2015 Toyota Tacoma Clutch Replacement Guide

This is my attempt to create a walk through for replacing the clutch in a 2015 4.0 V6 Toyota Tacoma 6Spd 4x4. I am not a mechanic, nor am I the most qualified person to create such a guide but looking for said guide before diving into mine blind was a huge challenge. That being said I'm not responsible for anything you do to your truck and I advise that you reach out for help from other members AS WELL. I will attempt to be as detailed and accurate as possible.

Lets get started.

Note: MOST OF THE BOLTS/NUTS are the following sizes, 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 17mm, you'll want a few screwdrivers for the interior, mine has two plastic clips for the front of the shifter plate with a rubber boot, THOSE PUSH IN TO RELEASE ON THE CENTER. We replaced the bolts to their spots as we took them off the truck. HIGHLY RECOMMEND you do the same as it makes putting the truck together so much faster and you don't have to guess where the bolts go. Others use baggies.

First thing you want to do is jack up the truck. I used ramps up front and a jack and jack stand in the rear.

Next it will be helpful if you blast away at the bolts with PB Blaster and let soak a bit. We snapped one of the bolts to the Y-pipe, and the truck only has a little more than 70k on it so you may want to pick up an extra bolt or two if you are a NE truck.

While its soaking is a good time to take apart the inside of the truck. Remove the cupholders by pulling up on them. This reveals the black screw to get the rest off the center console out. dont forget the two bolts under the carpet INSIDE the console. Remove the shift knob. I put all my inside bolts in the cupholder. If you are installing a short throw shifter like I did, URD has a great write up on it. Remove the four bolts holding the shifter in the top of the trans and tap lightly with a hammer to pop it loose. DO NOT FREAK YOURSELF OUT WHEN YOU FIND FOUR EXTRA BOLTS WHEN PUTTING IT BACK TOGETHER SINCE URD PROVIDES NEW BOLTS WITH THEIR SHIFTER.

Once you get the Y-Pipe off, you can move onto removing the drive shafts. The impact guns work amazing here.

Once you have the drive shafts off you can work on the crossmember AFTER supporting the Transmission with either a floor jack or a transmission jack. We used both a floor jack at the rear and a trans jack on the middle with a chain and a strap (Make sure you don't trap any of the wiring or vacuum lines in either of those)

After removing the crossmember, you will begin to work on the transmission bell housing. It uses two different size bolts (14mm and 17mm) and has two longer 14mm bolts that thread into the starter.

To get to the top bolts we had no choice but to sag the transmission. BE CAREFUL NOT TO DROP IT TOO LOW, we took it down until it stopped sagging and jacked it back up a pump or two. I'm sure some mechanic is shitting themselves right now wanting to hunt me down. But drop it enough so you can reach the bolts with about 3-4' of extensions. We used two 6" (1/2" drive) extensions, with a step down to 3/8, and than a 20" 3/8 with another 12" 3/8 extension. That worked. If you can do all 1/2" drive do it.

Once you get all the bolts out you'll want to move onto the lines attached to the trans. Theres a lot of them. Go slow and check them all. Theres a couple O2 sensors and a couple vacuum lines, a hard line to the clutch, and a few plugs at the rear of the transfer case. There's another place the hard line attaches with a bolt to the transmission as well as a bracket on the top of the trans that hold the wiring harness. Take your time and double and triple check. You don't want to rip them out.

After all the lines are off the trans we had to gently wiggle the trans while pulling backwards. Once it comes off be careful lowering it as the O2 Sensor in the exhaust pipe and the transmission bracket on the downpipe can get hung up. (see photos attached) Once you get the trans out of the way you can get down to business.

Remove the bolts from the pressure plate. I was able to remove them with hand tools no impact needed. Than expose the flywheel. You are recommended to get it either resurfaced or replace it. URD will not warranty if neither were done. I replaced mine.

To remove the fly wheel we used the impact. Once removed we put the new Heavy URD flywheel in and used hand tools and a brace on the alignment pin to torque them down to 20lbs and than another 1/4 turn. YOU CAN NOT REUSE THE STOCK BOLTS so either buy URDs Bolts that can be reused or Replace them with NEW bolts from Toyota.

Once the flywheel is in place we used some brake cleaner to clean it up.

If you bought URDs Stage 3 clutch with the Ceramic and Kevlar surfaces THE CERAMIC GOES TOWARDS THE FLYWHEEL.

