Dear experts,
I purchased a '97 Camry (v6) with 103K miles on it in October 2006. It has till now never given me any trouble,
and I have always gotten the routine service done. (Done an oil change, fuel filter change, air filter change, and
rear brakes). Recently I did a long road trip (~1700 miles). My car still seemed to be in a good shape.
However, recently when I drive on the freeway, occasionally it starts vibrating and shaking a whole lot when
I try to exceed 60 mph. The vibration and shaking continues for about 5 minutes (accompanied by some kind
of a periodic thumping sound), and then the car seems to resume normal activity. Initially I read on some forums
that it could be a firing issue, and got my spark plugs changed and fuel injection system cleaned.

However, it is still doing the same thing! One thing I have noticed is that the end of the severe vibration is usually
accompanied by a gear shift (sounds like that). After this occurs, the car starts to lose drive very rapidly. Usually
in Drive mode, the car does 10-15 mph easily without pressing the accelerator. Once this happens, the car comes
to a halt even in Drive mode! It seems to ride rough and heavy at low speeds after this. If I shut it, and start it
after an hour or so, it behaves like nothing happened. At wit's end. Any help is appreciated!

 

One more thing: No engine light is on. I also had the transmission fluid changed recently (before my road trip).

 

It sounds to mike like maybe one of the gears in your transmission is damaged. I would bring it to a tranny shop and see what they can come up with.

 

I'll second that transmisson advise. I've heard of fluke cases where flushing the fluid in a transmission will bring problems to the surface. Not that flushing it was bad but it may have already been bad but removing all the gunk in the fluid actually made a bad internal seal noticeable. A transmision place or even most full service shops should be able to check for transmission codes. Good luck and let us know what the outcome is.

 

yeah they are right. transmission damage

 

yeah that's true... i've experience that before...