95 Avalon - O/D off & CEL light warning

[swiftjustice]

Anyone know offhand what the following trouble might be until I get a chance to get the code read?

1995 Avalon 125K miles, tranny fluid still red and not burnt, was working fine with no issues.

Upon warm startup today after lunch, Check Engine Light on constant and O/D Off light flashing continuously at 1 second intervals (O/D switch is in on position).

[swiftjustice]

Well I stopped by my trusty mechanics and the code came out as "P0773 Shift Solenoid (E)". Done some searching here and on the Gen 3-4 Camry forum and some of the posts are as follows:

"FSM shows two possible codes for lockup solenoid. P0770 is for mechanical operation failure and P0773 is for electrical failure, although if the shift solenoid coil is bad you will need to replace solenoid. Order of inspection is 1. ECM terminal 2. ECM terminal harness to solenoid connector harness. 3. Check coil resistance of solenoid. 11-15 ohm. Could be just simple harness/wire connection problem. Pan will have to be removed for access to solenoid connector or solenoid. No expert, just looking at the manual. Maybe 1-2 hours labor??"

"just reset the code

it's a code that comes up for some people. it can be caused by something as simple as not fulling popping the shifter into the correct gear, or the tranny misshifting by accident.

if the code comes back, then dig deeper. chances are that it won't come back."

It seems to be shifting fine with no 4th gear lockout (O/D OFF light is no longer blinking), so I'll try to reset it and see what it does. There was also a helpful link to diagnose this problem here:
http://autorepair.about.com/library/faqs/bl079i.htm

[koziolek]

I just bougt 1995 Avalon few days ago and 2 codes on P0770 and P0773
reset ECU after few min they came back.
When Im driving everythink looks ok 60mil at 2500 rpm.
Any sugestion

[koziolek]

any idea ?
any help?

[95avymon]

I have a '95 Avy w/ 199,800 miles in it and the same thing happened to me about 4 years ago. The CEL came on and the OD light started flashing, so since ours is OBD1, off to the dealer it went. Ours was the lockout valve (mechanical) and was going to cost over $1000.00 to fix. We chose not to repair it at that time becuase the dealer said that it would run fine this way but that we may experience a slight roughness in the tranny shifts. Well, that was 55,000 miles ago and the OD light is still flashing! We have noticed that if our Avy sits outside in temps below freezing that the OD will go out but the check engine light stays on. Once the tranny gets to full temp the OD light comes back on again. I assume this is because the tranny fluid is thicker and "forces" the lockout valve to move until the fluid "thins out" at full temp. Hope this helps.

[koziolek]

So You mean I should don't care about light
just keep driving?
..........that kind of good news.
but for how long I might be able to drive like that?

[95avymon]

It would be nice to have the codes checked to see if it's the PO773 electrical code, because that should be an easier fix. If it's the mechanical code, like I have, you're good driving it the way it is. I look at it this way(many will disagree), if I have to spend a $1000.00 to have it fixed (and the car already has 199,000 miles on it) why not drive it until it breaks and simply replace the tranny with a good used one(from local recycling yard,eBay,etc..). You can get a good used low mileage tranny for around $400.00, plus another $500.00 labor to have it installed at a good transmission shop. Once again, just my opinion, but that's not for everyone.

[koziolek]

two codes reading on my avalon
P0770
P0773
any easy way to fix that?

[95avymon]

Read Swiftjustice's post above and check the connection first(ohm reading). If the reading is bad, and if the valve body must come off to get to the solenoid, then that is best left to the pros.

[swiftjustice]

As a follow up, I reset mine and the code has not come back (so far). At 60mph I'm pulling almost exactly 2250 RPM's, with OD off it goes up to about 3000 RPM's. Since you are throwing a mechanical failure code, and your RPM's are a tad high for 60 mph at 2500, I would suspect the solenoid is not fully actuating, if that it possible. Sounds to me like it would need to be replaced, but check the link I posted above.

[swiftjustice]

Somewhat interesting update:

After about 300 miles the condition started to repeat, that is, blinking O/D OFF light and check engine light on. After a couple of short trips, total of about 15 miles, the check engine light remained on solid. Was getting ready to do the old reset thing, but this morning on the way to the office no check engine light. Go figure.