Transmission needs to replaced at 230 miles.

[oxi]

Hey everyone. Disappointing post here but bought a brand new 2025 Tacoma TRD OF with 45 miles. Drove it all day Saturday. Sunday went to run some errands and noticed something was off on the trans. Brought it back to the dealership and after their diagnostics they said nothing was wrong and may just need to be driven more so that the engine can learn driving habits. After leaving the lot, not 2 miles down the road check engine light came with a "Drive Start Control Malfunction" message. Right back to the dealership we go. Next day they call me and say the check engine light is indicating problems with the transmission. Advised repair is to replace Torque converter and trans. 232 miles. Service advisor says there's one new transmission in the country and will know more information about a completion date Sat. They will be providing a loaner until its done. Should I go back to the dealership and ask for a different truck? Same make, model? Or do I trust that everything will be good moving forward? It failed so quick it makes me think it may have been a manufacturing issue. Kinda feeling hopeless and not sure route to go.

I lost my 6-speed manual transmission at around 14,500 miles. I had the printed TSB with and had the issue, no 2, 4 or 6th gear. The rest worked and I drove it like that for a month.

Dealer found a manual trans and set me up with a Camry LE awd loaner for 2 weeks and installed my new 6-speed manual no charge at all. Now it shifts like it should, no issues from low speed all the way to 107 mph I recently got up to (squawked the rear tires into 2nd and 3rd).

5,000 miles and counting with new one.

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[tacorancher]

Yeah - I agree. They know these transmissions, particularly those in the TSB VIN range, are at risk of failure. Their cost analysis says that most will last through the basic warranty and after that they don't care. If they did they would replace them like they are doing with the Tundra engines. I assume they are doing that because they predict it is cheaper than years of replacing those engines as they fail.

When Toyota was a smaller company trying to get established they over engineered and stood behind their products. Now they are the biggest automaker in the world and they can afford to lose some customers when they let them down. You only have to look at the number of major failures their products have today to know that they are not the same company they were 30 years ago.

I agree. I’d like to offer an unpopular opinion though. The older trucks were not as fun. Not as punchy. Not as whimsical. Not as comfortable. I love my Trailhunter. Makes me smile every damn day. Toyota is shifting priorities to compete with other manufacturers and offer more of a robust driving experience — market adaptation. And there’s a trade off. If my truck only goes to 150K miles, which it will easily, that will be fine for me. I am putting my money on it reaching 200K before turbo, hybrid system failures etc. Engine should keep going for the next owner if they fix the major issues at that point. But I’ll be ready for a new truck then. I sold our 4th gen 4Runner with 206K on the odometer and I was done with it. I don’t drive vehicles much longer than a decade. I’d rather have fun doing it.


Before this gen, all we heard was why isn’t there torque, why can’t I fit larger tires etc. Now we have those things, and folks want to go back to the old days. But they forget that those trucks had no punch. They were dogs to drive.

All that said these transmissions are bullshit.

 

[lauren01]

I agree. I’d like to offer an unpopular opinion though. The older trucks were not as fun. Not as punchy. Not as whimsical. Not as comfortable. I love my Trailhunter. Makes me smile every damn day. Toyota is shifting priorities to compete with other manufacturers and offer more of a robust driving experience — market adaptation. And there’s a trade off. If my truck only goes to 150K miles, which it will easily, that will be fine for me. I am putting my money on it reaching 200K before turbo, hybrid system failures etc. Engine should keep going for the next owner if they fix the major issues at that point. But I’ll be ready for a new truck then. I sold our 4th gen 4Runner with 206K on the odometer and I was done with it. I don’t drive vehicles much longer than a decade. I’d rather have fun doing it.


Before this gen, all we heard was why isn’t there torque, why can’t I fit larger tires etc. Now we have those things, and folks want to go back to the old days. But they forget that those trucks had no punch. They were dogs to drive.

All that said these transmissions are bullshit.

All makes a ton of sense to me. Having test driven 3G Tacomas two years ago, manual and automatic, as well as 4Runners, they were horrible.
it is likely I will be quite happy once they have my Trailhunter running as it was before this breakage happened. I love the truck.
I wish they would start making them in Japan again.

