NW WA Meet / BS Thread

It's not early.

 

Go on...

 

He's been around since the birth of Christ I believe.

 

Yeah but towing is not a taco talent

 

The Joshua trees were seedlings when I was born.....
Seriously, I have worked full time for 41 years, and I’m pretty much done. Life is too short, and while we are not totally ready to retire, life is too too short so we are going to try to get it done in the next couple years. Want to do stuff while we still have good physicality. Will come back at 70 as a Walmart greeter if that’s what it takes but we’ve paid our time and now going to have a 2 nd youth till we get too creaky..

 

Supercharger and a built trans.



Or a Yukon I guess. Just not nearly as cool.

 

You have definitely earned it Sir. I hope you will welcome some of us trashy TW folk in your seaside paradise.

 

Maybe chase the seasons and TAY.

 

Oh for sure! You will match the rest of my trashy lifestyle!

 

Dream! Still have to work a while tho.... but can almost see the nd of the tunnel! Getting my new axle next week, looking forward to some spring wheeling when I get back!
Note to those with a broken cv boot... get it fixed before you lose all the grease and roast ur bearings like I did! My front end sounds like shaking a can full of rocks now. Going to spring for Oem axle because is the right thing to do. Ouch.
Side note
Doing full brakes on wife’s CRV
On Sunday
Supposed to be 28 degrees in the morning. Fuck.

 

More or less finished my stove/fridge slide.

Top is Goose Gear, bottom is DIY.

 

If my memory is correct, I'm pretty sure the last time I made some turns was with you at Crystal.

In 2015...

Gone are the times of 20 or 30+ days on the slopes. Hoping to end that funk before this season melts away with at least one day. But I'm sure my legs will be burning by the time I make it to the bottom of my first run.

 

Yesterday morning I hop in my truck headed to work... feel a good bit of vibration coming from the back of the truck. mostly from takeoff. I think maybe I'm crazy since I've been driving the crown vic lately and it's super smooth. Same thing driving home after work. I'm pretty nervous my rear end has shot the bed on me at this point.. Happen to end up down at Mule during the day (on the clock) get a quote from Jon for rear-end and might as well do front locker with re-gear if already in there. It's wayy more than I can afford. Today I drop my truck at toyota of Kirkland about 9:30 am. I describe vibration as an almost shuttering coming from the rear end of the truck, especially on take off. Can feel it throughout driving, goes away when popped into neutral rolling. Fairly simple diagnosis to me that something is 'off' from behind the transmission. I crawl under the truck and inspect driveline and u-joints. Nothing had seemed too obvious. Toyota calls me about 1:00 says my truck is fixed (they charged 135$ for diagnostic) claim it was a "loose lower shock mounting bolt on front passenger side" I'm extremely doubtful of this.. Service writer says the tech drove it around and says it feels completely fine now. I show up, pay my bill hop in my truck and leave. At 100 Feet up the street I flip an aggressive U-turn and go ripping right back into the service drive. I blow past the kid that greets you, walk right up to the service writer with a smile on my face and exclaim; "no change" (kind of in that "are you kidding me way")Tech comes up starts to tell me about how when he put it on the rack and put it in drive the only thing he could see moving was that bolt... You just admitted to me that you didn't test drive it... WTF? I lay on the ground in the middle of the service drive. Have the tech crawl under the truck with me and go look man, my truck is shuttering from here back while pointing at the back of the trans. I go its somewhere between there and the back tires hitting the ground... Theres no wheel weights missing and my diff hasn't blown up or started leaking... He pulls it back into the shop. Comes directly back to me a half hour later with a print out about the prop shaft u-joint. With a quote of 1298$ to repair on top of the 135$ I've already paid for a "non-diagnoses". I go see the service writer and he asks what I want to do... I start reading the Toyota Customer Support program details about replacing these verbatim...He says he had no idea and maybe that's the issue with another Tacoma they have in for weird vibrations too....

Finally we're getting somewhere... Offers me a loaner and to have the truck fixed by mid next-week. With a refund of my 135$... He was a nice enough guy.. But for 125$ an hour labor rate... A tech that couldn't diagnose a VERY noticeable shutter from the rear end and then to want to bill me 1298$ when Toyota is covering that exact issue for free!...

Rant over...Thank you for the quote, luckily it wasn't the rear diff! Jon@Mule

 

One U joint for $1300????

 

Toyota of Kirkland are a bunch of idiots from what I've heard. I saw something a few months ago about them damaging the side of a customer's truck when a gofer took a turn too sharp and was t-boned by another vehicle. Never saw what the resolution to that was. A friend of mine bought a 2012 rock warrior from then CPO and it was problem after problem with the service department being incompetent. I don't have any personal experience with them, just second hand.

Shoulda went to Michael's in Bellevue and shot the shit with @TheToyotaGarage while you waited. Never had an issue with their service. I need to check on that customer support program about the driveshaft/rear end vibration. I've got some, pretty sure it's mostly the carrier bearing but I'm leaning to the rear pinion being a part of my issue also.

 

Yeah I only went because its a 5 minute drive from my work. So I took lunch, headed over and had them shuttle me back. Hopefully theres no theft or accident problems from this point forward... As I was leaving all the gofers/porters were in a gaggle as the one who'd been moving my truck around was opening my passenger door to show them my CB in the ceiling... Even as I was being written into the loaner car they were out with feet on my tire...not that that's a big deal, but c'mon

Just wanted you guys to know about my not great experience...and I wonder how places like that can charge 125$ an hour... that's insane..

I feel much better getting to vent to all of you about it lol So who's coming to Moses Lake next weekend?

 

$125 an hour for labor in our area isn't unheard of. Not the cheapest but not the highest ive heard either. I don't remember what the shop we use charges now but I want to say its ~100 an hour for doing hourly work. But yeah, dealerships generally don't get the best mechanics.

So its for sure the u-joint?

 

Pretty sure its the carrier bearing.. They said it'l be covered by Toyota. Im hoping for all new u-joints and a carrier bearing if thats the case.

 

Hers the part.. literally 1/100th the cost they quoted you except for labor.

$27 ACDelco Professional 45U0106 U-Joint

https://www.amazon.com/ACDelco-45U0106-Professional-U-Joint/dp/B000C9Q6NY/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1518759181&vehicle=2007-76-1037-20-103-53-9-8-8087--8-1---1-0&sr=1-1&ymm=2007%3Atoyota%3Atacoma&keywords=tacoma+u+joint&dpID=51k-10MRA7L&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Edit: Oh if its a carrier bearing that still shouldn't be that much but possible. An easy way to tell if its the diff or driveshaft is just take the driveshaft off and run in 4wd/fwd

 

Always start with the cheapest fix/issue it could be U-Joints and Carrier can be done in a hour in your driveway.