2002 Toyota RAV4: transmission slipping

Filed Apr 27, 2015 · Transmission · 144,000 miles · WI

Purchased the 2002 toyota rav4 for $6000 from a 'reputable' mechanic. His nephew owned it. Mechanic did all the work on it while it was owned by nephew. Nephew owned it for 2 years. I purchased it in may 2014. February 2015 the transmission went out. Through much research & digging found a recall on it. Toyota stated they fixed it in 2007. Further investigation show 2001 - 2003 rav4's are a pieces of junk. This car was taken in from the previous owner to have the 'shifting issues' looked at in march 2012. Said nephew owned it at that time. Noone can tell me the mechanic & the nephew didn't know there was going to be problems with the transmission. February 16, 2015 the car stopped in the middle of the road. Had towed to my mechanic, we will call him [xxx]. [xxx] said it was the transmission, he could take the tranny out & send it to his transmission guy for repairs. Total estimate: $ 3800. Called the previous owner, he 'oh, I'm sorry'. Fast forward to today, april 27, 2015. The car has been at the mechanics for 2 1/2 months. Transmission has been rebuilt. Had to reprogram the ECM. Have gone through 3 ECM's, the transmission is still slipping between 2nd & 3rd gears. [xxx] & the tranny guy tells me it is the computer. Computer company says it is the tranny. So my car just sits at my mechanics shop. It can run but if I run it I risk ruining the transmission & it not being covered under warranty. Up until this point I have forked out $4100 for the repairs. (doesn't include the loan I had to take out for the car). Today I am going to take the car in & demand it gets fixed by this weekend, if it doesn't I'm going to have to take them to small claims court to get my money back so I can have it repaired properly. The two people I am doing business with are small business owners. I don't want to take them to court but they are forcing my hand. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).

Filed Feb 28, 2015 · Transmission · 124,111 miles · IL

Transmission slips between gear 3 and 4.

Filed Jul 17, 2014 · Transmission · 106,010 miles · NC

Transmission slips in reverse - brought to dealership - ECM and transmission replaced - spent $4,997.42 to replace. Investigation done now on recurrence showed this to be a known issue and toyota was supposed to notify us (we were never notified), and reimburse. They now refuse to reimburse nor acknowledge this problem is known. July 2014 same issue -but worse recurring with replacement ECM and transmission from dealer. Toyota refuses to acknowledge problem when contacted. Concern this is appearing very common in internet searches that this is a known public safety issue.

Filed Jul 8, 2014 · Acceleration, Transmission · 74,123 miles · CA

Several times during the week of june 2, 2014, my check engine light went on and off periodically. I had my mechanic check the codes, but she found nothing wrong. On june 13, 2014 I was driving n. On highway 101 near redwood city, ca. It was about 6p.m. In good weather; I was in stop-and-go commute traffic. I had slowed to a stop in the far left lane,of 5 lanes, due to slow traffic. When traffic began to move again, I accelerated and the transmission seemed to be "slipping"; I revved the engine,but there was no power going to the wheels. There were many cars behind me blowing their horns. Then the car began to "clank" and "chug" and it sounded like the transmission was grinding. I turned on my emergency flasher lights and pulled very slowly over to the shoulder across 5 lanes of traffic! I had several near accidents, but I made it to the shoulder! The car would only go very slowly, but the loud noises stopped, so I pulled off the freeway at the nearest exit (which was very close) . I would have stayed on the shoulder if the car was still "clanking" from the transmission area, but the noise had subsided. I felt that there was a serious mechanical (transmission) problem with my car. I called my daughter and asked her to drive to my location. I was going to call for a tow truck when she arrived. She arrived in about 45 minutes. I restarted the car and put it into "drive" and accelerated gently. The car sounder perfectly normal, and accelerated at a normal speed with plenty of power. We decided to try to slowly drive the car home if it continued to drive normally. We got home fine, but just as I was pulling into my parking lot, the car made loud noises again and lurched a few times as I pulled in the driveway. I had the car towed to the nearest toyota dealer the next day. That's when I began to discover all the problems rav 4's had had with class action's&ECM failures.

