Originally Posted by andrewoh12

I will need to check on this today... I have not seen this being suggested on other threads. I will report back sometime this week.
Yesterday, I had issues with 1st gear slipping and eventually catching once I had rev'ed about 2k. took a couple of tries. I am very afraid this will ruin the tranny in the long run and I was not at a place where I can leave the car so I had no choice...
I also thought maybe I am losing pressure from a possible leak in the tranny pan? I noticed some leakage around the pan so I had ordered a new gasket and filter (might as well change since I don't know when it was last serviced).


I had changed out the capacitors in the ECU but didn't really notice any changes. I had one of the capacitors bent (not sure how this happened) and I noticed it was previously replaced with a rebuilt 96 ECU (mine is 95).
Weirdly enough, I've never had any CEL on even with my drive slipping (on first gear). Not sure if that's normal though.
I've never tried ECT on. I will try sometime this week (need to get my tie rods and engine/tranny mount replaced). I've only been trying back and forth to my friends garage to do some work on it since I live in an apartment.
I also did a compression test last week. overall I have very low compression across the board. From cylinder 1 - 8, it's showing 130, 120, 140, 110, 90, 110, 110, 130. Changed out the spark plugs for now and noticed my 8th cylinder wiring hardness was popped off the cylinder (had low idling so I assumed it was due to this). I am convinced the low compression may be the issue for my sluggish acceleration.
I am thinking of a whole engine and tranny swap (with the same 1UZ FE non-vvti). Don't want to give up on it too quick as I think I still have time left before it completely dies on me.
Hoping I can pin down the issue with my drive 1st gear not catching asap...
I will provide updates as I go this week... haha