Delay going into drive?? What gives

Hello all. I just bought my 2005 Tacoma with 140k this week. My mom owned it before me, and her coworker owned it before her since new. It’s been well maintained and has been serviced at the dealer since new

My mom hasn’t really driven it. It’s sat most of the 2 years she’s had it and has had about 4K put on it. Last year the truck had a frame recall and it was replaced. After this, the neutral safety switch went bad. Now after that was replaced, the trans has a delay going into drive.

You go from park to drive and there is a 3-5 second delay sometimes and then it either hits hard into gear or softly into drive (like a Normal car)

There is sometimes no delay

I took it in today for a look, they said it needs a new transmission. “Clutch slipping/replace trans” on the write up

The truck runs and drives fine
I have just got a loan for the thing and they want $3900 for a reman from the dealer. FML

The fluid was checked there and was good and at full level

Anybody have any tips or suggestions on what may be my culprit?





Unrelated, I have a 1999 Tacoma SST with 87k original miles and have been a Toyota guy for about a decade

 

Assuming you are talking about the 2005 double cab you have listed in your info that has an auto trans, I would question the write up the shop gave you, as Auto trans do not have a clutch.

 

I asked and it’s the “clutch packs”

I find it odd that it was fine before the neutral switch, but now it’s this
I brought this up and nothing

 

do a full transmission fluid flush and level check yourself. Id bet that solves your issues.

 

Could be a torque converter not locking up. Or something like a short in the trans connections (plug on the side of trans). I would unplug the connector and clean and put some clean dielectric grease on it and see if that works and auto trans have clutches lots of them not just one like a standard trans

 

Yes they have a series of clutch packs and a torque converter, just kind of weird how they worded the write up "clutch slipping"

Another thing to look into if the truck is driving fine and not slipping out of any other gears once in drive is the linkage.

Does it do the same thing if you go straight into the lower gears instead of drive?

 

I’ll definitely be doing both this week, thank you both for the suggestions

 

It does the same when done to the lower gears
Intermittently like drive

 

Shoot me the vin and I'll see what the dealer put in the system and see if they pulled codes

 

5TELU42N05Z101032

 

@gearcruncher is the resident transmission guru here...maybe he’ll weigh in..

If you’re gonna do any of the procedures list above, search for his threads- do ‘em right once Good Luck

 

Where did you have your transmission diagnosed ? Very strange they would call the transmission bad for a small delay ?

I am really skeptical about the Park nuetral switch . Your explanation of the problem is exactly what happens when the switch or wiring to the switch is faulty .
That being said , how long has it been since the dealer did the frame swap .
Dont quote me on this , but I beleive you only have 90 days to have issues rectified after a repair . If you are over 90 days , you will be on the hook for the diagnostic and whatever repair it takes to fix the issue

Check this out
TSB - replacement of wiring loom for range sensor 2005 -2009
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18857706/TSB027709

and here
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...th-pics-for-second-gen-4-liter-trucks.289913/

EDIT > and here
http://bluegrasstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/a750e_shudder.pdf

and here
http://www.customtacos.com/tech.old...06toyrm/06toypdf/06rmsrc/rm2006ta/0280013.pdf

 

Looks like im no help with service records.

Last record

08/10/2017

CUSOTMER STATES VEHICLE IS DOING THE SAME THIS ~|~CUSOTMER STATES VEHICLE IS DOING THE SAME THIS AS LAST TIME, WILL ONLY START IN NEUTRAL ADVISE THERE IS A NEUTRAL SAFETY SWITCH HERE IF NEEDED ~|~REPLACED NEUTRAL SAFETY SWITCH ON TRANS

And no diag reports since the 90L recall was completed

 

Gearcruncher's recommendation about the wiring tsb could be something. Maybe they yanked on the wiring when they replaced the switch

 

This is actually a fairly common problem in the 4Runner world with the 4.0/trans. It's happened to me a bunch and there's no rhyme or reason as to why it does it. Best educated guesses out there is that it's an electrical problem. Next time it happens, immediately put it back into park and then into drive again, and I bet it goes into gear right away.

The only clue I have is that almost every time it happens to me, it's when I slowly/gently move the shifter into D. If I do it quickly the problem never happens. Don't know if this is true, but I don't think there is a direct connection between the shifter and the tranny - it's all electronic (no cable). So my guess is that there are contacts in the shifter housing that are worn/dirty/bad that cause the problem. There's a bunch of threads on the 4Runner forums about this topic but it's never been solved.

 

The PRNDL switch can most certainly cause delayed engagement. Read through this thread and then tell them you want your old switch back.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/p0705-park-neutral-switch.86096/

 

There is an adjustment on the switch right?

 

Hey did you ever figure out what the issue was? I have the same issue. Dealer told me the computer registers it’s in drive but the transmission does not register it’s in drive. I think I had this issue before changing the Neutral safety switch though, but can’t remember. I really do feel it’s an electrical problem since this only happens sometimes and sometimes just goes into drive fine.
If you have any update or insight I’d appreciate it.
Thanks

 

Next time it happens , watch the little lights on the dash . usually the light will not illuminate for the gear you are in .Means the switch is bad and you have to check it with the code scanner
Pay close attention to that TSB for the wiring as well

 

Oh okay gotcha. I’ll check the light in about an hour and see. Thanks for the quick reply man I appreciate that