Toyota Camry: Transmission Failure - ES250

ricardox wrote: 

Having been in similar situations prior I had to assess what the car was
worth used in working order and what the cost of the tranny would be. I then
said the car owes me nothing up till this point and looked upon it as an
investment into a cheap ride. Investment is a poor term to use in the case
of cars but Lexus does come close.

An friend of mine has a 92 Lexus with 450000 km and the original tranny. Why
one should give out and not the other is always a strange one. Perhaps you
just piss off the transmission gods.

The Artful Codger

"ricardox" <com> wrote in message news:<supernews.com>... 
Thanks for any opinions.

I'm far from an expert on this, never having a transmission fail, but
here's my opinion.

The most important thing about extending transmission life is to
change the fluid often. In an automatic transmission, the fluid acts
both as a friction material (actually the friction material is on the
disks and internal clutches, but the fluid complements that operation)
-- anyway, both a friction material and a lubricant.
The internal friction of operation creates heat, and when the fluid
overheats it begins to degrade such that the next time it is less
resistant to heat, and the cycle of fluid degradation accelerates.
The moral of this story is that it is very important to keep the
transmission fluid clean to extend the useful operational life of an
automatic transmission.
Since there's a drain plug on the pan, the simplest thing is to have a
machine that exchanges all the fluid (including the amount retained in
the torque converter) replaced with all new fluid, clean the inside of
the pan and screen, and then just change the fluid with the drain plug
on the pan, regularly after that.
Perhaps I am practicing excessive maintenance, but I use Mobil 1 fully
synthetic ATF (better resistance to thermal breakdown) plus Lucas
transmission fix as preventative maintenance. (according to the
factory manual, total transmission capacity for my A140E is 5.9 qts.,
so orig. 24 oz. was 12.7% concentration. to maintain 12.5% would be 10
oz. in 80 oz (2.5qts.) I initially added this product to quiet a very
slight (perhaps normal) hydraulic groaning sound under moderate load.
Now the transmission is quiet and very smooth. By changing the fluid
every 5,000 miles with scheduled engine oil changes I expect it to
last forever.
It ticks me off, that automatic transmissions are normally expected to
fail under 200,000 miles.
To answer your question more directly, it is my opinion that
transmission rebuilding shops are not to be trusted. There may be an
exception out there somewhere, but generally, my opinion is that they
do not thoroughly rebuilt all parts to "as new" tolerances in the same
way that engines can be rebuilt. It is only my opinion, that generally
a rebuilt transmission will not be expected to last as long as a new
transmission from the factory, although I imagine that _would_ be
prohibitively expensive.
Next best choice, find a used transmission from a salvage yard, where
the fluid is not excessively darkened, and the indicated mileage is
not excessively high, and have the mechanic install it for you. This
way you're getting a transmission that's never been opened up and
altered, plus the cost will be less than rebuilding. Then exchange the
fluid with new, also clean the pan and screen, and follow a regular
schedule of fluid maintenance to avoid having to replace that
transmission again.