Transmission issues

My 17 year old son has a 2005 Tundra 4x4 and the automatic transmission seems to be giving him issues. He says it takes a long time for it to shift. The person we purchased it from said the transmission was replaced with a used transmission some time ago, but the new transmission came out of a Sequoia that had 150,000 miles. The temperatures have been cooler lately and maybe that has something to do with it, but honestly I have no mechanical skill and I'm not good at all with such things. Please point me in some directions if you can. Thanks.

 

Maybe just take it to a transmission shop for a shakedown. Could be as simple as being low on trans fluid.

PS- these don’t have traditional dipsticks to check the fluid. They are also considered “sealed” and aren’t supposed to need service. Most will do drain and fill anyway to refresh the fluid every 30-50k miles. Even that process is a little different than the normal Old school autos. Several threads here about how to do that.

 

Thanks. I've read that even if the fluid is a little low they'll start to act up and my son has said there's no way to check the fluid.

 

If it happens when the truck is cold, this has probably been discussed several times here on the forum. There's a notorious late shift from 1st->2nd (or is it 2nd to 3rd?) from a cold startup, my 72k mile truck that's never towed anything more than a jon boat has it too. Sometimes I'll have it leaving a store parking lot after being inside for 20-30 mins too. I've been told time and time again even by certified Toyo mechs (one on this forum) it's "normal".

So unless it's something that's happening literally every single time, I'd forget about it.

But that said, if it's not, you may want to check the tranny fluid color and coolant. Due to the design of the radiator, it *is* possible for coolant and tranny fluid to mingle, over time the seal that routes tranny fluid thru the radiator degrades.

Likewise, low fluid level can lead to odd shifting points, missed shifts, etc. But as said above, 05-06 (at least, the later models) are sealed, no dip stick, though technically you can add/remove fluid.

 

+1

If it's just happening when cold, that's completely normal. The engine/transmission are designed to do that to bring them both up to temperature sooner.