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The Free Mod Series - Part I Quicker Transmission Shifting
Background:
We all know that the Automatic Transmissions in the Camry/ES 300 (both of the v6 4-speed automatics 2vz-fe & 3vz-fe A540E, 1mz-fe A541E are mechanically the same) are setup for comfort. The bad news is that they're slow shifting. The good news is that they don't hunt for gears under anything but highly spirited driving. The great news is that there is something we can do about it!
Theory:
Anyone that's looked into making serious power gains on any A/T Toyota engine will notice the second most important upgrade to the A/T is to upgrade the valve body. By raising the pressure in it, the shifts are much harder, and faster. This gives quicker shifts and also reduced wear on the transmission. (less heat is produced)
Most of you that poke around the engine bay will see two cables going to your throttle body. Obviously one is the throttle, but what is the other cable? A good guess would be cruise control, however that is incorrect.
The second cable is the "Throttle Kick-down Cable" and it's function is close to what the name says. It controls a valve in the transmission's valve body that can increase, and decrease the pressure in the valve body.
(A great example is the ECT button on the transmission. With it held down, the transmission shifts harder, and holds gear longer. The astute among you notice if you get on the throttle hard enough at the "right" RPM range the same thing is accomplished. This is because the cable is tighter the more the throttle is open.)
What we are going to do raise the pressure of the valve body, without sending it off to a transmission shop and spending $399 on a great upgrade.
Instructions:
The red cable is the throttle kick-down cable on *my* car in it's stock position (the nuts are in the middle). What we need to do is make the cable as tight as possible WITHOUT restricting wide open throttle. (If you crank it too tight, you can't open the throttle all the way.)
All you have to do is run the top nut in that picture all the way to the rubber stopper, then close the bottom nut on it. (as said above, this will probably restrict your WOT operation, so back off a little)
Your shifts will now be much quicker, and much firmer also. Possibly to the point of just being a really hard shift. Your car is not only quicker, but the transmission will go longer without burning fluid, and the clutches will last longer because they're not holding the planetary gear set as long.
*note*
Forewarning, the transmission will also shift into Drive and Reverse harder also. You can't have it both ways, everythings a compromise. If it's too much of a pain going into D & R back off.
*edit*
So many months later and so many still confused.
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Last edited by Toysrme; 11-11-2006 at 09:52 PM.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Toysrme For This Useful Post:
Haven't found any real difference in adjusting the A/T cable, over-tightening just makes it down shift too quickly and loosening makes it down after keeping it at WOT for like 10 seconds.
I didn't try extreme's but perhaps I'll try fooling with it a bit more tomorrow (weather pending).
Good info for everyone unaware of the cable though...
Just a FYI though, if you have a black box in your engine bay, inside of it is your cruise control cable and your actual cable that directly relates to your gas pedal, which is very good for taking slack out of the pedal itself).
just wondering if this works for an 88 camry v6 2.5L engines? gonna plan to do this due to my slowness at take offs and just plain going. but need more info on if it will on my car.
also im not too sure what yer exactly saying but when you say to move the top bolt to the rubber stop up above it or next to it then move the bottom bolt to close it(that part i dont get). do we have to lift the cable to get the bottom nut to the top nut or are u saying move them in the opposite direction. or i just thought of this because the cable becomes loose screw the bottom nut until the cable becomes tyte?
dna59 - Good question. Like I said this *improves* reliability over stock, as the transmission clutches are not pushing the planetary gearset in and out as long, and the fluid doesn't build up as much heat.
alex86 - i listed the 2vz-fe. it uses the same basic A540E transmission as the 3vz-fe and the mod will work for you.
To make it easier guys, this mod works on any Toyota that has a kick-down cable on the throttle body.
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"The lamest twice banned, non-female member of-all time." -Ekam, Thanks, I <3 you too! AIM/Yahoo Toysrme257th
for anything, anytime; including camry turbos Now with Turbo!
Yes. Shifting from Park or Neutral into a moving gear will be harder. Shifting from Drive to Revers is harder also.
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"The lamest twice banned, non-female member of-all time." -Ekam, Thanks, I <3 you too! AIM/Yahoo Toysrme257th
for anything, anytime; including camry turbos Now with Turbo!
Welcome!
Yes, every time the transmission shifts it's gears it will shift hard. Going into drive and reverse, through the 4 drive ratios (1,2,3,4)
Sure, it's a great first mod. Noone else seems to have done it, but it'll give more improvement than anything else you can do for no-very little cost.
The beauty is that if the changes make you uncomfortable, you can easily open the hood and start moving them back the other direction. Everyone will find their own balance between "the transmission shifts great, I can deal with it going into drive and reverse harder because the gear changes are quicker.", and "I want it to shift faster, but I can't stand the hard shift into drive and reverse".
It's seriously not technical. You twist a nut, pull the cable fairly taught, move the second nut to hold the cable where it is.
__________________
"The lamest twice banned, non-female member of-all time." -Ekam, Thanks, I <3 you too! AIM/Yahoo Toysrme257th
for anything, anytime; including camry turbos Now with Turbo!
The Following User Says Thank You to Toysrme For This Useful Post:
i did this on my aussie 94 3vz (its the lower cable you cant miss it, it goes straight to the tranny, the throttle cable goes to the air sensor thingy) and oh boy it shifts damn quick now. you gotta fly past the R so it doesnt engage, takes less then .5 seconds, makes the engine feel really positive between gears, not lazy and smooth. i also tightened up my throttle cable as well, there was about 1.5cm of freeplay b4 it started pulling.
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125 front wheel horsepower with major retard issues between 4500-5200RPM -
OD switched off, even when not in 3rd results in major power loss/rpm drop.
well i screwed the other cable in as far as it could go i can only feel a quick response from the engine from shifting at lower gears and very slightly on higher gears but imma start messin with the throttle cable so that i can get more out of the engine hopefully wont frick up the car
You are so welcome.
I try and do nice things and give you guys free mods, then get flamed sheesh!
Gotta love it
__________________
"The lamest twice banned, non-female member of-all time." -Ekam, Thanks, I <3 you too! AIM/Yahoo Toysrme257th
for anything, anytime; including camry turbos Now with Turbo!
i dont noe ive done wat i can with the other cable not the throttle and it does shift fast but doesnt give much kick bak when it shifts only in low gears must b doin something wrong.
so far i did screw it so that i got barely any threads left on the cable but there is still some slack on the line. am i doin something wrong? i also did the same with the throttle cable and i did see that the car did launch faster cause it reved higher than usual. got any ideas to fix?
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The Free Mod Series - Part I Quicker Transmission Shifting
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