Unclear Transmission issues- total fail or what?

Hi community. I have had my Tacoma for a couple years now. It's a great vehicle and I'm glad to be a part of the team.

So let me start off. I have a 2007 TRD with over 270k miles. It's in a really good condition, and it pretty much never gave me trouble.

Everything was ok, however I didn't drive the car for over 3 days and 2 days ago I started experiencing transmission problems. In the beginning the gears started slipping, but they still worked. I started being really smooth on the gas, and they worked ok on my 25-mile trip. However, when I got in the car couple hours later and drove it, the transmission started acting really bad having a rough start from the first gear to 2nd, and it wouldn't engage into the 3rd one. When I would switch off to the manual mode, and start changing the gears myself they would work pretty smooth.

The check engine popped up though. I went to a transmission repair workshop and did a fluid change, but it did not help, and the nice owner there told me it's bad, and it will need to be changed, however, couldn't tell the exact cause of problem.

Today I was driving the car to work and the transmission would act as bad as it did the last time. I had to manually switch gears all the way to work After getting back to my car driving back from work it acted bad as usual however after 15 minutes it went back to NORMAL, and it changed gears PERFECTLY for about another half an hour. I went to a carwash turned the car on and off and disconnected the battery to switch off the check engine icon. I would drive the car for another 20 minutes on the Highway, and it run super smooth and then the transmission couldn't get into the fifth gear even thought it did for the last 20 minutes. The check engine popped up again. I went off the highway and it started acting worse than perfect but pretty much about OK except it could not get into fifth gear until the last 10 minutes of the trip and then it eventually DID.

I'm really confused about that, and I have no idea if it could ever go back to normal without any repairs or not.

Do you guys have any idea what is happening? Please, I'm really counting on your support. Thank you so much for reading this thread.

 

I'm not there to drive your truck, but I think the truck is going into limp mode.

When that CEL comes on, you need to get it scanned.

My gut says the tranny is fine.

 

makes me think something electrical like a sensor or short because you say it shifts fine manually. live somewhere with field mice? for some reason they're very attracted to the truck's wiring

 

No sir, there is no field nearby, however there is a lot of squirrels running around the parking lot and the trees. I saw a raccoon too couple of times.

 

Have you had an oil change lately?

 

Yes, I did have one about over a month ago

 

Get the CEL scanned, see what it is,and go from there. The transmission shop didn't scan for codes?

 

Welcome to TW! My truck gets jumpy going from 1st to 2nd if im easy on the gas. Been like that for over two years and hasn’t gotten worse or better. Good luck.

 

I don't remember them saying they did. They couldn't tell me anything more than " something could have broken, got stock. The transmission probably needs to get changed". I guess they could not have had enough time since I brought the car for the fluid change too late into the workday without any appointment.

 

Please tell me how this can possibly have anything to do with anything.

 

That is interesting. See what that code is to see if it is linked to the tranny issues.

 

because there are probably a 1000 threads on people accidentally draining the tranny fluid during oil changes (the plugs are very close to each other) but in this case he had the fluid changed too.

 

If you drain the transmission fluid, you are not going to be able to move. This ain't it.

 

That’s true. I hadn’t thought of that. But if that were the case, it would be crippled the second he tried to drive it after the oil change.

 

Could have had contaminated oil, plugged filter or something along that nature, but apparently that wasn't the problem.

 

Not with my Tacoma, but I've had mice build a nest twice on top of the transmission of my Honda and chew the insulation off wires. Both times after not driving it for several days. It behaved very much as you describe. The 1st time I got no warning lights. The 2nd time I did, but it was a simple repair both times.

 

com’on man, seriously? Think........

OP, I would check your transmission fluid levels. Person could have possibly drained the transmission instead of oil, Caught what they did, and then put it back in without actually doing it correctly with temp check.

 

I guess that's possible.

It's not a quick refill when trans fluid has been drained.

If the 15 minute oil change took 45 minutes, I guess some questions should be asked.

 

He took it to a transmission shop AFTER the oil change and had the fluid replaced. No change. I think a dedicated transmission shop can get the fluid level correct.

The oil change was a month ago and he didn’t have any problems initially. If they had drained the tranny and double filled the oil he would be crippled immediately.

If they drained the tranny fluid accidentally then added it back in there’s really no need for a super precise level check. It wouldn’t cause issues. They remove 6 quarts or whatever it is and put the 6 quarts back in no?

 

Alright guys, I went to an autoparts store and got a scan of the check engine code

It says " Code PO974 indicates that the Shift Solenoid "A" Control electrical circuit signal had high voltage for a predetermined period of time"

Error Codes Read
PO974 Shift Solenoid A Control Circuit High
P0986 Shift Solenoid E Control Circuit High
P0974 Shift Solenoid A Control Circuit High
P0986 Shift Solenoid E Control Circuit High
P0776 Pressure Control Solenoid B Performance or Stuck Off
P2714 Pressure Control Solenoid "D" Performance or Stuck OFF

I have never heard of anyone fixing Shift Solenoids on their cars but at the same time I'm no mechanic. Is this common ? I guess I'm going to have to contact a mechanic tomorrow morning. Now I am wondering how much it could cost to fix it and what caused it to start breaking.
I'm also wondering how many more miles I can make with it, since I have to drive to work on the weekdays and the best day for the repair would be Saturday.

I recently drove the car and the first couple miles were rough but after that the transmission was doing great.