New tranny symptom - 3rd > 4th gear jolt

Bijan

Bijan

New member
I was driving home from work Friday and felt the tranny jolt (shift really hard) into 4th gear...and then I hear a pretty low key grinding noise.

I throw it in neutral, and hit the O/D off button...put it back in drive...noise goes away.
I took it for a test drive today...same thing. 3rd to 4th gear hard shift, and noise in 4th gear.

Salvageable or toast?
 
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Were there any changes to your truck recently? did you do a fluid change/flush? Sorry to hear about the problems. There has been some chatter in the last few threads here about 01-02s being weak compared to older years.
 
ltsr said:
Were there any changes to your truck recently? did you do a fluid change/flush? Sorry to hear about the problems. There has been some chatter in the last few threads here about 01-02s being weak compared to older years.
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I did a drain and fill like 10k miles ago...think that did it? It had fresh fluid change 15k miles before that.
 
Bijan said:
I did a drain and fill like 10k miles ago...think that did it? It had fresh fluid change 15k miles before that.
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I hate to be that one guy that thinks and says it. But the common ground i've personally seen on this board is that. The drain/fill/flush.

My father in law is a 30+ year mechanic and I asked him about this. He said that when a customer with higher mileage vehicle asks to do a drain/fill or flush, he either refuses or if they're adamant about drain/flush, he gives them a warning that it may break the trans. I was told not to do a drain/flush unless the fluid is dark or only every 50k. Even then with the mileage on our rigs, it's a risk. It's a catch 22 because if your fluid is dark but the trans is shifting fine you still want to be proactive with fluid change. I have 226k on my truck today and i'm waiting for 250k before doing a drain and fill. My trans fluid is still red.
 
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I'm replacing my 02 transmission this weekend.. but mine has no shifting issues just the high pitched whine that is getting worse that points to converter based on my other searches :/ my 99 trans with same mileage had zero issues :(
 
Chim said:
I'm replacing my 02 transmission this weekend.. but mine has no shifting issues just the high pitched whine that is getting worse that points to converter based on my other searches :/ my 99 trans with same mileage had zero issues :(
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What mileage is on the '02 and your '99?
 
Bijan said:
Link again please?

So if money wasnt a factor, you'd go with a re-manned Toyota over a built IPT?
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The link for the shift kit? https://www.summitracing.com/parts/trg-340-hd2

I'd go for a brand new Toyota transmission over a IPT. Not unless the IPT has a way to manually lock up the torque converter, I fight that stupid torque converter more than anything else now that my engine is built up.

A new Toyota transmission will last 200k miles, so it'd be a sure replacement.
 
ltsr said:
I hate to be that one guy that thinks and says it. But the common ground i've personally seen on this board is that. The drain/fill/flush.

My father in law is a 30+ year mechanic and I asked him about this. He said that when a customer with higher mileage vehicle asks to do a drain/fill or flush, he either refuses or if they're adamant about drain/flush, he gives them a warning that it may break the trans.
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That is a load of bull. What happens to all those people that install used 200+K miles transmission? About everyone replacing his transmission with a used one gets many years of trouble-free 4running, and there is no better definition of a complete flush and refill of a transmission than a replacement. You get everything out.

Old mechanics have much priceless knowledge, but also many superstitions.
 
diverscale said:
That is a load of bull. What happens to all those people that install used 200+K miles transmission? About everyone replacing his transmission with a used one gets many years of trouble-free 4running, and there is no better definition of a complete flush and refill of a transmission than a replacement. You get everything out.

Old mechanics have much priceless knowledge, but also many superstitions.
Click to expand...

This is exactly why I asked the OP what changes were made. It could purely be coincidence with what I have personally observed along with an old mechanic's independent experience. I'm not preaching it as gospel, just merely my own speculation on the possibility on his particular failure and not anyone and everyone else. I'm the only here that has asked the logical question of what changed recently. No need to be combative.
 
If your transmission is already about to shit the bed, a flush/exchange/fill/drain will not change anything. You still have a bad transmission. You started with a bad transmission and if/when it fails, it wasn't because new fluid was put in it. End of story.

If your transmission works fine and the fluid looks dark/burnt, you definitely want to replace the fluid. I do agree that flushes should be avoided. Do a series of drain/fills or do a full fluid exchange.

Fresh fluid has never made an otherwise good transmission fail but old burnt ass fluid has definitely made an otherwise good transmission shit the bed....

I would always default on replacing old/bad fluid with fresh stuff, just don't take it somewhere and have them flush it.
 
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Bijan said:
I was driving home from work Friday and felt the tranny jolt (shift really hard) into 4th gear...and then I hear a pretty low key grinding noise.

I throw it in neutral, and hit the O/D off button...put it back in drive...noise goes away.
I took it for a test drive today...same thing. 3rd to 4th gear hard shift, and noise in 4th gear.

Salvageable or toast?
Click to expand...

You definitely should drop the pan as the next course of action. If your pan is full of metal shavings, start looking for a new tranny.

You could also test the shift solenoids if the plan ends up being clean.

Unfortunately you have a 01/02 tranny and they seem to have more failures than the earlier models.
 
Chim said:
I'm replacing my 02 transmission this weekend.. but mine has no shifting issues just the high pitched whine that is getting worse that points to converter based on my other searches :/ my 99 trans with same mileage had zero issues :(
Click to expand...

Been there done that!
 
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