Engine Transmission issues

Sup guys, so i ran into this issue a few days back. Now my reverse gear does not always click into gear when I am reversing sometimes. This happened a few days ago so what i do is take it back to nuetral and try to put it in reverse. I did this on several occasions, got kinda mad and yanked it hard in there lol. Well it went into reverse alright but now i have some issues goin on with 2nd, 4th and reverse gears. They feel very mushy, like they dont have that crisp gear change in them anymore. It does it now once in a while but things kinda got worse today when second gear doesnt even wanna engage!! 4th and reverse are fine. 1st, 3rd and 5th have no issues and have that crisp gear change. What do you think has happened with the lower gears?

What kind of maintenance has the transaxle seen - how often are you changing the gearbox oil, what oil are you using in it now?

Chances are, it is a cable adjustment issue. Sounds like the shifter cables are loose or out of adjustment, and not moving the lever arm in the correct positions. Would explain why one side is working, the other not. Could be as simple as tightening a loose nut and/or adding a washer in there. Take a peek at the transaxle shifter lever, cables, clips, all the way to the shifter assembly. Should be able to visually see something looking "off" with the troubles you are seeing.

To be honest, in the 4 plus years Ive owned, i have'nt done anything with the transmission as far as changing oil and stuff. Ive put 90k miles on it in 4 years and it has never given me any problems, and even now its changing gears but like I mentioned, its the lower gears causing an issue. I think you might be right on the cable adjustment part. How much can soemthing like that cause? I think I just might change my transmission oil just to be on the safe side. Any recommendations?

Can't hurt to check on the fluids. A mis-adjusted cable can definitely cause the troubles you are seeing, doesn't even have to off that much. Sometimes it is corrosion to the cable / clips portion or other other physical damage to the cable that is causing one side of the gears to stop engaging.

If can get someone to help you out - have them wiggle the shifter, run it through the gears, while you look at the shifter arm on the transaxle. See if you can see any obviously wrong (ie, shift into 2nd, 4th, etc. and the arms barely or doesn't move).

hey i am having the same promblem with my corolla (i just made a post about it)

the toyota shift cables can not be adjusted fallow the cable to where it meets the shift housing on the trans and look at the bushing to see if it has extra play if it does you need a new cable. because to my nknowlage you cant just buy a new bushing. The cheepest you will find the cable is at toyotapartseast.com and its about 222 before tax. or you can junk yard hunt for a new cable.

It has nothing to do with your fuilds.

if you can find that bushing let me know because like i said i am having the exact problem.

thanks
-chris

A little update on my situation

I have some bad news. The other day I was driving and downshifted to 3rd and I noticed the shifter went in deeper than it usually does. I didnt pay too much attention to it until I was about to put it in neutral. The shifter swung back as if its disconnected from anything at all and not only that, the tranny is stuck in 3rd gear!! The shifter can be thrown back and forth between 3rd and 4th gear without any consequences. Its almost like those toy car rides they have for the kids to play on where they can do whatever the heck they want, meaning theres so much freeplay, it doesnt even feel like a shifter anymore. The wierd thing is it will only go back and forth, thats it, it doesnt go into any other gear as in it doesnt travel sideways at all, and its stuck in 3rd. So i limped it to my mechanic, burning the clutch to death since i only had 3rd from a stop. My mechanic looked took apart the shift console to look underneath and see what was going on in there and he says, everything looks good, bushings, linkage and what not so it has to be internal. Now im debating whether to shell out $$$ on getting it rebuilt or do nothing. The car was flawless, until this issue happened. The car has 180K miles on it, im really thinking of just spending the money and getting it rebuilt cause I feel itll easily drive another 60-80k miles. Man this sucks!!

yea i think instead of getting it rebuilt, im gonna put in a used transmission in there, cause youre right, the car is mechanically in pretty good shape

Ok so ive been calling around and have gotten a quote of $800 installed out the door with 90 day warranty for a transmission with 105,000 miles. Im gonna call around a few more places but I had a question. When they put in the transmission, should I tell them to flush it and change the transmission oil and stuff? They did say it comes with all the fluids so that got me thinking if I should ask them for that.

ahhh lol nvm, i got u, not sure what i was thinkin well looks like ill be going this route, unless you do a serious JDM transmission swap lol

ok guys a little update here. So not feeling too confident, I went to another mechanic so he could diagnose whats going on and guess what? He tell me my shifter cable is broke!! Basically he poped the hood and was playing with the shifter cable under there and was able to put it in all gears while I had the clutch depressed sitting in the drivers seat. He said that since its broke somewhere in between, it wasnt responding to anything the shifter was doing. So he has quoted me $200 for the installation of a new one. Is that reasonable? Basically he said the toyota dealers are charging $400 plus for it and that hes gonna have to go to a junkyard, pull it off a car, then install it on mine and hell have to open up a lot since that cable runs under the ECU. i wasnt sure of the location but does $200 sound reasonable?

$200 for parts are labor is not bad. A new cable cost more than $250 + all the labor involved. Not really hard to do, but there is a lot that has to be pulled off to expose enough of the length to remove/replace (lower console trim, ECU is right there, console box has to come out, etc. + adjusting the cable, dealing with any frozen/corroded hardware, etc.) - so labor will be your highest cost for this job.