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Toyota Tacoma Clutch Issues
I have a 2006 Tacoma 4X4 with 4,500 miles and a 6 speed manual transmission. I started the truck today and I could not shift it into gear, the engine was running very rough. If I use the clutch start cancel button to start the truck the engine runs smooth, but I still can't shift into gear. Does anyone know of clutch problems on 2006 Tacoma's?
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Thanks,
--mgm
If the clutch needs replacement how difficult is this?
Also my clutch does not grab until the pedal is at the top or end of its stroke. Is this part od the problem?
My daughter just bought a new 08 X-Runner. At 5,128 miles the clutch went out. It was covered under warranty. My question is, the service writer said they had problems with some of these clutches TSB out. But would not tell me in detail what the exact problem was. I picked the truck up last night and drove it home, I could feel the difference in the pedal imideatly. Telling me it was bad from the get go. Any body out there know what this TSB is about?
I have noticed heavy shuddering in 1st gear since new, but have learned many others have the same issue.
A bigger problem occured on friday night coming down an off-ramp, my shifts felt very sticky.
Once stopped at the light, I was unable to put the truck back into gear. The clutch felt normall, but I was locked out of all 5 gears, I had the truck towed home as the dealership was closed.
Next day I ruled out the hydraulics by having a buddy pump the clutch while I inspected....I could see the slave piston moving fine ( albeit with the famous pedal squeak )....no luck getting it into gear though, so I had it towed to the dealer (truck has 31k miles and is under warranty)
They off loaded my truck, put it into gear and drove around!
I have driven manual cars all my life, and still own a 5 speed FJ60, which I have power-shifted 100 miles back home without a clutch at all!
What bothers me the most is that this is now an intermittent problem which may come and go, worse still, can be cured by a bumpy tow-truck ride!
Have you or anyone else you have talked to had a simillar problem?
This is not the legendary toyota quality that I am accustomed to!
Please help!
It certainly seems that the tacoma clutch has more than it's fair share of problems.
Q: Do you know which of the two clutch mfgrs brands were originally installed / replaced?.....I have read on some blogs there was a LUK brand and an AISIN brand installed depending on supply and factory location....mine was built in CA but I don't know which clutch they used. Apparently the AISIN brand is preferable due to fewer, thus stronger clutch fingers.
If I can't get to the bottom of this I will be forced to sell the truck.
I have driven 2 different FJ-60's to almost 200k with no such phantom clutch problems.
I can't believe toyota's quality has dropped this much so quickly.
Q: What is the in-sled vs the out-sled?
Q: Did you ever get shut out of all gears with this problem?
Power in numbers may be the only way to make toyota do something about this!
Keep me posted as to what happens with your clutch issue.
I took the truck back to the dealership today and and they offered to buy it back as long as I purchased a new truck. They really made it sound like they were doing me a favor, come to find out they were trying to charge me $1700.00 over invoice.
Im going to go back and offer invoice and see what they say, if they say no deal than I'll keep taking the truck back till they get it fixed correctly. They hosed me once Im not going to let it happen again!!
CA 2005 Tacoma 4cyl 2wd 5-speed, about 80,000 miles.
I encountered a problem where I couldn't shift into any gear while at an intersection. A few attempts later, I managed to cram the thing into gear. Subsequent shifts felt reluctant. Cleared up after a few miles. Later, while at a parking lot, I heard what sounded like bits of metal rattling around when clutch was partially engaged, and for a moment or two after disengagement of the clutch from a partially or fully engaged position.
The dealer's service writer said it was probably a broken clutch spring, and that he'd seen a few other Tacomas with this problem. I have a 100,000 mile extended warranty, but the policy doesn't cover clutch issues.
I drove the vehicle to my preferred non-dealer repair shop so I'd not have to pay an arm and a leg for labor and a bunch of shabby Toyota parts.
Problem: A spring broke, throwing bits of metal around, interfering with clutch operation.
