Got Some Bad News.

The pressure plate IS a wearable part and is not covered per the warranty terms, although, there is no way in hell you should be replacing that pressure plate under your circumstance. You really need to take it up with the big wigs and see what can be done. Try not to be rude because it wont get you anywhere, but be firm with your stance.

 

^You cannot void a warranty. However, your point is valid in that you KNOW this particular dealer will try to use that as an excuse. There's no way in HELL I'd touch even one bolt on that transmission at this point. Dude needs to talk to the owner, not the GM, the OWNER and get this taken care of. If that guy doesn't get it done, call Toyota corporate.

 

Wearable part---but @ 17K miles...and BROKEN??

 

^Exactly.

 

That would be exactly me and I live 600km's from my mom, she would still eb tearing a strip off someone. ALthough my GF has had some great experience in this department as well!

 

Uh oh spaghettio......if you are under 30 that's double speak for "OK, I've tried to pop wheelies for the girls and did burn outs every Friday at the Mall". Dude.......come clean with us....come on........we were all 20 once. Been playin Mary Poppins with the clutch, eh?

 

wow, that sucks man....good luck with fixing it..

 

Dunno, but I'm sure it can be technically an internal part under the category of "All"

 

There are some breather holes on the side of the bell housing, I have seen clutch material come out that area. If you get it apart and it is a simple case of the disc came apart and there is a fair amount of material left and you are under 36K I would go back to your dealer and see what they can do for you. DO NOT go in acting like an ass that will get you nowhere. Talk to them, let them know that you like your truck and just want to get it fixed. If that doesn't work PM me for the 800 contact number and call them and let them know what is going on. Toyota will do anything they can to assist you(at least my dealer will). If it is a case of just plain burnt up when Toyota turns these parts in for their warranty claim and they are denied then the dealer has to pay for these parts. If you get a pic of the pressure plate and one of the flywheel I would be curious to see the condition. If I can help you I will do what I can. Once again do not go in there acting like a jackass, they will just show you the door. How many miles are on your truck?

 

That last part made me laugh actually.

The worst thing I think I've done to it would be a "burn out" a few times. Only on wet roads though. And definately didn't hold it long at all. Not really "poppin" the clutch. Just letting off a little more than normal.

I had an 06 Eclipse GT before this, and I'll admit I gave that car a hard time. But nothing like this to my truck. Its a truck. Not an import wanna be like the Eclipse.

 

Ok Kid, that's an honest response. Just keep the girls outta the back seat, ok?

 

"Clutch cover" is the same as "pressure plate". If that's the case then you might be good unless they uncover obvious evidence of abuse, which like I said before would be a burnt disc, hot spots on the flywheel and pressure plate, bluing, etc.

Not trying to chastise but Tacomas aren't exactly made to do burnouts. Still unless you made a habit out of it that probably shouldn't have caused a clutch failure.

Excellent advice which I can vouch for from my dealership years. Be persistent but extremely polite, sometimes the Service Manager will make the call to help out a customer who he feels deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Another question, did you purchase the truck new from this dealership and if so, have you had any service done there since buying it? They will look much more favorably on helping you out if you have a service history and have done your oil changes there.

Just as an aside I remember a WRX with a fried clutch at 5000 miles, I turned it down for warranty coverage because it was obviously toasted from abuse when we tore it apart. The customer disagreed, the Subaru district service rep backed me up. The owner was a young male who made a scene everytime he came in, didn't help his cause in the slightest.

 

Try another dealer, see if they'll cover it...

If you read some of the X-Runner forums you'll find a disturbing number of problems with the 6spd tranny/clutch. I assume it's the same tranny/clutch as our Tacoma's. In any case, there seem to be a lot of problems with 6spd and reliability. Knock on wood, at 21,000 miles mine is still OK, besides some noisy and occasionally rough shifts.

 

Try a different dealer and goto corporate Toyota. If they don't fix it contact your attorney general. A lot of states have lemon laws. Fu#K Toyota if they don't fix this on thier nickel.

 

Update Guys

So, against some peoples advice, we decided to tear it down and start the process of figuring out what happened. Yeah, crappy pics. Sorry.

When we got the tranny off, we studied the pressure plate. I didn't get a pic of just it and its face, but there wasn't wear and tear beyond normal. I can get a pic if you want me to...



Then we tried putting the tranny in gear. It went in every gear normaly and the shaft turned perfectly even with pressure on the drive shaft (like me holding it while dad turned the shaft. Didn't really get a pick of the tranny itself.

Then we studied the clutch disk a bit. At first glance it had no wear out of the ordinary.



Then we slipped the disk on the shaft. Thats when we found the problem. You can spin the outside of the disk while the inside (shiny part, sorry I don't know exact names of parts) just sits on the shaft. The inside part is broke off inside the outer part.

We concluded (remember, we are not certified mechanics by no means) that it could have been a bad assembly or just a messed up clutch. Or that it got broken from a lot of abuse. I know a lot of guys out there are gonna say, "yeah, your young, you suck at driving a manual, you horse play too much, poppin the clutch etc etc..." Well I'm not asking you to believe me when I say I don't abuse my truck, but you're not here and you don't know. Of course I'm not the only person here that did a burnout. So whatever.

If anybody want to see more specific pictures of anything while the stuff is apart let me know if it'll help you out.

Here is a few more pics just to do it.

 

Looks like a part failure to me, not abuse. Get it to the dealer.

 

Pack it up and take it to the dealer. I just hope they dont try pulling some sort of quick one on you for pulling everything apart, even though they gave you the go ahead. I wish you luck on getting everything resolved!

 

Thanks guys. I'm gonna take it first thing in the morning. If they don't replace it, I'll just buy another one and deal with it. I hate having people mad at me or pissed off at me.

 

Have some beer on hand. You have one hell of a job ahead of you! Good luck!