Strange Transmission Occurrence/Problem (1 Viewer)

[snowsurflax]

Ok, so first off, it may sound incredulous, so don't bother posting the "must be user error" or "couldn't have happened it's BS" comments. Already have considered those and believe the wife.

So, bought my 94 FJ80 in Feb, I'm third owner. Truck has been great except for light dents and dings, even has F&R factory lockers. Haven't had much time to start learning every thing about it, and hate that first post to this forum is searching for help.

So wife takes truck in middle of night to get phone chargers from home (staycation, I was at hotel). Starts it, puts it in R, truck won't go. Does this a few more times, turns off, starts it, tries again few more times. Final time she does that, truck lurches forward hard, smashing three cars. Truck then kicks into reverse and shoots back in reverse fast (engine revved really high according to witnesses) and takes out an old beetle and fence. Took truck to service station, techs couldn't repeat problem. Took it to dealer, drove with master tech, couldn't find a problem.

So, as I said I haven't had a chance to learn everything about the truck and don't have a clear idea of the transmission setup on my LC. Is it possible for the transmission to have gone into the wrong gear or locked up the torque converter or something like that to explain what happened to my truck?

I've already reviewed possible user errors and could be the problem (but let's not forget its my wife, marital bliss requires I not question her recantment), but would like to know if it is possible for mechanical/electrical failure to make this happen since I take my 3 year and 20 month old kids to daycare in this rig.

So any ideas anyone? HUGE TIA to any posters.

 

[CRUIZERZILLA]

WOW thats pretty scary. Gotta love automatic transmissions with ECT, My buddy rolled his 4Runner because his automatic decided to up shift from 1st all the way into 3rd near the top of a steep incline ...stalled the engine, rolled back lost control and rolled 8 times. It was due to ECT failure or so he figures.

 

[snowsurflax]

*bump*

Sorry, also wouldn't mind any intelligent explanation as to why it just isn't possible with details about how the transmission or linkage or TCU interwork on this thing.

 

[SiRaDuDe]

Ok, so first off, it may sound incredulous, so don't bother posting the "must be user error" or "couldn't have happened it's BS" comments. Already have considered those and believe the wife.

OK, I'll stick my neck out.

Are you having any marital problems?
Does the wifey like to drink?

Sorry man, It's just the first time I've ever heard of a Land Cruiser doing this.

Unless your shift linkage came loose and got shifted into odd position while trying to get into Drive.... but since it was checked out and this porblem was not evident. YOU HAVE GREMLINS!

 

[CJF]

I can say with certainty that such an issue has never been reported here for as long as I've been a member.

 

[SiRaDuDe]

Let's say for assumption that the accelerator pedal or cable got stuck down at a high rate.

I've never tried to shift the LC while in high REVs, dont know how it would act.

Maybe you can find an empty lot and try this yourself.

Turn on LC, give lots of gas (replicating a stuck pedal) and go through the gears, see if that has a similar result?

The ODD thing is that once shifter is in DRIVE you can not go to REVERSE unless you press the shifter button/lock (safety feature on most cars)

SO you are sure it was forward first then reverse? (reverse first then forward is more common as there is NO lock feature between reverse and drive)
I've witness cars crash in reverse then via bump/force get shifted in Drive then crash again.... (but you are reporting the oposite wich is ODD, because you cant bump into reverse!)


You can try to pull any TRANSMISSION CODES if present (NOT CEL CODES) to see if transmission reported any failures?

 

[Tenni126]

The truck shouldn't start in reverse, so if you say she quote "Starts it, puts it in R, truck won't go. Does this a few more times, turns off, starts it, tries again few more times." she would have had to go back and forth to either Park or Neutral, correct? Is it possible she grabbed Drive first, expecting reverse, and then after hitting the cars in front accidently shoved the shifter into reverse on impact?

Past that, glad no one was hurt, but I haven't heard of anything mechanical that would cause this. Stranger things have happened, of course.

 

[SiRaDuDe]

Is it possible she grabbed Drive first, expecting reverse, and then after hitting the cars in front accidently shoved the shifter into reverse on impact?

But in order to go from drive to reverse you cant just bump it, you need to press the Shift button also!

Unless she had her hand on the shifter and button pressed the whole time... its possible... If she started the truck in Neutral thinking it was in PARK, then go down one gear thinking reverse but actaully DRIVE...

But we are still talking about user error here, not mechanical...

 

[snowsurflax]

Quite likely user error, but hard to say since I wasn't there. She hadn't drank recently enough as the cops didn't even give her a breathalyzer test. Could have been she mistook which gear she was in, that might be the cause. Dealer tech couldn't find anything wrong with it, only code they got was a temp code but that was probably before I got the vehicle since it's never gotten hot since I've had it.

