Things just keep getting better. I am now just hours away from getting my truck back.
SM and CR rep in Ca. both called early this morning with assurances that my troubles will be taken care of. I have been told that mine will have the most current updates albeit reman. Seems that may actually be better because I have also learned that Toyota owns and operates the reman facilities. I imagine having direct oversight of quality control just may be the difference. I believe the ainsly-warner trans. is built somewhere in N. C.
No matter, I'll be glad to drive it and hope for the best.
I'll post a full report on results tomorrow.
Got my truck back this morning. Drove it about 30 miles right away and couldn't make the rumble occur. Parked it for the afternoon and drove another 45 miles and still no rumble.
Have a couple of other new items now. Feeling buzzing vibration into the steering wheel. I gets worse on acceleration and when revving the engine while parked or in neutral. I noticed the Borla exhaust was reinstalled crooked. Left side hangs about an inch lower with a little droop. I'll bet I am feeling exhaust leak or vibrations through the hangers somewhere along the line. Actually can feel the vibration through the floor boards too. It is very annoying. Called the SM at dealer to let him know I was still not happy. He immediately said bring it back on Monday and he will give me a tech right away and work the truck over front to back until I am completely satisfied.
I can't remember every getting service this good.
By the way... I have noticed a distinct difference in shift points and frequency of gear changes. Almost like the truck is constantly searching for the correct gear. I live in a rural areas with lots of winding hilly roads so speed and direction changes are the norm. Constantly going up and down through the gears. Also, noticed the MPG indicator going crazy. Actually saw 99.8 MPG for about 10 secs. ( Going down hill of course) Maybe we should report that to Consumer Reports...HaHa ha...
I'm glad you got your truck back. I have a 5.7L DC with about 5900 miles on it, did a 3900 mile trip from OH to TX and back with no problems. Having the 6 speed tranny I was a little worried since I followed this thread while on my trip.
I just visited the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration website and searched, complaints, TSBs and recalls - didn't see any mention of transmission problems and only 2 (under suspension) about bed bounce. I would like to suggest that those of you that have problems with your transmission that you post them with NHTSA - if this really is a significant problem it is a way to get Toyota's attention and it documents the problem.
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…..
Does Toyota now know what the problem with these 6 speeds is and why it would only affect 10% of them. Can someone who has the ear of a tech rep ask what this means for the entire selection of 6 speeds prior to 10/04/07.
I continue in my quest for a pleasant driving experience. Having let my truck sit and cool overnight, I decided to pull it into my shop/garage and take a close look underneath front to back.
As soon as I opened the hood, I was shocked to find dried antifreeze splashes all over everything. I opened the radiator cap and found the radiator low on fluid.
Next I crawled underneath. There are at least 4 different fittings on the tranny that are leaking fluid.
Also, noted the two of the heat shields are pretty banged up and bent out of shape. I might add they are cheap aluminum foil like stamped shields. Easy to crumple. Several of the fasteners are loose.
On the underside drivers side there is something missing of which I can't figure out. Only noticed this because there is this blank spot with no paint.
Moving rearward, I found the right side tail pipe section forward of the muffle very loose at the pipe clamp joint and leaking water. When I started the truck engine you could hear it bubbling internally.
Finally, at the bumper found the left tail pipe hanging about 1" lower and extended beyond the bumper 1" more rearward than the right side.
I am not so sure it is the right thing to demand a new truck. Our warranty is our only sure savior. In Virginia where I live the rules for arbitration in these matters are pretty stringent. I can imagine it could take quite some time to get relief.
Oh, moving on to the tranny operation. I did drive it again today. Shifting all over the place.... like it can't make up its mind what to do. I did gun it on time to see how the TC would lock up and I thought the rear end was going to shake off the truck. That can't be good.
So off to the dealer for another look see on Monday. I wish stealth Z the best of luck too.
By the way, I don't think our friend at Toyota customer relations cares to hear of our experiences on line. Making comparisons of how each of us is treated doesn't seem to set to well with them.
It would be interesting to know if Toyota is monitoring these sites.
I still love to look at my truck, Just not happy with driving it. Sad but true...
I remain faithful that Toyota will roger up and do the right thing for each and every one of us.
Impilot,
I was told the same thing kind of sorta.. My SM was surprised to hear they were only going after your TC. Not Toyota protocol. In the mean time, while he wouldn't be real specific, seems they have an idea that something on the pressure plate housing is flexing to much on lockup under extreme loading. This is causing a shudder of the clutch as it goes into lockup. There was some inference that they might actually have changed the programming also to make the tranny shift points different to avoid the conditions.
Hope you have better luck getting put back together than I have had.
Mine now has a crazy annoying vibration that is transmitted through the floor boards and steering wheel.
I was so confident this last go around would fix everything I actually went ahead and ordered about $500 worth of additional accessories to put on or in it. May end up sending it all back. Good luck.
Having had the truck now for the whole weekend, I am feeling much better about it. I crawled under it yesterday and foudn a few minor issues that I am sure the dealer will take care of. It's nit picky stuff but my new truck deserves to still look new.