Okay now that the clutch is oriented correctly, you can place the pressure plate back and use the alignment tool to align everything. MAKE SURE YOU PUSH IT ALL THE WAY IN. Than tighten down the bolts and pop it out.

Now you are ready to put the truck back together.

Slowly align the transmission back in place. We connected the lower bolts first. Once you get the Alignment pins in you MAY SEE A GAP ON THE DRIVERS SIDE. IF THE TRANS IS FLUSH EVERYWHERE ELSE IT MAY BE THE STARTER GOT PUSHED BACK. (see attached photos circled in red)

If this is the case you do not have to pull the transmission back out like we did to inspect what the heck is going on. You can align the starter by hand and thread the bolts back in.

Once you get the bottom bolts in, get your 3-4' extension ready and sag the transmission again carefully. This allows access to the top bolts. You want to torque them down as you go. Double check the torque specs from Toyota. Once you have them all torqued correctly. You want to put the wiring back together. On top of the trans.

Once you have the wiring fastened with the brackets and zip ties you can move onto raising the trans back in place so the crossmember can go back in place. Don't forget to attach the brackets to the downpipes and watch the O2 sensors.

With the crossmember back in place you can put the y-pipe back in. Don't forget to reattach the little metal rod around the cat like I did and now have to wait for the snow to stop to do so.

Now you have to reattach the front and rear driveshafts. Torque them down. Don't forget the bracket for the bearing on the rear Driveshaft.

The only thing left is to bleed the clutch. You do this just like how you bleed the brakes and a second person is usually needed. On the side of the trans where the hard line is for the clutch will be a bleeder screw. You will need to pump the clutch and hold it while someone releases the screw and removes the air from the system than closes it again. Rinse and repeat until the air is gone from the system. If the clutch gets stuck on the floor just pull back up on it.

Again I am not a mechanic. I hope this guide can help someone in the future. If you don't feel comfortable with doing it yourself find a mechanic. If thats not an option take your time, and don't be afraid to ask for help on TacomaWorld. You'll get some trolls for sure but others WILL STEP UP. I thank everyone that helped me change my clutch especially @muddog67

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-torque-spec-guide.318116/
^^^Torque Specs Guide EXTREMELY HELPFUL and DETAILED!

 

This is the GAP I was talking about in the guide.

 

For the TOB make sure to get grease down into the little ports.

 

If you happen to remove this breather from the transmission it attaches to the T line.

 

This was helpful

 

Thanks for doing this mate!

Subbed and bookmarked for probable later use.

 

A replaced clutch on a 3 year old truck??

Just curious, how long did this take you and your buddy? Was this a few beers and a Friday night kind of job or a weekend?

 

This is the support bracket that bolts to down pipe (passenger side) to O2 sensor in the cat can get in the way. You could remove the cat if you wanted but its not needed.

 

lol too dang long. We took 4 days (working about 8 hours a day on it) If you have help and more knowledge about it than we did you can do it considerably faster. But we weren't in a hurry either and wanted to make sure it was completely right, without a solid guide to guide us it took longer than either of us expected. The guides we could find didn't really explain how to get the trans off and back on. In fact one guide I found literally stated "Do a bunch of stuff and take off the transmission"

 

All jobs take 4x as long as expected.. At least the ones I do haha

 

The TOB was squeaking and the clutch had started to slip. It doesn't help that I drive it like a race truck.

 

Ahh I see. And I imagine truck was out of factory warranty.

My old 2002 reg cab TOB chirped like a pack of birds when I got it in 05 from when I sold it in 2016 and never slipped once.. I think I got lucky. Also drove it like it was stolen 75% of the time

 

Replaced it with these.

 

Sounds like the first time I did a clutch...

Glad you got her did and documented the process during.

 

I'm still under warranty but they would have just installed the same stock stuff. I wanted to upgrade so hopefully it lasts longer.

 

What upgrades did you go with?

 

My computer is being dumb about quoting right now... I went with the URD Stage 3, With Heavy Flywheel, The TOB with Stainless Steel Sleeve, and their Short Throw Shifter. I drove home in the current snow storm hitting the NE, I was able to crawl up hills trucks and cars were sliding trying to go up. Smooth as butter shifts now.

 

I have to be honest we didn't take as much photos as I would have liked, but by day three we were exhausted. I give props to mechanics that can go to work everyday and work on someone elses car. I didn't even want to work on mine after day 2.

 

*** This is a great Thread for working on your truck ***
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-torque-spec-guide.318116/