Firmer shifts after pan drain and fill

If not you can always cycle it out next drain/fill[/QUOTE]

it surly wouldn’t hurt at this point. I know the master rebuilder over at ITS always adds one extra court to all ab60 series he over hauls.

 

Sorry if you already said, does your truck have the tow package?

 

Yes it does

 

Did you manually open the Cooler Thermostat before checking the fluid level?

 

Yes I did. I actually keep mine pinned all the time. 200 degree seems a little high for my likings. With it pinned it stays around 130-150 mark

 

I agree that 200 F is a little high for a running temp, I would have thought the thermostat would have been set to open at 150 F.

 

from my research no one has been able to confirm exactly when it opens. Somewhere between 200 and 220 degree.

 

I believe you could do the memory re-setting yourself, I also think this is something that came with the truck when you bought it(not sure if you confirmed that or not before). I like to research and do everything I can myself, those techs at the dealers LOTS of times are young kids with very little hands on experience. I am certain you will be able to get it fixed right, sooner or later. I do most of the maintenance on all my Toyotas, from timing belts, water pumps, main rear oil seals, (although I must admit that dropping a tranny for the first time was scary) etc, etc, I have fun doing it and I know is done right. I'll poke around also and see if I can find something on the matter and how to fix it. Did you check/test the solenoids? rough shifting can be caused by "bad" solenoids too. How about disconnecting the battery for 24 hours and see if that initiates the "re-learning" process?

Here is a cool video on how to test solenoids on auto trannys

https://youtu.be/gddKFs1ALUU

 

Thanks for the help! I did an extended test drive for two days before purchasing it. It shifted very well for 125k miles. It even shifted great for the 2 weeks I owned it before me replacing the fluid.

my theory is that the old fluid was depleted of all the friction modifiers and the computer had compensated for the loss and was applying greater pressure to the clutch packs. When I introduced the new fluid, the clutch packs began to grip hard. At the same time I noticed hard shifts I also started to experience rough down shift when slowing down. Almost as if I had an engine brake.

while I had the pan off I did not test any solenoids but everything did appear very clean with no visible deposits. Now that I know there is 100% clean fluid, new filter, and also correct fluid level, I may just leave it as is unless it gets worse.

then I will pull my valve body and do a rebuild. A very known transmission rebuilder over on Tacoma world seems to think that I may have a worn valve that is allowing some fluid leakage causing the weird shift. Which is surely plausible giving my situation.

 

If you have not already un pinned the thermostat I would and drive it around. Cold fluid can cause hard shifting. I'm a little suspicious of a scan tool showing the same temp for the converter and the pan

 

That was in lock up going down the road at 60 mph . When I down shift or stop at red light you can see it go up and differ around 10-20 degree

 

Dang, I’m at 60k and about to do.1st drain and fill with oem WS

 

I’m sure you will be fine! Even though it wouldn’t hurt to drop the the pan and clean out the crud. After seeing how clean my filter was at 125k I’d say you will be okay for a long time using the oem filter.

 

Here is what an expert to the Aisin Warner transmission suggest.

I suggest waiting a few days to drop the pan .
Order up a zip kit and go through your valve body while you have the pan off .Its going to take you a few hours to install the Zip kit , but this usually always fixes up any cross leakingproblems . Because the valve body in these trucks are a solid block of aluminum , they are very prone to wear and getting stuck valves .
When you leave the pan on and dump the fluid , you introduce new fluid with fresh detergents . The detergents are so strong in new transmission fluid that they lift the " normal wear " sediments that were deposited on the bottom of your pan by the old fluid . These sediments are forced through the valve body and cause valves to become sticky and solenoids partially plug up . If you have over 100k on the Tundra , I would suspect this to be a solid contributor to your harsh shift

https://www.sonnax.com/parts/3477-zip-kit

Do you have access to a transmission pressure gauge and Toyota " TIS " diagnostic software ?
I would also like to see what your torque converter is doing as the hard shiftoccurs
The engine and transmission are mated as 1 unit and work in harmony together. The slightest missfire from the enginecan make the transmission feel very clunky and very very noticeable upshifting into 4th gear

I am sure I could diagnose your issue if I had your truck in front of me but over a long distance keyboard can be tricky .

