Hi everyone - 2005 4Runner Sr5. 175K on it. Runs like a champ with the exception of an issue that seems to be getting worse. I recently put up a post about a JOLT I was feeling when coming to a stop. You can see the details in the thread I linked to. Long story short, over the course of several months I have drained / refilled the entire transmission with genuine Toyota fluid. I have also greased all of the zerks on the driveshaft.

The newer / more severe symptoms I am now experiencing are this:

1) I don't feel the engine braking anymore. What I mean by that: when coming to a stop, the engine itself seemed to help me slow down. Now it feels like that has ended, as I noticed it takes me a bit longer to stop with harder braking (FYI all 4 brakes / discs are less than a year old with limited mileage. So it's not the brakes)

2) When coming to a stop (e.g. approaching a red light), let's say the light changes to green as I am still moving (around the 15 - 35 mph mark). So I press on the gas to accelerate and most times it's completely fine. But 70% of the time, if I had to brake harder than I normally do to slow down faster...and THEN accelerate while I'm still moving...the RPMs will rev up but the car won't move in sync with the gas pedal. It takes up to a few seconds before the tranny 'engages'. And sometimes that engaging is very noticeable (thunk, clunk, jolt)

3) Same issue when making a turn. If slowing down to make a relatively sharp (90 degree) turn onto another street, sometimes when I press the gas pedal (depending on how fast I was going when approaching the turn), the engine does the same as #2 above. Revs for a few seconds before "violently" engaging.

I've done plenty of research on the driveline clunk issues and some of the common shifting issues with 4th gens. I can tell you what I'm experiencing now is definitely NOT normal. I've had the car since 2005 (original owner). We've never done anything heavy duty with it, virtually no towing or off roading. We take really good care of the car. So when this issue started surfacing, I knew right away it wasn't normal.

The only suggestion option I read about on the forums (outside of replacing the entire tranny) was possibly replacing the transmission solenoids. But there are no codes in the ECM. If these were going bad, shouldn't they throw a code? Would bad solenoids even cause this issue?

I'm at a loss my friends. Hoping someone out there might have advice to help me get this issue fixed, as I definitely do not want to damage anything internally more than it already is.

Did you change the transmission filter or just the fluid?

Other than that suggestion I'm not going to be much help, sorry.

I didn't remove the pan it was just the fluid that was changed

I would remove the pan and check for some shavings, sometimes when changing just the fluid it doesnt drain all, better to pull pan and check in there for shavings, should be magnets on the bottom of your pan.

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For those who may experience something similar down the road, I believe I have figured out the issue. Trans fluid was too low. That is why I would experience the symptoms more when I would come to a harsh stop or turn. Because whatever limited fluid was in the case wasn't enough to keep the hydraulic pressure when gravity pulled it to one side or another. Added more fluid and triple-checked the levels. Seems to be running much better now.

Where did the fluid go though? Leaking?

Probably should do a fluid exchange in case the low fluid levels added some wear metals to your case. COuld also contribute to higher fluid temps which would damage the fluid.

Experiencing similar issues. I think I'm going to service and / or replace the trans wiring harness.

This may sound dumb, but make sure your alternator is providing proper voltage. Turns out the solenoids are very sensitive to low voltage conditions and the transmission will do funny things if voltage through the electrical system is low.