Cost to fix: $780
That's the first time I've heard from anyone with the same, intermittent problem shifting into gear.
Do you have the new body style tacoma or the old style?
Did you take note of the new parts vs the old ones?
- Toyota has 2 suppliers for clutches in the new tacoma, each offering very different products. There are also after-market clutches out there.
I have not seen my clutch problem return yet, but I think it's just a matter of time....
Thanks for your post & please forward any further info.
I have the same problem you guys have - no clutch release (intermitent) on an 05 tacoma 4cyl. I never know when it's going to happen. Anything new on this ?
Is this the future of Toyota? I have owned Toyotas for 30 years, that's right 30. I have 2 trucks now. X runner and a Tundra new. Stay tuned. I will post more. Yes, I have pictures
My mileage is 36,120. Warranty expired at 36,000. I'm out $1100 now. And since they're only replacing the pressure plate and throwout bearing, I can probably expect this one to break, too.
The bent fingers held the clutch engaged so it would not release when the pedal was depressed to the floor. The service rep gave me the standard line, "Never seen this before." Not that I'm saying he's lying; he probably hasn't. But I bet he will as more of these roll in. He asked if I was towing. No, never.
I never gave much concern to the intermittant clutch chatter, but I bet that was a warning sign. The failure came on one of the first cold weather mornings here. I was driving slow through a school zone, and went to upshift when it failed all at once. It wasn't gradual; it was just gone.
Well after having 1st gear shudder since new, intermittent sticky shifting and gear box lock out .. ( yes, I mean LOCKED OUT OF ALL GEARS, so you're stuck in neutral ) ... the clutch has finally broken.
On this last occasion, shifting became very sticky, only allowing difficult shifts with a squeak when shifting, idling at a traffic light, faint metallic rattling / tumbling noises could be heard when depressing the clutch pedal.
A few blocks from home, as I pulled away from a stop at a busy intersection, the clutch let out very suddenly and the vehicle lurched forward stuck in 1st gear.
The clutch pedal stayed depressed to the floor when I tried to change gear or put it into neutral.
Not in complete control of my vehicle, I struggled to drive safely the last few blocks home.
When I tried to brake, the engine and drive train continued to pull forward, still stuck in gear.
As you brake in such situations, you are effectively trying to stall the engine in gear, thus loosing RPMs and loosing brake boost.... VERY SCARY!
I came to a halt just inches from a neighbor's car.
The toyota dealership asked me to tow in the vehicle, and are now looking at it.
The service manager suggested that the work should be covered under the 60K power-train warranty.
I also have a history with this dealership, with the above-mentioned intermittent problems, none of which I could demonstrate on-demand. At least I had documented the issue and formed a paper trail.
I will post their response.
Has anyone else had this issue?
Any new fixes or new parts?
i have an 08 that i bought in jan 08, and at 10000 my clutch went out. Under the lemon law Toyota completed thier 4th and final repair, about a mile down the road it started making noises again. I left the svc manager a call and haven't heard back. I sent the final letter to toyota for repurchase or replacement of my truck. I chose repurchase. please e-mail me with questions. My suggestion is just incase it keeps messing up, google your states lemon law, call them, and get into the computer system. keep all of your records!!!
Here's an update on my Tacoma.
The service technician had written a $900 work order to replace both my master and slave cylinder for the clutch... luckily I had stopped in to check on progress. I proved them wrong in 30 seconds by pumping the clutch pedal whilst the tech' looked at the slave moving back and forth.
At this point, the service dept had really pissed me off, so I gave them no choice other than to open up the drive-train & see what's happening in there.
As experienced by others, the tear-down revealed that the clutch fingers on the pressure plate were bent out of plane, and the springs had disintergrated into small pieces.
The broken clutch was made by LUK in Mexico.
The service dept had ordered the exact same clutch, much to my dismay, even after I had told them that there was a stronger Japanese alternative made by ASIN.
