BadViper22

I dislike aamco very much! Well I haven't posted much on my car's disabilities lately so I think I might be overdue. Anyways it all started when my dad, my friend, and I piled in to the Lexus for an enjoyable ride to the NHRA gatornationals. As we got up to speed on the highway my dad noticed the hood was shaking up and down somewhat rapidly. I assured him that this is a normal thing that happens to all cars. I was ordered to pull the car over and during the process I had to go over those retarded bumps they put in the side of the road to "wake you up" when you start drifting off the side of the road as you fall asleep at the wheel. Needless to say, taking these things on at 55 mph was pretty violent. No sooner than after I came to a dead stop, I saw smoke coming out from under the hood. I threw the hood open to make sure I didn't just blow my poor baby 3vz. After some examination the smoke is from burning transmission fluids on top of the transmission. I'm pretty sure that's not where it's supposed to go... So we go ahead and make our way back home. So now smoke is coming from under the hood, and it seems like she has no idea when to shift! At one point I stayed in 3rd for a minute and a half. Total chaos. Now for what I diagnosed... It seemed that the leak was coming from the hand sized motor/pump that sits on top of the transmission. Does anyone know what that is called and what it's purpose is? Also it seemed like the fluid wasn't being cooled properly as if it wasn't being sent through the front mount cooler. If any of you gurus know what could have happened or what went wrong, I would love some input. Either way I'm sending this back to aamco with my anger. Oh and the best part is there were no CEL's and the temp gauge never moved up. Looks like she is out of commission for a while.

powerwave

oh damn

i'll try and get you an answer tonight- in fact, when you mentioned you had some work done at aamco DH thought it was bad news.

JSM1284

Is the motor on top your referring to the Starter? If so, it may be that your torque converter seal has blown out, causing fluid to be flung all around inside the bell housing, and appaering to be coming from the starter.....

Unless it is just overheating and coming out the vent? I am assuming you recently had Aamco overhaul your trans? Did they add an aftermarket trans cooler? If not, they are suppose to.

BadViper22

I knew I should've taken it somewhere else... had that same feeling in my gut.

I check the trans cooler to see if something was wrong and the answer is no, it's the same old stock one. I hope to god the seal hasn't blown out! Everything is covered under warranty but that will take a while to fix. And I'm guessing it's the starter, it's cylindrical and says Toyota on it.

JSM1284

Yes, That should be the starter.

llcoolpass

i dont know if anyone said this yet, but the hydraulics for the cooling fan it sounds like, or a leak from the transmission somehow

one scenario: poor cooling, burnt out the transmission fluid, transmission running bad now

another scenario: transmission leaking pressurises fluid and shifting wrongly. perhaps fluid is low, from leak, and is simply shifting wrong because it is low

_BRIAN_

BadViper22

It's back at aamco for now, I'll keep posting updates as i get em.

Maxx941

iTrader: (1)

How long ago since you had it worked on?

BadViper22

Transmission was just built in December.

Update:
Turns out it was a busted seal for the bell housing. Replaced under warranty and all the parts checked out to be fine. I'll be picking it up tomorrow.

JSM1284

So basically it was the torque converter seal.....?

BadViper22

So I took the car for a drive today... And I know that it is supposed to stay in third gear for a bit for the sake of the engine but this just seemed like it was pissed off at forth gear and wouldn't shift. Not only that but the shifts between 2 and 3 felt like it took forever. So I pulled the EFI fuse to reset the ECU but by that time the transmission had been already hot and didn't seem to make any difference. So would adjusting the kick-down cable do anything or are there other ways i could try to adjust this?

Back at the matter of aamco... They said it was just "a loose seal". And they also said since it's under their warranty and they would have to fix anything if it broke anyways, they don't think anything is wrong. So they tightened it up and called it a day.

Another thing that is on my mind, If there is too much fluid in the transmission would it cause retardant shifts? Thank you guys in advance.

JSM1284

Too much fluid is just as bad as not enough....