What The Hell Is This Thing?

[Mister-Z]

So I had my 93' ES300 in getting a CV boot & trans pan gasket replaced. I bought the car about a month ago and aside from a few rather small quirks (for a 12 year old car at least) it's been treating me pretty well.

When I came to pick the car up though, the mechanic handed me a small little metal piece that looks like part of some machinery, altho I have no idea what. He said that he found it in the transmission pan, altho there were no other metal scraps or anything like that. But this raises a very important question . . . wtf is this thing?

My mechanic doesn't do transmission's unfortunately, and said he couldn't tell me if it's from the transmission or what. He recommended that I take it too a couple of trans. shops and ask what they think of it, which will probably be my next step after getting some feedback here B) anyway, I'm gonna post a picture of it at the bottom of this thread assuming I can do that right. Any clue as too what this might have broken off of or how it otherwise might have ended up in the trans pan is greatly appreciated! I had the transmission flushed right after I purchased the car, since there was no other metal in the pan is it possible that they screwed something up or dropped something in there?

btw, the dime is just in there for size comparison :-P

[Toysrme]

That's not from the transmission AFAIK, Ive been in my transmission a ton.

That's from my DIY valve-body modification. Do you see that part in there? I never did!

[Mister-Z]

lol, Toysrme, I was hoping somebody would say that :P Any idea's where it could have come from?

[ArmyofOne]

lol, Toysrme, I was hoping somebody would say that :P Any idea's where it could have come from?

looks like a valve maybe?

[Toysrme]

IDK. There are little valve things in the valve body that are spring loaded & shoot out the side, but there are tiny retainer's that hold them in & they have cutouts for them to slip into. There are a good number of them in there. In this pic the leaf at the top, the stem is pointing to that little squar retainer. That holds those little shift valves in.

Anyways if he lost one of those things, it would be all screwed up to some degree, or another.

I don't think that's what it is, but if that is it he needs to go beat the living *BLEEP* out of the transmission service people for taking it apart & removing it for no reason. It is physically impossible for that to come out on it's own while the retainer block is in & that is sandwhiched between aluminum & steel. It doesn't exactly have anywhere to go!

[ArmyofOne]

IDK. There are little valve things in the valve body that are spring loaded & shoot out the side, but there are tiny retainer's that hold them in & they have cutouts for them to slip into. There are a good number of them in there. In this pic the leaf at the top, the stem is pointing to that little squar retainer. That holds those little shift valves in.

Anyways if he lost one of those things, it would be all screwed up to some degree, or another.

I don't think that's what it is, but if that is it he needs to go beat the living *BLEEP* out of the transmission service people for taking it apart & removing it for no reason. It is physically impossible for that to come out on it's own while the retainer block is in & that is sandwhiched between aluminum & steel. It doesn't exactly have anywhere to go!

thats what i figured...

wait a second...that looks like the piston from the tranny modulator...we have those at work too. do these cars have tranny modulators brandon? or is that what the kickdown cable replaces?

[Toysrme]

You got it.

At the very bottom right of the valve body you see the circle of shiney metal. To the immediate left of that there is another shiney bit of metal. That piece of metal is what the throttle cable connects too, and there is a biiiig piston right there it pushes against to varry the pressure.

Tho if that piston shot out, he wouldn't have the TV cable working & that would drive log a dog. Not considering it'd be loosing tons of pressure in the VB like mad. That sounds a lot closer to what that thing would look like if it were a valve.

I can always be wrong, but I just don't recognize that & think transmission.

It could be from inside the main housing of the transmission itself tho! Eh, IDK what to say. I mean if it drives well... Put an n2o kit on it & tell us how it is in the morning I guess? If it's a transmission part, it's beyond my knowledge.

I gave a quick glance at the A540 repair manual (See your '93 FSM)

The closest things I found resembling that are:

Union 27's page AX-11 (But they look threaded & hex shaped)

Plug page AX-11 (But it's external)

Check Valve AX-91 (That's what it looks like, but doesn't explain how it got around two 1/8" steel gaskets & thick aluminum)

You can see it's not the plugs we were talking about before on AX-87. They have the flange on the end for the retainer. (Hey I said that! LoL!)

I digress, I'm not a transmission expert so I'm at a loss. Judging by a quick page-down scroll of the transmission manual's exploded diagrams - that is not a transmission part & if it is... It seems physically impossible to me for it to just "jump out" into the transmission pan.

[ArmyofOne]

You got it.

At the very bottom right of the valve body you see the circle of shiney metal. To the immediate left of that there is another shiney bit of metal. That piece of metal is what the throttle cable connects too, and there is a biiiig piston right there it pushes against to varry the pressure.

