Automatic Transmission Shifting Problems

Question,

Today I serviced the transmission fluid, took off the drain pan and and changed the filter. I put the new filter on, cleaned the magnets at the bottom of the pan, reattached it and refilled it. Took it for a drive and now something is seriously screwed up, whenever the truck comes to a stop it sort of feels like it's in neutral. It takes a couple seconds and some revving to go back up through 1st and 2nd gear. Once I get it up to speed everything feels fine, I'm just wondering what the fuck happened to my truck. I didn't (purposely) adjust anything besides putting the filter off and then back on. I heard some stuff about the solenoids going bad after a while, (my truck has 163,000 miles) but this happened immediately afterwards. I'm wondering if anyone has had this problem before and knows what to do.

-1997 Toyota Tacoma SR5 3.4L v6

 

I had a similar experience a couple of years ago. Wasn't having any issue with my AT, but I thought I'd drain/refill my tranny because I thought it was the right thing to do. I've done it myself on other vehicles many times. I'm big on maintenance.

Immediately after, the tranny started slipping during take off from a stop. Otherwise it was fine. Went to a Toyota mechanic and he said what I needed was a professional tranny flush/refill using a special machine that he has. Rather expensive, but he guaranteed it would fix the problem. It did.

 

Is the fluid level correct? Dipstick should checked with the fluid at operating temp (drive around for 15 min or so and shift through all the positions) and with the engine running.

 

It looks like I'm ever so slightly too low, but would it really make that big of a difference? I disconnected then reconnected the battery to see if maybe it was the computer, but that didn't change anything.

 

^Fill it to the correct level and see if things improve.

When you reattached the pan, did you use a cork gasket or silicone sealant? If it's the latter, how much sealant did you use? Excess silicone squeezed out of the seam can fall into the fluid and clog the pickup inlet.

 

I used a gasket, but it wasn't made of cork... Does that make a difference?

 

I used one similar to this, did I buy one that is complete shit quality?

 

as long as it was gasket covered all of the pan rim surface no. I've had rubber and cork.

when you drop the pan try to measure how much comes out (you can use old oil bottles) and put that back in.

and do what @KenLyns mentioned, move the shifter to every position while driving, keeping it there for at least 5 seconds, then move it to the next. then reverse as you slow down to a stop. this helps fluid cycle to the clutch packs I believe.

 

I've done a bit of research and it seems that the reason is most likely because of low fluid. I'm hoping that this is the case, because when I put fluid back in I didn't really feel like I was compensating for how much was initially drained.

 

What type of fluid did you put in?
How many quarts?
V6 automatic takes between 4 - 4,5 quarts
I did mine 3 times. Every time I put in 4.2

 

dex/merc (dexron-III) I compensated 2 quarts because that's what it called for in the owners manual, it felt like more was drained but I didn't want to put too much in.

 

Hmmmmm that's odd let me check the owners manual I have.

 

The manual for automatic transmission fluid is wrong. When u drained , like a lot of people here did, 4+ comes out

 

Put in 4 , drive for 15 minutes, check level, complete if necessary
Remember, it's 4- 4,5 total.

 

Yep you're right I have the manual for a 1997 Tacoma Base. Not the SR5 model like I have, It's giving me the specs for a 4 cyl. engine. Hell good thing we caught that time to throw this away.

 

If you already put in 2, then 2 more quarts should stop the problem.

 

Thanks mate

 

Does the 3.4L not have a dipstick? I used that with a small tube and hand pump to refill the tranny with Toyota T-IV until the level read correct. I pushed through about 10 quarts of fluid, i overfilled the tranny then disconnected the inlet hose form the A/T cooler to allow the old fluid to get pumped out. I would run the engine until i saw the flow slow to a trickle, then kill the engine and repeat.

 

Sure sounds low to me
There is some info here at the bottom of this link
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...sions-write-up-your-4-speed-automatic.325531/

 

when you do a drain it's usually in the 4 qt range. when you drop the pan it's more like 6.5 qt due to the pan holding the extra fluid. no clue why Toyota put the drain hole above the lowest point unless they only intended on a drain/fill mentality