Gray Man, Inc.

The ribs are still tender but that's about the only lingering malady.

I wrastled the transmission swap on the Supervenza for a couple days. Its a ridiculous amount of work. My dad was pretty instrumental for about 3 hours in the middle.
20240709_075048.jpg


The LKQ chimps had obviously F'd up several seals so I replaced as necessary.

Once I got it all back together, there's a 60 digit recalibration procedure. Fortunately, I have the factory software for that.
20240712_172333.jpg


The fluid top-off proceedure is ridiculous. Like many modern transmissions, this has no dipstick. You warm it up to 185deg (which takes about 40-50 minutes) then fill or drain through the bottom of the pan. I got it all buttoned up and took it for a drive. It shifted perfectly so I parked it in the garage. The next morning I noticed a bunch of ATF under it.
Initially, I thought it was an axle seal. Once I got it apart, I found out that the yard chimps had poked a hole in the case. **** LKQ! I cleaned everything up and put 3 thick layers of epoxy over the hole.
20240714_124830.jpg
20240716_101344.jpg

After 3 layers, I called it good. I did about 1500 miles for work this week ( in a loaner Vibe), but when I got back I put it all back together. Surprise! Now I have about a dozen communication codes. None of the modules are being friends, so now I only have 2nd and reverse. It was 105 degrees and I'm a quitter. I'll dig deeper tomorrow. Hopefully it's just a bad ground or connection.

I thought Toyotas were supposed to be reliable?
 
The ribs are still tender but that's about the only lingering malady.

I wrastled the transmission swap on the Supervenza for a couple days. Its a ridiculous amount of work. My dad was pretty instrumental for about 3 hours in the middle. View attachment 242755

The LKQ chimps had obviously F'd up several seals so I replaced as necessary.

Once I got it all back together, there's a 60 digit recalibration procedure. Fortunately, I have the factory software for that. View attachment 242756

The fluid top-off proceedure is ridiculous. Like many modern transmissions, this has no dipstick. You warm it up to 185deg (which takes about 40-50 minutes) then fill or drain through the bottom of the pan. I got it all buttoned up and took it for a drive. It shifted perfectly so I parked it in the garage. The next morning I noticed a bunch of ATF under it.
Initially, I thought it was an axle seal. Once I got it apart, I found out that the yard chimps had poked a hole in the case. **** LKQ! I cleaned everything up and put 3 thick layers of epoxy over the hole.View attachment 242757View attachment 242758

After 3 layers, I called it good. I did about 1500 miles for work this week ( in a loaner Vibe), but when I got back I put it all back together. Surprise! Now I have about a dozen communication codes. None of the modules are being friends, so now I only have 2nd and reverse. It was 105 degrees and I'm a quitter. I'll dig deeper tomorrow. Hopefully it's just a bad ground or connection.

I thought Toyotas were supposed to be reliable?
You're a bigger man than me. Thats a lot of nonsense for a transmission R&R. Glad you are feeling better.
 
I thought Toyotas were supposed to be reliable?
All joking aside that sort of stopped being a thing about 10 to 15 years ago, at least compared to the way it used to be.

Some are better than others, BUT they've had a lot of high profile failures more recently. The list is getting long between the Tacomas and 4runners, not to mention the testing/certification scandal and emissions cheating, among others....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rktpwrd and DRIVEN
I was mostly being dramatic. No manufacturer is without issue, but I'd still take a Toyota over most others as a whole. I could certainly tell you plenty of stories about some of the other manufacturers I've done work for.

I've got a couple other cars to work on today, then I'll get back on this Venza. Did rear brakes on my daughter's Forester yesterday afternoon. Wife's Venza needs rear wheel bearings and I need to change oil and replace a noisy cooling fan on the Vibe I borrowerd from my dad.

It's supposed to be 105-108 for the next few days and I'm just not looking forward to working in the shop. We're socked in with wildfire smoke right now and it seems to make it more humid, along with irritating your lungs after a few hours outside.
20240720_073326.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rktpwrd
I was mostly being dramatic. No manufacturer is without issue, but I'd still take a Toyota over most others as a whole. I could certainly tell you plenty of stories about some of the other manufacturers I've done work for.

I've got a couple other cars to work on today, then I'll get back on this Venza. Did rear brakes on my daughter's Forester yesterday afternoon. Wife's Venza needs rear wheel bearings and I need to change oil and replace a noisy cooling fan on the Vibe I borrowerd from my dad.

It's supposed to be 105-108 for the next few days and I'm just not looking forward to working in the shop. We're socked in with wildfire smoke right now and it seems to make it more humid, along with irritating your lungs after a few hours outside. View attachment 242772
Get palm fronds. If the women folk want to keep breaking cars and expect you to fix them, then can fan you while you wrench....
 
Really who's not cheating emissions? When the standards exceed the available technology they do what they have to.
Read up on just how bad the Toyota schemes were. It went beyond emissions. They even had third parties manipulate fuel injection manifolds to inflate false torque certification numbers. Pretty messed up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rktpwrd
Well, I might be over the hump...maybe. I went over all the connections and grounds and was still getting a U0101 TCM communication code. I went through the the diag tree in Toyota's manual (GTS+) and verified all the powers and grounds were present at the main connector at the transmission. I also ohm'd out the wiring between the TCM and ECM, no faults found. At some point during my testing I lost 2nd gear -- now only reverse.

The TCM on these is bolted directly to the transmission and the harness plugs into it. I attempted to resend the 60 digit calibration code and my laptop couldn't even communicate with it now. I swapped out for the original (to the car) TCM and powered it up, then cleared the code again. When I started it up. No lights came back on. Took it for a drive and it shifts fine. No pending codes and no leaks. Apparently, the "new" TCM must have been damaged in shipping and progressively shut down after the transmission install.
20240720_081223.jpg



I'm going to keep it local for awhile until it earns my trust back. Most of my work outings are 1000+ miles, so I don't want to push my luck.
 

GBodyForum is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Amazon, the Amazon logo, AmazonSupply, and the AmazonSupply logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

Please support GBodyForum Sponsors

Classic Truck Consoles Dixie Restoration Depot UMI Performance

Contact [email protected] for info on becoming a sponsor