They reluctantly agreed to order the ASIN parts & installed then ... or at least that's what I was told!
The clutch feels great now, not surprising compared to the deterioatng one which I have been putting up with for so long.
Bottom line ... Clutch replaced @ 52K under power train warranty at no cost to me.
.... That's if you don't count the hours of research & hand holding at the dealership to correctly diagnose the problem and order the upgraded parts.
Keep the faith ... & good luck!
My slave and master were fine... it was the wrong diagnosis.
Turned out that I had the mexican-made LUK clutch in my truck ... several of the pressure plate fingers were bent out of shape and all the springs had disintergrated into small pieces.
I had them replace it with the alternative Japanese-made clutch by ASIN.
It's a completely different design.
I'm happy to report it feels great.
I had this covered under the powertrain warranty @ 52k miles.
The clutch disc had very little wear ... it's a shoddy parts problem & we're not the only ones who have been through this.
Document everything & don't take no for an answer!
Good luck!
I would be interested to hear if anyone has had an ASIN clutch fail yet.
Best of luck!
When my springs completely failed, I could hear the faint sound of small metal particles being thrown around inside the clutch housing when I depressed/released the clutch pedal. It was most noticeable when going into 1st gear from stand-still.
With the window down and no road noise it was clearly audiable.
The early signs of problems were sticky shifting, and occasional complete lock-out of any gear... (stuck in neutral) This happened several times whilst driving, usually when I was changing down from 5th or 4th, exiting the highway. Sometimes I could get back into gear by repeatedly depressing the clutch, but twice I had to be towed home. One of those tows loosened up whatever was jammed.
Based on the bent fingers I saw on the old clutch, I'm assuming the clutch fork could not engage/disengage the fingers on the pressure plate properly.
Hope that helps.
* Heavy frame corrosion everywhere ... I can't believe how much rust there is under there, it started rusting the first winter, and now after 5 winters it looks terrible.
* The AC kicks in whenever I put the cabin heat on the defrost setting ... which is really annoying on a long winter drive ... it really drops my fuel consumption.
Any threads on this?
I have approx 55K on the truck.
As with most cars, it's designed to do that. The compressor dehumidifies the air for more effective defogging. Perhaps someone can post a fix describing which harness & conductor you need to wire a defeat switch into.
15,000 miles/year on the 1991 and now only 9,000 miles/year on the 2006.
New driver, teenaged driver, added to the 2006 "mix"...??
Urban legend, or "old wives tale", take your pick.
The efficiency of the "compressor" for dehumidifying the fresh inlet airflow is STRICKLY a function of local climatic conditions. Under the "worse" climatic conditions the "compressor" will even become a detrimental effect which leads to subsequent windshield fogging.
The "compressor" can only chill the incoming airflow to about 35F, and that ONLY with an extremely low A/C blower speed. In the wintertime the atmosphere is generally already so cold that the "compressor" will have no positive effect whatsoever.
And even if dehumidification is effective what do you suppose happens to the thin layer of condensate LEFT on the A/C evaporator once the compressor is turned off when you "exit" the defrost/defog/demist mode.
It evaporates into the cabin airstream and increases the liklihood of a return bought of windshield fogging.
In the olden days I simply unplugged the A/C compressor clutch throughout the winter period. My '01 RX300 came with a C-best option, two actually, that I had the dealer set so I could disable the A/C compressor and the A/C defrost/defog/demist "link" indefinitely simply by turning it off once.
I use the A/C for cooling ONLY and use HEAT for defrost/defog/demist functionality.
Our '92 LS400's climate control is modified internally to call for FULL HEAT when, wheneevr, it is switched into defrost/defog/demist mode.
But with more clutch use, wear and tear...??
If your primary interest is FE then go to Home depot and buy/install a manual water flow shutoff valve so you can disable the "climate controls" reheat/remix mode throughout the summer, A/C cooling, period. Come fall you can unplug the A/C compressor clutch circuit and turn the valve on.