Colorado B.S. Thread

Got a question for those with more know how than me. Friday afternoon the gf was driving the 2001 4Runner to Denver. Gets alerted by another driver that it’s smoking from the underside. She pulls it over and it pukes ATF all over the side of I25. Trans didn’t lock up, no loss of power, no weird shifting or hard shifts or anything before hand. Had it looked at today and shop said trans is shot. I’m not sure I fully believe them based on the info I noted above. My first thought was an input shaft seal, but I’m no expert and have no where to drop the trans to figure it out myself. Plus, I can’t keep dragging it around for other opinions. My only reasoning that the trans is shot is that it was leaking for a while on the drive and it burned it up. Wasn’t leaking before this happened. Truck doesn’t leak a drop of anything. Had a similar catastrophic loss of oil about two years ago when the rear main blew on e470. Engine was fine. Replaced the seal, good to go. Thinking of taking it to another shop tomorrow for a second opinion. Anybody with a 1st gen Taco or 3rd gen 4Runner have any input? 3.4-Auto. Thanks!


TL;DR
3rd gen 4Runner puked ATF on side of I25. Shop said trans is toast. I don’t believe them. Any input?

 

I am finally officially changing everything over to Colorado. Starting with my plates.

Figured I'd have to also change my door flags as well. Couldn't find any good ones online so I custom ordered a set. My USA/TX ones came out really good. So I'm using the same company

3x10" Let me know if you're interested in picking up a set.

 

I like those, I may have to cut myself some

 

all the ones I found online seemed to use different kinds of vinyl or were different sizes or something else weird. I cut each side as a single design so everything lines up and looks uniform. I'm kind of ... "particular" lol

 

They'll typically erupt fluid like that under extreme overheating. Confirm fluid came from the vent on the top middle of the transmission at the bell housing. Overheating when unloaded is usually caused by clutches slipping because of wear or hydraulic pressure loss.

Without knowing anything else, I'd say they are on track to the correct diagnosis.

 

Thanks Brian! Didn’t want to ask you direct because you’ve got enough going on. I appreciate the reply. It was just a local shop close to my house. They recommended a trans specialist. Didn’t pull it or really look at it. Saw it was leaking and said because of mileage they recommend replacement. (Just got the full story). They filled it and did a test drive around their lot and it puked it again. That’s why I was thinking it was an input shaft seal, or torque converter seal. Coming from the front of the bell housing. Who knows. With 335K on it, it might be toast.

 

@thefatkid
Just figured I’d add the pic and the tech notes. Not looking for a diagnosis just trying to figure out how much this is going to cost me. They went through the whole drivetrain and said it’s good to go. Clean bill of health on the motor. Thanks again! I really appreciate the response and your knowledge! If I were in Denver you’d be the only one to look at it.

 

Hes pretty damn funny. My neighbor and I unintentionally marathoned a bunch of his videos the other night. Not a one disappointed.

 

brewed for america's heartland....well if that dont just tug on the strings right there

 

$ ?

 

I'd go junkyarding for a low mileage replacement. At 335k I wouldn't even want to rebuild it as the cost for hard parts would exceed the cost of a Toyota remanufactured unit.

One other more rare occurrence, if coming from inside the bellhousing, the front pump seal blown out because of the oil pump bushing sticking to the torque converter. The seal alone is not usually that large of a leak, something had to have torn it out (bushing/oil pump failure).

Either way, a solid junkyard replacement should be around $500. Throw one in and send it.

 

My son had something similar happen to him with his 1st truck. It was a 93 F350, lifted 9 inches with 38 inch tires. It was a completely friggen ridiculous truck. (He bought it at his first duty station, back when he was an 18 year old dumb E2... it's a familiar story)

Anyway... he was driving from home (our home) in Central Valley CA, to Joint Base Lewis McChord (near Tacoma WA). Just before he got to the top of Grants Pass in to Oregon, his RPMs went through the roof and he quickly lost speed. He pulled over and it was leaking fluid everywhere. He had it towed to the closest shop (in a town just South of Medford Oregon). And stayed the night in the truck. The next morning the shop owner "looked it over." He added about 4 quarts of trans fluid and ran the truck, tried to get it to move and it would only slip... and according to my son it was pouring trans oil. The shop came to the conclusion that without a doubt the transmission was shot, and "it's real common for trucks with big tires to blow their trans on that pass."

So... the kid, and his wife... that he married 2 days prior... rented a U-haul and continued on to Post. So, he didn't end up being AWOL the next day. (I know he could have called and not been AWOL, but you get my point).

At that point, it was up to me to get the truck BACK to our house (391 miles), so I could look at it. Figuring if the trans was toast, I could swap in a salvage trans or something. We got the truck back to the house (that's a hole other story) and I started to look at it.

What I found is the return (hard) line for the trans fluid to the cooler had a hole worn in it... I literally took the two hard lines down to Napa, had them bend me matching lines... installed the lines... filled the trans... and drove the f'n thing around the block. I did some other maint to the truck, a few weeks later my son drove the thing back to base with absolutely ZERO problems. He drove it about 1 more year (no trans problems) until he decided to get a more practical vehicle... he still sees that truck driving around the area from time to time. (the transmission "was toast" according to the trans shop... 6+ years ago).

There are A LOT of shops out there that are straight up bullshit con artists. If they would be that f'n crooked to a 19 year old, newly married Private in the Army, and his new bride. They will do it to anyone.

The way I found the leak was doing EXACTLY THE SAME FUCKING THING THE SHOP DID... I put 4 quarts in it... turned it on... put it in drive (yes it slipped)... and had my younger son watch where the oil was coming out. Got under there and found the hole... and of course it f'n slipped. The trans capacity is somewhere around 18 quarts on a friggen F350 4wd Powerstroke. (when I completely filled it, I think I remember it was 13 quarts I dumped in there).



Ok so... that was a bit long winded. But the moral of the story is don't EVER automatically take the word of a shop at face value. And transmissions can be much more resilient than some people think they are. The A340F trans in a 2001 4runner is a pretty stout transmission.

 

I’m thinking $25-$30 shipped for the set.

 

Oh come on. That’s arugula, not kale.

 

In the process of putting on my new timbren bump stops right now. Is the top of the bump supposed to be that close to the stop bracket? I have the truck lifted up by the axle right now and the bumper is only about an 1 and 1/4 away. Seems close to me but maybe that’s normal

 

Can't remember if it's Sumo or Timbren... but one of them directs you to set the bump at 1/2 to 1 inch off the frame stop at ride height.

 

did you flex the truck out to figure out where you want things to stop based on leaf inversion and fender clearance?

Keep in mind they will compress a decent amount. Rule of thumb when I build shit is to assume worst case the bump is compressed all the way to the mounting surface from a hard landing which is how I set the height of this one.

 

Mine are not even that far away. Typically I cant even put a finger between them.

 

Here’s my old bump stops for reference: