2001 Toyota Celica GT Automatic Transmission issue

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so I personally own 5 and have worked on many others, and have test driven even more.

The transmission fluid was dirty as usual but nothing I haven't seen in many other Toyotas and have had no issues later.

I go through all the fluids when I get a car, with the Toyota Automatic Transmissions I have always done 1 D&R w/Filter change with all sorts of ATF and never had any issues.

As usual I left the ATF drain plug removed for a week while we removed and rebuilt the engine and worked on the remaining things on the vehicle, during this slow drain process, I'm able to get out 5.5 quarts of ATF from the total fill of 7.3 quarts.

The last three celicas with the same automatic transmission, I have used red lubegard with Certified ATF($23.98 for 12 quarts) from Sams club.

This vehicle in question has 234k miles on it, I couldn't test drive it hard as I usually do because the vehicle at that given time had the wrong rotors(didn't know at the time) and the brake pedal would go all the way down before starting to brake. I drove it 300+ miles from chicago to st. louis and didn't see any issues at all with the automatic transmission.

Issue: During normal operation, the transmission shifts perfectly and you can't even tell that it's shifting(other then the tachometer) as there are no "thuds" or noise of any sorts. When I drive it at wide open throttle, it revs to 5k-6k perfectly then for a split second "hesitate" very oddly and then "thuds" loudly into the next gear. I could be wrong but it seems like a "sticky" valve body that I have heard of.

what are the solutions if any to this?

My thought process right now is:


1) Change to a different ATF, I have Amsoil ATF on hand.
2) The transmission seems shot and needs to be replaced.
3) If I'm on the right track then the valve body might be replaceable, I remember a Toyota Tech telling me it's where the transmission filter bolts onto, I will confirm this when I discuss this with him.

I'm not sure if the mileage has much to do with it as we have bought/owned many other Celica/Corolla mated with this engine that had higher mileage and original fluid in them, and I went through almost the same process(3 D&R without testing wide open throttle until I got 10k on the fluid in my earlier ownership of similar vehicles) in changing out the ATF in them.

Note: this Certified ATF is in most of my car's Power Steering system now with red lubegard and they all operate flawlessly, no noise especially.
 
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I just drove it again, shifted perfectly even when cold. Drove on some ramps going to the highway and couldn't replicate the "thud" shifting but engine would rev too high before shifting. On my way back home from this drive, when I got onto city driving, and tried a couple of WOT and "let go", it shifted with delay and then a "thud".

Could this be the throttle position sensor? When we first started the vehicle after the engine rebuild, it started perfectly at first but immediately started to idle at around 700 rpms, which is not normal for these Toyotas and upon inpection the connection between the TPS and connector were poor, and the TPS had to be replaced with a used one from a corolla (exact same part number), subsequent starts were perfect, as the vehicle would go up to 1700 rpms and then reduce rpms as the vehicle warmed up.

Two weeks later the battery had died from the vehicle not being used, upon jumping the car, it would idle low again during start up, and has continued to do so. Actual miles on the vehicle have been 45 since everything was done to it.
 
My Camry does some thing like that. I didn't think it was a problem LOL. My last 97' Camry did it too and so does my brother's 96' Lexus ES300.
 
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