Couldn't shift and smelled burning rubber after leaving dealership

I was forced to stop at a different Toyota dealer than the one I’ve had a great relationship with for years to get a new battery. On driving home at first I smelled something like burning rubber. Went away in a quarter
mile, maybe a car up ahead. Then I could hardly shift when I needed to, had to work it just to manage. My buttery Redline 4wd 6spd. At stop can‘t get it into 1st, 2nd, can manage 3rd to start off, higher gears slightly better, trial and error, every once in awhile feels like it‘s going to slip into its normal self. What in God’s name could have happened at this dealer? Techs don’t know how to shift anymore? Bill

 

Welcome to TW

 

They drained the tranny fluid and over filled your engine oil. Guaranteed. Call for a tow and get your lawyer ready. Lol.

 

He didn't mention an oil change in the OP. Why would they drain the oil for a Battery Replacement?

If they did again . And at a Toyota Dealership no less. OMG.

Call them and have them tow it back in to be checked oil and tranny fluid levels and make sure you are there when they check it. That way they can't cover it up like a cat turd.

 

I mean chaning a battery is easy idk why you gotta go to the stealership,

 

Where else are they gonna get the electrolytes for the new battery?
You know, one of them maintenance type batteries needs some of the old oil in the cells to help get a feel for the truck.

 

The electrolytes are for the plants! It's what they crave!

 

How is the idle.

 

Let a low level tech touch anything under the hood always risks issues even with the simplest maintenance. I wouldn’t let a dealership do a touch less car wash on my truck.

based on your issue description, I bet you went in for a battery swap, the tech ended up thinking you needed an oil change, went and pulled the transmission plug instead, then added 5.5 more quarts of oil, then read the paper that list your request and thought, “oh well, I’ll just swap the battery now, and I just gave this customer a free oil change”, and patted himself on the back on a good deed for the day.

 

I made the assumption based on his failure symptoms. It’s a Toyota stealership, so anything is possible.

 

OP has a manual, anyone who makes that mistake on a manual transmission is a bonafide moron. The drain plug on the manual trans is way far back from the engine and right smack on the actual transmission.

It sounds like your clutch is toast, some tech that doesn't know how to drive stick probably burnt it up. I've cringed many a time watching the guys at the tire/alignment shop do that to mine.

 

There's no requirement to buy a battery at a Toyota dealer. Plenty of places to get batteries.

Miles on truck?

Is the clutch master full? Thinking failed slave or master is your best hope. If one has pooped, change both.

A bad clutch disc is possible, but unlikely since you can start from a stop in 3rd.

Also unlikely to be an issue with the fluid in the actual trans. There would be enough residue to get you out of the lot and on the road for a while even if they drained it.

Does the shifter feel rough in your hand w/o the truck running? IIRC there is a bushing that may be broken in there.

 

The first thing I would've done is to make a u-turn back to the dealership, not continue home. Well, actually the first thing I would've done is go buy the battery and replace it myself. Barring any physical limitations, maintenance work like this should be done yourself.

 

Backing things up a bit...what led you to believe something was wrong with your battery?

 

Live and Learn the hard way.

 

the expensive way

 

Bob has been a member for 5 years and yesterday was his 1st post and he didn't even stick around for 1 minute after posting.

 

Could be under warranty. when my wife had her JK it came with a 5 year battery but living in a desert you'd be lucky to get 3 maybe 4 years out of it. I just kept taking it back to the dealership and getting free batteries, lol.

 

OP, I have to admit that chills went up my spine when I saw that you had an early model Taco 6-speed and lost the lower gears. This could be a couple of things from the center of the clutch disc coming undone, a known issue that also has a TSB for the problem, to something more serious inside the transmission.
I do not want to scare you to death at this point so focus on the clutch and hope for the best. Otherwise, on the early 6-speeds a shift fork is known to bend/brake along with the third gear shift keys coming apart and jamming the shifting. There is a thread on another forum that thoroughly details this issue but unfortunately I believe the all the pictures have all been pulled. I will try to locate that thread and post.