6-spd auto transmission problem.

[DavidT.]

This will be a long post so be patient. I wanted to wait until I knew all what the dealer would do about my problem before making this post (Rather than a guessing post). 1st off, I would like to highly recommend Hobbie Autocenter of Oroville, Ca. They have been great to me and are taking care of me very well. Here's my timeline:

April 9th: Purchased the truck of my dreams, 07 Slate CrewMax 4x4 SR5 with tow package, tow mirrors, sonar, 5.7/6-spd auto combo, etc etc. I traded in my very trusty 01 Ford F250 PSD 4x4.

April 12th: I noticed a noise and shudder the truck emitted whenever the torque convertor unlocks when accelerating (Example: Holding steady speed @ 45 MPH, slightly accelerating until torque converter unlocks then the truck shudders makes the noise before taking off). It sounded like hitting a small patch of gravel or uneven road. Sometimes it would make the sound for 3-4 seconds, other times only a second or two and it only made the noise when the t/c unlocked while accelerating. I decided to drive through the weekend, put some more miles on it and see what happens.

April 16th: The following Monday after the weekend I gave the dealer a call, made an appointment to bring her in on the 18th.

April 18th: Test drove vehicle with a Toyota technician. He acknowledged the noise however said the vehicle was too new and didn't want to take anything apart until further notice from Toyota. He told me he was going to open a case with Toyota and see what they say. Well, two days later, April 20th the service manager calls me up and says a Toyota Engineer is flying down on March 1st to take a look at my truck. They wanted me to drop it off the evening of April 30th so they could have the truck all day on the 1st.

Well, fast forward a week or so and it is now March 1st. The Toyota Engineer took a look at my truck. Nothing much was said, except that a new transmission and torque converter is on it's way.

I won't have my truck back for a few weeks but in the mean time, they put me in a loaner 2007 Tundra Double Cab 4.7. I will update this thread when I get my truck back and see how it drives. My CrewMax is a wonderful truck, the 5.7 V8 is so smooth and powerful. I'm anxiously waiting to get it back already, I really miss it.

Updates:
May 4th: Visited the dealer and they are still waiting on the new transmission and torque converter. My truck has only been gone for 4 days or so but it feels like an eternity. I spoke to a different service manager today, he told me there were five guys from Toyota with all sorts of fancy diagnostic equipment that nick picked on my truck for half a day before they concluded that a new tranny and t/c would cure the problem.

May 10th: Spoke to dealer today, transmission and t/c arrived this morning. I should be getting my truck back tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait!

May 11th: Looks like I'll be getting my truck back Monday instead of today.

May 15th: Got my truck back. She runs excellent! No more noises from the transmission, will put more miles on it this week and see how it performs.

[TNK]

Motor and Trans are both brand new platforms,Toyota wants all mechanical failures of the drive train completely replaced with NEW UNITS !
They dont want anything repaired internally.

[Stripped Honda]

Originally Posted by TNK

Motor and Trans are both brand new platforms,Toyota wants all mechanical failures of the drive train completely replaced with NEW UNITS !
They dont want anything repaired internally.

i totally understand this and it is a great move on the part of toyota .. they will be taking this tranny back and take it apart to see if it is a design flaw or a defect in a part ... just in case it turns out to be a big problem they will have a jump start on it

[4.7 vvt-i]

Originally Posted by DavidT.

This will be a long post so be patient. I wanted to wait until I knew all what the dealer would do about my problem before making this post (Rather than a guessing post). 1st off, I would like to highly recommend Hobbie Autocenter of Oroville, Ca. They have been great to me and are taking care of me very well. Here's my timeline:

April 9th: Purchased the truck of my dreams, 07 Slate CrewMax 4x4 SR5 with tow package, tow mirrors, sonar, 5.7/6-spd auto combo, etc etc. I traded in my very trusty 01 Ford F250 PSD 4x4.

April 12th: I noticed a noise and shudder the truck emitted whenever the torque convertor unlocks when accelerating (Example: Holding steady speed @ 45 MPH, slightly accelerating until torque converter unlocks then the truck shudders makes the noise before taking off). It sounded like hitting a small patch of gravel or uneven road. Sometimes it would make the sound for 3-4 seconds, other times only a second or two and it only made the noise when the t/c unlocked while accelerating. I decided to drive through the weekend, put some more miles on it and see what happens.

April 16th: The following Monday after the weekend I gave the dealer a call, made an appointment to bring her in on the 18th.

April 18th: Test drove vehicle with a Toyota technician. He acknowledged the noise however said the vehicle was too new and didn't want to take anything apart until further notice from Toyota. He told me he was going to open a case with Toyota and see what they say. Well, two days later, April 20th the service manager calls me up and says a Toyota Engineer is flying down on March 1st to take a look at my truck. They wanted me to drop it off the evening of April 30th so they could have the truck all day on the 1st.

Well, fast forward a week or so and it is now March 1st. The Toyota Engineer took a look at my truck. Nothing much was said, except that a new transmission and torque converter is on it's way.

