Help! Dumped transmission fluid - am I screwed?

[4runherpow]

So driving back on I 95 past Philadelphia I noticed all of a sudden my 2006 V8 4th gen won’t get out of third gear on the highway. I go for maybe 2 to 3 miles like this letting my foot off the gas and the revs dropping down to 1000 and then when I go back on the gas it won’t switch out of gear, whatever gear it’s in. So I pull over put in the park and it immediately shuts off. I go to restart the car and it turns back on but I can smell transmission fluid so I turned the car off immediately and I go underneath it and low and behold, the entire underneath of the truck is covered in transmission fluid.

So it looks like I busted that cooler line that rots away on everyone’s truck in the rust belt.

I’m having it towed right now to Toyota and no idea how I’ll get home (I live in DC) but please chime in if you think I’m screwed. I drove the vehicle for probably 3 miles before I was able to get it over to the side of the road, never brought it above 3000 RPMs, but how long can you drive with a transmission fluid line that’s dumping out all the fluid?

Thanks for the help

 

[AuSeeker]

So driving back on I 95 past Philadelphia I noticed all of a sudden my 2006 V8 4th gen won’t get out of third gear on the highway. I go for maybe 2 to 3 miles like this letting my foot off the gas and the revs dropping down to 1000 and then when I go back on the gas it won’t switch out of gear, whatever gear it’s in. So I pull over put in the park and it immediately shuts off. I go to restart the car and it turns back on but I can smell transmission fluid so I turned the car off immediately and I go underneath it and low and behold, the entire underneath of the truck is covered in transmission fluid.

So it looks like I busted that cooler line that rots away on everyone’s truck in the rust belt.

I’m having it towed right now to Toyota and no idea how I’ll get home (I live in DC) but please chime in if you think I’m screwed. I drove the vehicle for probably 3 miles before I was able to get it over to the side of the road, never brought it above 3000 RPMs, but how long can you drive with a transmission fluid line that’s dumping out all the fluid?

Thanks for the help

It all depends on how fast the fluid leaked out, if the transmission wasn't slipping badly you may get lucky and not have damaged it too badly, if it was still pulling and not slipping then you still had some fluid in the transmission, if all of the fluid had leaked out it wouldn't pull at all, it would only slip.

It doesn't take a lot of fluid to cover the underneath of the vehicle, especially going down the highway at speed, a little fluid spreads out really fast.

The only way you're going to know if the transmission was damaged is to replace the line, fill it with fluid and see if it still functions properly or not, these transmissions are known to be bulletproof....but that's if they have the proper fluid level maintained.

Good luck and let us know how it works out!

 

[4runherpow]

It all depends on how fast the fluid leaked out, if the transmission wasn't slipping badly you may get lucky and not have damaged it too badly, if it was still pulling and not slipping then you still had some fluid in the transmission, if all of the fluid had leaked out it wouldn't pull at all, it would only slip.

It doesn't take a lot of fluid to cover the underneath of the vehicle, especially going down the highway at speed, a little fluid spreads out really fast.

The only way you're going to know if the transmission was damaged is to replace the line, fill it with fluid and see if it still functions properly or not, these transmissions are known to be bulletproof....but that's if they have the proper fluid level maintained.

Good luck and let us know how it works out!

Thanks Auseeker. Good to hear from you.

I hope so too. It still pulled but wouldn’t change gears. I went about 2 miles. When I stopped it turned off when the vehicle stopped moving. Not sure why it would stall out like that? But it turned back on. And then I smelled the fluid so I shut her off.

I towed it to a Toyota dealership in Newark, DE. It’s Sunday so they’re closed. I said explicitly not to drive it so I hope they don’t. That line and bolts attaching it were pretty rusted. I should have replaced sooner but I remember not be able to remove the line because the bolts were rotted and stripped. I’m now wondering if Toyota is going to give me any grief like they’ll have to do some crazy stuff to get it off or they won’t do it because they don’t work on frames, I’ve been told this before by another dealership.

What a pita

 

[4R005]

Pretty much the same happened to my '05 4R w/V8 back in '19. The cooling lines from tranny to rad developed a leak from rust ( winter salt infested roads here in Ontario, Canada ). Lost fluid steadily which coated underbelly really well. The only sign of eventual tranny breakdown was a relatively loud clunk heard when slowing down at a stop sign on a trip into town ( 6 mile round trip ). No other sounds on the trip back. Wife took the vehicle next time and tranny gave up the ghost about 1000 yds from home. No forward movement in all forward gears but did move ( very slowly ) backwards in R. I towed it home, found the leak(s) in the cooling lines, ran new lines ( 3/8" OD ) from tranny to rad to aux cooler ( in front of rad) and back. Filled system up w/new fluid but no joy.

A complete rebuild by tranny shop (torque converter, planetary gear set, bands, solenoids, filter & fluid ) and CDN$ 4300.00 later and she runs great. My tranny shop told me there were nothing left of the bands, hence zero forward movement.

I'm hoping you'll luck out and tranny damage if any will be minimal. Good sign was you still had forward movement when engine was started.