Leaking diff, we keep your truck???

In my younger days I had numerous vehicles with with honest-to-God leaking rear-ends, and not once was there any confusion that it "might be" leaking. I had a '61 Econoline in the late 60s that I had to top off every 5 or 6 hundred miles--drove it from Cape Cod to Lincoln Nebraska and back that way in '69.

The rear differential of our trucks holds three quarts of gear oil. Just an ounce or two of hypoid gear oil makes a horrible mess--a quart or more would be something one could not miss;

Hypoid gear oil stinks, literally, because of the sulfur and phosphorous high pressure lubricant additives. Again just a couple ounces would be unmistakable, a quart would be intolerable. It you don;t wear gloves when working with it it takes a week to get the smell off your hands;

The differential would have to be down by 1 to 1-1/2 quarts or more (more likely near empty), for some time and number of miles to actually seize up; and it would be howling like a banshee for a long time before it actually seized. One would have to be profoundly deaf or a complete imbecile to continue driving the truck once it started howling...

My point is that if is just weeping, and has somewhere near 3 quarts of oil in it, there is no "safety issue"--this is all much ado about nothing...

 

It depends what state you live in. Google "lemon law attorney" and find one in your area, most will do a free initial consultation...

 

i was thinking the same thing...this forum is full of some Grade A toolboxes

 

First and foremost, you can't just neglect to make a payment because your vehicle has been in the shop. At best maybe they give you a courtesy deferment. However you're responsible for that payment every month and that's what you're signing as part of your finance agreement.

Second if you went to the dealer they will give you your vehicle back. However they will just make you sign a waiver, freeing them of any negligence, responsibility or harm that could occur with your action there after. The police will be more annoyed because your getting them involved with a matter that they really don't need to be involved in. They know the dealer would never not return the vehicle, unless of course they were owed money for a job, or have put a lean on it due to lack of payment or something.

As for not not signing a waiver, you're going to have to. It's a safety recall. Toyota is giving you other means of transportation while your vehicle is in the shop. If you needed a pick up (since you have one) if you state that to them I'm sure they will be able to make some arrangement for you. However they only are required give you some means of transportation. The main reason you have to sign a waiver is so a jackass like you doesn't go into a dealership, take possession of your vehicle, end up driving down the road at 70-80 mph and your diff lock up because there isn't any or enough fluid in it and you get into an accident and hurt yourself or some innocent bystander(s). Then you, your family, or another party involved try to sue Toyota or the dealership, due to your lack of common sense and negligence.


Perhaps you better understand now?

 

he would also be the first one in line to sue toyota if his rear end locked up causing an accident.

 

Or you can upgrade me to a TRD Off Road!

 

First off you have to understand there isn't a time frame of when the letters are going to go out, and hats mainly because there still isn't a official approved fix from Toyota. So if you brought your truck a month or longer and it's another 3 months of waiting, that's 4 months of driving around with low fluid. Sure most trucks only have a small weep. However a few here have checked there's and they were fine, then a few days later it's got a nice size weeping stain. So how bad could it be leaking 3-4 months from now? It's a safety recall simply because worst case someone could be seriously injured or die. The odds of that are high, but it could happen if someone's diff was bone dry and it siezed up.

Do you really think your dealer wants you to come in every other week to check the level, and top off the fluid? No, they don't. Most have other bigger things to do. If Toyota isn't authorizing something, they aren't getting paid and therefore they ain't going to want to do it.

The reason Toyota is holding the vehicles is for liability. If you bring it in, with your diff leaking and they say "hey, come see us in 6 months when we have a fix available" they would be opening themselves up to a lawsuit if something happened. They are protecting themselves, yourself, and others buy holding the vehicles they deem unsafe. I'm not sure why some many people are getting bent out of shape over it

 

classic Wayans bros movie

 

First, of course you can if nothing else it will alert them to the BS that is going on;

Second, they cannot MAKE me sign a damned thing to recover MY property;

Also I am no where near stupid enough (as some seem to be) to not know when a differential has leaked out all its fluid, is howling in it's death throes, and about to seize up. This will not, and cannot, happen with a differential that is merely weeping and has somewhere near the proper amount of oil in it. Checking that it has a proper fill is a 5 minute job...

In the last, why did you feel it necessary to issue a personal insult(s) as part of your response? That's what lefties and snowflakes do when they run out of of concrete arguments and their senseless rage takes over.

 

Perhaps legally they can't "force" you to sign a waiver. However they will certainly try as they want to cover their ass. Put yourself in their shoes. Let's say you owned Toyota, would you really want to face a huge lawsuit or multiple ones because a few people want to be senseless? Sure you can argue the fact that this shouldn't of happened in the first place. You could also argue the fact that people make mistakes and shit happens. Would a "lefty or snowflake" make both of hose arguments? - didn't think so

Just because you know when a diff is about to blow up, doesn't mean half of the people out there do. You'd be surprised how many people come in to our dealerships and not know they have to do oil changes, or put air in their tires. Some don't even know how to release a fuel door (had a few towed in after buying them for that).

