1998 Corolla 4 Speed Automatic Transmission Proble - Toyota Corolla, Chevy Prizm (1998-2008)

Ross_t

Greetings, 1998 Corolla 90k miles, won't upshift. Transmission fuild is clean and full. I need to evealuate the car, (daughter has it out of state at school.) But has anyone experienced this ?

Thanks

I assume that it has the correct fluid in the transmission - or hasn't been flushed recently during service. Could be a ECM issue - as I've heard of a few cases of the transmission refusing to upshift. The ECM determins shift points with information from the TPS and coolant temperation sensor - if any are faulty or are reading out of range values - the ECM could be confused and tries to hold the gear. Scanning the ECM and running a datalogging test will be the only way to know for sure. Hard to say for sure - but if it is not the fluid, 99% of the time it is something electrical and very difficult to diagnose.

Ross_t

Thanks, I was thinking something along those lines. I have an OBDII reader. So if she can get it home, I'll see if it's posting new errors. She's also having EVAP issues that I'm trying to get Toyota to fix as part of the extended warranty agreement reached with the EPA.

Good Luck with the EVAP fix and transmission issue - if you get resolution in that, please post feedback. I've had EVAP issues early with my car - luckily they were minor and I could get to them to fix. But trying to get Toyota or the dealership to foot the bill on anything is like pulling teeth.

Ross_t

Believe it our not I went through the EPA who had filed a law suit against Toyota over this matter (EVAP.) After approx. 2 weeks, I got a call from Toyota (local dealer) saying they would like to evaluate the car. The fellow I spoke with from the EPA requested I follow up with him on the outcome. I'm hoping this will work out, but could be just another runaround.

My daughter is bringing the Corolla to a dealer near her school for the transmission diagnostics. I want to get an idea how bad the problem is and see if it's safe to drive 200 + miles home so I can fix it.

I'll post the outcome...

Ross_t

My daughter brought the Corolla in for evaluation at the dealer near her school. They actually replaced the VSV purge solenoid and cleared the po441 and po446 codes, no charge. They test dove the car and found no issue with the transmission, telling her to bring it back if the shifting problem resurfaces. (They found no other error codes in the obdll memory.)

So I'm guessing we still have a intermittent sensor that's on it's way out. Not sure why it wouldn't have posted to odb, but... I guess the good news is it will be cheaper and easier to fix that a new transmission.

I'm thinking about retrieving the car and commuting with it for a couple of weeks to in order to weed out any problems.

Ross

Good to hear that they fixed the EVAP issue under warranty. Sensor / electrical issues are a pain unless you get them to fail while diagnosing the system. Good Luck.

Ross_t

Which oxygen sensor seems to go on these cars? The front or rear or both?

Hard to say - should be about the same - but I have seen more posts on replacing the upstream (pre-cat) O2 sensor than the downstream (post-cat) sensor. Not sure if that indicates a problem with the front sensors or if owner/tech decided to change the front one first. Lots of times - these sensors are fine, another issue is causing them to read out of spec.

Ross_t

This in regards to my daughter's car, (which I'm trying to troubleshoot 200 miles away!) She indicates that sporadically, the car stumbles, bucks under acceleration, reving high before shifting. She pulls over, restarts the car will run ok. Toyota pulled the codes for an issus I had seen, working with them for the EVAP warranty repair. No other codes found. They cleared these after replacing the VSV purge solenoid.

Tidal's post in the performance forum sounds exactly what my daughter is experiencing and traced the problem to a o2 sensor.

These sensors are fairly expensive, so I'd rather not shotgun both of them.

Ross_t

I retrieved my daughter's Corolla yesterday in NY. I hooked up the obdII reader and found a P0302 code, cyl #2 , misfire. I pulled that plug, cleaned it, re-gapped it and drove the car 200 miles home. It did sutmble a couple of times, so I replaced the 90k mile wires and replaced the plugs with the oem NGK model. Ran fine 50 miles this morning. I'll drive it to work for tha balance of the week to ensure I got the underlying issue. My question: how do you gap those twin electrode plugs?

The ends are radiused.

Normally they are gapped OK from the factory (as long as the cardboard sleeve protector is still on the plug and it hasn't been dropped). Hard to find - but they make a gapper that kind of looks like a hole punch - slips over the center electrode and you make adjustments to the ground electrodes by pushing them away or pressing them toward the tool.

Most of the time - one electrode is slighly closer than the other - still OK, since the closer electrode will eventually wear down and the other electrode will take over. They use these dual electrode plugs to extend service life - they can be replaced with single electrode types with no problems.

Ross_t

Thanks for the info. One more question: Is Toyota the only place that carries Type t-4 transmission oil. I called around and no one sems to carry this.

Supposedly Amsoil, Mobil 3309, and Redline make Type T-IV compatible fluids - but I would err on the safe side and stick with Toyota.

If this is for a 1998 Corolla, then I would double check the ATF requirement, since it should use Dexron-III ATF. Type T-IV has different friction modifiers and will really eat up the clutch bands inside. Dealer did the same thing in my 2002 - added Type T-IV, took a flush and several drains before the fluid started looking clean.

it is only at toyota as far as i know.

it is expensive, but you gotta stick with it if it is for your car.

Ross_t

Whoops, looks like Dexron III is what I needed. As far as I read on the web, T-4 is basically Dexron III. But I guess I'll change it out again for Dexron III for safety sake. Geez, it did shift nice coming into work this morning!

I sent a note to Toyota.com asking if the T-4 stuff is compatible.

Let us know what Toyota says for compatibility.

When I inquired - they weren't sure at first, but it was apparent that they were not compatible.

Did notice quite a bit more material on the bottom of the trans pan when I dropped it to do a drain and refill - but it did shift "cleaner" with the Type T-IV, than with the standard Dexron-III.

After I switched to Redline ATF (Dexron-III) - got the same smoothness and shifting quality without any noticable increase in wear material dropping into the pan. Over 70K miles after the dealer goof and no problems yet (knock on wood).

Ross_t

How many miles did you go with the type T-4?

Ross_t

Toyota's response was the expected: use what the owner's manual tells you to use. So, I flushed it out and added fresh DexronIII.

Looks like I've weeded out the problems my kid was having with this car (for now) and I'm starting to come around to why these little cars are so popular. The handling and power is pretty good stock and I got 38 mpg in fairly spirited driving over the past week. I feel the suspension and brakes are a little mushy, probably needs stuts and some brake adjustments.

Thanks

How many miles did you go with the type T-4?

About 800 miles - less than two weeks of driving for me. Just didn't have the time to flush it myself - that was the amount of time it took me to convince the dealership that the fluid was incompatible with my transmission.

it is only at toyota as far as i know.it is expensive, but you gotta stick with it if it is for your car.

When I bought a case of Toyota T-IV ATF at my dealer, it came to $4.95 a quart. If that is expensive, what would you call an "inexpensive" ATF?

Ross_t

Dexron III cost me $1.29/quart. I guess that's fairly inexpensive.