"Aftermarket" driveline on Tacoma with 30,000 miles??

Take it to an independent shop. Swaping u-joints and keeping the shaft clocked together is not hard. They should be very familiar with this.

 

You are confused with what you are asking
A Toyota dealership parts department doesn’t know what that label is because it’s from the part supplier, spicer
Spicer is the driveline division of Dana corporation
Dana makes a ton of other auto parts, including axles like the Dana 44, 60, etc
Dana also made the frame of your truck

Neither the frame or the driveshaft in your truck are aftermarket, but neither were made by Toyota
Toyota subcontracted Dana/Spicer to make those for them

 

Wow! Thanks for that! How is it that you know so much more than the guys in the Toyota parts department?
I'm thinking that the "balance' warning on the sticker spooked the shop (and when you really read it, it had nothing to do with the u-joint), and when they asked Toyota about it, the parts guys didn't realize it was a Toyota part! If true, they've caused me a lot of grief for nothing! Thanks again for your insight!

 

Surprisingly, the shop I took it to was a large independent shop that specializes in Japanese vehicles. They didn't charge me anything, but it's unfortunate, because it cost the shop and me a lot of time! Toyota certainly didn't help matters, and they specialize in Toyotas!
When I get it sorted out, I'll go and explain it to the shop, including your history lesson.

 

Man, both my 2nd and 3rd Gen Tacoma's I scrapped the OEM driveshafts and had custom aluminum ones made. About $900 each. If you go steel it's waaaay cheaper.

Wish I would have learned that before changing the carrier bearing on my 2nd Gen 3 times. Basically, changing the carrier 3 times costs what a custom driveshaft costs.

I picked up my 2023 3rd Gen. Brought it to my shop. Called ECGS, ordered my new gears. Put the 7" lift on it with the 35's. Drove it over to my driveshaft guy at USA Driveline, took measurements. Had it built in a few days. ECGS package arrived a week later.

DONE!

Truck had I think a total of 300 miles on it when done. I learned my lessons on my 2nd Gen. Do it right and get it over with

 

Carrier bearings always fail.
If he has to get a new driveshaft pay the extra $200 and get it done right for good, never have to touch it again.

 

I understand that Toyota doesn't make all the components that make the vehicle. The shop used the term aftermarket. I suppose they could have also used "OEM". Unfortunately Toyota doesn't recognize that the shaft is original either!
Again I'm guessing the warning concerned the shop, and Toyota's ignorance compounded the issue.
You've all been very helpful!

 

You have had positive replies to all the messages. Nice to see

 

this is a 3rd gen forum

 

I've kept, and plan to always keep the OEM multipiece shaft on my truck. That carrier bearing helps keep it out of the rocks. I run 35s and don't have any vibes. But I am somewhere between stock height or slightly lifted.


OP. This thread is starting a life of it's own. Call around and find a shop that is willing and able to replace u-joints. It's standard stuff for non-dealerships. No need to replace the shaft.

 

No they don't.

We get it, you blew a bunch of money on custom shafts, and now the whole of TW should follow suit..

 

OP, replace the u joints and forget about it.

 

They can fail, but a lot of them last plenty long. And that’s coming from someone who did have one changed under warranty at 47K.

A one piece isn’t a perfect solution either. Double cardan joints aren’t a lifetime product either, and the ones that most aftermarket driveshaft builders use are greasable which means maintenance, and that they WILL fail if that maintenance is not done. And that isn’t fun maintenance because you need a special needle grease fitting to get in there, and depending on clearance and the vehicle, you sometimes have to remove the front part of the shaft off the transfer case to get in there. If you don’t do that then you can almost guarantee that the double cardan joint will last less long than a center support bearing will.

There is no real reason OP should need a new driveshaft anyways unless something from the road hit it and ruined it. The center support bearing is easily replaceable as are the three u-joints and if getting the bearing replaced, then he should really only pay labor on the other two u-joints because the middle one is a given if you’re doing the bearing.

 

I hope he doesn't have to pay $250 for new ujoints.

 

I replaced my carrier bearing and accidentally flipped the rear section of the shaft 180 degrees lol. This was about 100k miles ago and zero issues.

 

$100 in labor and $150 in marked up parts for 5 parts (UJoints and carrier bearing) $250 is actually a conservative estimate.

actually I just put all the parts in a Rockauto cart. It’s $170 before shipping.

Cost would probably be closer to $300-400 for a driveline shop to rebuild the shaft.

 

My 2010 2.7L had the U-joints replaced at less than 160K, but my truck still has the original driveshaft at 208K miles. You didn’t know your truck had an aftermarket driveshaft for 170K miles? I’m thinking that theprevious owner might have done something stupid and damaged the original…

 

The pictures provided show it’s clearly OEM.

 

So does the shop not want to do the work because it's got a spicer label and they see it as not being oem? If so that's kind of snooty of them. I suspect if that spicer sticker wasn't on the DS it would have never come up, yours looks allot like the OEM one below other then the sticker.

Mine had 150K and it was time for a carrier brg replacement, since it was apart I did the u-joints which had also had seen 150K mi. There's nothing difficult about the job if you have access to the tools.

I skipped any balancing and in my case it was fine, no vibes. The carrier brg resolved the clunk I was getting when starting off.

 

Man, where do you live? I want to avoid any shops and dealers in that area. So much fail from both the dealer and shop. As many have posted, Spicer is the OEM supplier. Both my 2nd gen and 3rd gen have similar stickers. It sounds like they just don't want to do the work and would rather just swap in a pre-assembled and balanced full driveshaft, which is something most people can do themselves in about an hour. U-joints take a bit longer.