Mentioning accelerator cable, the accelator pedal is pretty damn stiff. You really have to mash it to get going.

Last thing, don't know if this is normal or not, but when accelerating and the rpm's go up and you suddenly take your foot off the pedal I frequently get a bang in the drive line like something is unloading suddenly, a lot like when a differential is locking up and then lets go.

So how electronic is this transmission? Is the linkage manual or is it electronic selection? Gramlins are easier to believe when there's electronics involved, especially ones nearly 20 y/o.

 

[hawaiicruz]

How about this, truck is in gear but not going anywhere (known problem with 94 ) wife revs it way up, and then it engages, smashing 1st set of cars, now she shifts into reverse same problem, same outcome... That would be my guess

 

[Frankencruiser]

A couple of ideas, but just throwing stuff out here. You mentioned your accelerator is stiff. Is it possible the cable is old and jammed or got stuck temporarily? Without the truck running shove it to the floor and see if it stays there?

Do you have aftermarket floor mats? The thick rubber mats on my truck used to slide up under the gas pedal, perhaps the floor mat ended up on top of the gas pedal somehow?

How are the brakes on the truck? Even with the engine floored in low the brakes should be able to overcome the engine power, so unless they are weak she should have been able to stop the truck rather quickly.

Is the shift linkage adjusted properly? When I replaced the motor mounts on mine I had to adjust the linkage a bit.

In order for the truck to jump forward with any significant power the gas pedal must have been depressed. Since the gas pedal is not electronic even if the trans was having issues what you describe would require operator error or a second, unrelated occurrence.

Sorry to hear your story, but it really does sound like some sort of operator error. My wife drove the 80 home from work one night, she told me it wouldn't go over 65mph for some reason. The only thing I can figure out is she put the transmission in 2nd instead of drive and had it at the limiter the whole way home.

 

[DSRTRDR]

Sorry man, It's just the first time I've ever heard of a Land Cruiser doing this.

no, it's been reported before - google "technical service bulletins" and you will find that some '93 80 did the same thing some years back

http://www.autosafety.org/node/615057

it's not the only one, but it's too late in the day for me to search for the others I found

 

[mypancreasbroke]

Sorry to hear your story, but it really does sound like some sort of operator error. My wife drove the 80 home from work one night, she told me it wouldn't go over 65mph for some reason. The only thing I can figure out is she put the transmission in 2nd instead of drive and had it at the limiter the whole way home.

Hence why I just smile lovingly when the fiance asks to drive my baby.

 

[SiRaDuDe]

10316523 - TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 1993 | The Center for Autosafety

it's not the only one, but it's too late in the day for me to search for the others I found

Nice Find!

 

[CJF]

no, it's been reported before - google "technical service bulletins" and you will find that some '93 80 did the same thing some years back

10316523 - TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 1993 | The Center for Autosafety

it's not the only one, but it's too late in the day for me to search for the others I found

That report reads like a classic case of accidently mashing the skinny pedal to me.

 

[snowsurflax]

AWESOME!! YOU ROCK!! I will totally research more of these. OMG, this makes me (and my wife more so I'll bet) feel so relieved.

Although F-me, looks like I'm headed back to a repair shop

no, it's been reported before - google "technical service bulletins" and you will find that some '93 80 did the same thing some years back

10316523 - TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 1993 | The Center for Autosafety

it's not the only one, but it's too late in the day for me to search for the others I found

 

[Frankencruiser]

That report reads like a classic case of accidently mashing the skinny pedal to me.

^That's really the only possibility I can come up with.

 

[rove_mcanus]

That report reads like a classic case of accidently mashing the skinny pedal to me.

I agree. The throttle can only be opened mechanically by the accelerator cable, or the cruise control cable.

I suppose the cruise control could have malfunctioned, but it is unheard of as they have so many safety cut outs built into it.

Does the lady in question have big feet? I wear size 12 work boots and do have the hitting the wrong pedal problem in alot of cars, but never landcruisers. Usually it's hitting the brake and throttle at the same time, or not being able to press the clutch in far enough as the top of my boot catches on something.

 

[skintunes]

AWESOME!! YOU ROCK!! I will totally research more of these. OMG, this makes me (and my wife more so I'll bet) feel so relieved.

Although F-me, looks like I'm headed back to a repair shop

Search hard enough on line and you will come up with random safety case for any make model vehicle-
don't grow old on the internet- it will be the death of this world eventually...
take your wife to the repair shop instead

 

[DSRTRDR]

Search hard enough on line and you will come up with random safety case for any make model vehicle

true dat

to the OP: searching with the first part of the VIN number will pull up more of those reports - just leave out all the numbers after the last letter