Issues with Tacoma 3rd Gen Clutch

I hear you man.

I didnt even know taco came with the accumulator. The clutch did feel kind of spongy so i thought its just new, needs to be broken in. Then i read about it on TW and realized how useless it is. It does make sense that it will wear out the clutch faster because it slows down the fluid. Downsifting is so much better and smoother without it, holy shit.

None of my previous vehicles had the accumulator, i was younger too so i drove them much harder, no issues at all. I fucked up 2nd gear somehow when racing in my civic haha, thats about it.

There are a lot of members here still with the accumulator and have no issues. It is strange why some guys clutches go out so soon.

I was hesitant to doing ADM , because i thought the engineers are not dumb and its there for a reason. But honestly i think its useless and its just to help novice drivers, it just drives so much better without it.

 

Hehe, forgot that I had a chapter in the ToC!

 

It sounds like it worked. Rick was kicking about a bit more Ti. Did you get any of it?

 

Nada

 

Doood! You need to up your game.

 

??????

If you truly didn't cause this, I'm thinking it points to a weak pressure plate (or weakened) that just didn't bite.

But to tell the God's honest truth it looks like a teen stole your truck and learned to drive stick late one night in it.

edit: Whoops bit by thread revival on front page.

 

Didn't realize that was a potentially viable solution until just recently. Just had work done recently so still been researching a lot to confirm the pedal behavior is not normal (even though that's what the mechanic told me when I picked it up).

Yeah I've been learning about clutch pedal adjustments so I need to look into this. First I'm going to ask the mechanic if he adjusted it at all or not.

Oh I'm well aware of the mod and that link. Been itching to do it since before I replaced the clutch. The way I see it, it causes the clutch pedal to likely be inaccurate of what the current "clutch power" actually is. If I purposefully push the clutch or let it out at a specific speed, the actual "clutch power" coming from the fluid could be very different, all because of the accumulator restricting the flow. So IMO if the accumulator causes the fluid to act differently than how I'm actually pressing in the pedal, that could definitely cause unexpected and undesired clutch wear, as the engagement is or isn't occurring exactly when my foot thinks it is.

 

On the disengagement side, the clutch is moving with no delay or change in speed. It is only on engagement, and like you said, not at the speed that you are expecting. I'm self taught and appreciate smooth shifts. My engagement stroke on a car or bike is not a constant motion, esp on the lower gears and downshifts. The accumulator messed this up for me. Now, it is direct and consistent.

 

Yeah exactly what I was thinking. It's like they introduced functionality which greatly increases the chances for the clutch to be applied inaccurately, and when a clutch dies prematurely they refuse to cover it under warranty (or even assist partially with labor costs etc). Just makes me lose a lot of faith in Toyota which sucks because this is my first Toyota and I was becoming a huge fanboy. Also so weird because plenty of others still have accumulator and their clutch didn't die in under 50K miles like some of ours did. Maybe the use of 4Lo is a deciding variable...lots of torque in 4Lo, and even if you two-foot like you should, you're still going to slip the clutch a little once in awhile. Normally that should be no problem even for stock clutches, but with the accumulator, that dynamic is different. And then you have all the torque of 4Lo being slowly applied to the flywheel rather than engaging quickly like you want. Just speculation, but I have no better explanation at this time.

 

Like you said it is very hard to say without some one looking closely at all the failures. There have not been a lot posted here, just a few with very little miles and just a few in the mid-20s.

The accumulator is supposedly there for newbs. My feelings is that it wouldn't really help a newb get it down after about the first few days.

Also note that the accumulator was on all the 2nd Gens also.

It does suck and we had some expensive repairs on our other cars. Stuff just happens sometimes. Sorry!

 

Yeah I need to try to move on and forget about this experience. I just put a LOT of sweat, blood, and love into my truck and now I hate driving it. Just sucks. Time heals all I guess...

 

I have a 2018 manual with 32 K miles, about 7K miles ago Toyota replaced the clutch pedal because of the squeaky noise, clutch pedal was not working correctly either, about 4K miles ago, I took my truck to Toyota for service and I pointed out to them there was something wrong with the clutch but they said there was nothing wrong. about 2 k Miles ago, I took mu truck to a different dealership and I told them the clutch was slipping, they said there was nothing wrong with the truck.

Truck got to a point where is it a pain to drive it, so I took it to Toyota again today. They confirmed it is the clutch and it is not covered.....

Anybody else with same problem? I've been driving manual for over 20 years, that is not normal with that mileage.

 

Unfortunately, unless there is an obvious material issue very early, it will not be warrantable.

One thing that can be greatly improved is the accumulator:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/mt-accumulator-delete-mod-adm-and-bs-thread.568303/

I am not certain what your current symptoms are, but doing the ADM will certainly not make things worse.


There have been a few posts about clutch issues between 20k and 40k. I think only one person got some help?

Sorry!


A few folks seem really happy with the URD Stage 2 clutch.

@subrat

 

Clutch should definetily last longer than that, at least 100k.

Did you know that 3rd gen tacos have a clutch fluid accumulator that slows down the fluid, thus slipping the clutch a bit. My brand new clutch shuddered when taking off uphills and i could never rev match properly. I thought its just a new clutch and it will get worn in. I have never owned a brand new vehicle before, so i wasnt sure. I removed that POS and what a difference wow. No more shuddering and the clutch is way more predictable now.

 

it's a sucky situation you are in, but you are in the MT truck you want. [assuming that]. and being in a Toyota, you likely have a bunch of good hardware under you, and it will all likely last a long time. but your clutch and pedal assembly is not part of that, unfortunately. this is, in my mind at least, the real cost of Toyota. you buy the expensive stuff that runs forever, and if you really want it to run forever then all the plastic that won't make the journey is on you. i think that's the deal, and if you want that truck to be all it can for a long time, now you gotta deal with it. so, to quote @tonered , " Sorry!"

but you can fix it and it will be better than anything Toyota would ever put in there. more performance, more robustness, and more enjoyable to drive if you like stronger hardware, which is awesome to drive in a MT. 0.02.

what i did was:
- try everything with the dealer first, repeatedly. like you. that failed.
- replace clutch with URD Stage 2
- resurfaced flywheel & new TOB
- Accumulator delete and replace with a permanent hardline
- remove all old plastic pedal bullshit and replace the whole assembly with an all metal FJ pedal assembly.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/daves-drivers-truck.659667/#post-23055719

yeah it was a lot of work, but when i say it was worth it to me, i am understating myself. it's amazing and worth all the effort. rock solid, tons of direct feel, and it's gonna last. any q's let me know.

 

Tacoma has rebuilt my clutch at no cost, once I pick up my truck tomorrow I will provide an update with back up of all the parts that were replaced.

They gave me a hard time and I had to wait until a Toyota corporate supervisor came to inspect and check on the case but they admitted it was a Toyota problem

 

They got scared ... since u posted on tw lol .great they stepped up and fixed it .

 

Yeap! They are a accepting they got an issue with the clutch and they are stepping up.

just as advise for everybody, make sure you keep a record of your problem with Toyota and do not give up that easy, talk to different people at the dealership and also go to different dealerships.

In my case, first I had to tell them about the TBS for the clutch noise, then I reported 3 times there was something wrong with the clutch and they’d aid there was nothing wrong until it the clutch was obviously gone! (Two different dealerships).

Tacoma world was great information, my vehicle was not the only one with the problem.

 

It looks like URD is out of stock on all Toyota clutches.

https://www.urdusa.com/clutches-by-urd/