My first 4RUNNER!!! ‘01 SR5

Greetings & Salutations Folks,

Got it last night!! ‘01 SR5, 142k, Dorado Gold!! Haha My daughter saw it and said “that’s an old man car”! impeccably clean in, out & under the hood. Single owner!So damn happy to have found it. Paid more than I wanted, but it’s gem that’s gonna be great dd.
I’ve been a member of several forums like most folks.... always great information being passed around!
Past vehicles (forums)
Excursion 6.0
Broncos ‘88-351 & ‘93-302
Jeeps 98 4-Banger! & Libby ‘05 3.7 (way underrated)
Lexus SC400

 

Good luck with it. I recently picked up an 01 SR5 Sport with 150k. Nice truck but needs work

 

So here I am just a few days later and not happy at all. The morning after my intro post, I got the first sign of what was to come...I live FL btw... start truck and let the rpm’s settle.... back out of driveway and put in drive (after coming to a complete stop) and then a small delay followed by a hard shift. Like, hard enough to wiggle the beer gut. Once warm all is good under the hood.. haha
Wife drove it next day and then tells me she had same experience.
Today I back out and when put in to drive and I get the feeling like trying to drive with park brake set or “power braking”. Put it back in park. Shift d slowly thru all gears. Put back in D all was ok. A first stop sign it did the power brake feeling thing again, but came out of it as if I was starting in 2nd or even 3rd maybe??
Drove roughly 200 miles throughout the day with a good bit of stop and go with no issues. Parked for a hour, then the awesomeness happened...
While traveling 8-10 mph approaching a stop sign.. I could feel it trying to make the last down shift to stop and then it locked up and caused the vehicle to skid a few feet. Shifted the gears again slowly and tried again. It made it 100 yards it did the exact same thing. So, I did the same thing. I know. Not the safest thing to do. Then I drove it on home for another 25 miles stop&go with no issues.
I checked the tranny fluid while hot and it was above he hot line ~5/8” and did not smell bad.
I have not yet checked the rad fluid, but will in the morning.
Do rebuilt transmissions usually still have ID plate stating such? I took a lot of photos and only saw the original ID plate.... it is a 30-40LE in case photo not visible
There was the “normal” rotational play of driveshaft and no axial play.
No drips. No smells.

01 SR5 2wd, 143k. I’ve had it for 200 of that. Got it from Toyota of Tampa Bay if anyone reading this knows a guy who knows a guy