Drive Train Noise/Vibration at the 95,000 mile mark on road trip through Colorado

I felt I needed to post about an issue I had with the Drive Train, just in case in helps other Taco owners. I have 2006 Taco TRD I bought brand new and had not had a single problem until my last trip this summer to Colorado from Houston, TX. After driving from Texas to Mesa Verde, CO we headed out to Pikes Peak and after driving through Durango, Wolf Creek Pass and other Mountain passes to Manitou Springs. The day after we arrived we started to hear a rattling noise around the skid plate, we continued to drive around Manitou Springs and it began to vibrate upon acceleration, I thought oh my God, the transmission is going out. I did some research on this web forum and others and thought it might be the U Joints because of the descriptions of other TACO owners regarding the noise/vibration. So we made an appointment at the Larry Miller Toyota dealership, I wanted to go in and look like I knew what I was talking about so I am grateful for this forum. To be honest I thought I would get screwed at the dealership but the Crew at the Larry Miller helped out a great deal. The mechanic/tech drove around with me and could tell it was not a transmission issue but the drive train, the service rep tried to see if we could replace the U Joints even tried to send it out to a local mechanic shop but said Toyota recommends replacing the whole drive train $1100 parts and labor. I was in a rock and a hard place, I could try and go to a local shop but no guarantee of the work and we were worried something would happen on a 2,000 mile trip back to Texas. We even thought about buying a new truck but we decided the truck is paid for and $1100 and a one year/12,000 mile warranty was worth it. So, we said OK to replace but wait, they had to order the part from Kansas and it would take a day to get to them. They said it was ok to drive but would not try and make it back to Texas or up into the Mountains w/o fixing it. So we had to cut part of the trip short (No Estes Park) and luckily we had family close by we were going to stay with on our way out of Colorado anyway. I will say that the Larry Miller Toyota folks did a good job and the part arrived on time and they had my TACO fixed up and ready to go quickly and made the $1100 repair tolerable. We made the drive back to Texas and the TACO and the repair have held up fine. It appears Toyota has known about the issue with the drive train but only recommends replacing when there is a noise, I wish Toyota would have said something before, especially since I have it serviced at Fred Hass Toyota on a regular bases. The drive train supposedly has been re engineered. If you have a vibration check the drive train before they tell you it is the transmission. I hope this helps others, I want to keep my TACO for another 100,000 miles!

 

Hi astro I had a 2010 sport dcsb at 86,000 miles I had a similar problem but I was lucky to be at home. I replaced all three u joints myself with a vise and bf hammer, it cost me 60 bucks. Im glad you fixed the problem good luck on your next 100k