I won't have my truck back for a few weeks but in the mean time, they put me in a loaner 2007 Tundra Double Cab 4.7. I will update this thread when I get my truck back and see how it drives. My CrewMax is a wonderful truck, the 5.7 V8 is so smooth and powerful. I'm anxiously waiting to get it back already, I really miss it.

Just curious, how does the 4.7 in the loaner compare to the 5.7 in your Crewmax in terms of power, smoothness etc...?

[TNK]

Their worlds apart,the little 4.7 isnt as smooth as the 5.7 primarly due to the trans differences.Outside of falling on its face after 50mph it aint all bad.

[WRXRacer111]

Mini was doing the same thing when they had tranny issues on their cars. Instead of rebuilding the existing tranny taking up a ton of labor hours and many possible sources of error by a technician, they just replace the whole transmission as a unit.

[jliltd]

Originally Posted by DavidT.

He told me he was going to open a case with Toyota and see what they say. Well, two days later, April 20th the service manager calls me up and says a Toyota Engineer is flying down on March 1st to take a look at my truck. They wanted me to drop it off the evening of April 30th so they could have the truck all day on the 1st.

Well, fast forward a week or so and it is now March 1st. The Toyota Engineer took a look at my truck. Nothing much was said, except that a new transmission and torque converter is on it's way.

That's pretty impressive for Toyota to be concerned enough with your individual problem to fly an engineer out to check it out in person. Sounds like you got taken care of better than any other warranty experience I've heard of. I wonder if the big-3 would have enough budget to fly an engineer out to investigate a customer problem in the field?

[93cruiser]

i know it can not be much, but how many miles?
sucks.....

[rosskoss]

Originally Posted by jliltd

That's pretty impressive for Toyota to be concerned enough with your individual problem to fly an engineer out to check it out in person. Sounds like you got taken care of better than any other warranty experience I've heard of. I wonder if the big-3 would have enough budget to fly an engineer out to investigate a customer problem in the field?

The idea is to nip problems at the bud. Obviously, any brand new platform is going to have problems but it looks like their goal is to make sure that they catch any and all problems as soon as they come in. This is pretty impressive on Toyota's part.

[Cooper S]

Glad to hear that Toyota is so proactive about this truck. Good for them.

[powerdude]

You would not get that kind of customer service from Ford in a million years.

Kudos to Toyota and good for you.

That being said, I highly doubt they are being 100% altruistic. They are doing it partly for the customer, but partly from themselves as well.

When they do the teardown and analyze your tranny, they can get an idea of where the problem in their production line is, and how to fix it.

That is true dedication to quality control. Your happyness is really just incidental.

Still, it is VERY nice when all the stars align and things do work out.

[DavidT.]

Originally Posted by 4.7 vvt-i

Just curious, how does the 4.7 in the loaner compare to the 5.7 in your Crewmax in terms of power, smoothness etc...?

4.7 vvt-i, smoothness and precision is about the same as the 5.7/6-spd in my CrewMax. Toyota really got these drivetrains down right. Power on the other hand, it's a world of difference. The 5.7 is has so much more power over the 4.7. I got the SR5 2WD double cab 4.7 as a loaner and my CrewMax 4WD 5.7 is as heavy as these Tundras come and my CrewMax feels a lot lighter (Probably due to gearing) and more powerful than this 4.7 double cab. Also on the freeway, my CrewMax is running about 1900 RPMs @ 70 MPH and the 4.7/5spd combo runs @ 2100 RPMs @ 70 MPH. There's a few hills on the way to the dealership on the freeway, my Crewmax never downshifts, holds 6th gear @ 65 MPH through the hills. The 4.7 has to downshift from 5 to 4th to maintain 65 MPH on those same hills.

Originally Posted by 93cruiser

i know it can not be much, but how many miles?
sucks.....

93cruiser, when I first noticed the problem I had about 275 miles on her. Two weeks later when I brought it in, I had about 1500 miles on the clock.

I agree with the rest of you as far as Toyota replacing the transmission and torque converter, I was very please to hear it and wasn't expecting it. I was expecting to hear they flushed my tranny fluid or something. This is the fourth Toyota my family has bought new and the first one we ever had to deal with warranty work and like I stated in my original post, Toyota and my dealership are taking care of me very well.

[DavidT.]

Originally Posted by Toxarch

Good to hear they are fixing the problem and making sure it's not a common problem. But I am wondering why they are keeping your truck for a couple of weeks.

Probably not a couple weeks, I'm sure I'll get it back next week...so a couple would include this week . The service manager said it'd probably take 2 to 3 days for the new transmission and torque converter to get here. So I'm looking probably for Friday for the parts to arrive. They won't start disassembly until Monday and worse case senerio I'll have it back next Wednesday or Thursday. Wish me luck for the sooner the better

[truckman261]

bump for update.

[nuke1]

Check Tundra vibration from Nuke1 to get update on DavidT repair.