Tho if that piston shot out, he wouldn't have the TV cable working & that would drive log a dog. Not considering it'd be loosing tons of pressure in the VB like mad. That sounds a lot closer to what that thing would look like if it were a valve.

I can always be wrong, but I just don't recognize that & think transmission.

It could be from inside the main housing of the transmission itself tho! Eh, IDK what to say. I mean if it drives well... Put an n2o kit on it & tell us how it is in the morning I guess? If it's a transmission part, it's beyond my knowledge.

I gave a quick glance at the A540 repair manual (See your '93 FSM)

The closest things I found resembling that are:

Union 27's page AX-11 (But they look threaded & hex shaped)

Plug page AX-11 (But it's external)

Check Valve AX-91 (That's what it looks like, but doesn't explain how it got around two 1/8" steel gaskets & thick aluminum)

You can see it's not the plugs we were talking about before on AX-87. They have the flange on the end for the retainer. (Hey I said that! LoL!)

I digress, I'm not a transmission expert so I'm at a loss. Judging by a quick page-down scroll of the transmission manual's exploded diagrams - that is not a transmission part & if it is... It seems physically impossible to me for it to just "jump out" into the transmission pan.

I give up...

Its a flux capacitor.

[Mister-Z]

So, it's not looking like part of the transmission unless is this 'Check Valve' so far . . . that's comforting, to some degree at least B) I'll show it around and see if anybody has a clue, hopefully I'll figure out that it's something not terrible. As long as my transmission is not destroying itself because of a missing valve, it'll prolly be ok *knocks on wood*

I appreciate the feedback Toys and Army, you guys are always very helpfull!

[Toysrme]

np, netime

Eh, you'd have to completely take the valve body apart to get that check valve on page AX-92. Check it out.

[lenore]

I too have had a valve body apart (RX300) and it looks like one of the valve bodies pistons and the long thin part is where a spring goes over. sorry partner. Or maybe he threw that in to scare you, or Lexus did a great job of quality control.

[ArmyofOne]

So, it's not looking like part of the transmission unless is this 'Check Valve' so far . . . that's comforting, to some degree at least B) I'll show it around and see if anybody has a clue, hopefully I'll figure out that it's something not terrible. As long as my transmission is not destroying itself because of a missing valve, it'll prolly be ok *knocks on wood*

I appreciate the feedback Toys and Army, you guys are always very helpfull!

no problem...thast why we are here :)

[raw6464]

Just a thought, this looks like a plug used at assembly of the tranny. Some x-mission manufacturers fill the tranny with oil when assembled and the filler tube is plugged at the bottom so the oil cannot leak out, no dip stick is inserted at that time. When the tranny is put in the car the dip stick is inserted in the filler tube pushing the plug into the oil pan and there it sits until the pan is dropped.

[gld98682]

raw6464 - I agree with you. I had this same situation (years ago) with a 1990 Ford Thunderbird. I found this strange piece in the A/T pan, took it to a trans shop, and they said what you said...it was a filler tube plug!

[yes250]

Another victim of... "My mechanic found this..."

I am a firm believer in the phrase. 95% of your car's troubles arise from the last guy who worked on your car.

Flush your own tranny from now on. Next to an oil change, it's the easiest job in the world. If you screw it up, at least you will know how you screwed it up.

[lenore]

Maybe in manufacturing the keeper was not installed and the piston fell out after the fact. And for some ungodly reason the tranny still works. Yeh Lexus.

[Toysrme]

I know what that is now. It's a small pressure relief valve. There's only one that size on the entire valve-body.

But the fact remains the same, that part is still sandwhiched in between like atleast a 1/2 inch of steel & aluminum. So it's physically impossible for it to just jump out anywhere. So... The conclusion is the same.

A/T mechanic reached into the parts bin & pulled out a part. Pretty much like yes250 said.

[wwest]

I'll vote for it being a filler tube fitting plug. The one's I have found in Ford sumps in the past were plastic but the shape is much the same. The Ford "plugs" were obviously designed to be removed (long "stem" Handle)before final installion but for some reason were not.

Check the OD of the ATF filler tube and see if they aren't the ~same.

[hangloose4]

That's the wierdest thing. I did my own tranny fluid change in my '92 es300 about 6 months ago and found the exact same piece in the pan when i dropped it, and nobody could tell me what it was. If you have had any further input on this i would appreciate hearing about. For the record my car has 286000 miles and still runs like new, even without the mystery piece in my transmission.