2004 Tacoma a44d auto trans

Greetings All,

My AT (A44D) is sporadic in shifting into 1st. I slow to stop with foot on brake and stop. Then a thunk and it begins to roll forward a bit OR there is no thunk and it revs a bit and hard shifts into 1st OR it acts normally.

What I do to work with this is as I approach or after I have stopped (if I remember...), I manually shift into 1st and all is as if there is nothing wrong, I feel it go into gear, no slips in or out of gear.

I have 237,000 mi on it and the previous owner did no maintenance and claims to not have noticed the shifting condition. I did a pan drain (deep wine color slight burn odor) and ran it for a while then a quart drain and added Lucas. All to no change in behavior it has been 6 months since the Lucas.

I am think maybe a bad/sticky valve but not sure about pulling the valve body.

Anybody have any ideas germane to this condition?

Thanks for your consideration,

MacG

 

What year is it?This is the 1st gen Tacoma section and the A44D's were not used in them. They were in earlier toyota trucks as we have A340's. There is a tranny guru @gearcruncher on here that might get you headed in the right direction or go to yotatech site.
My rule of thumb.....slipping, dark and smells burnt means start calling rebuild shops. Here's a pdf that might help.
http://www.markofshame.com/fsm/03_Tacoma/Repair_Manual/03tacoma/ata44d/atsy/pst.pdf

 

2017 2004 as in the header of the post.

My attached VIN may disagree with you unless there is something I am missing...I seem to get vehicles on the cusp where parts are not what they are necessarily spozed to be.

I would rather not spend 3k if I don't have to.

Thanks for your input.

 

aahhh, 2wd. that makes more sense, I was confused also

 

My bad! Not much info on them for sure.Learn something new every day
Here's a link to here on our forum ...https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2001-2004-factory-auto-trans-repair-manual.305132/

 

Are you sure the thunk isn't the carrier bearing?

 

Not sure how the carrier bearing would be corrected by my shifting into 1st. I can shift into 1st and have it behave normally. If I do not I stop with enough pressure on the brake pedal to hold at the stop until, while stopped, it thunks/bumps in and I begin to roll forward due to the lower level gearing overcoming the brake pedal pressure which had been sufficient for 2nd gear. If it does not do that, it revs a minor amount and drops into first moderately hard. Other times it performs normally.

I am tempted to pull the valve body apart and clean it out.

 

The open minded do learn something new. The Trans guy I talked to said they would hook up the computer to see if maybe the TPS or something else was out of adjustment. I told him the only electronics on this trans was the overdrive solenoid. He did not believe it. I have come to wonder if there may be a small, small adjustment needed on the TV cable as this is a sporadic issue, frequent but sporadic.

Yes there seems to be little info on this topic. I have found that link yesterday but thanks for the effort, it is appreciated.

 

I'm not familiar with the 4 cyl but is there any sort of "kick-down" cable for the cruise? not sure if this would have any affect or not, just throwing 2¢ at it

 

Yeah, so there is cable on the throttle body for the transmission but no cruise control. This is what I was referring to above when I mentioned about maybe there being a small small adjustment needed to it to get it to kick into first on decel.

 

You might be able to find someone parting out the same truck on craigslist. Or Recycle yard trans for $75.00.

 

This site lists the A44D Trans. for $1764. $300 Core.

1989-1994 4Runner Transmission is A44D
http://www.transmissionsexpress.com/Transmissions/Toyota-Transmissions.html

According to your VIN. Your truck has the 4AT trans. (toyota.com)
Based in Portland, OR

 

You have an open recall on your truck for the spare tire assembly. Any Toyota dealer will replace it free.
Check out www.toyota.com click on "Owners" After you register, you can see your vehicle history if the previous owner had any work done at Toyota.


This is where all the Toyota dealer technicians enter any maintenance they do.
You can also keep track of your own maint. logs.
I find it handy.

 

So which to trust? the Vin or the factory label?

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2001-2004-factory-auto-trans-repair-manual.305132/

https://www.atsg.us/atsg/catalogsearch/result/?q=A43D

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...sions-write-up-your-4-speed-automatic.325531/

http://web.archive.org/web/20080731033603/http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/

 

I'd see if you can get a number on the Transmission.

Your sticker is probably correct you do have the A44D.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2001-2004-factory-auto-trans-repair-manual.305132/

 

Is the number foind on the trans some sort of tag? Where are these numbers usually located?

One other behavior is that when shifting int D from R it never flares and always goes into 1st.

 

You use the sticker on the drivers side door ( vin number ) to identify your transmission . If you get lucky , sometimes there is a steel tag on the side of the transmission that identifies the transmission . 99 % of the time , the steel tag is torn off the transmission or is no longer legible .
Judging by your description of the problem , I would be looking at the governor and the valve body to remedy the downshift clunk into first gear . These transmissions were available in many different vehicles and configurations ...Suzuki and Volvo to name a few as well as quite a few on the other side of the pond . Aisn Warner now presently Aisn Seiki still to this day hold the contract for making the transmissions in a bunch of domestic vehicles
With this said mind you , aftermarket valve body parts are lacking for this particular unit .
As mentioned above , you may have to look at a second hand low mileage valve body and governor to get your truck back to normal .
Before continuing , have you taken your truck by a reputable transmission shop for a free road test ? Road tests are free

 

You sound pretty hip to what goes on in a trans. just haven't been inside a lot of them. (I haven't either, just a few)
I'd drop the pan first and spray the hell out of the valve body w/ degreaser and see if you can make a difference as to whether you're on the right track. You can clean it pretty good w/o dropping but it's not that hard to take out if you're determined not to spend.

This does sound like a solenoid not doing it's job but if the valve body isn't giving the right pressure?

 

On the left side of the transmission on my 2003 Tacoma is this ID plate. You'll also see numbers to the left and right of the plate.

Hope this helps.