Toyota100: The Toyota Century Forum

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum but have had my 1998 GZG50-AEPGK Century for almost a year now, and I'm hoping to get some input from this small community .

Unfortunately, while performing an ATF fluid & strainer service, I likely underfilled the transmission by ~0.5 qts and immediately drove up a decent incline which caused the transmission to slip while in Drive and likely smoked something internal to the transmission (torque converter or other clutch packs). Once I figured out the issue I added the remaining fluid and things seemed to be back to normal for a day. It slipped for maybe 5 seconds total but drove fine for the next few short drives, but the day after that it stopped going into any gear at all and I have to get it towed back to my workshop. The fluid smells burnt and there are very few tiny metal flakes in the fluid that I drained out today, so not looking very good. I'm a bit dumbfounded how such a small amount of fluid and short time could smoke my transmission but here I am.

Once I get the car back to my shop I will drop the pan again and assess how bad things are. If I do find a replacement trans & torque converter, it's safe to assume I need to flush the entire oil cooling circuit as well to remove metal shavings.

Some questions I'm hoping to get answered so I can fix my stupid mistake and get the car back on the road -

• The online repair manual I have lists the transmission model code as A343E, but Wikipedia, Amayama, my physical JPNZ manual, and some other online sources list it as A342E...which one is it? The part # for the entire assembly should be 30030-40222 (superseding -40220 and -40221) with a 30250-40091 torque converter. I'm leaning towards A342E being the "correct" one.

• Are there any models of the A34XE transmission used in USDM cars that are interchangeable with the Century? I'd like to not have to import one from Japan if possible.

• Are there any decent sources for a used or remanufactured transmission & TC for the Century whether in the US or Japan?

Pic related of the poor girl before her demise-


Thanks in advance for any help.

Any update on this? weird that 0.5 qts would smoke a transmission.

Hey same thing happened to mine, not sure if it'll help but I'll share my problem and what I did to resolve it, the reason for mine that blew was because there was debris in the trans from the internal belt, it clogged the filter and made the pump work overtime untill the pump failed, maybe you should check the filter and the efficiency of the pump with a volt meter, as I'm not sure how else to check the trans fluid pressure any other way

Edit, apparently it's the same transmission as a Hilux 4 speed and hopefully it's just a coincidence but mine was also a 1998 aswell