Mechanic says valve body is going out, what to i do?

So my truck has been acting up for a while, shifting hard/funny from 1st to 2nd. I get vibrations and it feels like i have lost power. No one has been able to figure out why, they just keep telling me its normal. I brought it in to a mechanic who is suppose to be a "transmission specialist" and he says it's the valve body in my tranny that is going out. He says that on this model truck valve bodies have been an issue. Supposively the tranny uses pressure to figure out when to shift, and somehow the valves in the valve body start loosing pressure, and getting stuck and that's why the tranny shifts hard, and sometimes downshifts early. He suggests I do my entire tranny since it's only a few hundred more. All together it will run me about $2,200. So what do i do? Is there anyway to try and fix the valve body without replacing the transmission(additives) ? Or am I pretty much SOL?

 

change fluid and put some z max in there. it helped my friends transmission a lot.

 

X2 on the flush. How many miles on the truck? Has the tranny been flushed and refilled before?

 

where is your mechanic? this is the same issue ive been having since i first bought the truck in 07. with only 5,000 mi left on warranty im probably trading it in this week. but i would like to take my truck into your mechanic before i do. can u pm me with info and i can be in his shop later today. if this is the case with mine, i think i may know a dealer who would be willing to fix yours too, even out of warranty. one of my coworkers also works at toyota and said that most times when a repair comes up that would be warrantied, but you are out of the warranty period, they can get the repairs done anyway.

 

I am gonna repeat but..
1. Mileage?
2. When was your last tranny fluid flash done?
3. Who is that mechanic (Toyota, uncle Bob)?
4. Get a second, third opinion from Toyota.
5. If your mileage is insanely high, did filter got cleaned inside the tranny?

 

Ok to answer everyones questions. Mileage is 85k And I had the tranny serviced by Toyota at 82k because of the issues I've been having, things got better but still acts funny. The tech at Toyota said there's no need to remove pan because the tranny does not have a filter. Toyota has checked my truck 2 times now and they keep saying it's normal bun I am positive it's not that is why I went to this guy. What is this max x additive and what is it suppose to do?

 

The tech at Toyota is a idiot then... tell him to look at page AT-148 its called valve body oil strainer same $hi..t. Dont pay any money until they either clean that and replace o-ring or replace both. Better yet do it yourself so they dont scam you on $2000

 

the fact that worked fine after the flush for few days most likely means strainer is clogged. Flush just send debris to pan then strainer pick up again and clog itself again. Save your self $2000 spend few bucks on o-rings and pan gasket and do it yourself

 

for 2200 you could buy a brand new transmission.

 

Might help after cleaning the strainer, to unhook the battery for 15 minutes, or get the stealership to refresh the trans programming. It is possible it has learnt some bad habits.

 

How do i do this? Is there a write up, Im afraid I might make things worse.

I didnt really "work" after the flush, it just got better.

Where?

 

i just looked on ebay and saw a used one with 58,000 miles for under 1K

 

My '97 4Runner had an issue with slipping out of gear just before coming to a complete stop. It only had about 25K miles at the time and so into the dealer it went. I was told that I had water or something else (which was possible knowing where I'd been) in the tranny fluid. They did a flush and filled it with synthetic transmission fluid. Problem fixed.

I now flush and fill it every 25K miles and it's had zero problems for 170,000 miles. I'm not saying your issue is the same - it's probably not but a flush and fill is worth a try IMO.

My bad. I see you already flushed and filled it. Good luck and I hope it turns out not very expensive.

 

I dont think there is write up but
Look at that FSM You need to perfomr everything up to the step 4 REMOVE VALVE BODY OIL STRAINER ASSEMBLY

When you installing follow this starting with step 3 "INSTALL VALVE BODY OIL STRAINER ASSEMBLY"

Somebody already posted flush and refill write ups.

Honestly, you are already looking at replacing the tranny. I would do strainer (aka filter) cleanup first and do that sooner rather then later.
See if you can pickup new strainer, O-ring and gasket for tranny pan from dealership. I dont know why dealership keep telling people not to do the cleanup of this. every tranny needs this unless you had flushed tranny oil like mad every 30K