Worth Keeping my Hiace

Thanks for all your help on this matter guys, I really appreciate the time out you've taken to offer your advice and perspectives. I'll keep this page update with my progress if you like?

GPW - I'm pretty much all good now. My memory is occasionally pretty bad and I think my balance could still use a bit of time to get a bit better, but I'm ready for the snow now!

Update: Well, the van made the trip! Unfortunately the gearbox oil change did nothing, so it looks like I may be in the need for a new gearbox or at the very least a look from someone who doesn't just claim they can do stuff on it, but actually can. The garage I had taken it to claimed they could give it a change, clean the magnets, change the filter and flush the torque converter, but all they did was change the oil. I still get the AT light coming on and reverse gear still won't engage properly. I've found that if I rev it really hard it will drive the van backwards the tiniest amount on flat ground, and sometimes with a high rev it will slip into gear and then it's fine, but it doesn't always slip in. As I got to colder lands the light came on a bit less, but it really wasnt happy about a very steep hill even in subzero temperatures. I had to stop about every 5 minutes on the way up until the light went out.

in terms of the diesel leakage, it doesn't seem to do it when the van is hot, or the problem has vanished as I never saw it leaking diesel on the journey when I stopped for petrol multiple times.

That's a shame, but it was worth trying.

Might be worth asking on one of the HiLux or Surf forums, they use the same auto box. You might be able to find some info or a recommendation for a specialist near where you are now.

Sorry to hear that the fluid didn't cure it.

It still sounds likely that the overheating is due to inadequate cooling, either from a stuck thermostat or an incorrect replacement radiator.

I.e. it still may not be the gearbox, I can't imagine it slips/generates too much heat in all the gears with newish fluid.
Reverse is a concern though, but if the fluid was dirty the filter may be clogged - lowering internal hydraulic pressure that may be showing up more on reverse than other gears.

Hey Twentyonethirtyfive, I will check out those forums, thanks!

GPW, yeah it definitely has some sort of cooling problem. The trouble is that it's definitely not just that, because reverse gear is more likely not to engage when it's hot, but it still has the problem when cold too. Looking back I'm not sure if I made that clear...

GPW wrote:

Reverse is a concern though, but if the fluid was dirty the filter may be clogged - lowering internal hydraulic pressure that may be showing up more on reverse than other gears.

Hi!

Yes, you did describe the reverse issue properly. A sluggish coolant flow would cause both problems, which is why I wonder if the pickup filter or an external filter is partially blocked. If it was I'd expect problems selecting some gears and overheating.

It would be like a person with a weak heart trying to run.

I suspect the new filter is what fixed the Wheeler Dealers Boxster autobox. I also reckon reverse probably requires the most hydraulic pressure because it's got to move gears, rather than just clamp another band onto a planetary set.

I don't think you can write-off the gearbox (unless it's making horrible rumbling sounds) until the filter is changed, and any possible external filter/thermostat is also changed. I.e. you need to get to an auto specialist who can actually be bothered to change it.

Good luck finding one though, with the advent of replaceable consumer item cars skilled people are drying up!

Hey GPW, sorry I thought I had replied. That explaination is awesome and makes perfect sense, thanks! One of the bosses at my work here is a bit handy with vehicles apparently and think he has some sort of workshop or mechanic facilities, so I will ask him if he knows anyone that could do this work. I'll try getting online and buying a filter as the mechanic in Spain's excuse for not doing the filter was that they couldn't find one.

Thanks again! ☺

Hey, I'm just wondering,  would the problems we discussed cause the vehicle to not want to select drive? It's about minus 5  here and a day or two after parking up I went to move the van and found that the gear stick won't even move into the drive position.it will select neutral and reverse,  but the gearstick sticks and won't actually allow me to move the stick into a forward gear.

Ryank wrote:

Hey, I'm just wondering,  would the problems we discussed cause the vehicle to not want to select drive? It's about minus 5  here and a day or two after parking up I went to move the van and found that the gear stick won't even move into the drive position.it will select neutral and reverse,  but the gearstick sticks and won't actually allow me to move the stick into a forward gear.

Cold oil is thicker, trying to push treacle through a filter is harder and slower than water so it could well do.
I'd see if you can warm it up a bit first, but yes.

As an aside...:
Incidentally one of the big advantaged of fully synthetic oil is that they don't get as thick when cold, as regular oil, which it why you get pure synth at 0W40 whereas regular oil struggles to get to 10W40 even with plastic modfiers in it. Then when you start an engine in the cold with fully synth it pumps much better and gets to where it needs to go much faster.

So I'd expect a similar mechanism in the gearbox.

