We have the rav 4 with 50,000 miles .It recently started acting a bit odd. Seems like the transmission doesn,t want to start out in the lowest gear. It seems like it starts out in a higher gear, and then it seems like it will shift out of gear,almost like finding a nuetral, and then into low gear. It doesn't do it all the time, which is odd.We have had the fluid changed and a input turbine speed sensor changed , but it didn't help much, would appreciate any feedback,thanks,Jim

Hi Jim,

This link should help you:

http://rav4world.com/tsb/2001/TC002-06.pdf

Best of luck to you. When I brought my car to our local dealership (Cobb County Toyota in Kennesaw, GA), they made no mention of the potential problem with the computer. They simply wanted to charge me for a new transmission. Sadly, it was another repair shop, not even Toyota, who located the bulletin for me when they thought it was strange that after a month of rebuliding the transmission several time failed to fix the problem. When I called the dealership to point out the bulletin, ask them to refund my money for their previous diagnostic error, and ask him to replace the computer per the servic bulletin, the service manager flat out refused to look at the car again despite the fact that my car's symptoms match the bulletin exactly.

I have since gone to another dealiership who has agreed to replace the computer, but it was not easy for them to find the bulletin. The point is (other than my venting), be sure to push the dealer to find the bulletin when you go in. Leaving the problem unfixed, even for a little while, will tear up your transmission extremely quickly. While Toyota Corporate has instructed the dealerships to replace the computer under the emissions warranty (80,000 miles or 8 years), they are not paying for the transmission damage caused by the problem.

I am not sure if your problem is the same, but it sounds similar to the way my problems started out.