08 Taco problems

Hello Tacoma World,
I have an 08 Taco double cab V6 4x4, Special Edition Off-Road package with catback sys and towing package. I wanted to know if anyone else has or is having problems with their taco, preferably the same year, model and options. I have gone through 2 clutchs, have an intermittent electrical short that messes up my wipers, get stuck on low (no interval) and kills the a/c. I've had the the fan speed selector light bulb blow twice now (only replaced once) at about 5k miles each time. I am also burning oil about 1 qt of oil every 2500-3K miles. I have 77,770 miles on it currently but all the problems started before 40K. I did bring it to a dealership for the oil but ended up getting screwed, which is a completely different story, but really wanted to know if I just happened to get the one piece of shit that came of the line or if there was a problem with this particular model with options. I ask that because in my research it seems this was the first and last year toyota did the "Special Edition Off-Road Package"...well until 2013 at least. The 2013 Baja edition has all the same mods or "upgrades" as mine, just a different name and decal. Also I contacted Toyota and they told me that it is normal and acceptable for my truck to burn 1 qt of oil every 600 miles...I don't understand that at all and neither do the dealerships I've spoken too. Anyway it still is in the relm of possibilites to have it fixed, free of charge to me since I brought up the oil issue before my warranty expired just have to work it right. I would really like to hear from some other owners though, thanks alot.

 

it is hard to deal with the manufacturer. i went through the oil-burning with my chevy, along with low pressure, and it is unbelievable what they deem "acceptable". they will tell you to expect even more burnoff since its a manual

all i have in common with you is the 4.0, the 4x4 and apparently the 6-speed. and with 86k+ miles on it, it is fine. i did have the a/c control light out when i bought it at 75k. it shifts like crap, sychros feel gone, but the clutch seems good. not sure if it was ever replaced. no electrical problems whatsoever.

im sorry to hear about your truck. also, what kind of oil do you run?

 

A quart every 600 miles? or every 3K miles? Hell no, that's not right. I've been on these forums a long time and have not seen this issue discussed before. Mine has 73K miles and doesn't burn a drop. Of course, I've used synthetic since the first change at 1500 miles but still, a quart is a lot of oil to be burning.

Any excess exhaust smoke? If so, color?

 

In the owners manual it talks about "acceptable oil consumption". I found that pretty incredible. It was true of engines built 40 years ago, but modern engines do not consume more than a few tablespoons of oil between oil changes unless something is wrong. My 4.0 has 80k on it and I do not need to add any oil over a 5K oil change interval. Mine is a 2007 SR5 4x4. Not one thing has failed. I've replaced many things like the suspension because it sucked, but nothing has failed.

 

Lemon.

 

Lemon. By special edition do you mean TX Pro? Where in Va do you live if you don't mind me asking?

 

its an 08 so TX pro didnt exist

 

Yea I didn't notice the year model. I've just never heard of a "special edition" Tacoma and I've owned 3.

 

Thanks for all the replys,
Like I said I believe 08 was the only year they did the Special Edition Off-road and haven't done it again...this is the model with the black fenders, black rims and the full mountain decal...And the only reason I know they call it that is because after I bought it I went to a car show where toyota had an off-road track setup for test drives and during their prize give-away contest that was one of the questions....
No noticably "wrong" exhaust coming out...no big puffs of smoke at start-up and none while driving either slow and steady or fast and hard..
I change the oil every 3k miles now because I can't wait the 5k without putting to much oil in it..Also I Have tried full synthic oil, mobile one and penzol, increaseing to 10W-30, semi-synthic high milage stuff, and have added the Lucas Oil additive nothing seems to help.
ENZO; I live in Chesapeake...

 

Oh ok you have a Rugged Trail edition. Gotcha

 

Oil burning issues could be one of a number of things, or a combination of things. The easiest place to start is to check you PCV. If the PCV is clogged or broken, you'll have excessive crankcase pressure which will push oil past your rings. PCV valves are cheap and easy to replace, I'd start there and see what happens.

If you've replaced the PCV, the next culprit could be bad valve guide seals or worst case scenario is your piston rings are shot. One way to test the integrity of the rings and seals is to do what's called a leak down test. If you're not a DIY guy, any competent mechanic should have the tools and knowledge to perform the test. I don't know what the factory specification is, but anything less than 8% would be good. If you're in excess of 15% you have a problem and at that point you'll have to pull the heads to check the integrity of the valve guide seals and if those check out you'll need to tear the motor down to have the rings replaced.

You said this has been happening for nearly 30K miles and you don't see any smoke in the exhaust. Have somebody follow you as you drive a little bit and have them look for bluish smoke coming from the exhaust. Does the truck run poorly or get lousy fuel mileage? Has the truck ever been overheated?

 

I am only a minor DIY so that test is out of my league. The truck runs great, gas milege is the same as it has always been. No it has never overheated. My truck actually runs quieter when I get to the bottom mark on the oil dipstick. Also for the PCV, I was told that those are no longer used so it never occured to me to check that. I know when I worked at jiffy lube we used to check those to see if oil was on them. But somewhere along the line I was told they stopped using them. With any luck (besides my luck) that will be the problem, which is nice, easy and cheap to fix. I tried to have my wife follow me and look for odd exhuast but she barely knows how to drive and it might have been too much for her. I plan on having my brother do it either today or tomorrow. Thanks for all the help.

