my computer was re flashed by harr Toyota (dealers) ones last year after the engine light went on. then out of no where the car starts to jerk when changing gears. called dealer said it was gonna cost approximately $4300-4500 to change the transmission. brought it to aamco transmissions and had it rebuilt and computer re flashed for about $2600. a day the later, the problem exists. my warranty expired at 60k miles. i'll be contacting Toyota to file a compliant since this seems to be a problem most '02 rav4 owners are experiencing. good thing this website exist. i hope Toyota company can help out. i think there should be a recall for this model.

Well at the beginning of May my car started jerking etc.. and it immediately made me think of transmission problems and scared me because how could this be so fast. Anyway I now have the car at the dealership which I ask to replace the ECM and transmission because when I put in google rav4 2002 problems I saw many other complaints of the same thing and became upset because this means toyota knows there is a problem but has not really done anything about it but put the customer through a lot of unnecessary stuff. So to make a long story shorter the service dept first has kept my car for about 9 days and during that time I had a hard time getting in touch with the service person I was dealing with and once when I did she told me they had done a flush of the tranny and that could be the problem which I told her it was not the problem and I ask that they would just straight out replace the transmission and ECM. She told me it was the policy to first flush the transmission if the fluid is dark and then try other test this is after they had flushed already and then after that didn't work they kept the same ECM just rebuilt it. I told her that toyota knows they need to replace the tranny and the ECM so please just do it and its not the policy to do so. it is within my warranty also she said since this was reported during the time of the warranty that if it turns out to be transmission and ECM they will still fix since problem was reported during the warranty if it happens she says. I need input because toyota to me this is rude to allow your customer to go through this when you know what you should do.

Any one have input for m? I am returning the loaner today.

I am the only driver of my Toyota Rav 4, bought it brand new. Thought I was doing the best thing by buying a Toyota I'm a single women and needed reliability and a car with a name i could trust. So I purchased a Toyota which was way out of my price i could comfortably afford but wanted the best so i worked multiple jobs to pay for it. This month makes it six years old, And I have been told I need a new tranny at 3,000.00 I am stunned and scared to death. I just recently lost my job due to company closing. Have no money saved owe a lot on my credit card and now I'm presented with the biggest problem ever MY CAR .. Wish I bought a Chevy. Please help If anyone has this figured out. Can't get a job if I don't have a car. Can't afford to fix it right now. So before i start spending !!! If anyone knows anything about this tranny problem, I would be eternally grateful.Thanks DJ.

I was having problems like everyone else; it was having trouble shifting from 1st to 2nd (but this didn't happen all the time) took it to the dealership and they said nothing was wrong. I told them that there was and to figure it out. They finally called back later that day and said that i needed a new ECM and the cost almost $1400. I don't know about anyone else but the reason i bought a toyota is because they are suppose to be great cars. I don't think i will ever buy another one again. I also had the problem with the check engine light, i don't know if this is connected at all. The dealership told me there was nothing that i could have done to help prevent this from happening.

I purchased this RAV4 brand new in 2002. I just notice the AT jerking when I put into reverse or into second gear sometime last week. I did some research on this problem before I have the local dealer check this problem out, Came to found out that there have been similar problem happen to other RAV4. It appeared that the problem is caused by the defective ECM. I am not suer whether this part would cover under by Toyota after the initial warranty already expired. Any suggestions is appreciated...