2003 Toyota Camry transmission

Tiny
INNDAFACE
  • MEMBER
  • 2003 TOYOTA CAMRY
  • 39,000 MILES
So I was revving my engine in neutral around 4500 showing off my new exhaust system and accidently bumped the shifter into drive. Nothing seemed to happen. The tires did not squeal but the car sagged a lot and barely moved like a manual stating in like 3rd gear. Did the torque converter kick in or what? The car seems to be driving fine but it is my baby and I want to make sure transmission on that car is strong and should be okay.
Friday, September 6th, 2013 AT 8:05 PM

5 Replies

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,916 POSTS
Some transmissions have safeguards built in that prevents a clutch pack from engaging, (shifting into gear), when engine speed is too high. Shifting at that high of speed will shock some of the rotating members. On some designs the fluid must pass through small passages to fill a clutch pack to engage it, and that occurs relatively slowly regardless of engine speed. If the shifts are still crisp and solid, there likely was no damage done.
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Friday, September 6th, 2013 AT 8:41 PM
Tiny
INNDAFACE
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Cool, so I will be able to tell if something is wrong the next time I drive my car
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Friday, September 6th, 2013 AT 9:09 PM
Tiny
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Not necessarily. I had a tough old Chrysler many years ago that I wanted to shift into neutral to coast down a long hill to a stop sign. I accidentally stuffed it into reverse at 55 mph. That hammered pretty hard on a bushing and it developed a flat spot and a pulsing torque converter vibration, only I didn't know that was the cause until a few years and many miles later when it started dumping fluid on the ground only when the engine stopped running. The vibration pounded on the torque converter's hub until it cracked and broke away. Being the uncommonly reliable car it was, it still got me 80 miles to home after the horrendous banging started.

The way you described what it felt like, I don't think you hurt anything. What is more likely, if anything, is you may have hurried up a future failure. Perhaps the set of clutch plates in one of the clutch packs will start slipping requiring rebuilding the transmission at 245,950 miles instead of not until 269,396 miles.
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Saturday, September 7th, 2013 AT 12:43 AM
Tiny
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Do you recommend me making an appointment with Toyota to check my transmission then
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Saturday, September 7th, 2013 AT 9:13 AM
Tiny
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What are they going to check? The best they can do is test-drive the car and verify it's shifting normally. You can do that. If some related problem shows up in the future, there's no way of predicting that now. Drive the car. Don't fix what's not broken.
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Saturday, September 7th, 2013 AT 6:14 PM

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