Slipping and Stuttering Transmission Turned Into Complete Success.

I have been waiting for quite some time to have some valuable information to add to this forum. Well tonight I got my opportunity!! Complete success story.

My transmission has taken about 6 seconds to shift into reverse ever since i purchased my truck a year ago. Before this winter I drained the pan and added the correct amount of Max Life Valvoline ATF to fill her up. Truck ran great even across the state of Michigan for a couple road trips. I always noticed a little studder around 70mph with cruise control engaged going up hills and such but never anything more.

Fast forward through a Michigan winter, and yes this 250k mile truck has been my daily driver ever since I paid only $2,200 for it last year. In the cold temps my truck wouldnt engage into reverse or drive untill it idled for at least a half hour. It also started to slip and stutter very significantly under load in first gear and then eventually in all gears under minimal throttle.

Now that we have received some warmer temps in the state I've decided to check the fluid as I was scared to even do so before. To confirm my worst fears it smelled burnt and it was pitch black. F*** I thought to myself. Here we go.

It wasnt a huge issue because I have a low mileage unit waiting to be swapped in that I had only purchased for $300 locally off of the book. So I did some research. A couple posts on here and a Lexus forum regarding the A340 family transmissions and boom. I thought it was worth a shot to drain the pan, drop the pan and at least inspect the filter as I have an OEM filter I had purchased for my new unit laying around in the basement.

I drain the fluid and it looked like the attached picture of black fluid in a bucket. I also noticed that there was a rubber gasket which wasnt OEM obviously because it wasnt Toyota FIPG.

So what do I do? I proceed anyways.

The magnets were filled with goop more so than the other unit I purchased and more so than any other documented magnets I had ever seen on this forum or any YouTube footage.

I cleaned the pan and the magnets, installed the new filter and reinstalled the pan, this time with JB Weld high temp RTV as I didnt want to risk using the good stuff (the Toyota fipg I have) if it didnt work out.

After sealing up the pan I added a gallon of Valvoline Max Life ATF and some Lucas Oil Additive which was also advised against on this and other forums by some.

Guess what folks? I'm coming to you LIVE from the couch in my basement. Sitting in a fresh, clean pair of boxers that my girlfriend washed for me with a cold six pack of Heineken on my coffee table proudly announcing that my truck runs better than it ever has. And I ran the hell out of it on a 30 minute test drive.

My game plan now is to purchase another OEM trans filter to install in about 12k miles and a couple inline trans filters, one to be installed every 3k miles from here on out. Every oil change I will drain the pan and add a gallon and a quart of fresh Max Life ATF fluid untill the fluid stops being dark and returns to a red color. At 12k I will introduce another bottle of Lucas into the system as well. And hey, here's to another 250k with the original trans?

I hope so! And I hope this can help anyone in the same predicament I was in. You know why I love toyotas? One word.

Resilience.

P.S. I quite literally called a mechanic buddy of mine during this process to ask if trans fluid and oil could mix. (Out of my own stupidity.) And those magnets have a pit in the center of them because I had already pressed on them with my finger. Before I had done so it was just a mound of crap. But no large shards. Cheers!

The ony way to get the fluid red again is do a flush

VernySanders said:

Guess what folks? I'm coming to you LIVE from the couch in my basement. Sitting in a fresh, clean pair of boxers that my girlfriend washed for me with a cold six pack of Heineken on my coffee table proudly announcing that my truck runs better than it ever has. And I ran the hell out of it on a 30 minute test drive.

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We’ll have to get you some better beer to celebrate with my man. In all seriousness, congrats on your new lease on that transmission :nicethread:

Glad to hear you revived it!

You are right, most people on here are against additives. But when you are faced with an imminent failure or no other option, they can sometimes save the day. I've had good experiences with several additives that many were against.

Did u figure out why it overheated? It could happen again

Well, I think it might be a little premature to celebrate. Since that fluid was black, you most likely have significant sludge deposits inside your trans. I'm guessing you exchanged around 1/2 your fluid capacity, 6 quarts, because that's approximately what I got out when I dropped my pan and replaced the filter. As that new fluid with fresh detergents starts working on all that built up gunk, it might free some of it up and become lodged in fluid passageways and then you'll have issues again. You were pretty much in a position where you had nothing to lose since you were already having issues with it but I wouldn't start celebrating until you get a lot more than 30 miles of driving post servicing. You showed significant debris on the magnets. This means your internal components have worn excessively. My magnets had maybe 5% of what yours showed. i hope I'm wrong but I think your trans is on borrowed time.

