2001 Tacoma transmission question

[Rexsname]

Here is my situation, two weeks ago I was heading into town and the transmission in my truck made a bad sound. I have 334,676 miles on this truck. The transmission fluid has been flushed every 60,000 miles or so and is a clean bright red color. I was going up a slight uphill on cruise control at 55mph and cancelled the cruise to slow down to 45 mph. The trans mission made a loud 'bang' and downshifted to third gear when I cancelled the cruise. I pulled off the road, checked all that I knew how to check (fluid, temp, did I hit something) and continued carefully on my way.

The truck runs and accelerates about like normal except that it will not go into fourth gear (overdrive). First and second seem just fine and third feels a little rough. I came home and parked the truck and there it sits. I am hesitant to drive it until I get some money saved up to fix it.

Now, here is where I need your help.

My brother has a transmission our of a 2000 2WD 4Runner with about 80,000 miles on it. He will let me have it for the best price, I just need to drive to Santa Maria, Ca to get it. (Not a problem, we can drive out F250 over to get it.)

Will the 4Runner work after changing the output shaft end? Is 80,000 miles too many to use? Should I just drive the truck to the transmission shop and take my chances?

Thanks so much for all of your knowledge!

REX

 

[DaveInDenver]

Can't help really, but I do know if you get a transmission from another truck be sure to get the ECU that goes with it. This is probably particularly true of automatics since they are computer controlled. I do believe all the A340s are basically similar mechanically, so getting it to fit and work is probably not going to be the worst thing ever. Hard to say until you tear into it, but my gut would be that when an auto goes clunk the dollars are proportional to how loud it was, so you'd be looking for a used tranny in any case probably.

 

[TexasGuidedExpeditions]

Keep in mind, my experience is not with Toyota, but general speaking terms. There is some information we are missing, but you may have already gotten. OBD2 codes, yet? The more we know that more we can help. I am not sure about your mechanical skills, but if you can swap transmissions in and out of different vehicles. I want to assume that you can rebuild a transmission or replace one thing or another on it, if it comes to that.

Sent from my lifted UFO!

 

[Box Rocket]

If you're comfortable digging into the transmission yourself and know what to look for, then I'd do that. If you're not comfortable in your ability to diagnose and fix once you get it apart, I'd drive it to the transmission shop and have them look at it. You're really not going to know until you open it up.

It's normal for the CC to kick out like that when there is more load on the truck than it can handle and maintain the speed you have selected. Typically that happens on a hill like how you described. However, when that happens it shouldn't damage the transmission, but it's possible. In the future if you are climbing a hill and the vehicle is "laboring" it's a good idea to not use Cruise Control in those situations.

 

[SIZZLE]

If it were me, i'd take it to a transmission shop first. You never know, it might not be that bad. I wouldn't drive across CA twice and start swaping trannys before i knew what was up.

80k miles is not too much on a used transmission assuming it's been taken care of. At 335k miles, i'd say you got your money's worth out of yours. Good luck!

 

[Rexsname]

I know enough about transmissions to know how to check the fluid level and what color it should be. You flatter me if you think I could take one apart or diagnose one:Wow1:.

The cruise control did not 'give up' or turn off. I cancelled it at the top of the hill because the speed limit changed from 55 to 45. It just seemed to happen at the same time as the 'Bang".

Is the transmission computer near the transmission? I hate to sound so ignorant but I guess I am. I'd hate to drive out to pick it up and forget such an important thing as the computer. Do computers go bad? Up until the bang this one has been working pretty well, wouldn't I be able to just plug the old one in?

REX

 

[DaveInDenver]

I dunno where the ECU is on a Taco and I couldn't tell you if it's the same box or a second one that controls the transmission. That is something you'd have to find out in a service manual or some Interwebs searching. Tacomaworld, Yotatech, TTORA would be some of the places I'd be crawling right about now. AFAIK ECU are matched to an engine and transmission combo and to some extent by year and model. So it's possible that your ECU will work fine, although even the exact same combination in a different year might have different sensors or a different shift profile, so not keeping things matched might be a headache. I just don't know.

Honestly from your second post I'd find a good mechanic or a gearhead you trust to get you started. You are going to at least need to drain the fluid and drop the pan if you think something is actually wrong. One sure way to know your clutch packs or bands let go is if you find lots of little pieces of metal sitting in the pan.

 

[Rexsname]

I have received a few PM's about switching to a 5 speed manual transmission. Does anyone have an educated guess as to how much that swap might cost?

REX

 

[BeratE]

For what it is worth, I swapped my auto tranny to a manual R150f tranny in my tacoma. I managed to find a tranny and transfer case combo for $160 with 60k miles on it locally, so that made it easy on the wallet. I opened up the tranny because I needed to swap the input shaft to make it work with my Toyota diesel engine, but you won't have to do that. Why I mention it is that it was not very hard, merely intimidating, and I certainly prefer the simplicity of the manual over the auto if I have to work on it in the future.

I did not have any issues with error codes, but my understanding is that you would throw a code if you got rid of your auto tranny. This would not hurt your vehicle or the performance, but it might be an issue at your emissions facility. The physical work of swapping was pretty easy. I prefer the manual in all regards, but your real question ought to be whether or not that is your preference