I used to have an old Honda Accord auto, when cold there was always a 'crunch' when disengaging reverse, when warm disengaging reverse was fast enough to avoid the crunch. Needless to say when I bought that car it was already nice and warm in time fo_ you have a partly blocked filter I'd expect cold performance to be much worse.

Why the gearstick would not move itself I don't know, but I'd wait until it's a bit warmer (or warm it up by running the engine for a bit) before worrying too much. Keep us posted.

I did actually run the vehicle for a solid 5 to 10 minutes, but it still didn't make a difference. I'm just gonna leave it where it is and hope that in the spring when it starts to warm up it will magically work again. Not that I really have much choice in the matter. It's not even that cold right now, it was probably around or just below zero when I tried it, getting down to minus 5 or so at night.

Ah ok, 5-10 minutes is good.

Maybe the best idea is to spend nothing for a bit - while saving up to take it/trailer it to the brit auto specialist you found. Then at least you'd have certainty of a good solution and it's a solid plan. With a fully sorted auto-box it will be transformed, and this method may work out the cheapest and easiest in the long term.

I'd estimate trailering it there would add €2-300 on top of their bill, but you'll have no fuel bill of course. They may be able to arrange the pickup better.

This would be a fantastic idea but unfortunately I'm several countries away and a couple of thousand kilometers from that place I had previously found. I don't really know what to do to be honest. I think I'm just gonna wait until spring now, and hope that it miraculously starts working when it gets a bit warmer, or lightning/terrorist attack/atmosphere breaching meteor randomly blows the van/me up. I would desperately hope for someone to steal it, but I can't even drive it and I have the keys! So I guess I'm forced to wait until the temperature improves, not that it's even particularly cold right now.

Ryank wrote:

This would be a fantastic idea but unfortunately I'm several countries away and a couple of thousand kilometers from that place I had previously found.  I don't really know what to do to be honest. I think I'm just gonna wait until spring now, and hope that it miraculously starts working when it gets a bit warmer, or lightning/terrorist attack/atmosphere breaching meteor randomly blows the van/me up. I would desperately hope for someone to steal it, but I can't even drive it and I have the keys! So I guess I'm forced to wait until the temperature improves, not that it's even particularly cold right now.

Ah - I thought the place was just a long drive - i.e not such a trek, sorry.

I think it's highly likely there is a suitable place within 100km of you (whereabouts roughly are you?), so maybe a regular hunt on the local car forums and clubs might unearth it? There may be a local bike or car club near to you that will know or have contacts.

Maybe even a regular gearbox centre? I went to A1 gearboxes here in the UK and although it looked like a fast-fit the guy doing the boxes really knew what he was doing.

e.g: http://www.automaticgearboxspain.com/

Exactly my reasons for moving to a Toyota. There will be a garage somewhere near you that knows them.

Also try looking for off road specialists as well, they will likely be familiar with the HiLux if not the HiAce. The only difference is that the HiAce requires a mechanic with long skinny arms and double jointed elbows

Don't give up hope yet!

Cheers guys.  I do know a guy I work with who is apparently a mechanic, so I think I'm gonna speak to him to see if he has any suggestions on to where to take it.  He's not very approachable, but it's better than nothing!  

I'm in the mountains, so it is entirely possible there won't be anywhere near by, but I have to try!  It will probably be a while before I can even get this looked at, I literally just spend the last of my money on an internet connection!  Got enough for food, but not really for anything else, and I start work in a few days, but don't believe I get paid until February!  

Thanks for the nice words of encouragement though guys, I really appreciate it, if I were left to my own devices I wouldn't have even remotely the optimism to think of these options or believe any of them could even be remotely possible.

Are you still monitoring this thread Ryank?

I'm looking at my transmission now and have picked up a bit of info that may help you:
https://hiace-super-custom.forumotion.com/t3133-a340e-30-40le-gearbox-oil-change#16696

The things I have learned is:

1) Synthetic ATF is said to result in a cooler transmission
2) Only change fluid by the drain plug and filler/dipstick tube.
3) Never have a full flush. Measure out and then measure in.
4) Never overfill these boxes.
5) If you have a converter 'lockup' and it's not engaging it creates a lot more heat.

And notes about fluid colour: Pink/Red = fine. Brown = change it. Black = new transmission required.

Hi GPW, yes, I'm still monitoring this thread - when a new post comes in I get an email.

I had the oil done at a garage because I had no way to raise the front to get to the gearbox. Luckily (from your info) it's just as well they didn't do a full flush - I asked them to do it, but they wouldn't. Mind you I asked for a clean filter and for them to clean the sump magnet too, but they didn't do that either.

I haven't driven the van once since december, so I don't know if it still has the same problem. It's still very cold so I'm guessing so. I'm hoping it's something to do with the cold and it will sort itself out when it gets a bit warmer next month.

