Applejack
Explorer
This post is where I grumble on a bit about a problem that I had roughly a year and a half ago that recently popped back up and is now set to cost a lot to fix.
Backstory: A year and a half ago-ish, I had my '99 4runners transmission flushed at the dealer (154k miles). a couple of weeks later I backed out of my driveway and tried to go forward and it felt like I was pulling a house. It was moving but barely. I called my mechanic and he asked me to see if I could drive it around the block to see if maybe it was starting out in the wrong gear, possibly indicating a bad solenoid. So I jumped back in, backed out, and then it drove off perfectly, no problem. He suggested that the flush may have loosened something that was now clogging a valve and to bring it in and he would back flush it. I did, and until last saturday I have not had that problem return. However, in the last 6 months I had noticed when going up hills it was a little reluctant to downshift, I chocked it up to being laden with camping gear. Around town it seemed fine, it's usual slow self.
Saturday the original issue popped back up, my usual mechanic is on vacation so I take it to a local transmission shop that seemed to have very high reviews online. He has it for two days before he says he can get it to do it's "thing", and stated that they had to get it pretty hot to do it. Which is funny because that's the exact opposite of when I experienced the problem, it always had to have sat for at least 2 hours, it never did it when it was up to temp. He also said the fluid was black, which also is strange because I checked it saturday and it looked fine, which I told him. He said that it was possible that I now have a new/different problem like the torque coverer coming apart, worn clutches etc. and quoted me $4800-$5200 to repair/replace the transmission.
So either this highly rated shop is not what it seems or my super reliable 4runner is not so super reliable. It only has just under 171k on it, and while it does get "used" it also is well maintained.
Backstory: A year and a half ago-ish, I had my '99 4runners transmission flushed at the dealer (154k miles). a couple of weeks later I backed out of my driveway and tried to go forward and it felt like I was pulling a house. It was moving but barely. I called my mechanic and he asked me to see if I could drive it around the block to see if maybe it was starting out in the wrong gear, possibly indicating a bad solenoid. So I jumped back in, backed out, and then it drove off perfectly, no problem. He suggested that the flush may have loosened something that was now clogging a valve and to bring it in and he would back flush it. I did, and until last saturday I have not had that problem return. However, in the last 6 months I had noticed when going up hills it was a little reluctant to downshift, I chocked it up to being laden with camping gear. Around town it seemed fine, it's usual slow self.
Saturday the original issue popped back up, my usual mechanic is on vacation so I take it to a local transmission shop that seemed to have very high reviews online. He has it for two days before he says he can get it to do it's "thing", and stated that they had to get it pretty hot to do it. Which is funny because that's the exact opposite of when I experienced the problem, it always had to have sat for at least 2 hours, it never did it when it was up to temp. He also said the fluid was black, which also is strange because I checked it saturday and it looked fine, which I told him. He said that it was possible that I now have a new/different problem like the torque coverer coming apart, worn clutches etc. and quoted me $4800-$5200 to repair/replace the transmission.
So either this highly rated shop is not what it seems or my super reliable 4runner is not so super reliable. It only has just under 171k on it, and while it does get "used" it also is well maintained.