transmission reliability 1994 Camry

I need to replace the automatic transmission in my mother's 1994 Toyota Camry LE Coupe with a V6 EFI engine (1MZ-FE).

Does anyone have an opinion on how reliable these transmission are or how many miles they usually last. I'm thinking of installing a used transmission with 80k-100k miles on it. But I am worried a transmission with that many miles won't last very long.

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

Reply to
Dave
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That is a lot of work to do to install a transmission that is pretty old. Sometimes we have to do thing forced by economics that we would not prefer to do otherwise. If that is your situation, then you have few alternatives.

Have you looked into having a local shop (not a freaking dealership nor worse still a franchise operation) freshen up the used tranny?

Reply to
<HLS

I would prefer used to rebuilt - ie., untouched since it left the factory. Typically 6 cyl. transaxles don't last as long as the 4 cyl. (more torque), but depending upon how often the fluid was changed and how it was driven, they can last a long time. If I had to guess a typicall average with no special care - 150K, with regular fluid changes and sensible driving you might double that.

Reply to
Daniel

Depends...If you could find a good low mileage tranny, that might be the best approach.

By the time you approach 100K miles, and not knowing what sort of jughead owned the donor car, you are buying a pig in a poke.

Lots of these shitteauxs never change tranny fluid.

Reply to
<HLS
80k-100k is fairly old. It may be on its way out. With regularly scheduled maintenance, these typically last about 120k. Gentle driving and better care will give you longer service (typically 2x), but these are inexpensive transmissions and should be treated accordingly before you spend big dollars.

The V6 transmission has problems with sluggish line pressure resulting in a lot of wear and tear on the internal friction material. Around

1997 or so they added a booster pump. But the A540 series is never that great of a transmission.

Consider pulling a low-mileage one without front end damage from the junk yard for $300 if you are installing it yourself (check model compatibility first). I heard some chain stores do this to their customers without telling, with junk yard ID marks still on there.

Reply to
johngdole

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