1998 4Runner SR5
170k miles
Automatic Transmission

Recently my transmission started slipping randomly throughout my driving. Sometimes it has trouble engaging from a dead stop, other times it drops out of gear for a few seconds just driving around town. It almost always slips if I'm driving above 50.

Naturally I go to check the fluid, and discover there is almost none. The last time I checked was about 8k miles ago, and it was full and fresh. So I buy more fluid and fill it back up, now conscious that my transmission is leaking fluid.

For the first few days, the slipping seemed to go away, but now it's coming back strong again. I rechecked the fluid tonight, and it's still full from when I filled it up last weekend.

So my questions to anyone who cares are:

1) From my brief and flawed description, can anyone suggest what might be going on with my transmission?

2) Knowing full well that I'm going to get raped on transmission work, where is a good place in Raleigh to take my car to get fixed as painlessly as possible?

3)What are my options, if any?

4)What will it cost?

5/19/2010 7:18:21 PM

I'm no transmission expert, but usually when the fluid gets low it loses sufficient pressure to keep the clutches from slipping, which quickly burns them up.

You can either have it rebuilt or swap in a junkyard transmission and hope for the best.

[Edited on May 19, 2010 at 7:36 PM. Reason : I've been wanting to try an auto rebuild, never done one.]

5/19/2010 7:35:51 PM

Let me know what you end up finding out on the pricing. No issues with the transmission on mine, but that seems to be one of the more common failures and I'm curious about what a replacement costs.

5/20/2010 10:44:56 PM

http://www.car-part.com

5/20/2010 11:32:31 PM

Well after taking it to a couple of places and calling around, I've gathered the following info:

To have it rebuilt will cost between $1800-3000 depending on the parts needed.

Buying a remanufactured transmission (new?) and having it installed will be ~$3000.

Getting a used one from a junkyard and having them put it in would be ~2300-2500.


So at this point I'm thinking about just trading it and getting another car.

5/21/2010 6:34:32 PM

or sell it cheap

to someone like me

5/21/2010 9:09:24 PM

just out of curiousity, do you know how to check transmission fluid? don't take offense to the question but most people don't know how to correctly check the fluid.

5/22/2010 5:31:31 PM

if you fix the transmission you know the other problems with your car but if you buy a new car you don't know the history.

5/22/2010 8:54:24 PM

The other problems with my car are numerous and looming. It's 12 years old, and the transmission is but the tip of the iceburg.

It's time I get back into car-payment land and get something newer.

5/28/2010 7:40:49 PM

how much you want for it?

5/28/2010 10:38:13 PM

Traded it in to get something newer.

Ended up having more than just transmission problems.

6/4/2010 6:18:28 AM