2016 TRD Excessive Shifter Shake. Dealer Says Normal!

I've only dealt with Saint John Toyota and Woodstock. I grew up in Woodstock and it's a small town with a family run dealer, on its third generation of ownership now. They have great customer service. You should go grab your truck after hours and make a short video of the shifter to compare to the one in this thread.

 

If my lawyer isn't successful in sorting this clusterfuck out and I end up having to get the truck out of there as is, you can guarantee the first thing I'll be doing is making that video. I'll post it all over the internet too. Maybe THAT will get someone off their ass!

 

My first thought is that the transmission mount is soft and the shifter is bolted directly to the tranny. You go over a bump, the mount has wiggle, or slop and causes all of the shifter to wiggle around like that in the cab.

My old GTO used to be the same way until I bought a polyurethane quality transmission mount for it. All of the slop and wiggle disappeared instantly and response of power to the ground or the road was much snappier.

 

If OPs jiggles slightly like the video on the second page, that's normal. My Ranger had a worse jiggle than that.

 

Wiggle within the shifter these days unless solid mounted to the body or chassis then connected by linkage is normal. The manufacturers are compromising performance for comfort by using super soft rubber on all these mounts, which usually leads them to ripping or busting sooner as well.

 

Sorry got distracted by Nikki Manaj clip

 

I believe the shifter is mounted to the tranny, and I think the excessive movement I am seeing is the result of a failed or failing transmission mount. I'm no mechanic of course, but if I were one, that would be the first thing I would check. Unfortunately, nobody has bothered looking at the truck, since it was easier to simply bounce-pass to Toronto, take the next 2 days off, and then try to blow me off. They had their signed contract, and with no lemon laws or cooling off periods, they were home free.

This movement concerns me because if it is this bad right from the start it's only going to get worse as everything continues to swing around. This was the other reason I wanted legal advise, and a record of this with my lawyer - if I do end up picking the truck up to bring it to another dealer and I get killed in an accident because of the first dealership's blatant negligence, I expect my wife to be duly compensated.

 

If it is directly mounted to the tranny that movement I am afraid to say is actually quite normal. If you feel that it is excessive take a quick vid of it going over bumps and let me see what it looks like.

Your mount is not bad. It is just soft. Toyota tends to use shitty rubber when it comes to mounts in order to make the ride soft and reduce harshness and vibration (otherwise known as NVH Noise Vibration Harshness). If you don't believe me you should take a look at your radiator support cab mounts. They are horribly soft and sloppy, and will probably leave many of the off road 3rd genners with a cracked radiator support bulkhead. They are that bad and the sheet metal up front on the truck is that soft.

 

OP, you realize the drive line and cab have to be able to move independently of each other correct? Otherwise the ride would jack hammer you so badly you'd never want to ride in the vehicle and the you'd sheer off the mounts. The wiggle is normal for a shifter mounted to the transmission.

 

Leave my grunge alone.

 

Ok, I take it people aren't reading the past posts, cause I seem to be saying the same thing repeatedly. This is not "wiggle". This is a stick that jumps out of my hand. Something is clearly wrong. The exact same truck on the exact same road, at the same speed barely even wiggles. I've driven it twice to confirm it. I'd call it a vibration before calling it a 'wiggle'. Barely moves at all.

 

I've addressed this a few times... I can't get video because I am currently in a stalemate with the dealership. They have my truck, I have their loaner, and nobody is budging. They expect I will just give up and take an unsafe vehicle just to make this go away. They're mistaken. I'm dug in now, and I never quit when I know I'm right. This truck will be repaired to match the other TRD trucks on the lot, or they can give me a different truck, or they can cancel the entire deal and I'll take my business elsewhere. I don't care which, but I'm not taking this thing back as is until me lawyer tells me to do so. This is bullshit.

 

I didn't read through the entire thread, but just to recap, you have driven other ones of the same model and package and confirmed that there isn't as much slop going on at the shifter right?

 

Have you spoken with anyone at customer relations at Toyota Canada?

Jeff

 

Skipped page 5 but ill tell you this ...
And i dont know if they make trd prerunners or not
But i have 01 prerunner and 01 4wd trd and 4wd moves 80% more distance side to side than 2wd.
Mounts on drive train are softer to allow deviation between frt diff and trans case mounted to tailend of gearbox.
Tested offroad over heavy washboard at a good clip..

If your 2wd , somthings prob wrong
If your 4wd every thing is fine

I know yrs are different but same principle.

 

Why are you trying to hold it while driving over bumps? Firstly both hands should be on the wheel and second, you're going to bend the shifter and possibly damage internals by trying to resist it's movements.

You still didn't answer my first question about both the cab and driveline having to be able to move somewhat independent of each other.

 

I gather that he agrees it should move slightly. He watched the videos earlier in the thread, and states his was significantly worse than what was seen there. The OP in this thread does not seem irrational (unusual in this place, from what I've seen) so let's not jump all over him. The service manager drove the truck and felt something was wrong, but a phone call to Toyota put him in his place.

 

I must have missed his post saying his was worse than the videos. The ones in the vids were fine. If its worse than that, then maybe there's an issue but without being able to see it since he can't take a video, it's hard to judge.

 

See post #33