What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

ive has two first gens with 3.4 Autos and I’ve never seen that A/T temp light.

 

That's good, cause it only tells you once you've started doing horrible damage not before you do it.

 

It comes on at 300F, if it's coming on often that's bad news bears, something's not right. That's beyond the point where fluid breakdown occurs slowly, at 300F it's happening fast and will do damage if that continues.

 

Yeah, I don’t think I’ve seen mine above 200 since adding a cooler and shift kit.

 

Mines come on twice and shit still works fine, I think.

I did stop and let everything cool down though. Hasn’t happened again since someone told me to use 4 low more

 

Which is great, 200 is solid.

 

The AT warning comes on way to late at 300F.



At approximately 235°F, vital transmission fluid additives start to boil. This results in varnish build up inside the transmission.

At approximately 255 to 260°F, the internal seals begin to harden, which causes both internal and external fluid leaks. Internal leaks equates to pressure loss, which causes slipping and a variety of shift problems.

When the fluid temperature reaches 295°F, the fluid continues top breakdown at a rapid pace. At this point the fluid no longer provides adequate lubrication and the clutch plates burn up and slip badly.

At the next 20° temperature increase, (approximately 315°F), the seals and clutches are completely fried and the transmission is doomed. Catastrophic transmission failure is eminent and will occur very soon if it has not already failed

https://streetsmarttransmission.com/transmission-fluid-application-guide/

 

This is one of the reasons I don't actively seek out automatic transmission vehicles. Never know what the last idiot did. And also the reason I'm glad that even while grossly overloaded towing in Phoenix heat the huge cooler on my Land Cruiser kept the trans below 208°

 

My light went on and shortly after the trans started having issues. Lasted about a year until it finally went. After I had it rebuilt, bad idea, lasted about another 2 years. Manual swap.

 

Lol... So much? Average Auto shop rate Nation wide is between $80-$120 per hour. California ranks in the top 5 highest. It's not uncommon to see $150 per hour shop rate.

 

Yup, the last time I took my truck into the local Toyota dealer out here about 2 years ago, the labor rate they had up in the service dept was $130/hr.

Granted we have a ton of independent shops that charge less but overall it's certainly not cheap to take your vehicle into a shop for any kind of repair

 

Installed the Redline Tuning struts on my 5 lugger. I know I know there is absolutely no need for them but hey who cares, it’s my truck right? Also added some after market headlights and since I had to take the grill off I trim blacked the grill and front bumper. And since I did the front bumper I decided i might as well do the rear also. Im also waiting on my lights from superbrightleds so that I can do the LED cluster and A/C dash mod.

 

Has anyone whose done a rear diff breather relocation have oil come out the top??
Mine is pretty visible by my gas cap and I can see were its leaked around the breather.

I remember smelling the gear oil a while back when I was going up a mountain offroad but couldn't figure out were it was coming from. But I noticed it the last time I got gas. The oil is pretty new less than 10k . Replaced when the bearings were done.

 

4x4s have it. Pretunners don’t. At least from what I have seen

 

I guess it could happen if diff temp gets too high

 

Just picked one up too.

 

Oh Hood struts are absolutely necessary! If you do any work on your truck it makes it so much easier!
One of the best add-ons I've done.

 

So if not blue then what color would you do? Mine are going out too

 

I was going stir crazy... and knowing that @mrs.turbodb would be unable to resist a trip back to the Alvord Desert - and for our first time, Steens Mountain - I knew that would be our destination.

It'd be a relatively short trip - four days total - but I figured that even at that, we could do a couple things we'd wanted to do for quite some time:

1. We could get to the top of Steens Mountain, which on every previous trip has been covered in snow. The highest road in Oregon, this is something we've wanted to do for years, since we first saw it while visiting the Malheur Refuge. In fact, @mrs.turbodb mentions Steens so often that it's become a running joke.
2. We could make another run at Big Sand Gap on the east side of the Alvord Playa. Because we had a score to settle from our last attempt. Not that we're hard-headed or anything.

So, it was in the very early morning hours of October 10, 2019 that we piled into the Tacoma and headed south...

Read the first of four parts in
Unfinished Business in Oregon #1 - Hiking Steens Mountain





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Kenwood Double Din DDX372 BT - Lets me change those colors to whatever I want.

@avw4x4 You ever change your fluid after the Mt. Washington incident? lol