2001 Tacoma 4X4 Transmission shift Clutch problem Stuck in D 1-2 gear Torque converter fail

hi guys, this is my first post. i spent some time searching the site with different search words but really didnt see anything that talked about my issue.

i purchased my 01 tacoma in 2004 with about 40K on it, ive taken great care of it, no abuse, rarely tow anything, no racing, etc
it currently has about 163K on it and has been great for 14+ years.

Tonight i got in the truck to drive home from work and when i put the shiftier in reverse, it instead was in drive or some forward gear. i put it back in park, then back in reverse but still was in forward. i tried going thru all the ranges and they all seem to be the same forward gear. i can put in in park and it locks as park should, but the truck may still be in drive, it doesnt rev as easily in low range currently while in park. so to get it home i shut it off and manually rolled it backward so i could drive forward and that worked but........

once going forward it seems to operate fine up to about 25Mph, at that point it downshifts hard by itself causing the engine to rev to 5K. so i learned real quick to keep it at 20Mph. the other thing i notice is when i stop at a light it makes a hard shift THUMP around 3-5Mph.

i also had to press the manual release lever around the bezel of the shift lever today. over the years sometimes it randomly wont unlock to allow a shift out of park. but when that happens it still shifts thru the gears fine once i put it in R or D

my wife had a 04 trailblazer where the shift lever became disconnected from the transmission causing it to stay in gear, but this is not doing that, i can put the Tacoma in park and its in park.

any ideas?

 

block the wheels and crawl under her and look at the transmounts first, if ok look at the lever from the shifter to the actator rod coming off the transmission to see if the pinch/adjuster bolt has loosened. If that looks ok towards the back of the trans on the drivers side there is a harness that plugs into the trans towards the rear. See if it is attached or if the harness has worn through... this is the electrical connector for the shift valves inside the trans.

picture of the connector and the shift lever on my 96 4X4.

 

ok, i got it up on jack stands and checked that connector, looks good, the wires arent cut or having anything near them that could cut. the connector is firmly connected.

i decided to drain and drop the pan. trans fluid was pink and smelled sweet, as i would expect. no metal chunks were found in the pan or in the cheesy factory filter. i manually ran the shift lever thru the positioning and all the resting points of the roller on the tooth lever matched the shiftier except the first gear L position, but that might not be a big deal, because the shift lever never really liked to be in the lowest position anyway, its possible it jumped out back to L2 as i crawled under the car.

on the other side of the trans there is a device with a connector (didnt get a pic of it) that lines up with the tooth lever, might be a neutral safety switch or sensor to tell the computer what position the shift lever is in, maybe thats the issue? im going to call a few trans shops tomorrow and see what they think, ill follow up here with that info.
i did verify the brake switch works, and the reverse lights come on when the shift lever is in R, and reverse light is off all other times.

in this video, the switch can be seen around 58 seconds, above the dipstick tube location that connects to the pan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0MUhE3FD0A

 

@gearcruncher

 

as i looked at the wiring diag. a thought crossed my mind... I saw that the speed sensor comes off the back of the trans., maybe an issue and I dont know how to test that. The park / neutral swicth also inputs into the ECM but I do not know what the ECM does with those inputs.

 

Glamisman, thank you for sharing that diagram. i saw all the fuses and decided to check all fuses in both locations and all were good. its also interesting to observe the trans temp warning light wont turn on until 302F, i think that too hot. i would think they would want it to turn on closer to 260F. i have a trans temp guage and a separate cooler with engine oil filter adapter. it has never got above 200F even when i was towing a Uhaul trailer. (up to this point i havent towed anything bigger than a Uhaul trailer)

the Speedo does show speed so the speed sensor is working.

 

darn... at this point I think you are in a "specialist" situation. I hope there is a trans shop that is good at diagnosis. Most just follow the A.A.M.C.O. creedo. All Automatics Must Come Out.

 

Glamisman, your AAMCO acrostic is really funny. LOL
when i worked at Advance Auto for 10 years i heard other acrostics...
Fords...Fixed Or Repaired Daily, Found On Road Dead, Fords Only Run Downhill then some pro ford guys would say Fast On Race Day
i heard some for Dodge but cant remember them at the moment.



I actually took it to AAMCO last night, drove about 8 miles in the slow lane doing 20-24ish i did find i could set cruise around 24 and it didn't slam down shift.

the phone call with AAMCO, the guy thought it could be a linkage issue and said they would diagnose for free. i just did some research and others that have left reviews say the diag is free but if you dont pay what they want for repair they charge around 400$ for their time. ouch.

