2002 v8 4x4 transmission slipping 1st to 2nd.

First and foremost I did research a bunch before posting this, I know in the 00-02’s the OD gear is a bit of a ticking time bomb. I’m assuming that’s what’s going on with my rig I just purchased (still got it at a steal so not too upset… knew it was gonna need some things)

does anyone have a 03-04 or know someone with a replacement for sale? Looked around my local marketplace definitely little bit expensive. Need to call some junkyards tomorrow. But if anyone has a good deal they wanna do near. NYC area id love to have a spare lying around.

1st thing I know I need to do is grease the drive line just for maintenance I seen it’s pretty big with our 1st gen’s.. I don’t think this will be my solution but definitely hope it could be lol.. the transmission acts pretty normal if I’m going at a light light acceleration. Grandma driving, once I put any good bit of acceleration into the pedal from a stop going from 1st to second you can feel it slipping and then a hard thud going to second. Every other gear no issue. I also need to check the transmission fluid of course. I was also thinking of using a better synthetic tranny fluid, and Lucas treatment. I’d like to get the most I can out of it. Any suggestions would be helpful as I did read a lot of the forums and the sticky’d post and previous others giving me advice. Thank you everyone in advance for any reply’s coming this way. I’m still new to my 1st gen. Only took it for 3 rides so far so sorry for any noob questions.

 

What is the condition of the transmission fluid? That's the first step before you go spending time and money finding a replacement. No need to use any other transmission fluid than what's recommended. Stick to the basics first.

 

Yeah i said i needed to check that first, i know I need to drive it for a good bit before I check it and want to see it’s at the top of the dipstick if im not mistaken.

 

Read Shifty’s FGT mega thread.

 

Once you check your transmission fluid (in the "So you bought a..." stickied thread) according to the full service manual and/or owner's manual's procedure, if you still have a problem then you can hunt up a replacement tranny at car-part.com. It's a pretty decent site once you figure out how to use it.

 

Right. You need to drive it and get the transmission up to operating temperature to check the LEVEL with the engine running. How about just pulling the dipstick and checking the condition of the fluid? Is it brown? Does it smell burnt? It should be a nice ruby red and not have a burnt odor. Why not do that?

 

hard to tell but I marked where it was showing on the trans dipstick. I took it for a 25sh min ride, half city half highway driving, after I was done driving cycled through the gears staying around 3sh seconds in each gear. This is what my dipstick is showing. Definitely low. I’ll have to pick up some ATF and top it off, I also see that it’s a bit tricky to get right and you don’t want to overfill it. If I also don’t know what ATF is in it (previous owner didn’t know.) should I just do a flush all together? I believe he always had it maintenanced by Toyota or a known mechanic.

doesn’t seem to smell burnt. Also is a nice red color.

 

Start by topping it off with DEX III ATF (or equivalent). I use Castrol Transmax:

 

I'd do a full flush of the transmission, my tundra and sequoia both hard really hard shifts when I got them, but new trans fluid cleared that up.

 

Should I be topping off in specific increments to avoid overfilling?

 

Indeed

 

Not only adding in increments, but you also need to shift back/forth thru the gears with the engine running after adding fluid at least a half a dozen times to move fluid.

 

Sounds good. I’ll have some
Hope In this clearing up the hard shifts… 03-04 trannys aren’t too expensive I’ve already found a few. But hopefully this clears it up!

 

This is kinda common. My truck does it. Apparently it'll just do it for a very long time and not get worse nor better. I'm just easy on my truck with the 1-2 shift, or I'll put it in "2" before taking off then it shifts great, then put into "D" after it shifts to 2nd.

I did a couple drain and fills a while back and am planning to do another soon but it's made no difference in the way it drives at all, just good to cycle through some new fluid. Drain and fill is easy as it has a drain plug. Just have to do it a couple or few times.

 

I ended up getting some dex3, didn’t even put it in. First got some Lucas tranny conditioner which was 20 OZs put it in and went for a 30sh min ride, shifted to each gear with 3ssh seconds holding the shifts and going back up same way to park, engine still running took 3 readings and it was here way over the hot line. I’m assuming 20sh min last time wasn’t enough for an accurate reading as just 20 oz over filled it. I’m gonna take some back out later today after work and warm it up and take a reading. After doing the conditioner no change in the transmission behavior.

 

Has anyone had good results using amsoil as a replacement? Maybe a good synthetic ATf and flush could extend the life of the Tranny..