I was driving home last night and the car kept popping out of 3rd gear. Didn't get to check of 1st or 5th did the same thing. Any idea whats going on? Shifter bushings?

Synchronizer has finally given up the ghost? That or if you're lucky it could be something to do with the shifter such as the cable. Have you ever had problems with downshifting into third?

This post has been edited by Box: Sep 14, 2014 - 11:01 PM

im not an expert on transmissions but I'm pretty sure once it starts jumping out of gear you have to take it apart and rebuild it.

Make sure you're cables are ok first. but it could be a bad thing.

Third gear itself or the syncro is very worn.
Same thing happens to my Rav, but fourth pops out.

It means opening up the tranny and total rebuild or swapping it. I would go for option 2.

This post has been edited by Batman722: Sep 15, 2014 - 7:50 AM

Anyone have a nice 5sfe trans?

I have one with 114K on it. Shifts very smooth and never gave me any trouble. I am 45mins away also win-win

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Nice!

I found one with 85k for a pretty good price 2 hours away. I'll keep you posted if I don't end up picking that one up.

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Nope. Never had a problem with down shifts. Which kind of makes it seem like it could be something simple.

I'd definitely check all of the simple things. Another thing would be to keep you hand on the lever with moderate pressure and see if it still pops out. If it goes to pop out and starts grinding with you trying to hold it in, then you definitely have some problems.

I looked things over yesterday. The cables look good. The only thing that stands out is that there is a bit of free play when going into third when messing with the gears with the engine off, but I don't think thats the real problem.

I drove the car around some more, and its defiantly forcefully pushing the gear out, and at one point I had trouble getting it into third.
The tranny has also made all kinds of noises over the years, and the differential side bearings have a ton of free play in them.

I guess after 10 years of handling the power of the 3sgte, the tranny is finally giving up the ghost.

I was thinking you had a 3S-GTE. Maybe should look into getting an E153?

Well I figured out the cause of the problem...
The trans had ZERO oil in it. Like none. Its amazing it drove just fine besides that one issue.

I was already into taking everything apart, so I decided to continue on and install the new trans that I purchased. I could have just filled it back up with oil, but I think at this point, I would have always had a problem with third gear.

Yikes, be sure and go to Toyota for good axle seals they're not even too much money.

Being it was probably hundreds of miles of dry contact and the fact third was popping out, it was probably best to go ahead and replace it. If anything you have an interesting door stop now.

Why did it go dry?

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Found out the cause today. It wasn't the axle seals. It seems it was the seal for the input shaft, on the inside of the bell housing. The whole inner bell housing was just covered in oil. It was totally the right call to pull the trans out. Glad I did't just try to refill it with it leaking like that.

Here is a pic of the oil covered bell housing.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=101...mp;l=b1a5578add

This post has been edited by lagos: Sep 19, 2014 - 12:31 AM