"Breaking in your New Tacoma"? (owner's manual)

Just got my new TRD Off-Road AC! I love it. But I'm reading through the instruction manual and I came across this warning. I was planning on going to pick up a 1200lb trailer right away b/c I will use it of work. Is this a bad idea? What's the break in period all about?

 

I would suggest putting 500 miles on it before towing that trailer. It´s your choice, it´s not saying that your truck will fall apart if you tow right away, however, it does put a lot of strain on moving parts that are trying to mate together. Break-in gives the moving parts time to seat and mate with each other, thus extending the life of your vehicle. Also, very important, if you got the automatic tranny, get the fluid checked the proper way right now since you haven´t put many miles on it yet.

 

Ok makes sense. I guess I'll need to go do some driving. What's the proper way to check the tranny fluid?

 

There are multiple threads on this. It can be hard to get a dealer to do it, some have no problem. There is a special procedure that you can do yourself if you are mechanically inclined. If you try to get the dealer to do it, make sure they don´t just hook the computer up to it, that is not the proper way. If you do a search on here you should find numerous posts. I will see if I can find one and post a link for you. Yours may be just fine, and maybe your dealer actually did a proper PDI, and since you just bought it, maybe that have corrected this at the factory already, but many have had transmissions a quart or more low on fluid. Most dealers won´t check unless there is a shifting issue found, but some will check without any problems.

 

www.tacomaworld.com/threads/transmission-2016-trucks-with-the-6-speed-automatic-could-be-low-on-fluid-directly-from-factory.405642/

 

I'd wait those 500 without towing, as it suggests. There are already tranny gear hunting, rough shifting complaints etc with some models. So it'd be wise to follow the break-in steps to not exacerbate any issues. Then if there's a problem, you've done everything right and it's on Toyota, not you.

 

Ok thanks. Yes sorry I searched the posts and have been reading the other threads about it. Well that's a pain - I knew I wanted the MT for a reason I just couldn't get it in the Off-Road.

 

Is your truck a manual or an auto?