Well, the weather is warming up, it's now above zero degrees (today was 8 degrees C apparently), but the van gearbox is still f****d.  The gear shift box looks a bit like this:



The stick will move from park into reverse, at which point the reversing beeping noise activates, and despite my previous problems getting reverse to work, it works fine now.  In fact, that is the only gear that works, because if I shift into Neutral, the van still thinks it's in reverse and will still make the reversing beeping noise.  That's the point that all movement ends though.  If I try and shift it into drive, it feels like something is mechanically blocking me from selecting Drive.  I haven't tried too much force, as I'm afraid of making this piece of crap somehow worse! However, I haven't been completely gentle either.  

So I'm guessing I'll need a new gearbox or at the very least a gearbox specialist to look into it.  Alternatively, I guess setting the thing on fire or crashing it into a tree might be a better option.  Although actually the latter option wouldn't work as I can't even move it from the car park it's been in for the past 5 months.

I hate this vehicle, one of the worst mistakes of my life buying this piece of crap, literally.  I had huge dreams of living in it, but the actual amount I've slept in it, I might as well have bought a cheap transit van for 2000 pounds, and I still would have spent far less money than I've already spent on the repairs of my Toyota LowShit (In my case the words "Hi" and "Ace" are definitely a misnomer), and that's excluding the cost I paid to buy it...

So sorry to hear the warmer weather hasn't helped .

It left the factory in perfect condition, your problem comes from the generally poor abuse and maintenance in the past and the specific crook who sold it to you knowing it had major faults they knew were going to cost a lot to fix.

It's easy to say 'find an auto-trans expert to look at it" but I understand it's another lump of cash and I know there's a point of throwing good money after bad.

Perhaps it's worth writing down the pros and cons of either

1) Scrapping it
2) Repairing it
3) Repairing and selling it.
4) Trade it in against a new vehicle.

so you can get a better idea of the time and costs of each decision?

Depending upon your fiscal flushness you may also want to have a chat with a Nissan dealer about a new NV200 Combi or NV300 Combi van as they are guaranteed for 5 years and may work out a cheaper longer term solution for you without recourse to mechanical fixes.
It transfers mechanical woes for financial woes but for your situation it may be a valid trade.

P.S.

Ryank wrote:

because if I shift into Neutral, the van still thinks it's in reverse and will still make the reversing beeping noise.

This suggests your cable is adjusted incorrectly and could therefore affect all gears, as the auto-box ECU will get confused.
The cable operates a master hydraulic lockout and the electrics NEED to be synched to that for you to have any hope of the correct gear.

It's a long shot and don't build up hope, but it's possible some of your problems are down to bad adjustment of that shift lever cable. There's usually an adjuster on the end of the cable but I'll let someone with your gearbox or google let you know the correct adjustment.

Good luck.

There are a lot of levers, rods and as GPW points out, cables involved in getting the selector position to the gearbox.  Worth going over those and checking of issues.  However, this problem sounds very different to the previous problems you were having with the box (overheating, etc).

I've twice lost gear selection in my Westy.  Ok, so that was a manual, but even so - in both cases the solution was very simple and linkage related and only one required a new part.

As an aside, your gear selector and low range selector are different to mine.  I didn't realise there was another style.

Some scary diagrams:

http://japan-parts.eu/toyota/jp/1994/hiace-regiusace/lh119v-rrpes/4_711140_106_/powertrain-chassis/3312_shift-lever-retainer

http://japan-parts.eu/toyota/jp/1994/hiace-regiusace/lh119v-rrpes/4_711140_106_/powertrain-chassis/3513_throttle-link-valve-lever-atm

Anway, I fully understand Cursed Van Syndrome. Hope you have at least had a good ski season.

GPW wrote:

So sorry to hear the warmer weather hasn't helped .

It left the factory in perfect condition, your problem comes from the generally poor abuse and maintenance in the past and the specific crook who sold it to you knowing it had major faults they knew were going to cost a lot to fix.

It's easy to say 'find an auto-trans expert to look at it" but I understand it's another lump of cash and I know there's a point of throwing good money after bad.

Perhaps it's worth writing down the pros and cons of either

1) Scrapping it
2) Repairing it
3) Repairing and selling it.
4) Trade it in against a new vehicle.

so you can get a better idea of the time and costs of each decision?

Depending upon your fiscal flushness you may also want to have a chat with a Nissan dealer about a new NV200 Combi or NV300 Combi van as they are guaranteed for 5 years and may work out a cheaper longer term solution for you without recourse to mechanical fixes.
It transfers mechanical woes for financial woes but for your situation it may be a valid trade.

