Propeller Shaft Service

6. Includes operating on roads which road salt has been applied.

The manual for my Tacoma says do this every six months under the conditions I drive in, but the maintenance person said it depends more on miles. I don’t drive much, so they wouldn’t do the service.

I don’t know why snow or road salt would affect a bolt or lubricant on a propeller shaft.

What do you think?

 

It's been a standard part of maintenance forever on Toyotas, it's just their way of saying "severe service interval".

Only your front shaft has grease fittings and they arent as critical as it used to be.

Usually you lube them once a year, even in salt states.

 

I grease my drive shaft once a year. Between 5-12k miles. The dealer never lubed my drive shaft so I started doing it myself. All the dealer ever did was change the oil & air filter. I stopped going to the dealer after about 45K miles, my warrant expired at 60K miles.

 

Yeah, the first time I took my truck in, they did the lube but this time no. I agreed because I really haven’t been getting out.

After reading a few threads, I’m wondering (and happy) they did it the first time because some people reported zero grease just packing grease in their U joints from the factory.

I also read that ToyotaCare usually doesn’t cover the “Severe” conditions maintenance.

Thanks for your responses. I guess I’ll press them for it in a year and see; otherwise, I can take off a heat shield and work a grease gun. Might even be able to find that bolt too...

Meanwhile, it seems I need to get out the torque wrench and check the U bolts around the leaf springs.

I really was hoping with a new truck I would not have to do anything. Now I see I was living a dream. I’d rather know and do the work than have things start failing.

Zen and the Art of Tacoma Maintenance