Filed Aug 20, 2013 · Transmission · 111,326 miles · CT

Transmission slipping, engine racing, hard shift with a loud noise.

Filed Jul 30, 2013 · Transmission · 140,400 miles · NH

The dreaded 2001-2003 toyota well known ECM safety defect began causing the transmission to shift harshly, and start in high gear instead of first gear, especially dangerous when pulling out in traffic. Sometimes it would cause the transmission to slip, causing high rpms. If not fixed the ECM failure will eventually destroy the transmission. Toyota increased the warranty as a result of a class action suit to 10 yrs or 150,000 miles instead of having a recall. I was over the years and under the mileage, so toyota did not cover the costs for repair of this known defect..

Filed Feb 6, 2012 · Transmission · 148,987 miles · PA

The 2002 toyota rav 4 transmission is now slipping & missing gears had some service on the transmission in 2011 october,but to do a full rebuild starts at $1700.then goes $$$up.

Filed Jun 30, 2011 · Electrical, Transmission · 155,475 miles · GA

I was going north on molly lane and going to turn right on us hwy 92 going east. I pulled into oncoming traffic when my car stalled and it acted like the transmission slipped. I was almost rear ended. I drove and picked up a pizza on townlake parkway and the same thing happened when I pulled out of papa johns. I knew there was a bad problem at that point. I was going to drive it home and have it towed to toyota. Upon turning onto the entrance ramp it stalled again and had no power. The cars behind me were blowing their horns. At the top of the ramp it revved and then surged. I drove it home and had it towed. Toyota says that the ECM is bad and needs to be replaced and then they can check the transmission. I looked on the internet and found there have been numerous problems with the 2001 - 2003 rav4's. This is a definite safety risk and toyota should be made to do a recall to fix the ECM boards.

Filed Jun 20, 2011 · 158,250 miles · VA

The ECM failed and caused damaged to the transmission (2nd gear specially). On the highway, the vehicle had decreased power; gears were slipping and the car were jerk from gear to gear. Toyota apparently was aware of the malfunction because they extended their warranty to 10 years/150k miles. Because of my mileage, I am not covered. If they knew there was a fault, why didn't they do recall and fix the problem?

Filed Apr 30, 2011 · Transmission · 175,000 miles · CT

Several months ago my transmission began to slip and the check engine light came on. Subsequently as I drove the car, it began to lurch and I lost control of it several times. I took the car to toyota dealer then and they could not identify the problem but suggested replacing the ECM unit as a "possible fix." they suggested that perhaps the whole transmission needed to be replaced. I wanted a second opinion and took the car to a specialist. He could not find a problem either. After a search on the internet, I found that not only was this imminent problem well-documented, but toyota dealers had been made aware of it in 2006! T when I took the car back to toyota last week, they admitted that they had been informed, but could not repair the car free of charge as I have 180+k miles on it. Had toyota notified me about the issue in 2006, I would have replaced the module then. Now the car is completely undrivable and cannot even be sold.

Filed Jan 20, 2011 · Transmission · 129,000 miles · CT

During a snow storm, my vehicle's transmission started revving up to 5000 rpms without shifting into 3rd gear. I thought my tires were slipping because of the weather, but over the next 2 days as my car would heat up, it would continue. I had a repair shop look at it and they advised me to repair or replace the transmission. Toyota suggested I bring it to a dealer. The dealer said that I need to have my transmission flushed and to replace the ECM/ecu - which costs $900 and there's no guarantee it'll fix my problem. I'm not receiving any assistance from toyota hq or the dealership as far as receiving a guarantee that this will fix my issue, and they won't provide information on what to do if the issue still persists.

Filed Dec 26, 2010 · Transmission · 104,421 miles · CA

Either the ecu or the transmission is not working right. The automatic transmission can usually change between 1st and 2nd gear but it usually cannot change between 2nd and 3rd. The engine usually revs as the transmission slips. If we ease up on the accelerator or sometimes we to pump it a little, then the transmission changes gears. There have been a few occasions where the engine revs and the transmission catches on its own but this is causes the car to accelerate when we do not expect it to. This just started happening recently. We had noticed for the past few months that the transmission would change a little harder than normal, but not the car is not drivable due to safety reason.