Transmission Gone?

With major work like that it is usually free. I had a 2003 Accord Coupe get a new tranny. Dealer and Honda did everything they could to not replace the transmission. First time I took it in they said they didn't have any parts. Honda recommend Honda bond to fix leaky tranny. I was not happy and all they would do is top off the fluid and send me on my way after having my car for a week (I found that is all they did after promising a new tranny). Well next morning after getting my car back...puddles of ATF on the floor. I drove that thing straight to dealership. Said I am not leaving until I get a new transmission. You guys are wasting my time...finally Honda approved replacement. At <135k miles (10 years) the tranny went into limp mode. I guess the repair was a ticking time bomb or you can say I got 10 years on that fix.

Hope it works out for you.

Forgot to mention they had my vehicle for about a 2 months (and they broke stuff while making repairs)

 

Oops didnt even cross my mind lol

 

They do. Extended warranty.
Which costs them nothing, but could be worth peace of mind and (maybe) a costly repair to the owner. In addition that reman unit is warrantied as new. Not worth anything if you get the extended warranty.

 

Here ya go

 

Is this closer?

 

Would that really help though? Many of them just use the quickie tech-stream check
and chalk it up as "fine".

 

if the fluid is low I doubt it will grind anything, it just won't drive

but what may sound and feel like grinding are solenoids spazzing out which could certainly be happening
on low fluid or bad ecu

 

The service guy from the dealer just called....he said they test drove it and it drove fine (of course they're gonna say that). Yesterday, I couldn't even give it gas without the drivetrain grinding and my tac revving up and down. Regardless, he's gonna open up a case with Toyota so they can dig deeper into the issue because he believes my side of the story. He asked if I was towing anything yesterday when my problem happened. I told him no and that the AAA tow driver could vouch for that.

 

I'm waiting for this to happen to my Tacoma at some point. Went through these low fluid issues with a couple dealers who flat out refused to check it, and then one checked it, found it was low and added fluid. This was after I towed 3,000lbs across the country and had been experiencing and complaining about slipping gears, erratic shifting, not going into gear. etc. Toyota really needs to address this issue. Only reason I'm not worried is I have a 100K mile warranty and this has been extensively documented with Toyota.

 

If lights went off in your dash, then you threw a code and that would be your proof something happened. What did they say about that?

 

He said no codes came up when they checked

 

@gearcruncher OP said the tranny light illuminated and the truck went into limp mode, however no P codes came up when they checked. Is this possible or are they lying to him?

 

Were you driving up or down a grade when it happened?

 

Driving up hill when I noticed it wouldn't stay in lower gear. I had to keep pushing on the gas for it to downshift so I could make it up the grade. When I got on flat road, it starting shifting like crazy and revving. As soon as I got off the freeway, the grinding when I accelerated started and shortly after that the overheated transmission warning alert came on and then it went into limp mode.

 

Not necessarily true. I know I've seen more than one transmission that was slipping due to low fluid and they ran a long time after the issue was corrected. It really depends on how much heat there is due to low fluid. I don't see a transmission 1 qt. low on fluid being catastrophic low, but I'm not as familiar with the Toyota Tacoma transmission.

 

Blue T is notorious for spreading misinformation and telling gloom and doom stories to scare owners. It's pretty pathetic and everyone on this site knows his shtick.

Oh you have a strange noise?...All your wheels are going to fall off and your truck will be irreplaceable. Go ahead and burn it to the ground now or trade it for a Nissan Titan.

 

Mine's done the refuse to downshift thing a few times in my first 500 miles. Step on gas and nothing. Once in a scary situation when merging onto highway. Have to almost floor it to get it to go. Been to dealer and they swear they checked tranny fluid again. They had checked it for me prior to delivery and told me they did the physical check both times. This thread is making me nervous.

 

Yeah, ever since I had the truck, there has been an issue at least once a week where mine would hesitate to downshift when trying to pass on the freeway even with the pedal to the metal.

 

Its my fault this time gents hehehe . I was the one who started this low fluid crap with the 2nd gen trucks by listening to the guys with 2nd gen trucks complaining that there were delays . After a bunch of delayed complaints in the 2nd gen , the problem didnt stop there and continued on to the third gen .
I am your doom and gloom guy . We tried hard to get the message out to most of you guys that if you manage to catch the low fluid issue early enough , you have a darn good chance of preventing transmission failure or issues down the road .
With this said , you may not feel a low fluid issue in the drivers seat , but it will catch up to you after you put some miles on the truck . Its not something thats going to happen overnight unless you are 3 quarts low as some 3rd gen owners have reported .
What we do know about the AC60 series transmission is that they are very finicky when it comes to the fluid level in the transmission . They prefer to be filled properly .
At 3 quarts low , you will feel issues from the drivers seat .

Back to the OP,s truck . If the malfunction indicator light illuminated , there should be a hard code stored in the pcm .

 

I've wondered whether there's something in the computer that's causing this. But still... who knows if there are long term effects on the transmission.

It's funny tho today it drove very well. It shifted smoothly. The only shaky part was changing from reverse to drive after backing out of driveway, and parking space at work. I've learned to just pause and wait for it to shift before taking off after going from reverse to drive. Still hesitates sometimes.

Warmer weather is on it's way in the north east, so some of the symptoms are going to be masked by not having to warm up. How many will buy in the spring/summer and never realize there's something wrong until winter hits in the fall?