6 speed manual TSB...should I?

I have a 2010 v6 6 speed manual 4x4 with about 8000 miles on it. I'm just wondering if I should go ahead and try and get the TSB done on my truck before I get any signs of the clutch/throwout bearing squeak? Or would I be better off waiting until there is a problem to take care of it then. It seems like there is a good amount of people getting this problem and some seem to think it is only a matter of time before everyone that owns a manual 6 speed will see this problem in the future. I am thinking if I can get this done sooner than later, than any of the side effects or extra wear on non-replaceable parts would be limited...but at the same time what is the potential of huge headaches for them pulling my tranny and doing a shit job on the repair?

 

I doubt they will do the TSB if it isn't squeaking YET

 

Exactly. It took me a year and three trips to the dealer before they finally fixed mine.

 

I have 25K miles on my truck and have the transmission out for an unrelated issue. I have pretty much zero wear on the quill, just some discoloration. It's smooth to the touch, no grooves or ripples in any direction with maybe .001" difference in the diameters between the wear surface and the untouched machined surface. So if the wear rate is linear, then .004" after 100K ... will that make the chirp, I don't know. At some point it will have enough wear to start some harmonic oscillations that could accelerate the wear to something non-linear but I don't know at what point the noise starts.

I went ahead and ordered the TSB parts on my own dime (around $200 online) since I already had the tranny out and decided it was cheap insurance. The after-market kits have a steel sleeve but I went with the OEM parts from the TSB.

 

Im curious about whats all included in the TSB replacement pkg....pics would be awesome. Do they install a steele sleave over the alluminum one? thanks

 

I believe in leaving things alone until working on it cannot make the outcome worse. It's also possible you will never have problems. There is one guy on here with 250K and says he still has the original clutch and no noise.

 

It is hard to say how many actually experience the problem since the only people that ever actually post about it are people that are having the issue. It would be nice to know how may are having or have had the problem vs people that have had no issue at all. I will say I have had more than a few manual transmission vehicles and this one is the most challenging to drive smoothly. I joke a lot that this thing is like driving a school bus...or at least that is how it feels. I do have to say I do enjoy it at the same time....I just need to figure out how to stop worrying about the transmission.

 

My 05, 6 spd is really quite while shifting and smooth. Although i see in service history that some clutch related work is done by PO at dealership.
What exact symtoms do you have..just curious.?

 

There's 3 new part numbers in the TSB;

• Clutch Release Bearing
• Clutch Release Fork Support
• Clutch Release Cylinder

The release bearing has a larger surface area to ride on the aluminum quill, which of course results in less force by the inner race of the bearing on the softer aluminum.

The fork support and release cylinder change the way the bearing moves when the clutch is pressed so that bearing moves back and forth more linearly and in alignment with the center of the input shaft instead of being pushed forward and to the side on an angle. I haven't gotten the new parts yet, but my guess is that the fork support is longer and the release cylinder is shorter, which would result in less sideways force from the edge of the bearing inner race on the aluminum quill, again resulting in less wear.

The aftermarket kits solve the problem by using a steel sleeve on the quill while Toyota appears to have solved it by improving the geometry. For me, the interesting question is why some people have the problem appear fairly quickly and repeatedly and others don't. So what are the variables?

Toyota pretty much invented highly controlled repeatable processes so you would think the parts ending up on our trucks would have very small manufacturing variations and are virtually identical. There could be a tolerance stack up effect that pushes some trucks to the outer edge of the envelope for "safe" geometry but parts manufacturing is usually pretty tightly controlled and inspected.

Another possibility is the assembly process. Are the parts the same size but possibly some clutch fork supports were not tightened down enough so they stick out farther making for worse geometry on some vehicles? You'd need a pile of virgin transmissions to measure to know for sure. When I bolt the release cylinder back onto the side of the transmission, I'm going to make sure it's as far back as possible so that the small gap between the bolts and the side of the holes in the release cylinder is positioned towards the "safe" side.

Another variable is how far you press the clutch in when shifting. The farther you press the clutch pedal, the further the release cylinder pushes the fork, which of course moves the bearing forward more but also forces it to the side harder which would also increase wear. I have virtually no wear after 25K miles but I also shift with the minimum clutch pressure to make a shift. So maybe it's driving style too.

So how do things like this end up on our vehicles? The design and manufacturing cycles for vehicles are so compressed now for time-to-market considerations that some things inevitably fall through the cracks. When these vehicles were designed, Toyota was in the middle of a pretty rapid global expansion chasing GM to be the global leader in market share so I felt that quality was bound to suffer. But if you think about how many parts are on your vehicle, there's really only a handful of them that can be traced to a repeatable problem.

I'm still pretty happy I bought a Tacoma though, think how much worse it could be.

 

As of now I don't have any issue. I only asked to avoid wear on the quill the throw out bearing rides on. I heard one version of why it happens is also that there are two makers of some of the components and they were sometimes being mixed and matched. I don't know if there is any truth to this, but that would make some sense. I would think also that driving style would contribute to the problem...but who knows...my guess is that it has more to do with the throw out bearing than anything else.

 

btw 99k miles here and mine has been squeaking since I bought it with 42k miles. It's more of an annoyance than anything.

 

Hi,
I finally timed having the transmission noise coincide with me being on the Toyota lot and they actually acknowledged the noise. They told me it was a throwout bearing, a non-warranty issue (3/36k)-I am at 46k on my 2007. I found the TSB from a link provided here and took it up to my service guy and showed him. He read it and agreed this was the problem. They ordered the parts and got me in today to work on.

He called me at lunch time and reported that there was significant gouging in my bell housing and they were ordering that part. Hope to have it back tomorrow.

Has anyone that has had these parts replaced had the issue come up again? It appears from my searches that all repeat problems were from before 12/22/2010 when the TSB came out. Am I missing any reports of continuing problems?

PS, only 5 payments left!!!!!

Cheers!
Michael S.