Torque Converter bad – Can this cause other damage

[Tim Hensel]

Hello,
I just purchased a new 2014.5 Toyota Camry SE…Already with-in 100 miles, the car is at the dealership for the past 8+ days now waiting for a new Torque Converter to arrive in. So the one already installed at the factory was bad (the car would shudder when the auto transmission was shifting). :ohmy:

My concern is if there is any ‘long term’ type damage that driving roughly 100 miles with a defective torque converter? Such as to the transmission or gears? The dealership said (of course) that there would be no damage at all to any other parts of car…and mentioned that maybe it is was driven for 6 or 7k miles then it may have caused damaged to other parts.

Now with this issue, I’m concerned that there might be problems down the road now because of this bad converter. Is there a chance it might have caused more damage, or most likely nothing at all happened to any other parts?

Thanks for any help!! 🙂

-Tim

Topic

[dan]

as long as your car was not jerking and lerching violently i think you will be ok.

[John Hugon]

The only concern I would have is material that failed inside the torque convertor that circulated to the transmission/transmission cooler. I would make them address this on the service repair order.

I don’t know how Toyota handles failed parts replacement, but as a tech at a GM/Ford dealer for many years, they only replace the failed part and that’s it. If the failed part started another problem during the warranty period they dealt with that issue until out of the warranty period.

I would put your concerns in writing to Toyota motor company and let them reply. Obviously you bought a Toyota over the American brand names because of trying to avoid issues like these.

I personally think Toyota motor company is more customer friendly than the American auto brands…just my opinion.

Side note…when a GM Tech I worked on many cars that had bumper stickers…I wish I would have bought a Honda /Toyota…….maybe because I was the one working on them… 😆

[EricTheCarGuy]

I would think you would be OK. It’s the debris in the system you need to worry about. It’s probably a good idea to replace the fluid and filter in the transmission as added insurance. Not a bad idea to flush out the transmission cooler as well. More info here.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-transmission-problems

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Bill]

8 Days is not acceptable. I would be asking for another car.

[Lorrin Barth]

I would venture to say, although I have no proof, that clutch material from the torque convertor is the most common cause of automatic transmission failure.

[Edit] Since I am throwing opinion around here, I’d also say that, in the search for gas mileage, the clutched torque convertor is a misstep, bringing on a host of new vehicle problems that were unknown until this device was invented. That is one of the reasons that all my vehicles have manual transmissions – if the clutch goes out all I need is a clutch.

[Ang]

[quote=”wysetech” post=98523]8 Days is not acceptable. I would be asking for another car.[/quote]

My thoughts exactly.

Or if the dealer doesn’t want to do that ask for a “lifetime warranty” on the transmission parts with labour included.
100 miles and you’ve got problems is ridiculous.

[Author]

Replies