Amazing 5-min Auto Trans mod

[AndyM1978]

I saw a post in another Camry forumn about an easy mod for automatic transmissions. It specifically mentioned the V6 tranny, but I tried out the mod on my 4cyl Camry. This modification basically involves tightening a cable that links from your throttle cable to your transmission. The cable is used to adjust fluid pressure to the transmission solenoids based on how much stress is being put on the transmission. This effectively increases the fluid pressure to the solenoids in the transmission, which makes the clutches (and bands?) tighten with more force during shifts. According to the post, this is actually BETTER for your transmission since it reduces the slippage, thereby reducing heat generated.

Here are my results...

Before the mod, my shifts would sometimes take more than 2 seconds to complete when accelerating hard. It wasn't slipping (as in, revving up before an up-shift was complete), but the RPM's would slowly slide down until reaching the correct speed for that gear. Basically, the transmission was just slow... After work, while my car was still in the parking lot, I popped open my hood and checked the cable mentioned in the post. It had a lot of slack on it. I took out my wrench from the toolkit in my trunk and tightened up the cable until the slack was gone (but not any tighter). Basically, I just tightened it up to would it SHOULD be. The results? My car feels like it did when I first got it 4 years ago. The shifts are quick (sometimes punchy!), and NOT ONE bit of slippage since I performed the mod last week. The car goes like a dream now.

In the article, they overtightened the cable to try and get extra "sportiness" from the shifts. It seems like it worked for them, but I just wanted to have my normal car back. Also, it may or may not help a dying transmission. My transmission has had it's fair share of burnt fluid, but I think it is fairly healthy since the fluid has stayed pink since I changed it last spring. I would ASSUME that this would be better for a dying transmission, but don'ty take my word for it. If any experts out there can confirm or shed some light on this interesting mod, that would be very helpful. I'm no where near being an expert on the subject.

Here is the link to the article.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t53223.html

If you want any more details on this subject, let me know and I'll post some more.

-Andy

[AndyM1978]

FYI: If your cable is already tightened correctly, then you may not notice as much of an improvement as I did (if any at all). Mine had a good amount of slack in it, which was probably causing the fluid pressure to be LOWER than factory spec.