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88 Camry bizarre transmission problem

Hi,

My 88 automatic transmission Camry seems to have developed a problem where it cannot pick the right gear to be in. I will have it in D and it seems to sometimes bypass 2nd and go to third when I am accelerating from a stop, and it barely moves. If I floor the pedal, it jumps back to first. If I put it into D2 myself and then kick into D when I get above 35 mph, it runs fine. It does other flaky things that also seem to me that it is in the wrong gear, but not nearly as often as this problem. For example, sometimes the overdrive button does nothing on the way up, and won't disengage on the way down. The transmission does not seem like it is slipping at all, I know what the sounds like, and the engine does not rev or vary at all. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Gary

Reply to
holybull
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At a guess, the 'valve body' is knackered. This unit contains all the hydraulic brains of the transmission. The trans has 3 main inputs for it to decide which gear it should be in:

-kickdown cable or inlet manifold vacuum which tells it how much throttle is being applied

-engine speed, which it determines from the crankshaft-via torque convertor, then to its own oil-pump which increases pressure as engine speed increases and vice-versa

- shifter position

If just one hyddaulic valve has a worn seal or is sticking due crud, it will cause the box to behave erraticaly. Sometimes it can be a clogged pan filter, or the vacuum modulator has fallen off ,if in fact they use this instead of a kickdown-cable in which case the cable may be out of adjustment or the end has lost its attachment.

In older trans, the neoprene seals can be so worn they only start woeking when the trans has heated up and some swelling has occured, bringing the seal back into play.

The electric over drive (D2) and torque convertor 'lock-up' function are somewhat peripheral events to the main functioning of the trans.

I note you say if you take-off in D2 it will change up normally? Perhaps D2 is a 'power' setting where the shift points are raised (in terms of engine revs) instead of o/drive?

This type of problem is where the transmission specialists have one over on us :-(

Jason

Reply to
Jason James

Gary: I have the same exact car, with the same exact problem. It was just given to me by my parents in FL a few weeks ago & they told me there was "something very strange going on with the transmission" Since it was free & in great shape otherwise, I drove it here to NJ. The problem was getting worse so I took it to the Toyota dealer here & they said it was a "spindle" problem & the trans needed to be replaced (for a small $3000 fee!) I don't trust them at all & when I called other transmission companies they said that Toyota is "full of it" - I'm interested in whether or not you got it fixed & if so, what was the actual problem? What Jason said makes sense. I'm dropping mine off at a local trans shop next week & I'm going to give them a copy of your email with Jason's response to see if that helps them with my diagnosis. It would be great to know what you have determined! Thanks, Kevin :)

Reply to
kdawg

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