Dezert4Runner said:

We’ll have to get you some better beer to celebrate with my man. In all seriousness, congrats on your new lease on that transmission :nicethread:

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I live in beer city USA so it is sad that's what I had last night hahaha

Mark_BC said:

Did u figure out why it overheated? It could happen again

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It never overheated it was just a starved pump by an entirely clogged filter, at least never overheated while I owned it!

mtbtim said:

Well, I think it might be a little premature to celebrate. Since that fluid was black, you most likely have significant sludge deposits inside your trans. I'm guessing you exchanged around 1/2 your fluid capacity, 6 quarts, because that's approximately what I got out when I dropped my pan and replaced the filter. As that new fluid with fresh detergents starts working on all that built up gunk, it might free some of it up and become lodged in fluid passageways and then you'll have issues again. You were pretty much in a position where you had nothing to lose since you were already having issues with it but I wouldn't start celebrating until you get a lot more than 30 miles of driving post servicing. You showed significant debris on the magnets. This means your internal components have worn excessively. My magnets had maybe 5% of what yours showed. i hope I'm wrong but I think your trans is on borrowed time.

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The other transmission that I have almost showed zero debris and completely red fluid when I dropped the pan. So this is significantly worse. I do agree with you! Letting lose a lot of gunk is what happened when I initially put a gallon in last fall and over this winter it got to work which is why I had these issues. I did a cold start this morning and didnt let it warm up. Shifted right away into reverse and extremely responsive, also no stuttering yet or slipping. Will add the inline filter and keep you all up to date on the progress. At this point it's worth doing this just as a testament to the quality of the product. Let's see if we can prove all the anti flushers in the 3rd gen community wrong with this specimen. Thanks Tim!

gamefreakgc said:

Glad to hear you revived it!

You are right, most people on here are against additives. But when you are faced with an imminent failure or no other option, they can sometimes save the day. I've had good experiences with several additives that many were against.

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Depending on the long term results I'm going to swear by the stuff!

VernySanders said:

The other transmission that I have almost showed zero debris and completely red fluid when I dropped the pan. So this is significantly worse. I do agree with you! Letting lose a lot of gunk is what happened when I initially put a gallon in last fall and over this winter it got to work which is why I had these issues. I did a cold start this morning and didnt let it warm up. Shifted right away into reverse and extremely responsive, also no stuttering yet or slipping. Will add the inline filter and keep you all up to date on the progress. At this point it's worth doing this just as a testament to the quality of the product. Let's see if we can prove all the anti flushers in the 3rd gen community wrong with this specimen. Thanks Tim!

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Well, definitely update us as time goes on. If you end up getting a lot more miles out of this transmission after it was abused so bad, that would be awesome.

You should do the flush and change all the fluid;
YouTube

Wedgy said:

You should do the flush and change all the fluid;
YouTube

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I'm planning on doing that once my inline trans filters come in, anyone have any links? The only ones I've heard of are Magnafine through Tim and others.

I have seen other brands, sometimes listed as power steering filters.
I have been using magnafine for years and don't plan to switch unless someone comes out with a better one....not a cheaper one....unless better and cheaper.

the last one I got was smooth stainless steel instead of the ribbed black body

flushed my tranny and new magnafine yesterday, after 4 years of mountain roads and gravel roads, and about 50k, looked good as new ( however about 15k ago I did do a drain and fill , 4qts instead of 12)

been running amsoil….no debates please on types of oil to use

3bears said:

I have seen other brands, sometimes listed as power steering filters.
I have been using magnafine for years and don't plan to switch unless someone comes out with a better one....not a cheaper one....unless better and cheaper.

the last one I got was smooth stainless steel instead of the ribbed black body

flushed my tranny and new magnafine yesterday, after 4 years of mountain roads and gravel roads, and about 50k, looked good as new ( however about 15k ago I did do a drain and fill , 4qts instead of 12)

been running amsoil….no debates please on types of oil to use

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No debate here, I think synthetic oils are amazing. I switched to full synthetic across the board last year and noticed an immediate different with how the transmission behaved, big fan.

First tank of gas through and trans is still running great at all temps. Even on cold starts. My magnafine trans filter is on it's way. I got the black ribbed 1/2" one from the website. I'll use an adapter if need be. Check engine light is from a misfire due to Injector. Need to send my extras out to be cleaned and flow tested.

No wonder it survived. Looks like you have a 99-00. Nice save but definitely keep that spare transmission on the side.

I switched my transmission from Toyota atf to Redline D4. It shifts exactly the same. Just keep fresh fluid in there and it will last a very long time.

Just noticed you got the black ribbed magnefine. Return that POS. They always get a slow leak from where it screws together. Lost 3 quarts of ATF over the course of a year. There's a reason they changed the design.

T4R2014 said:

No wonder it survived. Looks like you have a 99-00. Nice save but definitely keep that spare transmission on the side.

I switched my transmission from Toyota atf to Redline D4. It shifts exactly the same. Just keep fresh fluid in there and it will last a very long time.

Just noticed you got the black ribbed magnefine. Return that POS. They always get a slow leak from where it screws together. Lost 3 quarts of ATF over the course of a year. There's a reason they changed the design.

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Swap for an all metal one instead? But yes I have a 2000. Is there an internal difference between the years?

VernySanders said:

Swap for an all metal one instead? But yes I have a 2000. Is there an internal difference between the years?

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Yup get the all metal. 01-02 planetary gear failures are common at 200k.