'97 Toyota Camry V6 Transmission slipping and then only neutral

I have a 97 Toyota Camry with a strange transmission problem. When I purchased the car in 2004 I was driving along and noticed it slipping out of gear until I had nothing but neutral. I took the car into a shop and they immediately told me I needed a new transmission. I had the transmission completely rebuit for $2500 and got the car back only to have the same thing happen again 5 miles into picking the car up. I took the car back they did something which I'm not sure of and it ran fine for almost 2 years.

About 6 months ago the same thing happened again. I had a friend do a complete Tranny Flush and the card ran fine for 3 months. You guessed it, same thing happened after another 3 months and this time I had the Transmission flushed and the Filter in the pan changed. The car was fine for another 3 months. Today the same thing has happened again? Also if You turn off the car and let the fluid drain the car is driveable for a mile or 2. There has never been any type of burning smell and the loss of all linkage seems to happen within a few minutes and not over a long period of time when it does conk out.

Anyone know why this would be happening and what could remedy the situation?

Reply to
cfrankard
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In the future, if you have not been changing the transmission fluid regularly every 60,000 miles or so, do not have the transmission flushed. Just drain and refill the automatic transmission fluid (ATF). Flushing a transmission that has not been regularly serviced can dislodge sludge that clogs passages and cause problems like you are experiencing.

You did not mention mileage intervals like when the transmission failed, when the fluid was flushed, and the current mileage. My guess is that the rebuild was not done perfectly so rather than giving you a new transmission with a new life, you gained time.

Assuming that the shift linkage is properly adjusted, you may need another rebuild or replacement. I would take the car to a competent technician for diagnosis and repair.

Reply to
Ray O

It could be a bad pump and or seals. Ray O is correct, you just gained some time.

Reply to
user

atransmissionthat has not been regularly serviced can dislodge sludge that

Thanks for the reply Ray O

Since having the transmission rebuilt, there has been a total of

16,000 Miles put on the car. I think your theory on sludge dislodging and clogging makes perfect sense. I'm currently working in the caribbean and finding a competent transmission technician out here is tough to say the least. Is there any ways to scrape out the sludge?
Reply to
cfrankard

Cleaning sludge out of a transmission is not a typical do-it-yourselfer job because it involves disassembly of the transmission. You can remove the transmission oil pan and look at what, if anything, has accumulated at the bottom of the pan, paying particular attention to the magnets on the pan to see if they are covered with metal shavings. If the magnets have metal shavings, there is a pretty good chance that the transmission is toast because a proper rebuild should have included cleaning the magnets, and there should be almost nothing stuck to the magnets in only 16,000 miles.

Properly re-building a transmission is not an easy task and has a pretty high rate of failure, which is why Toyota dealers typically replace the transmission with a re-manufactured one instead of attempting re-builds.

Reply to
Ray O

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