97 Avalon Tranny woes - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

EricFi1 · 02-04-2011, 11:38 PM

Hi all!
My sister in law has a 97 Avalon, the car runs very well for 135,000 miles. Recently I had to replace the starter on it, which went easily and troublefree.
However, when shifting from Park to Reverse or Drive, you are greeted with a a THUNK sound. Once in gear, such as Drive, the car shifts smoothly through all gears.
The tranny fluid was changed a while ago, and it's still nice and red.
This issue did not exist until I replaced the starter.
The selector cable was somewhat in the way, and I sneaked the starter body under it with no problems.
I used a friend's Mitchell on Demand and found that there is an adjuster for the cable, but when I got the car back a few weeks later I was able to inspect the cable more thorougly and well.. there is no adjustment.
I marked off at the transmission where the pawl gear is and tried to adjust from there and nothing changed.

On a GM car, this issue is silently a TPS sensor. I am not sure if this is the same on the Toyota's. Is it?
I've checked the trans mount and it looks solid.

Before I removed the starter, I drove the car a few miles back to my home, and it shifted out of park perfect and smoothly. Now it's a huge THUNK sound.
I'm at a loss. I doubt it's transmission related, it's just to young for that to happen now and the fluid is in great shape. AND to make it worse.. it happened after I swapped the starter.

Any ideas? I'm lost.

pmesfun · 02-05-2011, 11:18 AM

I have this problem also, read that it could be the half-shafts or the engine/transmission mounts are worn out.

tacosteelersman · 02-05-2011, 01:06 PM

Get a trusted person, pop hood, start car, press brake, and have an assistant shift the car from drive to reverse normaly. Look at the engine for excessive movement and pinpoint the sound. My money is on a bad engine mount.

EricFi1 · 02-06-2011, 07:42 PM

the more I think about it.. a bad tranny mount very easily describes the problem.
it's just so coincidental that it was perfect until I changed the starter.
it shifted hard exactly after I fired it back up.
But I'm going to inspect the mount next time I see it.
All the symptoms are pointing to it...