Automatic Transmission Bashed in, stranded in the woods

Maybe and that's a maybe this might get you out of the woods to blacktop where a tow truck can reach you or drive home.

https://www.permatex.com/products/a...matex-spray-sealant-leak-repair/?locale=en_us

https://www.permatex.com/contact/where-to-buy/

 

Your buddy should check out the carvana thread. He could sell his 2020 for more than he paid, and they will come pick up the truck right on the trail. Its a win win! Immediately take the funds and purchase another Taco with proper tranny fluid.

 

I would see about siliconing around there or something just to get some fluid in and drive it to the nearest "road". After that get a tow to either home or a dealer. Hopefully you knuckleheads didn't break anything serious lol.

 

That area is hot, dry and dusty this time of year. And the dust just hangs in the air, nasty orange dust. Not to mention all the smoke from the wildfires. Black bears are very active at night this time of the year, the berries are still green and some can be real troublemakers.

I hope they make it outta there soon.

 

Fill plug is 24mm or 15/16, expect to need a breaker bar. If you need to swap over plugs to a new pan, drain is 14mm external hex, check plug is 5mm internal hex. Not very comfortable, but you don't need to lift to do the pan.

Pan gasket is reusable, get a new one, expect it to be damaged. Hopefully you can get a pan.

Get all the fluid you can, if you can't stop the leak you could at least keep topping up to limp out. Though a hand pump on the bottles works, it's slow. A hose run to the engine bay may be best, especially if you need to keep topping it up.

From the looks of the pan in the pic, and your description, the impact seemed to cause the pan to bulge out at the gasket. You might be able to drop the pan, hammer it out enough it will reseal with the aid of silicon, temporarily. Maybe even hammer or pry it back into shape without dropping it.

Another option, clean up the entire area with brake clean, cover that area with spray-on truck bed liner. Flex seal, if you can seal a screen door bottomed boat, surely it can seal an oil pan. Maybe a better option than risking debris in the system dropping the pan.

Roughly, a drain and fill on the pan is 3.3 quarts. I wouldn't worry too much about fluid level. If you have it, maybe level it with a jack and pull the check plug. 2020's have a sequence to get them to fluid check mode using the shifter, can't jump OBD pins anymore. Usually they hit the right temp with a few minutes of being started, pan temp around 100F.

 

Will the truck throw an error message if the trans fluid is low?

Trying to establish if it's okay to limp out without ruining his transmission. I have no idea how much is in there and the truck isn't close to being level.

I know I said all the fluid was lost, but realistically now that I've thought on it, it probably lost no more than 1, maybe 2 qts.

I'm assuming the pan is always full during operation and with a leak up at gasket level there's therefore a maximum amount of fluid that can be lost when the truck is level, just like we were using the check plug? And since the leak is in the front, we should theoretically only lose fluid facing downhill? Can anybody confirm if that's a roughly correct understanding of this trans?

 

There's a Transmission Fluid High Temp light on the dash, but no Low Fluid light.
There's also this P0700 Code that should result in a CEL for the fluid level.

 

get some cheap WS ATF from Walmart and keep topping it off till you get to a main road, than call a tow truck

 

My 16 was 2 qts low from the factory for 3000 miles. Toyota said the trans is robust enough that should not have caused excessive wear. The whole system takes 10 qts I believe.

I would get a couple cans of brake cleaner, flex seal/silicone, long funnel, WS ATF and some kind of trans diaper. Clean and seal that area, dump however much ATF you think was lost back into it and get home to do a proper inspection and repair.

 

Get a tow strap and put it in neutral and tow him out to the main road with your truck.

 

If you are so low, the truck won't move, add some fluid and keep going. I've done it several times. It doesn't hurt anything if you drive carefully.

 

Not sure I agree with the pan is always full logic. Get a 12 oz cup, fill it. Then add a quart. The cup remains (roughly) full, however there is a lost quart.

This is what happens when you do drain & fill on the transmission. Pull the fluid level check plug. Fluid keeps dribbling out while the engine is running.

 

That's beyond impressive!, kwikvette you are a good man!

 

Description for Permatex Spray Sealant, seems worth a shot. Call around the auto parts stores in Oakhurst or Mariposa to locate a can:

 

This is a good option, I can speak from experience. I stripped my transmission drain bolt and it was leaking. Caked it in RTV and has held up fine ever since

 

yeah! first thing I would do

 

they sell an oversized M12x1.25 bolt you can use some guy stripped his same pan bolt on a recent thread and I think he used a oversized bolt(next size up) and slowly screwed it in and it retaps to that size. like this it has a cone shaped nose which will self tap itself into the old smaller thread hole
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NDP7043016

 

Wouldnt it be easier to tug it out. Pull the drive shafts and roll that bitch out

 

everything in neutral, pull the bitch out

 

You need to be careful flat towing an auto much distance. The rear drive shaft still spins the transmission output shaft. Without the engine spinning the input shaft and driving the pump, the output shaft bearings are not getting forced lubrication. Hence the prior comment to disconnect the drive shaft. Not an issue for pulling out of an obstacle, but an issue for distances.

One of the reasons manual transfer case vehicles (Jeeps for example) are common for flat towing behind RVs, you can decouple the transmission with neutral on the transfer case. If you need to flat tow an auto, either decouple the drive shaft, or run the engine with the transmission in neutral - not an option in this case given it losing all it's fluid.