Hi guys, I'm new to the site and desperite. I looked through the entire fourm for an answer, and nothing. So here's what we have..

Okay, so this all started happening Tuesday, the 1st at around 330am.
I was just driving around because I had just gotten off work not too long ago, and all of a sudden, from a stop, my truck had shifted into second gear as it was suppose to, but it would not upshift. I tried to throw it into low(1st gear) and it would refuse to shift. Then I had put it into drive again to see if it would upshift and it didn't. So I drove a little bit with it stuck in second gear and then all of a sudden, it wouldn't accelerate and my truck seemingly went into neutral?
So I pulled over, fustrated and turned off my truck to see what was wrong and all seemed fine. When I turned my her back on, it ran fine, then did the same thing 5 minutes later..
Pulled over and turned it off and it again, worked fine.
Long story short, it kept doing it and it got worse and worse, and when I got off of work tuesday night and came home, it barely itched forward. I was just down the street so i pushed on and got in my driveway.
Yesterday (Wednesday, 2nd) I went outside to move it into the garage, and it wouldn't move at all. In any gear. I had my buddy come push me into the garage and I had it in drive, and it acted as if it was in neutral. It's so weird, this just started happening outta nowhere.
There arent any lights on my dash either..
Please help :/


Also, I live in the Chicagoland area, it is cold and it just snowed a lot, however the problems started when there was very little snow on the ground.

Just to get it out of the way, have you checked your transmission fluid? Does it resemble something like strawberry milkshake (frothy and pink)?

I did check my tranny fluid, the level is fine, it is a shade of brown..
but the thing is, I got the truck last winter, and I don't know if the previous owner changed the fluid often, and if he didn't and i were to change it, the tranny could very well go out. I bought the truck with 137,xxx miles, she now has 142,xxx. I don't drive often.

same thing happened to my toyota sienna, tranny was blown, tried to figure it out for a week, but you can drive it and not use the full throttle it will drive, i managed to get about 100 miles before i had to dump $1500 for a new tranny. all due to irregular maintenance. i learned my lesson, now you've learned yours... sorry dude.

shouldnt it to be red

yes it should be red, the brown color he is talking about tells me that he has cooked his tranny. just look for another one in a wrecking yard or Toyota recyclers. and then either pay to have your blown one rebuilt or save up to buy a reman one. your runner was probably drive hard by its previous owner and yeah, the auto tranny is known as the weak link in the drive train, and it only compounds with more age and miles. i think mine is on its way out, its been flushed three times in as many years and when i manually down shift it shutters like its not sure if it wants to go into gear or not and same thing when i go to reverse, especially if im starting off backing up a hill or have a load on it. but i also have 208K miles so i cant complain. other than that ive liked my auto trans, its the first vehicle ive ever owned with a slush box(i bought this one only cause it was the only one i could find at the time that was of any good mechanical quality other wise id of got the 5spd) but back to your brown fluid filled neutral only trans... yeah attach a chain to it and but it in your boat cause now its just an anchor, you need a new one man sorry

Happened to my really old Prelude. The car would drive, but it would not change gears. It was like a single speed transmission. It had to be rebuilt.

I guess you can get it in Reverse no problem? If you are lucky, and I mean really lucky, could it be your shift linkage is loose/worn so even though you have the lever in D, it might still actually be in N? I'm just throwing out ideas here that you might want to check.

As to the tranny fluid color, the shop I use adds some kind of additive to the fluid so and it is more brown in color.

What does it smell like?

Open the radiator cap. Look at the fluid. Is THAT fluid like a pink milkshake?
I think that is what Ironhippy was really looking for.

If so, your radiator is the culprit. The metal between the radiator and internal tranny cooler sprung a leak and the fluids mixed. Basicly, water in the tranny = new tranny. Sorry if this is the case.
Also, if this is the case, your engine will need a good flushing too because tranny fluid in the water passages will destroy your engine just sitting there. You don't even have to run it.

Same thing happened to me a few months back. What happened was the radiator lines came loose off the transmission. I was driving and all of a sudden my transmission started acting like a manual gearbox, revving high before shifting to the next gear, and 3 minutes after it started happening the transmission wouldn't shift into any gear at all. Check your connections between the radiator and the transmission and let me know what you find there. I had no lights come on either.

Hello!

I have a 1999 4Runner SR5 and I have almost the exact same story. Would love to hear an update on what the best solution was for the original post.

On a hot day, all of a sudden almost no power was being transmitted to my wheels. Engine Ran/Revved without a problem, but at a stop light I suddenly could barely move. Turned off the car, waited 4 hours, and then it was slightly better buy I barely made it home as the symptoms came back increasingly to the point of almost no power to wheels.

I have transmission fluid well above the marks for full, and it is brown colored. I will check the radiator for any change in water color (Strawberry milkshake).

The engine light is on but it only reads a "too lean" code which has been present for a long time.

I do hear a new rubbing/whining noise coming from the below the vehicle. I recognize this is likely the transmission failing, but I'd like to know what the most likely fix would be and about how much it would cost.

I'd appreciate any guidance folks might be available to offer!

You need to check the trans fluid level when the engine is running. You don't want the level above full. Drain some if it is, on second thought since it's brown you should drain/flush all you can.

The problem with not moving after a stop sounds like a solenoid is sticking. Do you have a check engine light on?

The engine light is on but it only reads a O2 sensor/"too lean" code.

I can't see any radiator fluid in the radiator itself but the reservoir has green fluid in it. (I am not having temperature issues).

Do you really think the fluid could be causing this issue? Anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

No, I don't think the fluid is causing your issues. I said I think you have a solenoid problem which is why I asked about the check engine light.

If your rad is low and there's still fluid in the reservoir I would think you have a hole in the hose that connects the two. And no, that doesn't have anything to do with your trans issues either.

Thanks! I have read a bit more about solenoids, I will clear the code and see if a solenoid code comes up. Is there any way to tell which solenoid might be bad without a code?

Thank you for your help!

Without a code it might be tough. You could search through threads about having issues after stopping and see if they say what solenoid fixed it for them. Most threads I've read about have been after people have driven on the highway for a while and when they finally come to a stop then it doesn't want to go until they put it down into L.

Here's some FSM pages about testing solenoids.

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