Manual transmission Fan Club and BS thread (All Generations Welcome)

Same with my 85...but in the lower gears. If I shut down and stopped things spinning I could gear all day. So it was a bearing.

If it's your higher gears, milk it home til you're uncomfortable. Like I said, it's your revs at this point.

Good luck, keep us apprised

 

You are fine to keep driving. I’ve noticed when the fluid starts getting toward the end of life, shifts are much more notchy, less smooth, whatever you wanna call it. I usually changed it at 40-50k

 

I used to have a manual 1st Gen and had to commute to and from work in city traffic 50 miles round trip daily. When it was time to upgrade I couldn’t wait to get into an auto. I’m a local truck driver (13spd) and the last thing I wanted to do is sit in traffic shifting gears after a long day at work

 

Stopped getting sticky after it cooled?

Def. Fluid.

Gets sticky pulling hills at highway speed?

100% fluid.

 

Since the issue is in 4th, 5th and 6th at highway speeds, and lessens after parking for even a short time, I would agree that it is fluid based...

The detent TSB is for the 5-6 shift rod. Since 4th is also exhibiting the issue that can rule out the detent.

As for the throw out bearing, it is used to engage the clutch fingers, for every shift. If the TOB was an issue it would be an issue for every shift. Not just 4,5&6. So I think this can be ruled out as well.

If the fluids are starting to break down then temperature can make the issue worse. This maybe making the synchro harder to disengage and may feel clunky or even grind a bit shifting into gear.

I would suggest continue driving but maybe take a break now and then.

And good luck...

 

Thanks! Since I have amassed a quiver of Trucks I can easily drive the ‘05 and get the MT fluid done in the ‘16. It needs oil anyway. I probably botched it when I did it somehow and the Toyota stuff is fun. Or maybe some redline to match the ‘05.

TBH, I’m not sure it was sticky in 4th. Definitely 5th and 6th. Never in R,1,2,3. Temps in the 100+ range today and it seemed to improve as things cooled off.

 

Sounds like going after both the shift bearing and a quality fluid change would be a win, win for you. If it was me, I'd do both.

 

That TSB really matches my symptoms.

 

I should have read it and experimented with 4th more.

 

You guys nailed it per the dealer's technician. I'm out of pocket $500 for the fix since I'm out of warranty but given the hour I already spent taking my skids off and the fact that it's better fixed than not fixed, I'm overall reasonably happy to just get this done. Thank you guys so much for bringing this one to my attention. Tech said the fluid looked good and likely no good reason to drop another $300 on that, at least I'm not as much of a bonehead as I thought I might be.

 

Glad to hear everything is back on track again!!!

 

You can do the fluid yourself in the driveway in 10 minutes. It’s super easy on the manuals. Drain it out. Refill it. Done

 

I did exactly that, with Amsoil, on my (at the time) sloped driveway (well, half-ass-in-the-garage). I had a very tight setup at the old house, tons of stuff in the garage even with moving things out of the way, just not really set up for working on trucks.

The new house has more space, though the driveway is even more sloped (down instead of up). So I can for sure do the work inside the garage now which is just absolutely fantastic.

The only reason I considered paying Toyota to do my MT fluid was if that was the true root cause and I botched the job somehow. Seems like I'm not a complete idiot and I managed to do an OK job with that and it's only a couple thousand miles of use so, yeah, next change I'll do on my own. The real question is if I swap it now while the skids are off or just wait, lifetime of MT fluid is long but I could order up some redline to replace the amsoil? But it seems like it's all the same, lube is lube? I dunno. I put redline in the '05 and I couldn't tell any difference before/after, same story with the Amsoil fluid change in the '16. The biggest difference with the transmission is the knob, the extra weight made it easier to shift.

 

I ran 40-50k on amsoil in my truck

everyone seems to have their fav fluids. I wouldn’t worry about it since it’s still fairly fresh

 

I think I was mostly worried that I didn't get enough in there b/c of the ramps on a sloped driveway, I wasn't quite level. But if the tech signs off as "good enough" then I figure just let it ride for a bit, less need to recycle more toxic gear oil and more time for other mods on the list.

It's not really that hard to get the tran skid off, but she is a heavy one. Nice that I have a floor jack now, trying to do it without that would be no fun at all.

 

I would not swap anything that new. When you start feeling notchy shifts or start getting blocked out of 1st, then change. It should last at least 30k, min.


Fluids are very different. I went through this on our old cars and definitely felt the change on the Taco, which only had 7k on it.

That said, you might not feel the difference between 'good' fluids. That is obviously okay. With our one car, I went through four different recommended fluids including a stupidly involved flush, to end up with Redline that transformed the shifting on that one.

In the end, I would not run the OEM fluid again. Better options.


Life should be good for a long while after this detent fix.

 

I switched from stock manual trans oil to Motorcraft

$34 XTM5QS Ford Genuine Ford Fluid XT-M5-QS Full Synthetic Manual Transmission Fluid - 1 Quart , black

XTM5QS stuff around 6K miles. It felt good at first but after a while didn’t really, started to feel notchy. I’m at 11k now and put in Ravenol Semi synthetic

$29 75W-90 Synthetic Gear Lube - 1 Quart (Pack of 2)

75W-90 GL4. Not sure why the Motorcraft didn’t seem to work well so soon but the Ravenol seems the best so far. Could be placebo effect I guess but I definitely have not had a notchy shift yet in over a week. I think maybe the partial conventional aspect of it may help the oil cling better than a full synthetic. No telling really.

I sound crazy now having used 3 different fluids by 10K miles but oh well.

 

Nah. The OE stuff was crap on a couple fronts.

Interesting on the Motorcraft stuff though. It comes highly regarded.

 

Agreed. Didn’t feel OE was good at all. Not sure about the motorcraft either, it felt significantly better when brand new. It came out looking great. Who knows. It sure was expensive, so that sucks.

So far so good on the Ravenol: time will tell on that one.

 

Many in the Honda and Mazda communities swear by ACDelco Synchromesh Friction Modified. My 2006 TL would routinely grind going into 3rd and frequently pop out of that same gear; the Synchromesh Friction Modified worked wonders on the transmission, not only does it no longer grind into 3rd and not pop out, but all of the shifts are as smooth as warm butter.