Hi, I have a 2006 Toyota Corolla with about 177,000 miles. For about the past 3-4 weeks in the morning when I try to back out of my driveway to go to work and I put my car in reverse it seems like the car doesn’t want to move backward. I rev the engine a bit but it doesn’t move the car. I have to put the car in park, neutral and reverse a couple of times until it catches and then I can back out but it kind of lurches backwards suddenly. Most of the time after the car warms up and Im not in my driveway the car backs up a bit easier (it seems anyway). Any idea what’s going on? Thanks
If your transmission fluid level can be checked, is it at the right level and is it a good color?
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Well I brought it to a transmission shop today and he said that what he thinks is that the transmission seals are hardening. He says like when your body gets old and you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, the seals in your transmission can get hard when the car is old. He said if that’s the case they have to take apart the transmission to fix the seals. How much does transmission seals replacement cost??? He said he won’t know for sure what’s wrong until he can check it out fully on Monday. Hopefully he will also check the transmission fluid to see if it’s the right level and color. He said he would look everything over
I expect your transmission expert is correct. When my Ford truck’s automatic transmission started to exhibit a similar symptom many years ago, it was in the shop for a complete transmission rebuild within a couple weeks. Solved, no problems since.
If I had this problem on an 06 Corolla, I’d first try a normal transmission maintenance job. Meaning to remove & clean the transmission pan, inspect the drained fluid for metal debris, replace the trans filter (if applicable ), replace pan & refill with fresh trans fluid. Make sure fluid exactly meet’s Toyota’s spec, probably good idea to just buy replacement fluid at dealership. Fresh trans fluid contains fresh seal conditioning chemicals. If that helps but doesn’t entirely solve it, drive a couple hundred miles and do it again. Could buy you some more miles before needing a complete rebuild.
I paid about $800 as I recall for my truck’s transmission rebuild. But I expect yours will cost more, inflation + yours is a more complicated transmission. There’s other parts besides the seals that will be replaced. The time consuming part of the job is removing the transmission and taking it apart. They’ll use a kit, which will include new seals plus a bunch of other new stuff. For example automatic transmissions have clutches similar to manual transmissions, and those will have worn, & will be replaced. So , good news, you should end up with an almost new transmission.
As to why this is happening, the inside of your transmission has a bevy of gadgets which each sort of work like a bicycle pump. And you know what happens when the seals on your bicycle pump start to leak, right? At first you can just pump faster to keep the pressure up. But eventually you can’t pump fast enough to ever inflate a tire.
Try starting the vehicle and then putting it in neutral for a few seconds to see if that helps any…
I am really hoping that the trans shop dumbed it down for you and will replace more then just the seals (internal)… lol
Chances are you are just low on fluid, you can easily check it yourself… Lots of you tube videos out there about it, or check the owners manual or down load it…
A R&R on your transmission is 8.2 hours, or an R&I (remove and install same trans) is 7.6 hours, so an R&I and Overhaul is 15 hours plus any parts that require replacing.…
So you are probably looking at $4,000 to $6,000 as long as no hard parts require replacing…
Here is most of the new parts I used in a RWD auto a while back…
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DMP … just curious , how did you obtain that skill? Did you learn by helping someone who already had auto transmission rebuild experience? Did you take a class? Did you just say to yourself one day when you had some spare time : “Ok, time to learn this now” and take an old, no longer used transmission apart and put it back together again, just to see if you could?