 

Hows the upshift to 4th now after a couple days ?
CVI index or better known as clutchvolume index is the amount of fluid it takes to fill an automatic clutch . Your computer keeps a record of the CVI index and compensates as yourautomatic clutches wear down .
When you reset the computer to factoryspecs , the computer assumes all your clutching inside the auto transmissionare brand new .
I wouldnt recommend a factory reset as the computer thinks you have a brand new transmission . When you factoryreset with worn clutching , the transmission will shift , but not very wellbecause the computer in your truckassumes everything inside the transmission is new
If the factory reset is performed with worn clutching , you get lazy shifts

 

At this point , you've put enough new fluid and Lubeguard through the transmission that adding more would just be a waste of cash.
If a loose piece of debris is lodged inside the valve body , its obvious that the new trans fluid along with the lubeguard isnt working . Lubeguard has a very highsuccess rate for getting valves unstuck .I use the product every day
Your truck needs to be road tested with a scanner in hand and a pressure gaugefor some proper diagnostics by a shop that diagnose this type of problem all the time day in and day out ," not a dealership " A dealership is just going to say you need a new transmission $$$$$ . This is what I normally do beforeinstalling a Sonnax zip kit to verify thecondition .
As far as damage , your trans is clunking into 4th not slipping . This leads me tobelieve there is a problem with theaccumulator valve ( cushion ) inside the valve body for 4th gear . If thetransmission was slipping into 4th you would have to deal with the problemimmediately .

One quick note ? have you disconnected the battery or cleaned the throttle body? I highly suggest doing both . This willclear your short term memory and re-adjust your idle to factory . Its fineclearing short term memory

Listed below in the link are known areas of concern throughout your valve body .
You can click on each valve and learnhow to tell if you have a cross leak .
https://www.sonnax.com/units/34-ab60e

 

I added an extra 1/2 quart just for fun the other day .. no changes.

 

I concur, rebuild valve body and document in a diy thread.

 

Have you tried unpinning the thermostat yet? I do not know if it’s the case on these Aisin’s / Toyota programming, but the TCU on some of the medium and heavy automatics I’ve dealt with won’t re-learn shifting until the fluid reaches a certain temperature. It’s an easy, free.99 thing I would try before digging into the valve body.

 

I have a zip kit in my cart online! I added some lubegard red yesterday.i want to wait a few more days to work its magic. I want to make sure all my valves and solenoids are clean to help rule it down to a valve body issue. I have seen some in-depth webinars online of our valve body’s and they are very complicated to say the least. I have never seen a valve body with over 20 check balls!

 

It’s worth a shot. I have a good theory though. If it is a worn valve/passageway then the hotter the fluid gets the thinner. the more it leaks so the harder it will shift. My wife is at work today and I’m keeping all three of my kids right now but I’ll pull the thermostat and take it for a ride tomorrow .

 

I’m also gone run this for a week or two. In case some debris does come loose from the valve body it will be caught before returning to the trans pan.

 

I pulled the pin for the thermostat and loaded up my Honda pioneer and gas cans to go fuel up. The pan temp got to 201 while hitting red lights in town but with no changes. Shifted the same. (My theory was wrong!)

 

When y’all are approaching a stop light or coming to a stop, does your truck down shift slightly and raise the rpm’s to about 1100-1200 rpm’s? Almost as if I have a mild engine break. My Tacoma did not do this and I’m curious if this is normal or not.

 

I’ll try and get a video today with it doing it. It pretty much raises the rpm’s from 4th down to 1st with a noticeable increase in rpm’s. Almost like my work duramax with the exhaust break engaged but not as severe.

 

Did you ever do, or have done, the onboard diagnostics with scanner and pressure gauge (Post #47)?

Clearly your transmission is shifting abnormally and it doesn't appear that it's going to heal itself. As mentioned before, we have to assume that the clean MaxLife fluid may have freed up sludge that has stopped up something that is keeping the accumulator from softening the shifts. (FWIW...I know jack about automatic transmissions, but your advisor seems to know something. )

This is the first instance I've read of any problems using MaxLife fluid. Maybe it's less about the fluid, than the previous owners wear and tear on the transmission, and the service interval. Your service interval of 125K miles is long for "Special Operating Conditions" (Toyota recommends every 60K miles with towing or heavy loading), but not long for normal operating conditions (no service recommended).

 

Thanks John! I have not done any diagnostics or pressure test as of yet. I’m not even sure where to begin. I know my nearest reputable trans shop is over a hour away and who knows What they would charge or how long I would be without a vehicle. I’m confident I could pull the valve body myself and complete the work...with enough time that is! I am still in denial that I messed up my new truck. I should have listed to my dad back years ago! “If it ain’t broke” theory

 

As far as our accumulators go I don’t really see an area that could go wrong. They look pretty basic.

 

The springs are just about all there is to them. I suppose the bore could have worn the O-rings?

 

Yes, but what sets the fluid pressure to the accumulators? Suppose there is a partially plugged fluid passage?