When did I make a personal insult? I'm just trying to explain this to you because you seems to only see it one sided.

Lastly, according to your profile, you don't even seem to own a 3rd gen Tacoma. So if so why the hell are you here arguing about this topic?

 

My mistake I guess, I took "jackass like you" and "your lack of common sense" to be insults--must be one of those generational things.

You are quiet correct, I do not own a 3rd gen, at my and my '09's age it is likely I never will--I guess it's just that I have a problem with the way so many people allow themselves to be pushed around, and the generally poor quality of modern products and customer service. Also as a 40+ year owner of various Toyotas (we've had eight, four purchased new in the 80s and early 90s) I find that they could not do something simple like properly assemble a rear-end to be especially disappointing...

 

I think we can all agree, this is a big inconvenience for any Tacoma owner. Nothing is worse than buying a new vehicle and then being told you shouldn't be allowed to drive it. Perhaps this is toyotas fault (design or assembly) or perhaps it's the manufacturer of the Diff fault (something out of spec). Either way Toyota knows it's pissing customers off and it's costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like I've said a few times before I think it's something bigger than just faulty gaskets or wrong torque spec, that would be a simple fix. If Toyota still hasn't released a authorized repair then it says that their is a bigger issue. Perhaps the diffs are warping or some design issue and they are trying to come up with a solution vs replace every single one? I'm not an engineer so I don't know. However there are several people who have had multiple diff problems long before this recall came to life. So perhaps it is something bigger. Also if you've payed attention here Toyota was saying this issue only effected a very small percentage of trucks. Well I think the evidence here speaks otherwise. Lots of trucks here that weren't suppose to have leaky diffs, that do. Coincidence? Maybe a few at first, now? I don't think so. I think your doing to see this recall expanded in the near future

 

A few years ago my brother purchased a corvette zo6 that was certified preowned with less than 35k miles on it. A month after ownership I was riding home with him because we car pooled and it was raining. During the ride home it started raining and I noticed a few drops of water hit my arm so I immediately thought I had my window cracked but it wasn't and it turned out to be a defective plastic piece behind the windshield that was allowing water to enter the car and pour in above the headliner. The dealership that he originally purchased the car from took it in and set off to getting it repaired but were unsuccessful due to the part being unavailable and back ordered for an undetermined amount of time so after lawyering up and after being in 4 different dealer loaner cars and several months of getting the run around he Was able to sue the dealership and GM for undue stress that he was experiencing and for them not buying the car back under the lemon law. GM was forced to buy the car back and he received compensation for his time and stress that he experienced.

I am writing this on my phone so sorry for the rant and mistakes and I just wanted to share a similar story that my brother had to go through. Take from this what you will and hopefully no one here ends up going through the same amount of stress that my brother did but if you do I would highly suggest lawyering up because in the end it could be very beneficial. BTW his lawyer knew he had a strong case and took on his case knowing he wasn't getting paid till the case was over and he won which he did but it took several months.

 

I couldn't even imagine the stress of not being able to drive your vette when you wanted. Lol. I can understand the buy back... But seriously stress? I'll bet that's not his only vehicle

 

That was his only vehicle which is why they kept putting him in rentals for over a month but thanks for assuming he had more than one vehicle just because it was corvette. When it's your only vehicle it can be very stressful especially when a dealership continues to lie to you just because they don't have the balls to tell the truth about what's exactly wrong or not willing to tell you because they don't want to lose money. My Tacoma is my only vehicle and I know I would be pissed off if some dealership said they were taking my car and I was e petted to keep making payments on something that I wasn't allowed to take home or drive. If these trucks are so unsafe to drive and Toyota doesn't have a fix and tries to pull them off the road then maybe they need to own up and buy all those with an issue back and take the loss themselves and resell them as used vehicles after they find the time to fix them. I bet if they had to do that then there would be a fix available already but since people will just let others take advantage of them Toyota is taking advantage and pulling all these trucks off the road and giving people cheap ass rentals while they take their sweet ass time coming up with a fix.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm in California and they just took my truck hostage today. I'm not happy. They gave me a Ford focus. Calling the toyota factory rep today

 

How horrible all of TacomaWorld feels for you. I would also file complaints with your attorney general and that fed agency that forces recalls.

 

https://youtu.be/xN0hm1wiZeU?t=20s

 

See, this is where I would be very upset. You bought a truck, you left a Toyota Truck with the dealer, and you get a Ford car as a loaner.
Tell them you had a trip to MOAB planned and you will send pics of the Ford focus on Hells Revenge.