Automatic Transmission Problem/Issue

[nos4ag]

Car - 1995 ST195 Toyota Caldina 4WD Wagon

motor - Gen 3 3SGE

use - Daily Driving

problem - Transmission Gear Selecting

occurs/started when - 2-3 days ago

personal situation - Gday Everyone!

I have a Toyota Caldina 1995 Model ST195, Engine 3S-GE, Transmission A540H-09B (Full Time 4WD). When I put the gear lever in "Drive" the car does not pick up in first and it moves very slowly (I think the vehicle moves in third gear.) The O/D (overdrive) light has come on and has flickered a couple of times aswell. As soon as I hit about 3000rpm, the car drives normally. Now this problem doesn't happen all the time but only in the last 2-3 days of driving it too work.

Has anyone ever had this problem with another vehicle or a Caldina at all?

What am I looking for to fix this issue?

Regards, nos4ag!

[Javal]

Well i can tell you what it's doing, but not why.

It's taking off in 'snow' mode. They take off in 3rd to prevent wheelspin on uberslippry surfaces, and then once moving revert to normal.

Being a car from the Japanese market, you could safely assume it has this feature.

[nos4ag]

Yeah, I thought that too.....but the 'Snow Mode' button has not been depressed and works fine, so there must be another fault.

There was also alvery large smell of 'fuel' while driving the last 2 days, but this afternoon I stated the car up after work to drive home and there was no smell of fuel and the car started (off the lights) in 1st gear without any problems.

Now Im stumped! :(

[biggo]

You best bet is plugging a computer in and scanning it.

But i do have to say, Its auto so theres your problem.

[nos4ag]

You best bet is plugging a computer in and scanning it.

But i do have to say, Its auto so theres your problem.

hehe....yeah I know, but it is my daily driver and is a sweet car too. The Auto Transmission service guys have the car now, so they will scan it and let me know what they find tommorow.

I will let you guys know! :)

[nos4ag]

Ok, here is the update on the issue.

The Trans Service Mechanic changed the trans oil, cleaned the filter and bolted everything back up and it seemd to be ok.................for about 2 1/2 weeks and then the same issue started again.

I took the car back to him and the same issue, there was 'metal' (like a very fine liquid metal) in the trans oil which was causing the solonoids to have a fault and cause the car to drive in 'limp mode'.The metal was from a mteal part in teh trans that is failing.

As he was on the phone to me he also found the remnants of a "needle roller bearing" in the trans sump, which as everyone knows........there has been a failure somewhere in the transmission, possible on the main shaft.

Since this has happened, I have done some homework and found out that the 1994-1999SXA10/11 has the same code transmission of A540H. There are a couple of small external differences that I saw on some photos of the transmission, but it all looked the same.
I had the car and new transmission transported down to my mechanic (I would do it myself, but my sciatica in my back is still giving me grief) and he started the exchange.

Then came a couple of small issues, which I hadn't thought of before buying the trans. The Caldina trans has a '3 pin' plug that goes to the valve body for the shift and lock up solonoids. This cable also operates the 'snow mode' and 'power' options from the ECU.
When the mechanic went to connect the wires up the RAV4 transmission plug was only a '2 pin' plug...........DAMN, what do I do?!?!

The thing that I did not check was that the RAV4 has an extra solonoid AND doesn't have 'snow mode' from factory. The extra solonoid controls the '4WD selector for the transfer case', but I have always thought that the RAV4 was an full time AWD the same as the Caldina.

Well, the transmission bolted in all ok and all switches and sensors bolted up to the Caldina wiring loom, except for these issues:

- The 2 pin connector being different on the RAV4 box (Caldina has 3 pins)
- The kick down cable is 10cm too short on the RAV4 trans

Our theortical conclusion is that we will match the two valve bodies up from both transmissions and see if the Caldina valve body will fit into the RAV4 trans with no issues. We have checked and it should bolt up ok........but whether it will drive the car is another question.

I will update soon :)

[nos4ag]

Gday Everyone!

Well, I ended up changing the valve bodies over and didn't have an issue for about a month. The car was driving great, with no issues and then the car started going into "Limp Mode" again.
I have since changed the battery, battery terminals and the spark plugs........and this made a big difference for about 5 days. Then it went into "Lip Mode" again this morning for about 5 seconds.
It jumped out of "Limp Mode" when I gave the car some 'gas' on the pedal, but I just can't seem to diagnose what I have to do to fix the issue.

Does anyone else have any ideas as to what it could be?

[H8CHIR6KU]

why was the first step not to put a scanner on it actually check whats causing it to go into limp mode???

basic diagnose is to find the cause instead of guessing what it could be. find someone thats got a scanner or info on how to read dtc's. toyota may be able to scan this, if not some aftermarket scanners can. i have a carman2 and that can scan caldina's

cars wont go into limp mode without there being a reason and usually the reason is electrical not mechanical.

[nos4ag]

H8CHIR6KU - Well it wasn't the first step, but when I took the car to the Auto Trans repairer the first time, they sent the car off for scanning and the error codes came back as "Shift Solonoids One and Two" and "Lock Up Solonoid".
The solonoids were sending error codes as the bearing that was breaking down was sending metal into the oil which was tripping them up. When we changed the transmission over to the new one, we changed the valve body over and we also changed the "Shift Solonoids"....but we didn't change the "Lock Up Solonoid" as it looked slightly different to the RAV4 solonoid that was on the RAV4 valve body. They are essentially the same part number etc from the auto. trans. parts store, but I just didnt have the cash to buy a new "Lock Up Solonoid".
The "Lock Up Solonoid" is the only electronic part that we didn't change over in the transmission to a new one, and hence could be the reason why I am still getting Limp Mode every now and then.

It doesn't stop me from driving the car at all, and it still drives great, but it just peaves me off when it does it.

[H8CHIR6KU]

so you already know the answer to your problem