Transmission issue

Hello all.
I have a 2007 Tacoma TRD 4WD double cab with the 4L 6-cyl engine. Car has 155K miles on it. I did a transmission fluid flush and fill 3 years ago when I bought it with 120K miles. A few days ago while starting the car up in the morning, it was 30 degrees out. The car started well/normally. The car shifted normally into D, I heard/felt the little sound of the gears engaging. When I went to drive, push the gas though, it felt like there was some resistance almost like the parking brake was on or I was towing something. I didn't want to force the car to go against it's will. I tried switching to R and the same issue persisted. I ended up putting the truck into High 4WD and after a little jerk and mild clunk the gears seemed to engage like normal. I turned the High 4WD off and drove away. Once the car had warmed up, after driving it, I didnt' notice anything out of the ordinary. I've never had any issues with this truck, especially transmission.
Never any issues with shifting, sticky gears, not engaging, etc. I didn't have any problem with the car yesterday, but today when I went to drive, the issue was back. My thought was that the transmission fluid was a touch low, even though I've driven the car for 3 Chicago winters without any issue. I pulled into my driveway and added 1/2Q of Amsoil ATF, the same stuff I used on the initial flush and fill. I had warmed the car up and jumped the OBD pins to make sure the ATF oil temp was in range. Car still seemed locked up, fighting against me when I pushed the gas a little. I then added the extra 1/2Q of ATF and then opened the overflow plug. ~1L of ATF drained out. I started the car up and same issue. While troubleshooting the problem, someone here suggested disconnecting battery from car for 30 minutes and letting it reset. After hooking the battery back up to the car, the problem seems to have resolved. No issues with R or D engaging. No fighting against the transmission. The only thing that I've done differently than normal driving this past month is using the High 4WD sporadically when the roads have been slick. I don't think that could have been the problem because the switching in and out of High 4WD didn't solve the problem initially. Any ideas on what could have caused the problem if disconnecting the battery was all it took to solve? I'd appreciate any input. Thanks!
Scott

 

Have you checked your brakes to confirm that nothing is sticking? A rusted ebrake cable will cause it to not release.

 

Good thought! I haven't checked the ebrake, but I also never, ever use it. Also, the problem seems to have went away after unhooking the battery?

 

Vehicles can do weird things when temps get cold. I would say it sounds like the parking brake stuck for a minute, except you claim it doesn't get used. Did you wash the truck yesterday? Never happened to me but I've heard of water getting on the brakes and freezing after a wash

 

No recent car washes. There was a bit of a cold snap and all the snow melted then it got cold again. All the weather change over the course of the past few days. I suppose that could have acted like a car wash with some water getting into places it normally doesn't?

 

If you put it in drive and give it gas and the engine just revs freely the same as if you're in neutral, it's a transmission problem. If the engine strains and won't rev very high, it's a frozen brake problem.

 

As others have stated it sounded like a stuck parking brake to me. Glad it seems to have been fixed with the battery reset. Hopefully you will never know or experimence it again

 

If that's the case, then it definitely felt like more of a frozen brake problem. I will do more investigating! Thanks! I guess that it's just a little confusing that the problem went away after doing the battery thing. I unplugged the battery around 6PM last night after the sun had gone down and the temp only dropped afterward. So vehicle wasn't in the sun or warming up after I did the disconnect.

 

I had a parking brake stick once because the cable was frayed and stuck inside the outer casing.

 

using the parking brake is what adjusts the rear drum brakes in these trucks

 

One of these weekend afternoons you should pull the rear drums off and do a proper clean/adjust. You can get a little lube between the shoes and the backing plate while your in there

 

Not suggesting you did anything wrong OP, but this is why I always use the parking brake. Use it or lose it!

 

So I got into the rear brakes today after my truck spent a few days in a climate controlled garage. The R rear drum was pretty gunky. Almost like some of the grease/brake fluid from the wheel cylinder assembly/piston had infiltrated the drum. The boots/seals looked fine/intact though. The self adjusting assembly was also bent. This might have occurred when breaking the tires loose initially? I was able to straighten the self adjuster to almost perfect and reinstall while I wait for a replacement. I ended up replacing the shoes on both R and L. Wear on the OEM pads was only about 50% after 150k miles but I figured that I was going to be in there anyways, might as well replace them. I wasn’t sure how tight/loose to set the self adjusters initially so I just expanded them until I was just barely able to slide the drums on. Got everything put back together and seems to be working fine! I’ll try to upload a few pics.

 

R rear

 

Bent self adjuster at my fingertip

 

L side was dirty but not nearly as wet/gunky.

 

Hard to tell from the pics, but that looks like rear end grease. Pull out the ABS sensors and see if it's all greasy in there. If it is, you're looking at replacing the rear axle seals and rear wheel bearings.

 

Dude you have a seal leak on the axle. You need to fix that before you ruin the new shoes.

Also for the brake adjustment: