Sat morning surprise- locked rear wheel.

Sorry for starting another thread, I could not find the old one.
Had the mechanics look over all of the drive train, to see why the rear wheel locked up for no reason , they seem to think it was in the front differential.
They had a factory guy at the dealer and he did some checking and they never heard of this problem.
They pulled off all of the covers and looked inside for any thing strange and found nothing.
The truck is warrantied for 60K or 5years . Should this happen again I will have it towed to them and they will provide me with a car .
While it was there they will set the truck up for the rear spring tsb fix. My truck has 32K on it. I will be definately keeping the paper work file.

Jeff , 06, V6, SR5, 6spd

 

Thanks for posting an update on this, I remember posting on the first post. And I think I remember saying that it could be a locked up diff./drivetrain or something to that affect.

Now would be a good time to look up your states Lemon Laws and go through them just in case. My truck was a lemon and unfortunately I had to go through this situation, and I had to go through the process with a lawyer which I hate lawyers.

It sounds like you have the right idea with keeping all of your records intact, I would also suggest taking pictures of their work as well. You can do a lemon law search for your state on google, it should have some of the basics on there.

Hopefully they fix the issue and you won't have to turn to the the lemon law option.


I found your first posting on this, here it is: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/50198-surprise-morning.html

 

Parking brakes tend to stick on these trucks, one side only. Almost seems like when there is a load put on it, it locks even harder.

 

I agree. Based on the OP's original description of the problem, I think it's a parking brake issue. I have been known to be wrong.

 

Naturally, when the truck went in they looked at the parking brake, first thing, as it was the most obvious. They gave the rear brakes and parking break a clean bill of health.

I did nothing unusual the previous day, just tow my small boat down to the lake, come home unhook it, take the truck out for a run uptown, come home and park it, the next morning it was locked up and would not move. So there you are, they even had the Toyota rep call his hot line and no ones ever heard of this problem. So I guess I am the first.
About the only way the lemon law would apply is if I have multiple incidents, of course this may happen but it is on record and I don't believe there is any reason to contact anyone yet, should this happen again and we have a repeat then I will.
I have to say its sort of scary wondering when/if it will happen again.

Thanks for all the replys and help.

Jeff, 06,V6, SR5, 6spd

 

Did you pull your boat out of fresh or salt water? Perhaps there is a bad seal on wheel bearing, water got in, and it rusted up tight over night.

 

No , it was fresh water in a local lake 1/8th of a mile from my house. I drove home dropped the boat off and went up town (2miles) then home , then out again and then parked it over night.
The Taco dealership confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the rear brakes assembly or the parking brake.

Jeff, 06, V6, SR5 6spd

 

Yes, basically from what I was told, the mechanic put the truck in 4 wheel drive (when I first brought it in) and what ever was stuck , released. At least thats there best guess, though I didn't get to talk to the mechanic directly, face to face.
So I made another appt to bring it in last Wed, to let them have it for the day to look around further to see if they could see anything.

Jeff, 06, V6, SR5 6spd

 

Similar issue/thread over at TN:

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=313669

 

That dude sounds screwed...what a shitty dealer, we should slam them hard!

 

x2. That sucks.

 

Our truck had the same problem and ended up shearing teeth in the ring and pinion. It is related to water and the rear end. We use ours to launch a boat. I have found other posts where people are 4-wheeling through creeks and then it locks up and they have washed the vehicle and it locks up. My dealership is trying to say our warranty is void because of the lift.

Can you provide me the name and # of the dealership and mechanic so I can refer our dealer to them. They say Toyota has never heard of this problem.....

 

I don't buy that water in the rear problem unless the truck was old and not cared for. There are thousands of Taco's that use launch ramps all over the US, if there was a design problem or some failure some percentage of dealers would hear of it.
Jeff V6 SR5, 6spd.

 

When my truck did this after going through a car wash I banged on the right rear drum with a hammer and it feed it up. I had set the parking brake and the shoes froze to the drum. Of course my problem occured during winter when water can freeze, the OP's problem was not. As far as water in the rear end, you should be able to inspect the fluid. If it's milky in color, that means water is mixed in. I've heard rumors that if you back a truck into a lake and the rear end is hot, when it hits the cool water the water can get sucked in through the axle seals. I don't know if this is true or not, but it might explain how the water got in.

 

It's the rear brake shoes that are sticking on the drum which locked my rear wheel. I had it happen several times, after moisture got in from washing the wheels and not driving it for a day. I have to gas it hard for the shoe to break free.

I changed the brake shoes to Wagner Thermoquiets and that haven't happened since. I think the factory brake shoes are garbage.

 

You could be correct on this, I will need my rears done before Christmas, according to my dealer. I will not let them do the work and will have a good independent garage do it and I will asks them to get those Wagners.
When I had my truck towed there I asked them to specifically look at the rear brake on the pass side as that wheel was locked . They said nothing was wrong with it.
This is all confusing to me but at least its on the record. Thanks for the update on the Wagners.
Jeff 06, V6 SR5, 6spd, Radiant Red.

 

Resurrection ---- Both my 09 and my buddies 07 did this on the trail last weekend. It's definitely the parking brake hanging. We engaged/released the brake several times by pushing it in ALL the way to the floor and they popped free. No clue why it's happening but I assume water from shallow creek crossings caused something inside the drum to stick. I'll take a closer look next week when I swap my leaf packs. If it happens to you, press the parking brake hard and release several times. I could actually here it click when it finally released on my buddies truck.

 

I had it happen once. I washed the truck and it sat overnight...the next morning it wouldn't move. Only after I gave it enough gas it made a load bang and broke free. That was a few years back and I've never had it happen since. I'm under the impression it was either the rear brakes or emergency brake rusting up.

 

Yeah we were both in 4WD Low and it wouldnt budge. Fortunately pumping the e-brake pedal worked. There's no way we had rust because we'd been wheeling for over three hours at that point. Each truck experienced the problem at different times however each episode was shortly after a water crossing. My guess is the hot drum rapidly shrunk after hitting the water and when we applied our e-brake it stuck for some reason. It only happened on the passenger side on both trucks which seemed a bit strange. I would prefer a rear disc setup but apparently it ain't a good idea after reading several posts here and elsewhere.