I bought a 93 Camry with the 4 cylinder and automatic. The guy I bought it from said it was giving a code for the speed sensor. O/D flashs and sometimes it shifts hard. I figured I could change that out easy enough. Got it home and found out that the tranny that's installed is obviously not original as there is no place to install the speed sensor (just a hollowed out area at that location). The speed sensor electrical connection is disconnect. What are the issues with driving this car with a mismatched tranny and is there a workaround to running without a speed sensor?

Thanks, Jim

 

Does the speedometer work? If so determine if the car still uses a speedo cable. If no cable and the speedo works its getting a signal from a sensor in order to work.

Examine the trans housing carefully for wiring other then that used to power the shift solenoids. There could be a speed sensor located on the back side of trans in front of the drivers side axle.

 

Speedo works. Looks like it's got a 94 or later tranny installed based upon looking at picutres of those offered for sale on E-Bay. Toyota went to one sensor in 94 versus two. I've seen some suggestions that changing out the harness and ECU would work. Not so sure about that, could be more trouble than putting in a 92-93 tranny. Haven't run it since figuring out since I bought a new speed sensor for $70 and wasn't able to find one on the tranny to replace. I'll try in in manual mode and if all else fails, drive it till it drops and sell in for parts. I only paid $550 for the car to start with.

 

Yes, the trans went from 2 sensors to one. One was a backup for the other.

Where is the hole for the non-existent sensor, it should be on top of the diff housing?

The issue with a new ECU is they are specific to model/year/trans/emissions. A previous model computer may have issues with a later model engine requiring more work around.

Perhaps there is away to fool the computer into thinking the signals form the existing sensor are coming from the non-existing sensor. Some kind of splitter on the existing sensor.

The trans may have hard shifting for reasons other then the lack of a second speed sensor. Make sure the fluid is in decent condition, not black or too brown in color.

As to long term effects, perhaps none assuming the hard shifting is do to other reasons.