Hello Pet Talkers (small update post 25)

[Karen]

Great idea Karen, I sent him an email!!

Thank you again to all of the wonderful PTers who have messaged, emailed, and donated. I love this family.

I'm supposed to have a house-sitting job this weekend for two delightfully spunky Labradors! One of them should be at my work tomorrow so I'll confirm with his mom that we're still on. A friend of mine offered to pay me to help her clean and declutter her home, which I'd be delighted to help with even for free, so that's promising too.

Unfortunately, the mechanic was unable to determine what's wrong with my car. When he scanned it, the error that came up was related to the solenoid (??), which is apparently working fine. (I don't know anything about cars so I'm just repeating what I think he said) He reset the error somehow, and the car worked fine for about a mile, then threw the same error, and apparently the car's computer told the solenoid to turn off again. So now he has to figure out what the computer is doing? I don't know, I'll call him tomorrow and hopefully get more information.

You spelled it right, so you can google solenoid to get more info, and if you Google that term, and your car's make and model, you may find others with a similar issue - worth a shot!

[Lady's Human]

Find out what the code is (OBD II codes are a letter and 4 digits) and either search car forums for the answer to the issue, or post it here and I'll see if it's something I've run across.

The transmission may need a reflash of the computter which runs it, that will occasionally produce problems with the solenoids (electro-magnetic switches which control shifting).

As far as tires go, search Craigslist. There are normally used tires with a decent amount of tread left that people sell for about 1/4 of what a new tire would cost.

[snakemama]

Hi LH, the code was P0753, my car is a 1996 Celica. I've been searching and it looks like it could be anything from dirty transmission fluid to the computer itself to a rusty solenoid, though the transmission shop said the solenoid itself seemed fine.

Thanks for the tip about the tire! As soon as I get the car back, that will be my first project. It looks as though someone hit my car while it was parked in front of the house, and caused a significant tear on either side of the one tire.

[Lady's Human]

Hi LH, the code was P0753, my car is a 1996 Celica. I've been searching and it looks like it could be anything from dirty transmission fluid to the computer itself to a rusty solenoid, though the transmission shop said the solenoid itself seemed fine.

Thanks for the tip about the tire! As soon as I get the car back, that will be my first project. It looks as though someone hit my car while it was parked in front of the house, and caused a significant tear on either side of the one tire.

I'd start with the tranny fluid, not a flush, drop the pan and change the fluid and the filter.

[snakemama]

Today the transmission shop was unable to reproduce the error, so if they can't get it back by Friday I'm just going to take it home, and my little brother has offered to come by and change the fluid for me. Fingers crossed that that's all it is!

I'd start with the tranny fluid, not a flush, drop the pan and change the fluid and the filter.

[Lady's Human]

Today the transmission shop was unable to reproduce the error, so if they can't get it back by Friday I'm just going to take it home, and my little brother has offered to come by and change the fluid for me. Fingers crossed that that's all it is!

If your brother changes the fluid, I'd suggest putting a bottle of tranny fluid treatment in, letting it run up to temp a couple times, and then changing the fluid. That way the fluid treatment can clean out the gunk from the valve body and soldnoids and you wind up with clean fluid in the pan.

In addition, I found what looks like a decent Celica forum, might want to pose the question here:

http://www.toyotacelicas.com/forums/...th-generation/

[snakemama]

Thanks for the link to the forum, LH! I'm picking up the car on Monday, which will be nice because the truck I'm borrowing gets VERY bad gas mileage.

I'm house-sitting this weekend for two silly Labradors...I wasn't thinking when I agreed to this gig that Jasper has just had surgery and is not supposed to run or play for two weeks! So this weekend will be lots of juggling trying to keep Jasper settled while keeping the labs (one of whom is only 9 months old) entertained. Wish me luck!!