 

[Taco Ji]

Considering modern cars are built on an assembly line by robots I don’t think it’s a manufacturing issue but more of a parts issue. Once the part is replaced the truck should be running as intended again.

 

[TacoFreak]

Considering modern cars are built on an assembly line by robots I don’t think it’s a manufacturing issue but more of a parts issue. Once the part is replaced the truck should be running as intended again.

I think that the transmissions are made in Japan, so I agree, it is probably a parts or design issue.

 

[Gfenza89]

Wow....

 

[DENNISD]

Wow....

Perception is everything.

Unfortunately, the North American brand took a big hit in quality for the last 40 years whereas the Toyota Brand has held relatively steady for quality.

Now is that an absolute? No

Is that a perception that many believe? Yes

I own a Driving School and have been teaching with a variety of cars since 1986. In my personal experience the Domestic brand cars gave me way more troubles than the foreign brand cars.

While that is not a Scientific study, my take away is that until the domestic brands can prove they have a handle on quality, I am going to hedge my bets on Japanese built cars until proven otherwise.

Sad but true...................

 

[Gfenza89]

Perception is everything.

Unfortunately, the North American brand took a big hit in quality for the last 40 years whereas the Toyota Brand has held relatively steady for quality.

Now is that an absolute? No

Is that a perception that many believe? Yes

I own a Driving School and have been teaching with a variety of cars since 1986. In my personal experience the Domestic brand cars gave me way more troubles than the foreign brand cars.

While that is not a Scientific study, my take away is that until the domestic brands can prove they have a handle on quality, I am going to hedge my bets on Japanese built cars until proven otherwise.

Sad but true...................

I say wow because my transmission has been junk since I bought the truck back in June of 24. Had it in numerous times and according to Toyota it's operating fine .

 

[lauren01]

I say wow because my transmission has been junk since I bought the truck back in June of 24. Had it in numerous times and according to Toyota it's operating fine .

So sad to hear that…am bummed for you. Have you gone to various dealers? Keep up the bitching and see if you can get them to replace it.

 

[Gfenza89]

So sad to hear that…am bummed for you. Have you gone to various dealers? Keep up the bitching and see if you can get them to replace it.

They had Toyotas bozo FTS. From corporate come out and he said it's fine. I begged them to check the transmission fluid and they refused. I ended up paying $500 to have the pan dropped to inspect for debris. Fluid was clean. Truck shudders, jerks, clunks, you name it, Total pos

 

[TacoFreak]

Fluid was clean. Truck shudders, jerks, clunks, you name it, Total pos

And Toyota considers this truck to be working fine. So unless your transmission goes completely out Toyota will not do anything for you. I think that tells you a lot about where they are quality wise today.

 

[lauren01]

They had Toyotas bozo FTS. From corporate come out and he said it's fine. I begged them to check the transmission fluid and they refused. I ended up paying $500 to have the pan dropped to inspect for debris. Fluid was clean. Truck shudders, jerks, clunks, you name it, Total pos

Shocked. Was there a ride-along with you to observe? Did they see the problem but pretend it was not a problem?

 

[lauren01]

I’m waiting at home this morning for the dealer to diagnose my truck. Interesting, got a push notification from the Toyota app that the truck has been opened (unlocked) including the hood.

 

[izzy]

jerks

I will say the truck is pretty aggressive about staying in a higher gear. Sometimes it'll stay in 3rd for a long time, then when you go to accelerate from 15mph or whatever, it slips the TC too much. You can feel the TC lock up around 25-30 with a healthy jerk when it shifts to 4th.

To avoid this I've been using S mode a lot around town when the speeds are lower. If I almost come to a complete stop (5-10mph) I bump it down to 2nd from 3rd. If I'm below 5mph coming to a stop, I bump it to 1st (sometimes it hangs onto 2nd down to 3-4mph).

The 2-1 at any speed more than stopped is jerky.. but that's true for almost any vehicle.

I have a ScanGauge with current gear monitor so I'm able to see what the truck is actually doing.

 

[Gfenza89]

Shocked. Was there a ride-along with you to observe? Did they see the problem but pretend it was not a problem?

Nope. Wasn't allowed to talk or meet the FTS. I was told he's nameless with customers.

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