Hello,
I am trying to find out why my friends 94 camry is having a hard time shifting from 1st to 2nd. It wont shift into second no matter how high the RPMs go....but it will shift if you accelerate up to about 3500rpms then take your foot Off of the gas, then it will shift into 2nd around 1500-2000 rpms. The rest shifts normally. Going into passing gear works fine as well... When shifting into reverse there is a short delay (2-3 seconds) before it engages.

I did a tranny filter kit on it and noticed the filter was dark in color but still had hints of redness to it. And it didnt smell burned.

Can this transmission be manually adjusted? Has anyone else heard of this issue?

Thanks

 

Old thread but related to my issue with my tranny.

My specific issue is when its cold until the tranny fluid reaches a certain normal operating temperature, it will not shift in to O/D or 4th gear while driving on the freeway or any road that is above 45mph.

Once it reaches what I believe is normal operating temp, then it will kick up into the O/D and drive normally as long as the tranny fluid stays in that temp range.

I have been street testing this since I notice it acting that way when I started driving the car for daily driving.

I bought it used and the history is vague on the car. I looked at thre tranny fluid level and its fine, and the tranny fluid is a dark red, so I am assuming its time to flush that out and change fluid.

Does this tranny have a replaceble filter that I can get at under the car with the tranny pan off?

I am hoping its just a tranny fluid changed and filter change.

The car has 221500ish miles on it.

And like I said once its at operating temp this is no longer an issue. I have been searching and there is very little on the subject.

Thanks for the help in advance..

 

Well after owing and driving it for the past three weeks, I have noticed that this shifting issue only happens when the transmission fluid is cold on start up and once you warm up the care for at least 15-20 minutes then all is normal.

For now its all good after a good warm up.

I am still trying to figure out if this is a clutch pack issue or if its a temp sensor issue for these models, anyone have any insight?

 

Converter lock out occurs until the coolant is hot.

The trans uses the EFI water temp sensor (connected to engine/trans computer).

The trans has a screen mesh filter incorporated into the trans pump intake pipe. For a photo do an internet search on the part. Doubt if this is plugged up but once the pan is off can inspect.

When the pan is off clean the two magnets on the bottom of the pan.

 

Took me a while, but I got tired of tranny fluid leaking on the drive way so last week me and a friend drained the transmission fluid, the replaced the gasket and filter and fluid.

No metal on the magnets, and discovered why the gasket leaked to begin with, it seems as if the transmission was serviced and there was a bolt missing, so I replaced it and the leak is solved but the convertor lock out issue is still happening.

The transmission will not shift until the temperature of the fluid hits normal operating temp.

Is this sensor accessible and easy to replace?

 

I know it's accessible but it's to replace. I haven't tried it yet. I'll ask my pals!!

 

Thanks. I searched through the PDF manual and did some research on google and found out where this sensor was.

Its real easy to replace, so I ordered a part from an ebay seller, should be here by tomorrow or Friday.

Here is where its located:

 

Ok, so I lived with just warming up the camry for while until its warm enough to drive off.

So I changed out that thermo sensor and it did not fix it.

Well I noticed that my heater was not blowing real hot air at full heat.

So I decided to flush out my heater core incase the previous owners never cared too and just because it made sense.
So I used my Air compressor and make a blow valve that I could control the flow of air with a lever and back flushed the core, it worked flawlessly and got out some gunk that was stuck in the core. But it was not as much gunk as I expected.

I put everything back and filled it back up with coolant, then ran the car for 5 minutes, and it got warmer so I took it for drive, but as I was heading toward the freeway at normal speed the temperature gauge starts to head down to cold as has been doing the past couple of months.

So, I went home and quit for the night.

I kept thinking, maybe the thermostat was stuck open, because once I come to a stop the temp gauge would come back up to normal heat and so would the heat come back as well.

This past week I discussed this with my friend who owns a mechanical shop, and I picked his brain, and he said it sounds a lot like the thermostat.

So, Yesterday I go pick up a thermostat at Autozone and then went about changing the thermostat.

*Note: 92-96 Camry's with 2.2liter motors, the thermostat is at the front of the engine right next to the oil filter.
I found out the hard way and trusted the documentation from Autozone, and a PDF manual that I downloaded.

Changed it out, filled it back up again and started it up and let it run for 5 minutes and man!!! That was the problem. I have full heat, so much so that I get sweaty in my car with the temp being 28 degrees outside.

I ran it on the freeway to see if the temp would come back down, and nope, it just keeps blowing strong heat.

For those who do not know the basics:

1. Thermostat - controls the heated vs cooled coolant.
2. If its stuck open then the coolant keeps flowing all throughout the system and your heater will never get hot, and it over cools the motor.
3. Its supposed to trap coolant behind it until it reaches a high temp usually 179-185 degrees, then once its too hot it opens up and releases the hotter coolant back to the radiator to be cooled down and start the cycle over again.


So to add to this, it fixed my non-shifting problem due to the thermo sensor not getting hot enough to tell the transmission to shift, because the coolant was not getting hot enough until it ran for over 20 minutes to get to operating temp.

I know some or most of you know this, but just wanted to do my part to contribute knows or unknown information.


Here is where its located for futuer reference:

 

great!!!!!!!!