I talked to another trans shop and they thought the planetary gears welded together, and i said i dont abuse the trans getting it hot and they gave an example that if you rub your hand around your wrist enough it will build up alot of heat and they thought it was very possible even if i didn't abuse trans.

either way i think i'm over the barrel and would be surprised if the repair is less than a grand.

ill keep everyone updated.

 

If they diagnose a bad transmission, buy a used one off www.car-part.com and have them R&I it. When I swapped my truck to 4WD, I ran into an issue with the flex plate imploding so I towed it to a shop. The R&I cost me $998.

 

just got a call back from AAMCO, they advised the first gear clutches fused together, and i was surprised...no charge for diag even if they dont fix it. they said full rebuild was around 2300$ and i think 12mo warr

i called the other place back and they said thats pretty much what they were saying, but that place wanted 2800$ for rebuild with a 3 year warranty.

im debating putting in a used trans...

 

Debating!? You want to pay that much money to rebuild a transmission, when a used one is a fraction of the price?

I paid $450 total for my A340F when I did my 4X4 swap. AND it came with a transfer case. I sold my A340E with 97k miles on it for $250.

 

BartMaster1234

debating because Im dealing with life circumstances i wasn't dealing with 20 years ago when i replaced a transmission myself on a 88 Taurus from the Junk yard.
back then it was just single me, owning 2 cars where i could park one for a month while i work on it in my spare time.
today im married, with 2 cars, with my wife needing a car daily too.

so in this situation i'm kinda stuck due to time limitations and a few other factors.

i went ahead and told AAMCO to rebuild it, but i asked for the old clutches and other parts that get replaced in a rebuild, minus the torque converter because they send those back for rebuild.

i will post pictures of the old parts when i get them back. they will have it fixed by tue or wed.

i appreciate the suggestions people have offered

 

If you bought a used transmission, you’d only be in about $1,500 total including labor. Most full service junkyards load the part into your vehicle for you, and most even ship.

 

I'm not a big fan of junkyard trans. unless it's all you can afford but curious as to what happened here. That's not a common problem on ANY auto. much less a Toyo. so it needs to be addressed so it doesn't happen again. ( 13 mths. later)
You've had it nearly it's entire life so it seems you would have known an abuse that had come up (stuck and rocking it recklessly. Hey it happens. You get frustrated).
I'm hoping you're AAMCo shop goes the extra mile for you and figures out what plugged up or failed causing this, that sure looked like a great condition transmission.

EDIT: Not common on a lightly used street driven vehicle anyway. A high stall, high HP car.........yea, i can see it.

 

Got the truck back from AAMCO today. they DID save my parts and provide them to me, i was wondering if they were going to do that.

they said the failure was the Torque converter, and that got metal into the valve body causing a valve or solenoid to stick, i don't remember which they said.
this caused the 1st gear clutches to burn up.

no metal was found in the bottom filter, but there could have been metal in my custom filter in series with the coolers. i noticed they actually replaced my custom filter with a new filter, i was surprised by that. im currently asking for my old filter back so i can see what it looks like internally

 

This is a pretty unusual occurance in a Toyota truck (Just your luck huh?) and I'm glad Aamco came through for you with a through and reasonable job that certainly seemed warranted.

Since this is a forum for your problem and any other future similar situation......and this is just a thought since this isn't going to be a common to find or look for thread, you could backtrack word the title to reflect a bad torque converter.....or stuck in first gear maybe help someone out more easily someday. Glad you documented this on here even though it seems mostly to be a 'dam the bad luck' scene.

And really congrats on finding a shop that didn't jam you up 2300 for a fully built trans. isn't bad in this day.

 

it doesnt seem that i can reword the thread title, i went into edit on the first post and its just letting me edit the body of the first post. can you tell me how to edit the title?

 

Normally
1) Go to 'You' at top right, threads started by you.
2) click on that thread then when it comes up there will be 'thread tools' upper right of that first post.
3) edit thread or edit title choice

BUT you may not be able to once someones responds, i dunno.
different from forum to forum even if you misspell a word in title. A moderator then has to do it. No biggie. Was just a thought if easily done.


edit: it can be done by you. Just went back and looked at an old one of mine.

 

got it changed, thanks for the tip.

if i get my custom K&N Trans Oil filter back, ill cut it open and take pics of what it collected.

 

got my KN filter back from AAMCO, cut it open and it looks rather normal.

i recommend anyone to buy a oil filter adapter and install this within the cooler lines. i also have one of these on the return side of my power steering line.

a little searching found this, its pretty much the same model i have on the tacoma
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Sing...et-Vertical-Outlet-13-16-16-Thread,31462.html