Today was another interesting day. Drove it loaded with ATV and chainsaw gear. Went into the mountain to do some trail clearing before deer season really kicks off. Anyway the drive was without incident. Rode and drove fine. Tranny seems to be working great.
Ran into a Toyota mechanic who has worked at my dealership for 14 years. He recognized my truck right away and asked how the tranny was. Of course I said just fine. He proceded to tell me talk in the shop indicated that the Torque Converter has been the problem all along. Seems the way the plate spot welded is not strong enough for the loading. So....the welds on some have broken and that is what causes the shudder.
Toyota has supposedly corrected the problem at manufacture plant by adding additional welds to their process. This must be why Toyota is now only offering some of the rest new TC's only. Nothing wrong with the actual transmission.
Oh by the way. SM told me Friday that Toyota does not sub out the trannys. They are manufactured by Toyota at a Toyota plant in the South East. He didn't know what state. I believe him.
I am off in the morning for final tweaks and reallignment of my Borla exhaust. Gonna insist they replace all of the heat shields they bent up in the tranny swaps.
Finally, I am convinced the annoying vibration is caused by resonance from the exhaust. Funny thing.... I didn't actually want the exhaust to begin with but it was already optioned on the truck when I bought it. I like the performance gain and looks but the drone gets annoying. Now I just turn up the radio. Looking at undercoating with a sound dampening. I know it is available. Posted under another thread for some opinons.
Found this on Pickup truck.com..... Just an excerpt of article. They are referring to "owners" us on Tundrasolutions.
"Owners report having their transmissions replaced with new or remanufactured ones, though Toyota told Levine that going forward the automaker would only replace the torque converter itself. Toyota did not say, however, how many trucks are affected, just that the transmission problem is not a safety or design issue."
. By the way, I don't think our friend at Toyota customer relations cares to hear of our experiences on line. Making comparisons of how each of us is treated doesn't seem to set to well with them.
It would be interesting to know if Toyota is monitoring these sites.
You bring up a good point. It probalby is not fair to them to give everyone here a blow-by-blow, so until I reach a final resolution, I won't be sharing details online.
Toyota (local dealership and Corporate) has been VERY reasonable in trying take care of me, so I would like to continue to give them the opportunity to resolve the situation.
I will say that Salvador did call Monday as promised and I am sch to take the truck in (again) this week.
Found this on Pickup truck.com..... Just an excerpt of article. They are referring to "owners" us on Tundrasolutions.
"Owners report having their transmissions replaced with new or remanufactured ones, though Toyota told Levine that going forward the automaker would only replace the torque converter itself. Toyota did not say, however, how many trucks are affected, just that the transmission problem is not a safety or design issue."
I've had the "rumble strip" transmission problem for a few months and multiple trips to the dealer. I haven't posted earlier because my problem and dealer visits aren't much different than other posts here. However I just got my truck back from the dealer today and the dealer said he only did tests and didn't fix anything this time because Toyota is redesigning the torque converter and will replace mine when the new one is available. He also said Toyota said it won't break or cause a problem in use, just has the shudder.
The dealer replaced the trans and converter on mine after a couple visits for tests. The problem wasn't very severe, only happening occasionally, and could not be "induced" very often so detection was a problem. After replacing the trans and converter the shudder happened more often, but made it much easier to replicate so they could do their tests. Their conclusion is that it's the converter, and the redesigned part will solve the problem, but they didn't say when the new design should be available.
I will say Heritage Toyota has been more than helpful, and there has never been a problem or a doubt even when they couldn't get the shudder to happen. They also gladly supplied a rental car to use anytime I brought the truck in. All good things showing Toyota and the dealer are trying to remedy the problem the best they can. But this is the first indication I've had that they actually know what the problem is. Hope they're right and the redesigned converter arrives soon.
I've had the "rumble strip" transmission problem for a few months and multiple trips to the dealer. I haven't posted earlier because my problem and dealer visits aren't much different than other posts here. However I just got my truck back from the dealer today and the dealer said he only did tests and didn't fix anything this time because Toyota is redesigning the torque converter and will replace mine when the new one is available. He also said Toyota said it won't break or cause a problem in use, just has the shudder.
The dealer replaced the trans and converter on mine after a couple visits for tests. The problem wasn't very severe, only happening occasionally, and could not be "induced" very often so detection was a problem. After replacing the trans and converter the shudder happened more often, but made it much easier to replicate so they could do their tests. Their conclusion is that it's the converter, and the redesigned part will solve the problem, but they didn't say when the new design should be available.
I will say Heritage Toyota has been more than helpful, and there has never been a problem or a doubt even when they couldn't get the shudder to happen. They also gladly supplied a rental car to use anytime I brought the truck in. All good things showing Toyota and the dealer are trying to remedy the problem the best they can. But this is the first indication I've had that they actually know what the problem is. Hope they're right and the redesigned converter arrives soon.
I actually thought I had read on TS that they had found out what the problem was and that as of early October, the problem was fixed on the line....I could be wrong but I thought that is what a member here posted.....perhaps someone with a better memory can chime in here.....
Re: Transmission Fault Identified?
Linear Mode
