3rd Gen Transmission Build Quality

True, but this is Tacoma "World".... speculation IS science for some until proven very wrong...

 

I feel like I'm in an elementary school focus group every time I come here. I love the quote in your signature.

 

courtesy of @ZachMX

 

Regardless of design flaws the transmission receives very poor marks from national review sources and from owners/users alike. It's probably the single most commonly criticized aspect of this vehicle. I think the FREQUENT performance complaints we also see can be related directly to how this transmission operates.

 

Because 3rd gen.

 

Yeah, I am waiting for the next transmission update to see if there are some improvements.

 

Toyota's engineers are sitting in a conference room right now saying, "As it turns out, our customer base is too stupid to understand why the transmission behaves the way it does. Even to the extent that they've complained about it to the dealerships until we were forced into creating a TSB. How do we revert back to 1990s tech and make our customers satisfied with losing 5 mpg on average?"

I'm not disputing that some gearboxes apparently came underfilled from the factory and that could cause shifting issues or air in the valve body. I'm just saying don't throw that around if you're not prepared to cite a proper write-up that proves it. If you think parking your truck on different inclines and then driving it suffices as proof, do some research on mechanical root cause analysis. Also, it's not a design flaw or some conspiracy revealed. It just needs more fluid.

Another thing: transmission fluid's viscosity, like all lubricants, change with temperature. When the transmission is cold, it may shift differently. That could be due to the difference in viscosity or it could be due to safeguards built into the TCU because it knows the transmission is cold. That's just one of a thousand things that could mean the transmission is behaving exactly as intended.

Finally, the last thing I'm worried about is Toyota producing a bad automatic gearbox. Most autos start misbehaving well before 200k miles, yet I've seen numerous first gen automatic Tacomas with well over 200k (including my own '96 that had clocked 240k when I sold it) and they all shifted like they were brand new, albeit aggressively compared to other automakers (read: may be translated by the end user as lagging, hunting, or jerking). I'd wager that aggression has something to do with longevity. The gearbox in these trucks has been in use for over a decade. My 2006 IS350 had the same gearbox in it, had the same aggression, and went to 120k without a hiccup.

Each automaker does things a little differently, even between their different models. Technology changes and results in different behavior. Stop worrying about every little thing your Tacoma does that you don't remember your last car doing and just drive it.

 

TLDR but Sounds like more speculation

 

Reported. Too much potential logic. Enjoy your time off.

 

This has got to be one of my favorite posts I've read on TW. I even made it my sig now.

 

What's your fluid look like at 30K?

 

Sorry, I am not sure if that was aimed at me. If so then I guess I must have given you a poor citation. Maybe this will help. The man's name who first told me about the transmission problem is Alex: a supervisor from the Toyota customer experience group. He is the one that told me there were problems with the automatic transmissions in the 3rd generation Tacomas that they were working to fix. He may have said a little too much, but none the less, I appreciated it.

 

The only vehicles this transmission is used in is the V6 3.5L and 2.7L Tacoma and a 2.7L mini van in Australia.

The A340 4-speed in the 1st gen was used in the Supra turbo, 4.7L V8s, and 3.4Ls.

The A750 in the second gen was and is used in the 4.0L V6, All GX470s and All V8 runners, and also the higher HP V8s in the later year 4.7Ls, and current 4runner.

I don't think anybody has enough mileage or hard use to say one way or another how durable it is. But the A750 can go 1 million miles behind a 271HP V8 and I guarantee the new 6-speed would not.

 

The A750 was a great transmission.

 

Ah. The only person in my history of forums that I've added to an ignore list. I forgot about him.

 

I haven't check it yet, it rolls 30k in about 1.5k more miles and I was just going to change it then. I tow about 3500 lbs once a week so I was just going to change it to be safe. Changing fluids often seems to be a good thing.

 

When shifting manually the transmission is smooth and seems to work well. This tells me the shifting logic is hosed and they are trying to shift based on MPG. and the actually hardware aspect is fine.
When more cars used to have manual transmissions, they used to have a dash light telling you when to shift, if you actually used it, you would end up short shifting all the time. Of course I ignored those lights. But now with automatics, the OEM is forcing the up-shift way too early and the down shift way too soon.

Also the TSB is for only for people who complain, they are still using the old software on new trucks. Toyota doesn't give a crap. As long as the trucks are selling they won't change anything unless the loss of life occurs.

Big publicly owned (Wall street) companies do analytics on Quality vs Profit vs Failure rate and do what gives them the best profit margin. If they sell 500,000 trucks and have a 1% defect rate, that is 5000 trucks that are F!@#$% up. The price of the truck includes the cost of the warranty possibility on most common issues. So if they sold 500,000 trucks and the price included the cost of most typical warranty repairs, and only 5000 trucks needed warranty, they made a nice profit just of the warranty cost alone.

This is no way an excuse to accept this, just the unfortunate way companies do business these days that are publicly owned. Cheapen the product, make it last an acceptable time and sell them a new one. It is not in the companies best interest to make a vehicle last too long, they need you to come back and by another.

This has been the evolving pattern over the past 30 years and even longer. The general public has been conditioned to accept marginal quality.

Yes it totally sucks to be one of the "5000" trucks that are bad. But Toyota doesn't care.

 

This is true, with the exception of the hardware being fine. There is an existing valve body leak down issue in many ac60 transmissions. Well put. Thanks.

 

The closest thing to our transmission is the AB60E/F; the Tundra transmission.
There is no shortage of aftermarket hardware improvements for it. Or, most all modern Toyota transmissions that have been on the market long enough; yes, even the A750.
This is not to say a stock transmission won't go the distance. But, nor do I believe there is anything exceptional about the AC60E/F. Time will tell.