Transmission mistery Camry 1994

[Giorgio]

Hi there!

My name is Giorgio and I am the owner of a nice white Camry '94, with automatic transmission.

When I start driving and the car is still cold, the last gear doesn't get in. ...I keep driving and after a few kilometers, when the car warmed up, the last gear gets in.

When I go working early in the morning, if I switch on the car for at least 5 minutes, it gets warm and when I start driving the gear box works properly and the last gear gets in immediately.

If I didn't do it, I need to drive a few km before it gets in. It is annoying because I consume a lot of petrol if the last gear doesn't work.

The mechanic told me that it could be the viscosity of the transmission oil. Yesterday I changed the transmission oil and the transmission filter, but this morning nothing changed...I started driving and as usual the last gear didn't work until I drove 10 km ...after that it worked. 

When it is colder, during the winter, the car gets warm slowly so this problem lasts more than when it is summer.

Do you have any suggestion? 

As I said, new filter and oil transmission, but nothing changed.

This car has 300.000km but it is like new inside and outside.

 

I hope to have a few advices from you so maybe I can fix it with my mechanic.

 

Thanks a lot!

Best Toyota Camry Forum ever!

 

Edited May 21, 2016 by Giorgio
wrong title

[trentmeyer23]

Given that it is working when the oil is hot, I would say your mechanic is on the right path regarding the viscosity.

What was the oil that you drained like? Sludgy at all?

There are a lot of small galleries in the valve body and if they are blocked in any way, the oil may not be able to to flow through these until the oil thins as it gets hotter.

[OldMech]

I would say it's time to take it to a professional automatic transmission mechanic.

There is nothing more you can do.

Good luck

Laurie.

[Giorgio]

Hi, thanks first of all.

About the oil, it wasn't too bad at all. About the viscosity, I am wondering why only the last gear is not working...until the car gets warm. The car did cost me around 2.000AUD...and before bring it in somewhere else maybe and spend money, I wanted to get some advises. As extremely solution , I will take it to a professional mechanic, expert with automatic trasmission.

Thanks

[campbeam]

Giorgio,

Read the post from TrentMeyer again. The more information that you can provide, the better the answers you can expect to get.

Was the old transmission oil very dark or even black in colour?

Do you know when the transmission was last serviced? I suspect that it must have been a long time ago. 

Did you do a full transmission flush that changes all of the oil in the transmission including the torque converter and the cooler. This procedure can use about 8 litres of oil or more.

I think that you more likely replaced the oil that was in the filter and transmission pan, about 2.8 litres. If so, 2.8 litres of new oil has mixed with 3 litres of old oil.

Suggest you change the oil in the transmission pan again, drive for about a week then see if the gear change has improved.  Hopefully, the additives in the new oil would have cleaned the galleries in the valve body.

If no improvement, next step will be to buy some transmission fluid flush (do an internet search) and change the oil and maybe also the filter again.

If all of that does not work, then take it to an automatic transmission shop for them to dismantle and clean. I estimate that could cost you about $500

Personally, I think that you have paid too much for a 1994 Camry and you could be throwing away more money. If it can not be fixed cheaply, then make the best of a bad situation, save your money and buy another car with less than 200.000KM. 

 

[trentmeyer23]

As I said before, there are many galleries.

May not be an exact image of your valvebody.

[Giorgio]

First of all, thanks a lot!

The job, anyway, has been done by a mechanic and I have no info about a few asked things. I will let you know soon.

You gave me many good info, and now I feel more comfortable with this situation. Soon, I will talk with my mechanic, and we will decide what to do.

I think that no one took care the transmission lately, probably many thousand km ago. About the money I paid, when I went to get the Insurance with RACQ, the lady told me that this car worths 2.700AUD, following the market. So, I thing, if I paid 2.000AUD, it is not bad, especially because the body and inside as well, are really well maintained. No leaking at all and the engine sounds good. The only mad thing is this transmission.

I will bring you up to date, thanks a lot for now, I appreciated all your advises.

 

[Hiro]

One thing to remember is that plenty of older autos won't shift in to top/overdrive whilst the engine is cold - perfectly normal and actually a design feature to stop a cold engine being loaded up at low rpm.  I fail to see how you can be burning copious amounts of fuel being in 3rd instead of 4th in the meantime, unless you're pulling out of your driveway and going straight on to the freeway at 110k.