amcdave
11-12-2024, 10:45 PM
So not long ago I cut up my Toyota Van that I have driven as a daily driver for 15 years. Throughout the years of driving I one day drove the van very hard. From that day on (it was at 200,00. miles) my perfectly shifting van started to shift hard from 1st to second. I kept changing the fluid every 50,000 miles and kept the level correct. It soldiered on like that for almost 60,000 miles. It would do it alot at colder temperatures and as the transmission warmed up it would go away. One day driving to work the transmission started slipping and not shifting. If you turned the van off and then started it the trans would shift and drive for a few miles and the n start slipping again. So I immediately drove it back home parked it and left it there. I then the next day got a filter and changed the fluid in the trans. The filter was plugged by debris and it was not pumping enough fluid to keep the clutches engaged and would slip. I drove it like that for another 10,000 miles and it plugged again. During all this I purchased an amazing condition van from California it was a gold color. It was so amazing looking I couldn't believe it. I bought it cheap because the head gasket blew at 170,000. Someone had disassembled everything and never got to fixing it. My Ex called my old van Yota and she gave my new one the name Blaze. After sitting around for a month I rolled it from my brothers house to mine to do the head gasket on it the next day. that night at 11:00 pm I hear this unbelievable crash in front of my house and having seen this once in a while I waste no time and run out. I knew someone had hit a parked car. I look in disbelief and there is my beautiful Toyota Van. The person hit in in the back on the drivers side that the van jumped the curb hit the city light pole and caused the light to fall into the street. The van was totaled in the back and even the side door was smashed in from hitting the pole ( it really lived up to its name Blaze as it blazed away). The person who hit it was no where to be seen. He had done a hit and run. I call my brother and tell him what happened. He then jumps in Yota and drives the two blocks to my house. We look at the road and see a trail of fluid down the side street. He looks at me and says I will try to find the asshole who hit it. He drives of and not even 3 minutes later he calls me back and says he found the guy. He drives into the alleyway in a dead end alley and boxes the guy in. All of a sudden he hears a diesel engine turns around and sees a tow truck that had come to tow the guys car away. As he sees this and is telling me the Police who by this time have arrived, panic and ask me where the guy is and take off. They seem paniced that my brother will end up hurting the guy and race off. The guy gets out and of course is like I am sorry I didn't mean to hit it blah blah blah. The Police show up before any confrontation happens and tell my brother to walk. I later get the Police report and the police tell me that the guy admitted that he was on the phone and drove into the car. He drove into it (in a Mercedes 250 GLC) at 30 plus miles and hour and didn't even try to brake. His car was so totaled that you couldn't tell what it was. It could only make it that distance before it just died and would not move. Well that settles it, I decide that I will move the good trans from this van to mine and save everything I can. The insurance pays out 3500 and registration on it, It was that nice that Allstate could not even argue. I install the trans and start driving it. I drive spiritedly and lo and behold two weeks later it starts shifting hard from 1 to 2. I open the trans to look at the filter and oil and it is beautiful and so was the oil I drained from it, before removing it. In the back of my business there is an ammco transmission guy and I go and talk to him. He starts giving me the oh it probably needs a rebuild. I tell him look it just started doing it just like the last one and I don't want the trans to destroy itself. I tell him the oil was perfect and is still perfect and pink nothing in it. He tells me bring it by and he will look at it. I drive it there at night to keep any shifting to a minimum and the next few days he takes a look at it. He tells me the old oil and trans are perfect but the valve body needs work. They fix it and it ends up costing me $450 because we are neighbors. He tells me reason this happened is, Toyota to have fast light shifting used composite valve body balls not steel ball bearings. He said spirited driving and just age cause the balls to fracture and let through more line pressure and that causes the gears to slam the clutches and thus wear the friction plates out. This takes a while because the transmission is a tank but it will KILL IT. I write this to let you guys know if your trans start to shift harshly in any gears, get it fixed right away, do not wait. Also I still have the fixed trans and my new van that I just got is a manual so I will offer this trans to anyone who just wants a fixed trans. I only put on 6,000 mile on it since repair and will sell it for the repair price thanks.