New Member, old Tacoma owner w/ 2024 Tacoma question/issues with Tow/Haul

Hello all,

I just got my 5th Toyota, this one being a Trail Hunter. All the Tacos and the one 4Rrunner either had the old 4 cylinder or the 6 cylinder which never gave me a problem. I towed my boats with the w/ no issue with my 2015 TRD Off Road. Having my new Trail Hunter a week, I took my 18' Lund up to the mountains for the day. On the way up, while in tow haul mode, I slid it into the manual shift mode while driving up hill to keep rpms running. No issues on the way up. On the way back I was doing the same thing, but at one point going up hill, if felt a very sudden jerk, and multiple warning lights went on such as general system malfunction and hybrid system malfunction. And even though I was in gear, I lost power to the wheels, which I think was the sudden jerk. I coasted off road and parked and shut it down. After a couple minutes I then turned it back on and it regained power to the wheels and moved it off the road to a nearby spot I could safely park. I heard a grinding noise while I was driving it, no more than 200 yards.

I checked the owners manual for those codes and they indicated not to operate the truck any further and get it towed to the dealer. So that's what I do. It gets to the dealer the next afternoon and by the time they get to it the day after, none of the warnings or codes are showing and its back to driving with no issue and even though they scanned it to see what happened, which showed some triggered codes, they could not determine what caused that to happen from the data they got back. They kept it a few days and drove it around for 30 miles to see if they could get the malfunction to occur again, which it did not, but nor did Toyota try to tow anything in Tow/Haul mode or mimic the actual conditions.

So its all safe and good to go the dealer says.

Has anyone tried towing anything with their 2024 Tacoma hybrid and have they experienced a similar issue?

Not only wondering if this issue of disconnecting power from the wheels and then all the Xmas lights has happened to any one else but also a warning for those towing anything. It was pretty scary.

 

How many miles on it so far? And there have been several people whose transmissions have failed already.

 

600

Have those failures been re-occurring? Any explanation for for it other then a bad tranny?

 

Sounds like one of the symptoms for a failed transmission others have reported

 

you make want to give this one a look:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/trd-pro-full-transmission-replacement-after-342-miles.838593/

 

"On the way up, while in tow haul mode, I slid it into the manual shift mode while driving up hill to keep rpms running. No issues on the way up. On the way back I was doing the same thing,"


Why would you do this? Why would you not let the truck decide what gear it needed to be in?

 

It’s probably just the truck being angry at you for towing within the break-in period.

 

Thanks for posting this and sorry to hear it happened, pretty disconcerting when trying to get about and haul things. I have a TH on order but now that I have solved an issue with my S/C'd 2005, I might cancel it and wait a year or two. I keep about 900 to 1,200 lbs in the bed 95% of the time in the form of a Four Wheel slide in camper. On paper the power from the new hybrid motor in the TH looks like it should handle it fine, but I wonder about real world and long term use.

May I ask, up until the issue, how was it power wise in hauling?

 

Because the human driving the truck can better anticipate the needed rpm range as it comes up on a grade than the truck can? There are a lot of reasons why it is better to be in manual than auto, especially in highly variable snow covered road conditions...

 

I think the manual indicates don't tow within the first 500 miles. I was over 500 when I started towing.

 

sounds very similar, first thing I thought of

 

Like a beast. Notwithstanding the tranny issue, the TH is best driving Tacoma I ever had.

 

Maybe, but I would question this while towing a light weight boat with a hybrid truck. OP didn't say what he was holding the RPMs at so wondering if he overheated it and started to cook it.

 

3500 give or take.

 

Beast is good to hear, I’ll keep my standing order in place and watch the relevant threads in the meantime.

I hope the issue on your truck gets sorted quickly and completely.

 

I've posted about my transmission going out with 2380 miles on it. Your comment about the sound after starting up is just what I heard. After turning it off and back on it worked as expected. I drove it 120 miles to the dealership. While the service mgr couldn't replicate the events, the technician got a "call the engineer" code. She sent me home in a rental before dropping the pan. She called to advise metal shavings were in the pan and had probably plugged a sensor causing the tranny to not function properly. After stopping they settled out - until next time. They installed a new transmission and torque converter. Have 3K on new tranny at this time. I like the new rig, all the best with your TH.

 

Thanks for the info Dirtsifter. The research I've been doing, albeit online, also noted the issue with metal shavings. The service center at the dealership I bought it from sucks and because it's working and showing no further issues, they just want to get it out of their shop. I'll fight with them a bit to drop the pan and check for the shavings.

 

Say this in the 3rd gen forum and see how it goes over lol