05 Runner 4wd Limited Overdrive Issues

[John B]

Seems the 4Runner won't stay in overdrive - driving down the road at 40+ it revs up to 2k-3k when your foot is on the gas and falls to 1k when your coasting. Then as you pick up speed- it revs up like your giving it a lot of gas. Power seems fine - you don't notice anything until you get into a driving pattern that would use overdrive. Gas mileage is down to 15-16 due to the constant rev of motor.. Any ideas? We just purchased it and I have driven it about 600 miles - almost all highway, would have noticed this pretty quick.

Engine coolant is fine - at least the reservoir is mostly full. No dip stick for tranny fluid. Not sure if fluid has been changed - it has 125k miles.

 

[Ducman]

Transmission fluid

If it was me, I'd do a few drain and fills of the transmission fluid a 500-600 miles apart.

Do a search there are plenty of threads on how to change it and yes even on the so called 'sealed transmissions' with no dipsticks like ours.

I noticed a huge improvement when I did mine and you have way more miles on yours than I did.

 

[03_4x4Runner]

How many miles are on it? At least you now know why the other person got rid of it.

 

[NJshadow93]

If it was me, I'd do a few drain and fills of the transmission fluid a 500-600 miles apart.

Do a search there are plenty of threads on how to change it and yes even on the so called 'sealed transmissions' with no dipsticks like ours.

I noticed a huge improvement when I did mine and you have way more miles on yours than I did.

I agree, took my truck to get the transmission serviced recently with 114,600 miles. The transmission was operating fine, but just wanted to do it, knowing it probably had not been done beforehand and not sure how the previous owner treated it. Definitely smoothed out and tightened the shifts. OP, that's probably all it needs.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

I would suspect that the fluid is no longer up to snuff and needs to be changed. Do you do a lot of heavy driving or towing with the vehicle? As I've said many times before, these so called "lifetime" fluids are false advertising and do degrade over time.

 

[John B]

125k miles on it. Drove it again today after posting and the problem was gone.. I will get the fluid changed first thing next week.

Thanks for responses!