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slow acceleration problem after transmission flush

After a transmission flush and fuel system clean services at a local shop recently, my Camry 95 started to show a problem I never seen before, which is the slow acceleration. Now when the car is first started, in the morning in particular, going uphill, taking a sharp turn, or starting after a traffic light stop, it is difficult to accelerate pass 20m/hr in time. The wheels will hesitate, respond very slowly, and suddenly grab after I press the gas pedal harder than usual. If I stop at a stop sign or traffic light in an uphill position, the car will tend to slide backward when I release the brake and try to press the gas pedal. I have to hit the gas pedal very hard and quickly and then hit the brake again to prevent the car from sliding backward further. Only after then can I accelerate my car forward uphill. The problem may go away after I drive the car for about half an hour. I went back to the shop a week later asking for help. They couldn?t diagnose the problem, and asked me to wait until the problem become more obvious and serious. It is true that by the time I reached the shop, the symptoms I mentioned did not seem that obvious, which is very frustrating. If anyone here has any idea what is going wrong with my car or any suggestion what I could do to have it fixed, I would really appreciate.

Reply to
khan
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How many miles, and what did the tranny sauce look like when it came out?

Now, I am NOT a mechanic or a Toyota tech, but the dealership I work at flushed our LAST tranny about 3 months ago. After three failures, we decided enough is enough and just do a fluid change and refill the old way.

My GUESS is that, as the clutches deteriorate, they leave particulates that act as friction in the clutch packs. When you flush the tranny, you're running 24 qts of fluid through a space meant for 6 qts, and it removes any contaminents. Well, some of those contaminents are actually what is provideing friction to the cluth plates; by removing them, there is nothing for the clutch plates to grab onto, since the friction plates have been worn down. So, you slip like the dickens. Now, granted this is just a guess, but it has happened to us three times now. At the cost of replacing three trannies.

If this is something you're doing every 24-30,000 miles from new, it is probably a good thing. Over 75,000 without a COMPLETE service seems to be the problem.

I'd start calling junkyards if I were you...

Reply to
hachiroku

Yeah Hachi, you hit it on the head. Its not only the fluid being flushed through the trans, but also the chemicals & cleaners that are often part of a trans flush service. Another common failure caused by a flush (in addition to stripping old clutch plates like you said) is removing all the deposits of varnish that have built up in the nooks & crannies over time. Many times these little deposits will nestle themselves in and around seals, and when you flush 'em out, fluid leaks past the place that nasty gunk used to be, so now there isn't enough pressure generated to do anything. So anyway, flushing transmissions is not recommended as a fix for old crappy fluid. Flushing a trans should be done when the fluid is still fairly clean, on a preventative basis and at regular intervals. If you pull your dipstick & the fluid isn't pretty, stay away from those machines.

Reply to
Qslim

I read somewhere in the past in this newsgroup that transmission FLUSH should not be done on old or car with high miles. Seems to be true.

OTOH, the dealer did tranny FLUSH on my '99 Camry at 80K miles and I actually felt smoother transmission shifts after that. Now I have close to 100K miles. May be I should not go for tranny FLUSH now on, just drain/refill.

vk

Reply to
vktechmails

Not necessarily. Whether or not the service should be performed should be stricly based on the condition of the FLUID, not the age or mileage of the car. If a vehicle has a history of consistent flushes at 20 or 30k intervals, then there shouldn't be a problem.

Reply to
Qslim

I'm with Qslim -- if the tranny is service every couple years [or 30k miles], there shouldn't be a problem. You could always pull the dipstick and get an idea of what the fluid looks like before going for a flush.

My '93 Camry is at 130,000+ miles. I just had a tranny flush yesterday and the old fluid looked good. Of course, the tranny is serviced every couple years.

Reply to
Hopkins

Thanks everyone for the response. The car has got 95K miles. No idea what the fluid looked like when flushed since I didn?t do it myself. The service was recommended by the shop manager who told me the fluid was dirty. Bought the car from a dealer at 85K miles, and the dealer did some transmission service right before that. No transmission service had been done in between.

Reply to
khan

How is the transmission fluid exchange service at pep-boys? better/worse than deale service?

TIA

Reply to
vktechmails

"vktechmails" wrote: > How is the transmission fluid exchange service at pep-boys? > better/worse than deale service? > > TIA

FYI, I took the car back to the shop again last week. They did some checking and told me everything was fine but this time they topped off all fluids. I don?t quite understand why, but the problem appears to be gone afterwards. Acceleration is back to normal now.

Reply to
khan

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