Second Transmission at 48,000 miles FAIL

Welp the second transmission that Toyota just put in about 2k ago blew up the other day. Toyota is doing a full investigation on the truck now. They cannot figure out why it blew up again. Same thing again with overdrive and 4th. I had the truck in NJ during the past snow storm as I was a home for winter break. I cannot see any possible explanation as to why the transmission blew up again. The original trans blew at 46,000miles. Plus the truck never underwent any extreme loads and didn't see mud or off roading at all.

its a 2014 taco with 48k sr5 4x4 dcsb

 

Edit: Deleting pic, don’t want to get banned.

Do you think it’s something that’s making the transmissions fail? I don’t know what, but that’s crazy, some people get 500k+ out of them.

 

Dude, your driving must suck to blow 2 transmissions like that. Do you slam on the gas and then hard stop again and again so the truck doesn’t know which gear it should go into. Or if you have a manual, do you go 80mph in first gear?

 

Wow, that sucks. I broke 10 transmissions in my Baja, but I think this had something to do with it.

 

Shitty luck man. Hopefully Toyota doesn't try and shift the blame onto a certain party.
Good luck with the investigation & 3rd tranny

 

You are the unluckiest man in the world...don't play the lottery

 

What does the fluid look like?

 

nope I wasn't even beating on the truck the entire time. just some long distance driving. I put about 2k on it in a week in half. no matter what even if the same situation and the driver was beating on it, it shouldn't have blown after 2k miles. The only reason I think they are doing the investigation on it is to tell wether the other dealership did the instal wrong. got the second put on in NC and the truck is in NJ now. Im curious to see what they say about it.

 

I meant the entire time I had the truck I was not beating on it. And not sure about the fluid. The mechanic only told me that the transmission was slipping which meant it was blown up. he also started by asking me "how long were you stuck in the snow?" which I was never stuck in the snow. I feel it is ridiculous that Toyota would blame me as the customer first. and another Toyota service person suggested I trade the truck in after its fixed.

 

What do you mean by “blew up”?

 

A bit vague. MT or AT? Overdrive implies AT.

 

probably an auto. First trans went out was just bad luck and a very slim chance defect. Second trans was 99% put in wrong and likely didnt have the proper amount of fluid.... toyota techs leave alot to be desired

 

im not a transmission expert at all. I am just stating what the mechanic has told me. it is automatic and would slip when shifting into a higher gear around 45 mph which is the same thing it did the first time it "blew up". the dealership is being nice but I'm just not certain about this truck at this point. for them to do an investigation something has to be wrong I imagine.

 

More description of first failure and second failure please.

Any chance 2nd unit wasn't filled properly?

 

the first time around they also changed out the neutral safety switch.

 

it is possible that fluid wasn't full but a Toyota dealership did the work as it was covered under warranty. plus this new transmission has new warranty as well.

Honestly both times the same thing happened;
I was driving just normal down the street and was stopped and when accelerating at about 45 is slipped and seemed to go into neutral and the revs would go way up then it would slam into gear and be fine until it needed to shift at that time again.
Plus I tired using it only in 4 and not D it would Never slip.
only difference between the first and second time was that the second one there was snow on the road and it began to slip after I took out of 4wd as the road was more cleared and 4wd was not needed.
and both times it happened I took the truck right to Toyota and told them the exact same thing.

 

Something is afoot here....it's tough to kill one of these auto transmissions with normal driving. Like, even if you're trying. You just don't have very many options for HOW you could do it unless you're trying to row your own gears and hit reverse from time to time while moving forward at speed. The transmissions in these trucks can handle a lot.

I noticed the 3" lift in your profile. What kind of lift? When the transmission was working, did it exhibit any other issues? Was there any vibrating or shuddering on a regular basis? Do you park in the same spot frequently enough to tell if it's leaking fluid at all?

 

its the trd pro suspension built for this truck. Both times it was normal driving. There was nothing not normal about how it was acting before. Same spot every time and didn't notice any leaking. I had no reason to because the transmission was brand new lol. the first one was a quarter of a quart low of fluid but Toyota said that could not have caused that failure. a week before the new one just broke it was in for service at Toyota and nothing needed fixing.

 

These auto trannies in Tacoma's are surprisingly pretty well built units (that says a lot considering the junk that is being built these days on these new cars). They leave some fairly lackluster mechanical engagement when shifting, however, due the fact that the valves inside the valve body have a lack of spring pressure being applied to them. This causes unwanted stress, additional heat build up, slippage, and can cause issues at torque converter lock up as well. Not saying that is the cause of your concerns, but could had been a contributor as a whole.

A huge issue is that the fluid could had been low also. That does happen and is always an issue, as they make checking fluid level a pretty irritating job even to one who knows what they are doing. Let alone one who has no clue at all, even at the dealers.

 

I understand the first one possibly breaking with a defect from the start but not the second one. Its al out like there is something causing it to break.