Truck King's 4th Gen TRD Off Road 6MT: It's Broken... :-(

The only time I skip gears in a downshift is when I'm braking at the same time or have already decelerated. I prefer using my brakes to slow down rapidly, not my engine. Not to criticize those who do...just how I was taught to drive a stick.

 

Or when passing.

I've gone 5 -> 3 plenty of times as well as 6 -> 4. It's fine. When watching the video (and before I knew what Toyota had to say) my first thought after seeing his arm motion and hearing the transmission grind and complain was "oh shit he tried to grab first not third".

 

Engine braking is one of the fun things about driving a stick. But I don't think I've ever skipped gears like that. These clickbait YT videos suck.

 

He kinda did some major engine breaking.

 

If Toyota continues to hemorrhaging money(Tundra) they will most likely cut way back on these pressers, no way these events and SI coverage generate much sales for any manufacturer. The people watching these videos aren't buying vehicles. The only GAF left to debut is 4Runner, that might be the last Toyota presser for sometime.

 

And people wonder why I don't let them drive my manual transmission rides and auto's are out also.

And I split upshift and downshift all the time, never missed the gear I want to be going in.

 

Wouldn’t the iMT be programmed to not over rev the engine if the driver accidentally grabbed 1st? I imagine the wheels would have locked too if that was actually 1st.

 

Clutch was in so wheels would not have locked. Engine did not overrev from what I could see in the video. Don't think he actually got it into first; he just TRIED to shove it into first. Syncros tried to do their job but they were given an impossible task. And then BOOM.

That's my take anyway. And of course everyone is welcome to their own interpretation.

 

Very true statement. Every truck I buy, I kind of hope something goes wrong and I kind of hope it doesn’t. If something goes wrong, the views are amazing. People WANT something to fail and they want to take XYZ automaker to task for either being cheap, poor engineering or confirming their beliefs about reliability.

I hope nothing breaks because then I’m out the truck for who knows how long which cuts down on other videos I could do.

 

Huh? People buy the heck out of vehicles after watching videos. Personally, I know two friends who bought Grand Highlanders after watching my first drive video on it. People tell me all the time they bought XYZ vehicle in the comments.

You are right the last event for Toyota this year is the 4Runner. That’s not because they are hemorrhaging money or whatever. It is just the product launch sequence. They have put out all the new vehicles they are planning to reveal this year.

It happens with all of them. For example, I was just talking with Subaru. This is a down year for them and then next year they are going to be having events at way above normal.

Frankly, I’d love to stay home but that’s not going to happen. The other brands like Ram, GM and Ford have a lot going on this for the rest of the year. Those events are a big money maker for the automakers and a key part of their marketing efforts.

 

I do too regularly. 6 -> 4 and 4 -> 6.

 

If he went from 5th to first, that syncro was crying uncle and the clutch went to about 12,000 rpms which will almost certainly explode the clutch

It was all over before the clutch pedal even came off the floor.

 

If indeed he missed third, and tried to grab first, it’s concerning me how the clutch failed on only one incident like this. I’ve owned manuals all my life and can recall at least one occasion where I’ve done something as stupid as this……or someone driving my car has. My last manual was a turbocharged Legacy GT and my girl friend did exactly this. Fifth to first and everything survived.
However, I saw a Ram Cummins truck where this happened and it shredded the clutch disk, broke the cushion springs and the center hub was fubar.

The pedal being stuck to the floor indicates a probable pressure plate or slave cylinder failure. If anything I would speculate the clutch disk would disintegrate in an event like that…….and not just after one event. That usually won’t send a pedal to the floor unless shrapnel took out the pressure plate.

I’m thinking there was a “weak link” somewhere in this particular clutch? It could have been just a fluke, meaning a poorly made clutch.
You have to remember this is a new product and things are going to crop up with both design and supplier issues. Toyota has a lot riding on this new vehicle launch, they’ve been on top in sales in this segment for a long time and if there’s something wrong they will get to the bottom of it.

 

you can't expect a clutch disc to stay together at 3 or 4 times the engine redline RPMs...which is what happened if they went from 5th to 1st.

I've seen clutches explode in dual T-case applications in double low rolling 5mph in 1st gear with the clutch disengaged...calced that to be about 16,000 rpms.

 

My wife looked at me and said “that’s a money shift, right?”. I said “absolutely right honey”.

Even in the beginning of the video, listen to the dad revving up in between shifts, I think maybe it’s been a while since the guys dad drove a stick.

 

I agree 100%, but in this case you can clearly see the rpm’s never approached that kind of speed so I makes me wonder if something was wrong with that clutch.
All my Toyotas had extremely robust clutch’s, I plowed snow with an 88 SR5 and two first gen TRD OR’s and the clutch was never a problem…..not just light duty plowing either. I have seen clutches/drivetrains survive this type of stupidity.
The old man also needs to relearn how an H pattern shifter works.

 

Other side of the clutch.

 

“It broke” lol, sounds like my kids. “The toy just broke” when clearly someone had a hand on it.

 

Correct. But I still feel the clutch disk should have survived one incident like that. Just my opinion of almost 40 years as an automotive technician. I’ve done it myself once or twice over the years without any failure.
I would like to see the failed part/parts. At this point it’s all speculation, the old man is not wanting to admit he sucks at shifting and Toyota would definitely not admit to saying “we spec’d out a cheap clutch”.

 

The old man probably hadn’t driven a manual in 20 years and didn’t have a clue what he was doing. Also it wasn’t their Tacoma so they had no respect. I’m not watching Truck King anymore!