Well, an update on events. As stated before, when I picked up the truck, the receipt stated “REMAN ATM”. I was hoping that it was just the way the computer printed the receipt, but no. On Thursday I challenged my Service Advisor about this since he stated that it would be a NEW tranny going in. He did some research and said that it WAS a reman, and that Toyota only covers installing a “reman” under warranty. He stated that they ordered a "new" tranny, but the parts dept crossed it over to the reman p/n. He did give me the bit about it being all new internals in a used case. I told him that this was unacceptable on a truck only 3 weeks old (especially since it is doing the same damn thing), and that if we are going to pull my truck apart for the
second time, then I wanted a new tranny. He said he understood, but recommended my best course of action was to call the Toyota Experience 1-800 number.
I called and spoke with a fairly nice individual, and after presenting all the facts, and being firm (but polite) about NOT being happy with the situation, he stated that he would have the “Tundra Specialists” call me w/in 24 hrs.
Unfortunately I was at the State Fair the following day (Fri) and didn’t hear the cel ring, but sure enough it was Salvador that left a message. I tried calling back within 5 minutes of his call, and it went to his voice mail. On a second attempt, I hit “0” to be bumped to the receptionists, but she stated that he was “unavailable”. This was around 3:30 Dallas time on Fri, so I assume he was probably making his final calls for the day.
Since I spent all Thursday helping a friend move, I had to use the truck, and have even more issues with my ‘reman’ tranny. As already stated, it is still doing that friggen rumble strip vibe, enough that it rattled my dash even without a trailer this time. It also seems to shift out of first gear WAY to soon. Before, if I needed to briskly pull onto a road to merge with traffic, I could ease on the throttle from a stop to keep from chirping the tires, and once moving, give it a little more gas to get going nicely. Now doing the same thing, it almost immediately shifts into second, and kills the acceleration I was expecting.
It also seems to be confused on when to lock the torque converter at highway speeds. Under the same driving conditions, it will sometime lock it right away, and sometimes it will take what seems like over a minute to do it. It also seems to lock it at too low of a speed causing a ‘lugging’ vibration in the truck. I also have more overall vibration at any speed in the truck while in 6th gear.
And one of the most frustrating things, is a new hesitation it has now. If I am braking to a stoplight, and the light changes while I am moving btw 5 – 10 mph, and I ‘try’ to accelerate, the eng will rev up (with no forward acceleration), the tranny seems to be trying to do something, and then will ‘catch’, and kind of jerk and go.
I have put well over a hundred miles, mostly residential driving, on this ‘new’ reman tranny, so it is not a matter of it still trying to learn.
I want it OUT my truck. My fun-to-drive truck is not fun anymore…..
We'll see what Monday brings.