msekanha

The warranty seems fair... Not to be a debbie downer, but I doubt you'll find anyone willing to rebuild for under 2k.. You never know though. Keep shopping around...

And i'm not too sure if these transmissions really had any 'flaws'... if anything, i'm sure the replacement parts
will be of better quality of the originals. Just keep your new transmission clean.

If anything, you should throw a five-speed in that puppy.. 8-)

Bumbobee

I was thinking about the 5 speed, how could that be done though? I would love to have a manual.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Basically, most should 'would'. I'd ask in detail what this entails... Obviously they won't swap torque converter for a new unit, but all the solenoids, gaskets, etc should be replaced with that service.

Rockauto even sells a 'transmission rebuild kit' for this car, i'd highly suggest looking it up, and maybe printing a picture/product details to see what these guys are doing.

Then again, for 2000$ they better ****ing be using that 300$+ rebuild kit as their 'basis' instead of pure profits & labor costs to replace a couple of solenoids. Which makes sense since anymore money into a transmission fix and a lot of people would be scrapping their own cars and getting something new. Either way 2k, is 2k... so make sure it's done right.

I personally wouldn't know what to do in this case... and was just debating this in my head a few weeks back 'what if' this happened to me.

Bumbobee

It's a tough spot for me because this is my first car and so far the first major problem, really the first only problem aside from routine maintainance.

Car has 225 k km on it, and I've babied it. It looks like new from the outside, has been run on synthetic oil, has suspension done (bushings/struts), timing belt, spark plugs.

I'm going to do the 2 k fix and make sure they use the proper stuff. If I can squeeze out another 100 k km after this from the car I will be happy. The car is mint, body is good, has been rust proofed every year. I can't let it go

Bumbobee

Hey guys, just an update for those that want to know.

So they sourced a used transmission for cheap but when they opened it up it wasn't good. They sourced another one from Japan for $ 1200 with low mileage but it wasn't the right one, didn't even fit. After that they just started the rebuild.

I got my car back last week and so far it works great. Shifts are smoother and quicker. I am just hoping it lasts another 100 k km at least, hopefully 200 k km :P

For now I am keeping the car. I might throw it on kijiji or craigslist just to see what happens, if I get a good offer I might sell it.

BDSL

I have a 97 ES300 with 450,000 km on original transmission. I change the tranny fluid every 24,000km. Make sure you sure the rcorrect fluid,

rebornS14

im having the same exact problem as OP right now =(

it makes the buzzing noise and the car will barely move in gear until its warmed up for a while then the car will move forward but slowly without much power. weird thing is i dont have a CEL light on yet so i dont know what i need to do first.

the fluid was flushed about 30k miles ago at a shop and its still a good reddish color and i dont smell any burnt smell. should i just try changing out the fluid again since i dont have a CEL? if it was one of the solenoids it would show a CEL right? i haven't driven the car since the loss of power but the buzzing @ cold has been going on for a good month now. didn't notice anything wrong with the trans though. just figured it was a air pump or something going bad.

any input would be appreciated.

Bumbobee

I had the buzzing sound for almost a month and the CEL came on right at the end when I was taking it to my mechanic. That day on the drive home from work the car started shifting hard from 2nd to 3rd. I didn't have the CEL on at all before that. My fluid color was good, but then again I didn't change it for maybe 80,000 km since last change.

rebornS14

i tried doing a drop and fill. i used my compressor to blow it all out through the filler hole. i got alot of it out. i filled it back up with the toyota fluid and the noise wasn't there but it came back, just not as loud. i was able to drive it around with any issues. no jerking, no hard shifting. seems fine except for the buzzing. looks like im going to have to buy some solenoids. =/

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

LOL, my turn to join the club!

Just refuses to shift out of first, checked the VSS and it was all good, all systems work - No CEL's, no errors.
The toyolex parts managers said the three potential solenoids needing replacement will run upwards of 800$ and the guys specifically stated it may NOT fix the issues since there are many systems in place to work together so there is no guarantees with solenoid replacement - might as well get a new unit altogether.

We'll see what a new used one will run me by the end of the day, my mech is suggesting upwards of 5hrs for work.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

So, I'm married to this car and have no choice but fixing it. Rebuilds are 3500$ over here, not sure what you ended up getting for only 1500$... Going to get a 120-150k ish used trans for 950$ plus 8hrs labor

**** these cars suck for getting parts over here...

msekanha

Man, that sucks. I used to live in northern Maine, so I know the pain of trying to get foreign parts delivered. How much miles did you have before the tranny blew?

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

I got ~150k (almost) on it. I seriously don't want to do it, but I married the cars with the thousands I put into it over the last 3 years. If I had spent half of what I spent it would've been at the junkyard now and I'd have a new car...

msekanha

I'm assuming there's not too many junked es300/camrys in your area.

I understand the commitment. I put thousands of dollars of work in my es300, hence the reason why I never sold/traded it in.

I'm just suprised your tranny went so soon with such young miles.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

^ It happens I guess. Supposedly the Sienna shares the same u140e trans, but no JY will confirm for my mech. and he doesn't have the time to spend all day calling around. Might as well get a lexus one, cross my fingers and hope it lasts for another few years. Once the 30 day warranty is up, it's a roll of the dice using a 'used' part. However, the yard told him that the new 'used' one has approx. half the mileage my car has now. [Car 150k mi., trans. between 75-95k mi]

I'm hoping for the best at this point, and not too bummed about being out 2k in the near future. As I DO like the car. Not to mention the 'nearest' replacement is a GS with 407kms for 2g [walking right back into a headache], I can't get any LS' in my area and the ones within 5hrs drive are low mileage 91-94's - just too ugly and dated for my liking. 95-97 have well over 400kms on them for a couple grand, not worth it. And anything 98-00 dealers still think they can ask 12k for them... so yeah.

Anything over 5k but under 15 is higher mileage. I like the acura TL's but the '07's are fetching 8-10k with well over 175kms [so more work in a 'new' car] and quite frankly I don't want car payments just yet... I've a few things i'd like to buy well before that so the opportunity cost of keeping the ES outweighs anything else right now.

On the plus side I get a chance to do the rear main seal now!