Transmission not shifting above 3rd gear (Intermittent)

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I have used this forum for lots of trouble shooting on my Tundra but today I am looking for some advice or direction.



2010 4.6L V8 with about 214K miles on it right now. Daily driver, bought it down in Florida back in 2020 with about 170K and it has been pretty reliable.

Back in early 2022, I started having problems with shifting. Truck would not shift higher than 3rd gear. Did a lot of troubleshooting and pulled codes and everything and ended up doing a fluid drain, changed the filter, cleaned the magnet in the pan, and swapped the Pressure Control Solenoid (TCS126)



(OEM / Interchange Numbers: 3529034010, 3529050010)
After that, everything worked perfectly. I was super happy, until about a month ago. Same problem came up, my first thought was that it was related to a cold snap we had recently, but weather went back to mild and nothing has changed.
Currently throwing a bunch of codes: P2437, P2440, P2445, P0761, and P2714 (Yes, yes, I understand there are other things to fix on the truck). Not super concerned with the first three codes, because I know what those are related to, and they were throwing before the transmission issue.
The ones I care about right now are:
P2714 Pressure Control Solenoid "D" Performance or Stuck off
P0761 Shift Solenoid "C" Stuck OFF (S3 Solenoid)

Need some help because I have seared this forum pretty heavily and did some of my own troubleshooting and I am lost. Here is what I have done so far. I went ahead and added some of that transmission fluid conditioner, couple forums I found said that could help, and it did, for about a week, then the problem came back. I changed the output speed sensor; I cannot find my link right now, but I saw somewhere that a bad output speed sensor could cause this problem, the sensor was pretty cheap so I gave it a go, nothing really changed, still intermittently not shifting above 3rd gear. Then I went ahead and did ANOTHER transmission fluid change. Fluid looked pretty good but the problem still persists.

So, help me run this down. Am I looking at another Solenoid going bad? I didn't actually test the one that I replaced back in 2022, I just took it out, replaced it and redid my fluid. Also, this problem isn't consistent. It is maybe 60/40 on if the truck doesn't want to get out of 3rd gear when I go to work in the morning (for the past month, across temps from the teens all the way to 70s), Additionally, if I hop in my truck, and it doesn't want to shift to 3rd gear, I can pull out my tool, clear the codes and the truck will function as normal and shift gear perfectly. The solenoid codes go away, but those other 3 pesky codes come right back.

If anyone has any suggestions please comment. The time when I dropped the pan there was nothing abnormal in the fluid or on the magnet, and the second time I swapped the fluids, everything looked peachy. Truck doesn't shift hard, when it does actually shift, everything feels perfect. But the not shifting part is making me pull my hair out and I don't know if I am doing more damage by manually clearing the codes, every time I go somewhere that requires more than 3rd gear.

Let me know what I am missing,
Thanks!

 

Greetings! Purchased a 2011 Tundra 4.0L online from a dealer in another state. They delivered the vehicle to me and first time I drove RPMs were shoot up between 2nd and 3rd and lost all power for about 5 seconds. After about the first few cycles through the gears the truck shifted perfectly. Fast forward a couple of weeks, the problem now was it wouldn't get past 3rd gear. If I pulled over and turned the engine off and restarted it worked perfectly. I don't drive the truck much at all because I work from home, but took it for another test drive the other day, temps in mid-70's and no issues. Took it out the following morning, temps in mid-50's no issues. When I was having the other issues the temps were mainly below 50. Took it too a few auto shops. One wanted to try to reprogram transmission, but had to wait for the Toyota tech to come and that would be a few weeks. Another wanted to do a drain and flush, w/new filter for $650. Too expensive for me. Last one couldn't replicate the issues I was having. I pretty handy so now I am trying to determine if it is mainly cold related and if I want to try to change the fluid and filter myself. I don't want to do a flush because I have heard many stories where it made it worse because you may be kicking up some materials and they could get into gears. Would welcome any thoughts you may have. Thanks!

 

Biggest issue with dropping the pan would be the broken bolts you will have to deal with. If you drain and fill that will probably help out some. I had a similar issue with my 5.7, but I replaced the torque convertor and Performance D solenoids. It's been good for about 2 months, I had a slight slip last week on the highways I'm thinking due to it being parked on a steep incline and creating a slight fluid starvation situation. Truck has been fine since, goes through all 6 gears.

 

Blackdemon - thanks for the input. I am hesitant to drop pan because on potential broken bolts. Leaning more towards drain and fill and doing that 2 or 3 times.

 

I dropped mine and broke 2 bolts... They're still there due to family urgency going on. I may drop it again just to cut a portion off the stud and pull it out of the top. Worst case, I'd have a shop replace your bolts with anti-seize added.

 

Yeah, that would be a bummer to brake a bolt.

 

So you should check the Toyota repair manual because it explains how to troubleshoot the tranny codes. It lists all of the codes and probable causes, but then goes into more detail about specific combinations. I had a 0751 and 2714. For that combo it said to troubleshoot the 2714 first. 2714 is for solenoid D - but actually that means any of the 1,2,3,4 or S1 solenoid’s. So I pulled them out one at a time and found a bad one (ohms half, no click with 12v). It was the fourth from the rear and controls 3-4. Replaced it and back in business.

Edit: I only had an a little trouble with one bolt. You can soak them from the top the day before with penetrating oil and take them out when the transmission is a little warm so the housing is expanded. Orielly can get the solenoids and price matches.

 

Dalandshark thank you!

 

I had similar issues with the tranny of my 2007 5.7L - turned out that the problem was that two of the shift solenoids went bad. Resistance on the bad solenoids was way out of spec when they tested them. Totally fixed the issue I was having where it would sometimes downshift to 3rd gear, ignore 2nd gear when it was warm, and a couple other weird issues. The solenoids aren't cheap but the good news is that once you commit and drop the pan, you can run a definitive test on your solenoids to see if they're good instead of guessing.

The tranny shop broke a couple bolts dropping the pan too.