[thumbster]

Originally Posted by bwalky

Ok, my rumble strip experience is following in line with the others. The tech spoke to the big wigs at Toyota, told him to disconnect the brake light so that the torque converter would not engage and see if the problem went away. It did, so apparently it is a torque converter issue.

The general concensus is about the friction surface finish being dimpled on the converter lockup clutch due to a manufacturing defect. This is also the case with the one way clutch sprague in the convertor. I took a look at a torque converter which was taken out of a defective trans at the dealer and was not impressed with what I saw. There are spots on the front turbine side of the converter that are spot welded and could have possibly re-heat treated the front friction surface of the lockup clutch. I'm not saying I know as much as a toyota design engineer, but in comparison to other transmissions I've worked on (ford had a converter problem in their AXOD trans like this) with this kind of problem, it would be a definitive explanation. Apparently our torque converters are manufactured by aisin-warner in the US.