Transmission slip? Computer confusion? Anybody else experience same?

[Udaho t4r]

I experienced a brief weird issue yesterday and was wondering if anyone else has had the same experience. Here is what happened........

Started vehicle after a couple hours parked at work. Left parking lot and got on 30 mph street. When I reached speed limit I took foot off gas pedal for a couple seconds. I then proceeded to slowly press skinny pedal on the right only to have no acceleration in speed but rpm's climbed to 4k when all of a sudden it jerked into gear. At first I was confused and didn't know really what just happened. I checked to make sure it wasn't something like phone charger etc impeding proper shifter engagement.....all was fine there! For the next 1/2 mile or so I kept letting off the gas and then trying to accelerate slowly only to have it not immediatly engage but instead act like it was in neutral and then slipping back into gear when the rpm's increased (almost like a snowmobile clutch).

I was completely baffled at this point sitting at a stop light hoping I wasn't going to be that guy who backs up traffic because vehicle didn't move. Light turned green and everything was fine until I hit 30 mph again. I let off the gas and the rpm's immediatly dropped down around 500 and bounced up to 1k. Again I gave it some gas only to have it lag on gear engagement. I repeated this another 3-4 times. I then pulled over and shut it off to run into grocery store and checked to see if I was losing fluid or anything out of normal. All is visually good!

Runner was off for maybe 15 minutes or so.... Started it back up and have since have not been able to replicate what's was happening. I have put on about 100 miles and it seems as normal as it was before all this happened. I still am a bit confused on what happened yesterday. It seems like it was just going in and out of neutral when it should not have been.

2012 SR5- 3rd row 12,262 miles/ TRD forged alloy/ Cooper ST MAXX- 285's/ 5100's all around-fronts at 1.75..... Only other change from stock is I had TSB driveshaft replacement. Ambient temperature during issue was 61 degrees. Engine temp was in normal range.

Any thoughts or other experiences similar would be great to know about. Thanks in advance!

 

[BigredTEX]

I have had a similar experience, but not quite as dramatic as you describe. I've experienced it a couple of times while leaving the parking lot at my office. As I approach the street I'll coast up to the driveway, if no traffic is coming I'll hit the gas and experience a moment of no drive followed by a sudden engagement. It's only happened a few times.

I had a 2004 F150 that also started having this issue. After years of heavy towing and aggressive off-roading I assumed the transmission was on its way out and traded it for the TE. I had it explained to me by someone who knows far more about how an auto trans works that it is relatively normal. It takes the transmission a few seconds to build pressure, often associated with a dirty filter. That's what made me get rid of it. If the filter had that much metal in it to cause the problem I didn't want to own it when it finally died. My TE has approx. the same mileage as yours. I can't imagine this would be the issue on a vehicle with less than 15K miles. So far it hasn't been such an issue to take it into the dealer, but I will mention it at my 15K service.

 

[Udaho t4r]

Still haven't had an issue since. Guess I will have to chalk it up to some sort of glitch in the computer system.

:happens:

Had the dealer note my account and will just have to wait and see if it happens again. I also had them note occasional hard shift from 1-2.