how to make soft shifts - could this be related to the flare shift problem?


2. PERFORM ROAD TEST TO ALLOW TCM TO LEARN
NOTICE:
Perform the following procedures while strictly
observing all traffic laws and speed limits.
(a) From a standstill, achieve highest possible speed
with the accelerator pedal opened 15% or less.
Keep the accelerator pedal angle steady while
driving the vehicle.
(b) Repeat the previous step until shift shock no longer
occurs.
(c) From a standstill, achieve highest possible speed
with the accelerator pedal opened 25% or more.
Keep the accelerator pedal angle steady while
driving the vehicle.
(d) Repeat the previous step until shift shock no longer
occurs.