chupacabra99
New member
My 98 4runner with 189,000 gave up its transmission last night. I was at a stop light, and when it turned green, the car kind of jerked forward and made a screeching sound like I was dragging something under the car. I pulled into a lighted parking lot a block away and looked over, under and all around it and saw nothing. This truck ran perfect for the last 20 thousand miles. The way it was jerking and screeching, I thought it was low on tranny fluid. Limped it home and checked the fluid and it was ok, with no foaming or anything. This morning I took it to Kinny autos (sae certified mechanics) and had them look it over. They removed the drive shaft and tried to turn the transmission shaft in neutral. It only turned one way. The tech says it is most like the planetary gears, which he said were prone to failure about about that milage. Anyway, he said to get a used one from the junk yard and he would flush it, install it, and fill it for about 530 bucks. Book time for this is 5.3 hours. They list on Parts.com for anywhere from 500 up to 900 bucks. He said get a low milage one with a warranty and I should be good to go. There were no prior indications of anything wrong at all. Anyone else had this happen? Oh, what model years will fit the 98? This is a 6 cyl. with two wheel drive.
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