Shift Solenoid going bad?

Has anyone ever had the shift solenoids in their auto trans start to go bad? My trans is shifting very hard when the fluid is cold, but when it's up to temp it's normal and smooth. i did some googling that seems to be pointing towards bad "shift solenoids"? My starter went out last week, so i'm familiar with the concept of solenoids slowly going bad until they fail. Would it be logical to assume that when the fluid is cold and thick, the weak solenoids are having a hard time doing their thing?

 

Well I know most trannys shift kinda hard anyway while they are cold. How long has it been shifting hard?

 

Well, long story short i sucked water in through the trans breather, so i disconnected the return tube from the radiator and flushed it out with new synthetic fluid. This thread should provide context: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/228930-super-crap-milky-trans-fluid.html

After the flush, the truck drove normally, aside from shifting from P->R and N->D rather harshly when cold. I was in Vermont at the time, and had to return to Florida. I noticed in Connecticut a few mornings later, as i was leaving and passing a few lights on the way to the highway, that it was shifting a little notchier than usual, but nothing too alarming.

When I rolled into Tallahassee florida, I had to stay there a few days to find an apartment. The two mornings i was there, it began shifting very hard when cold. as well as a slight thud on downshift when braking that wasn't there before. But once it's been up to temp for 15-20 minutes, everything goes away and it runs smooth

If the solenoids slowly go out like the solenoid on the start motor does, i could see how that could be my problem...

 

I just went thru all this autotrans shit & mine had never given any hint of failure until my trans started giving rather hard upshifts, I had 2 or 3 hard upshifts, the next day while driving about 50mph on level ground my transmission just signed off, it was like someone had just thrown it in neutral.. & thats all she wrote, dropped the pan to find about half a pound of metal & gear teeth & prices to rebuild up to $3300.00, so if i was you i would IMMEDIATELY get it serviced...

 

That..... sucks.... any event you can think of that caused it? Im almost scared to drive it to the dealership now.

 

Alright dropped it off at my local dealership to get the airbag light and non-functioning keyless entry fixed, and I told them about the hard shifting when cold and asked them to scan it. Guess ill see what they say. In the meantime ill price out shift solenoids. Hopefully they aren't hard to find.

Interestingly, I turned the truck on today and let it warm up at idle, it didn't really clunk at all. But when I stopped somewhere and let it cool, it came back alittle till warm again.

 

Let me know what they say is the cause of the airbag light. Mine randomly flashes at me. But never is on when I can go by the dealership

 

I'm pretty sure its because I got water in the yellow computer that controls it under the ashtray behind the shifter. But we'll see.

 

Me found.... http://www.bulkpart.com/2/product/A340solenoid/97420K.html i love that DIY sticky, i need to check it first more often...

 

Well the dealership wasn't able to do anything really. The tech thinks its the valve body but he couldn't really tell, told me to bring it to a transmission shop but he didn't know of any nearby.

I wish someone knew more about the shift solenoids. I would order them and ty them unless someone straight up told me it couldn't be them.

 

I know this was posted a 2 years ago lol but had the same issue. My truck would thud and halt to a stop. This continued happening over the course of 8 months until finally we figure out it was a bad soleniod. My and my brother tore the taco apart got a new solenoid off rock auto slapped that sucker in bam good as new. And prevented a catastrophic 3000 dollar fix lol. I got very dam lucky considering how long I let it go on. Hope that helps at all. Probably already fixed it by now though I would hope xD

 

Which solenoid?

 

Yea...I think the solenoid is starting to go bad on my 2006 auto trans...at least that's what the guy at the shop seems to think...

My problem is mostly, when I come to short stops, like at a stop sign, and go to take back off...my engine just revs coming off the line (almost like it's in neutral) then after a second or two it'll drop really hard into 1st and I usually catch rubber on my tires the shift is so sudden...

Also have some trouble shifting from drive to reverse...like when I'm backing into a park...it sometimes takes a couple seconds to drop into reverse...

Any of this sound familiar or similar to any problems you guys have experienced??

 

eh. All transmission problems except broken hardware kind of has those symptoms. Low fluid, stopped up this or that.

I've had a lot of luck cleaning out valve bodies through the years and freeing up those pistons but I hear of a lot of solenoids *the thud...and they prob. are just sticky. I mean they're a switch, they should work or not.

 

You think a bad solenoid/dirty valve body is a good place to start? I hate to throw a bunch of money at it and not even have it properly diagnosed, plus whatever the cost of repairs...

I took it to the yota dealer a couple weeks ago...and for the typical $60 ‘let me take a look’ fee, they found a bad outside transmission seal, replaced that and said fluid levels were ok.

Still having problems though, called them back today and for $100 they can scan my transmission to see if it’s throwing any codes. I think that’s my best bet, although the tech I spoke with today said if it was a bad solenoid, it would throw a check engine light code as well, which I don’t have. Any thoughts??

 

drop the pan. Look. If it's spotless clean, put the fluid back in and go have it scanned.

If it's grungy looking start cleaning it out.

If your careful taking the valve body apart, there's not much more to worry about screwing up. If worried to much about splitting the valve body just clean it as best you can with carb cleaner or brake cleaner from outside and see if you can make the pistons move freely. Better to get ALL passages cleared though.

Do you know a tech? He'll make you breathe easier.

These guys want too much to look for codes. You can buy a scanner for that and scan friends or just your own in the future, this tech ain't going away.

Better if you get friendly with a good indie shop, I;m sure there's SOMEBODY trustworthy around you.

EDIT: I don;t know about the engine codes and solenoids thing. Doesn't on a Chevy.

 

The transmission guy I got to in east county San Diego will diagnose for free but then he has the reputation of being the best. I own multiple vehicles so he could take his time with my F150. It would only act up during the first 3 minutes of operation. It became his daily driver for 2 weeks. He would have an idea, make a test and if it was wrong he would park it, let it cool down and re-think. Scanner said everything was ok, pressures were ok it was just an oddity. It bothered him that this common as hell ford auto trans had an issue he had never seen before. He called his buddies in the trade and they had never heard of this before but they all said the same thing... torque convertor... and just let her warm up a few minutes before you drive off and wait until it needs a trans in the future... my cost, free. Guess who gets all of the trans services, the shift kits, etc.

Unless you live in a small town there has to be a trans guy like this in your town.

 

I have a pretty good relationship with a manger at the yota dealership, which was why my first thought was to take it there... There is a smaller kind of mom and pop place I usually take it to for smaller things, just not sure how much transmission work they do.

I think I might swing by and ask them what they think before taking it back up to the dealer though. Probably not a bad idea.

I’ll let ya know what I find out, thanks guys.

 

Finally took it down to my manager buddy at the yota dealership...solenoid code PO776 popped, but he said they electrically tested the solenoid and it works...which he said probably means I’ll need a whole new tranny...

Any thoughts from anyone?

 

Sounds like a typical dealership.