I’ve read the rebuild instruction for my truck’s C4, and I think I could do it if I had room for a big table to arrange everything involved, and I had some lifting help for the remove/install part of the process. Or do you think I’m just day-dreaming?.. lol …
If it’s going to cost $4,000- $6,000 I can’t afford it. I’d have to put that money towards a new car. If it’s $3,000 max I could justify it
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I have a associates degree in Automotive Technology and only had one instructor the whole 2 years, he was an automotive transmission expert, one of the top in the country, he was the guy that top builders called on for help if they had a problem… He had a jack break and a running car fell on him and crushed his good arm and started teaching for his remaining time working mainly for the ins… He was also a Master Technician… I was very mechanically inclined as a young kid and was always taking stuff apart to see how it worked and or repairing it, but I could always put it back together correctly… My teacher was very hard on me and pushed me and I am grateful for that and after a short time, he would have me fix other peoples screw ups… The shop we worked out of was a real shop that worked on real customer cars as well as we had donated vehicles, engines, transmissions to learn on… He taught me how to think, NOT what to think and to think outside the box… After I graduated I also watched the experienced older mechanics and picked their brains about things and learned a lot instead of acting like I knew everything… I was the engine, trans builder for the school most of the time, and when other students couldn’t figure out a problem I was asked to help or take over… Basically while others were just doing minimum to get by (and wanting to party and play with friends, I was their to learn not make friends), I took on everything I could get my hands on and helped people with there projects that needed help also…
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Check your fluid level 1st…
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Sounds like John Kelly at Weber State. Highly respected in the industry.
I hope the transmission shop checks the fluid level first. And if it needs fluid should I tell the shop owner please make sure to use Toyota fluid?
Jim Bug was his name, he may have even passed away by now, he was about retirement age back then, that was over 30 years ago…
His transmission shop was called DeBug Transmissions (may not have spelt that right) cause he would debug your trans and make it right… lol
His phone number was a palindromic number also, and he didn’t even realize it until a student pointed it out to him… just a fun fact…
It was funny, he you are here to learn about automobiles, if you want to learn how to work on small engines (lawn mower etc) or Big Rigs you are in the wrong place… But we did study and I got stuck rebuilding a few diesel engines…
Do you have a level place to park your car?? if so check it yourself…
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Should I have brought it to a regular car repair shop? I called 2 car repair shops who said they can look at it but they don’t do transmission work if it does turn out to be the transmission. Im second guessing myself. Maybe it’s something else besides the transmission? I don’t know one way or another. I guess it’s good that i brought it in somewhere to get it checked before it gets worse. Im stressed out because im used to coming and going in my car.
Taken it to a transmission shop is what I would have recommended, but a little concerned why they didn’t take 2 minutes (and that is looking for a rag to wipe on lol) and check the fluid level…
Do you know how to check your engine oil??
The transmission shop guy (who was the only person on the lot) seemed like he didn’t want to do anything right away. Just sign the paperwork and leave my key. He said if he gets a chance he’ll look at it today otherwise Monday is the earliest he can check it out. There were a lot of cars on the lot and only one employee/owner? That I could see at the business. Looks like one of those small mom and pop garages. But this business has 4.5 stars on Yelp and has been in the neighborhood a long time and it’s within walking distance from my house when I dropped it off. I don’t even check my oil, usually every 6 months I just have the dealership check and refill the fluids when I come in for an oil change.
Sounds like you are better off just to drop it off and let it be checked out and let us know the diagnosis…
If you are unable or willing (not everybody is) to even check your own fluid level then unfortunately not much we can help you with… We can’t just magically fix stuff and nobody’s crystal ball seems to be working at this time… Not trying to be mean or rude, but what good would it be to tell you to check anything else if you can’t/won’t check the simplest one 1st…
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Davesmopar. Good point. I’ll let everyone know how it turns out with transmission shop’s diagnosis. I’m kind of all thumbs and don’t trust myself to work on my car. I always joke that I’m better at breaking stuff than fixing stuff.
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That is the current status. Be patient, the vehicle will be assigned to a technician for inspection. Road tested, fluid assessed, raised on a lift to check for leaks, damage and related repairs like mounts and axles.
Yeah my daughter has always known more about cars then her boy friends and even friends in general… Last time she asked me to help her with her friends brakes, her BF came out to walk the dog and she said look at my hands, I’m a mechanic… 
And my son at the age of 6, was always in the shop watching and somewhat helping me pull engines and stuff, he is pretty good with cars now and has even helped his little sister out with her car when I wasn’t able (I worked long hours)…
She was 14 years old here… lol (22 now)
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