zachjones

I recently purchased a 2001 ES300 with 173k miles on it. I bought it to replace my Honda Accord that had a bad transmission so I may be a little paranoid. Whenever I take off the car makes a sort of whine/whistle noise in between 1st and 2nd gear and it seems to hesitate. The RPMs don’t seem to be too high, the highest it’s shifted between 1st and 2nd was at 2100. I’ve read around and I can’t tell if this sound and shift RPM is normal or not for this car. It seems to do this even after the car is warmed up.

I don’t know much of the transmission history on this car, I do know the fluid has been changed before but not how often. I went ahead and drained and refilled it with OEM Toyota T-IV and changed the filter.

I’ve uploaded a video of me driving the car -
If someone would please watch this and tell me if it seems normal or not. If it isn’t normal, I hope it’s possible for me to save the transmission before it eventually goes out. Also, what is good maintenance on these transmissions? I’ve read that some people suggest using the Valvoline MaxLife fluid over the OEM and even some have installed transmission coolers externally.

I have no CELs on the car, I appreciate anyone’s help with this.

Thank You,

PFB

I don't know if you are aware, but these cars I designed to not shift into overdrive while the transmission is cold. I noticed that your engine temperature is cold. So repeat the test after you drove for at least 5 min.

Phil

zachjones

Here is a second video of me driving the car after it has warmed up -

PFB

I'm trying to figure out what you think may be wrong with your car. I can't see anything wrong with it from the video

LeX2K

Me either.

zachjones

I feel a hesitation in 1st gear but I am guessing all of these cars are like that. I just wanted to make sure my transmission was okay and not going bad.

Thanks for everyone's help

zachjones

Oro

zachjones

Oro

Yes, you did it correctly. BUT:

I and others have noticed that on the U151e transmission, it reads too high when tested warm (meaning you are almost a quart low in reality). I do NOT know the U140 is the same, but it stands to reason it might be since they are very similar. I suspect there is some baffle effect in the pan that causes this. For peace of mind, i would check it cold. Start it one morning, shift through the gears then go check it before driving it and see where it is vs. the "Cold" mark and make sure it's registering about the right fill when cold, too.

The change in behavior could be just because of the new fluid and not the fill level; best to double check since the fill measure can be weird to get right on some of these.

zachjones

After a few days of trial and error, I drained even more atf out and now the fluid is red and in the correct marks on the dipstick when hot and cold respectively. My 1-2 shift quality is now much better. I also dropped the pan and changed the filter a few thousand miles ago so maybe I filled it up with too much fluid when I refilled it. I’m surprised at how well this U140e is holding up with almost 180k miles on it, the magnets in the pan had very few to no metal shavings on them when I dropped the pan.