Well I paid 8 grand for it, then spent another 2 grand fixing the oil leak and getting a new Alternator and Vacuum Pump after it broke down last year.  Now it looks like it needs another potential 2 grand spending on it for new gearbox or some major investigation by someone decent - I.E not a single Official Garage from my experience as they are all incompetent lazy ripoff merchants (which is another reason I am deeply considering never buying another Toyota ever again).  There's absolutely no way I can afford a new vehicle either.  If I get rid of this I'm getting out of the camper vans entirely, and will buy a cheap transit and put a bed in it myself if I really need somewhere to sleep.  I've almost never used it for it's actual purpose, partly due to the very bad brain injury I sustained last year which prevented me from spending the summer in it.  

I don't know what would be better financially, to repair it up and then sell it, or scrap it, or to have a mysterious accident that writes it off. It not only needs the gearbox fixing, it needs a new hinge for the pop up roof, and a new tent canvas thingy also for the roof.  It's super old decor and could probably use a bit of a makeover too.  If I could get anywhere near what I paid for it without having any of this done, I would, but I'm not hopeful.  I only have about a month to get all that done in between this season's end and the New Season starting in New Zealand, so if I can't get it sold before then, god knows what I'm gonna do.

TwentyOneThirtyFive - Those are some scary diagrams!  I'll be honest, I neither have the tools, the time, the patience, the location, the inclination and probably the skills to be diagnosing this myself, I will have to rely on someone else doing the work (which probably means being ripped off, particularly if Toyota are involved).  Also, that picture is not actually of my gearstick, just a picture of one that wasn't completely different or manual or wasn't a straight line shifter.  I don't actually have a picture of it with me, and the van isn't parked that close to where I stay so I wasn't about to go and take a couple of buses just to get a picture of it!

Thanks for all the help suggestions and feedback guys, I really appreciate it.  As for being cursed, it's not really the van that's cursed, but me.  Seriously, if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck.  And my luck is worse with vehicles too.  In my lifetime I've owned several motorbikes from brand new, and I've never had a single one that didn't have major problems.   Wasn't a case of me abusing them, but more a case of if anything can go wrong in my life, it generally does.

When you start paying garage labour rates the costs rocket - so you are right to be wary. It's not just Toyota garages BTW, I don't think ANY main dealers know what they are doing as all the mechanics just go by the fault code shown to them.

If you have an accident/fire etc the ins. company will probably find a way to avoid paying - it seems to be their speciality.

You may find a campervan shop is more useful than anywhere else. Companies that do imports, conversions and trade-ins on campers are used to the odd gearbox needing changing etc, and they may be able to strike a deal as they can fix it and sell it as stock. You're trade-in for a different (working) camper may also be stronger.
For a regular garage it's an oddity.

E.g. the spanish equivalent of: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=campervan+centre+UK&ia=web

Sorry to hear of your luck, on the plus side you are due a bit of good luck at some point!

BTW the NV200 Combi I mentioned is not a camper and new stuff is always on finance, usually I'd avoid but a decent vehicle is also an investment. A strong, long warranty is what I'd recommend for someone with lack of money and luck, we all try to do stuff cheaper but sometimes regular down payments are better than the alternative LOL..

It really sucks that you have all these issues. But I think your rant against Toyota is uncalled for, also for that against campervans for that matter.
I can tell you a neighbor getting a 3000 euro bill on a 2011 Skoda, which is in fact a running car.
Any dealership works with high labor rates.

I think that someone with a bit of decent knowledge on old-school automatic transmission would be able to sort your problems.

If you are going to repair it, I think you would be able to use it after that, and so it would be the best option.

Also don't you have RAC or something like that?
Our equivelant of RAC let's you have vehicles brought home, or at least come by to have a look. And these guys can be quite handy, since they work with a lot of different stuff.

I think the problem is being stuck out in Spain, in the UK there are gearbox specialists fairly well represented.

One day I decided to take apart my Peugeot manual box (box+diff) to see if one the bearings was dodgy (actually a wheel bearing LOL). As I slid the case open the selector forks all popped out and there was no way it was going back together again, so I took it into a gearbox shop (A1 gearboxes or something) and for a few pounds the nice man stuck it all back together for me. Worked perfectly ever since too.

I learnt 3 things from this:

1) Never try taking a gearbox apart
2) The guys that do take them apart every day REALLY know their stuff and enjoy the job.
3) Always suspect the wheel bearing first

I did have an old Honda auto-box rebuilt once too as the reverse select crunched when cold. They did a nice job too.

Which city in Spain is the nearest to you Ryank? Perhaps if we knew where you are we could do some internet sleuthing and find you a place that would fix it?