 

With no history of overheating or problems in performance unfortunately we can't rule out seals or rings, but it becomes less suspect. The truck should have a pcv, a quick part number search showed the standard motor brand part number as V408.

When your brother follows you have him look for bluish smoke, especially on engine braking. Under engine braking the crankcase will have the most vacuum and that's when you'll have oil getting sucked past the rings, valve guides, etc.

Good luck and keep us posted. It's probably the pcv.

 

Well I found and replaced the pcv, and am almost due for another oil change so maybe that did it...however everything i've read and been told about pvc's is if they still rattle they are still good and the old one did rattle, but I replaced it anyway....I didn't get a chance to have my brother follow me yet but should tomorrow and thanks for saying the engine braking cause if you didn't I probably wouldn't have done it...

 

The rattle test tells you the pcv isn't clogged, but it's not a true test for functionality. The pcv is basically a controlled leak. There is a small spring inside the valve and if that spring isn't working right you'll have issues. I've had bad luck with the generic parts store replacements and always use a factory pcv valve now. If you're not using a Toyota brand pcv you may still have issues.

No problem on the tip about engine braking. The truck might smoke at startup and acceleration, but it should be really obvious when you engine brake.

The engine quieting down at low oil levels is a little worrisome. Generally when you run low on oil the motor will get louder, not the other way around. if there's too much oil in the pan it gets whipped into a froth by the crankshaft and the froth gets sucked up by the pump causing aerated oil to go through the motor, which will make the motor noisy. When you change the oil do you fill to the top of the dipstick? If you do, next time try filling to the halfway point instead and see if the motor is quieter.

 

Well got my brother to follow me, no smoke during accerlation, decerlation, engine braking or constant speed driving. And I wouldn't put to much stock on it being quieter on low oil, it's not like I got a db meter and actually checked that, nor did I really pay attention to where I was at, how fast I was going, how high engine was revved or if the windows were open, just something I thought I noticed after a friend told me my truck sounded louder than before, about an hour after an oil change. And no I do not fill the oil up to the top notch on the dipstick when I change it. I usually put it somewhere in the middle. I did just think of something though and wondered if it might matter. When I had the clutch replaced the second time they had to drop my whole transmission to do it, on the first replacement they didn't replace as much of the clutch but did inspect it all which to me means they had to drop the tranny too. That was at about 30K-35K miles, I noticed the oil disappearing at about 38K-40K. I bring this up because I had problems with the dealership that replaced the clutch the first time, didn't do half the required maintenance suppose too and left rags in my engine (right next to the fan and belt) and a couple other things I can't remember currently. Any chance it was something they did? And does that add anything I might be able to check, I do plan on doing an oil change and tune-up in about 500 miles (2 weeks or so). I was told to visually inspect the spark plugs for evidence of oil burning. Thanks for all the help..

 

If there's no visible smoke then the truck is not burning any oil, or hardly enough oil to matter. Knowing that, I doubt you have any problems with the engine be it rings or seals.

When you do a clutch change the transmission has to come out. You're correct that you can't replace any part of the clutch assembly without pulling the transmission. The input shaft of the transmission goes right through the center of the clutch. That being said, the dealership could have damaged the pilot bearing and/or seal when they re-installed the transmission. The tip of the input shaft slides into the pilot bearing and if you insert the transmission crooked or jimmy it into place there's a possibility of damaging the pilot bearing and seal. Generally when the bearing itself is bad the truck will make a ton of noise from the what sounds like the transmission. If the seal is bad there's going to be oil all over the clutch and disc. I'm not familiar with the tacoma six speed, but most transmissions have a removable inspection plate somewhere on the bell housing. I would recommend crawling under the truck and removing the inspection plate to see if you can see oil in the bell housing and/or around the clutch. If you see oil everywhere you've got a bad pilot bearing seal.

That being said, it could also be a rear main seal but the tech working on your truck would have be a special brand of dumbass to mess up the rear main seal installing a transmission. Rear main seal leaks tend to leave drips on the ground because they are typically pretty bad when they do leak.

To fix either the transmission has to come out so if you look inside the bell housing and see oil then the transmission has to come out anyway so you can inspect, or R&R, both the rear main and pilot.

Please keep us posted.

edit: The spark plugs will be oil fouled only if you've got oil going into the combustion chambers. This would happen due to bad ring seal, valve stem guide seals, clogged PCV, etc. Basically anything that's pushing oil or oil vapor into the combustion chamber. When oil gets into the combustion chambers it gets pushed out he exhaust on each exhaust stroke which is why you see smoke in the exhaust of cars that have internal oil leaks. Since there's no visible smoke in your exhaust there's no reason to suspect you're going to have oil fouled plugs. But, it never hurts to look just to be sure. If you decide to inspect the plugs an oil fouled plug is going to have black oil residue and soot all over the electrode tip, ground strap, and part of the threaded body.