Toyota Repair: Transmission, transmission, seals

Question
My 93 Toyota Camry is very hesitant in reverse and feels like it doesn't want to shift in third. The tranny fluid is level and it still does ride great, but the check engine light is popping on and off. Do you think this could be linked together? I really appreciate any info that you can give me. Thank you for your time.


-Max-

Answer
Max,
    How many miles on the car?  What color is the tranny fluid?  Does it smell burnt?  You could have an old transmission which needs to be put out of its misery.  The older an automatic transmission gets, the more the gazillion rubber valves and seals become embrittled and they start allowing fluid to pass when its not supposed to and not pass when it is supposed to.  A quick TEMPOARY fix is to change out all the old fluid with new fluid.  This will buy you some time and you will notice an improvement, BUT it is temporary!!!
   My 1997 Avalon was doing this @ ~ 180k miles, and my mechanic flushed out the fluid and replaced it, then he started looking for a low mileage used tranny (~50k miles on it).  We stretched out another three months and replaced the tranny with a good used one for ~$1200.
    A transmission rebuild will cost you >$2500.

Hope this helps.

Vince