Might be stuck midway through diff breather mod...

Glad I didn’t bother with Teflon. Thanks.

 

The threads need to still exist in order to be restored lol.

 

That's what the tap is for. Youd probly have to go with a helicoil tho to keep the thread sizes the same to fit the new fitting

 

Just read this thread. My God Agnes! This issue is/was way overblown.

You should have been able to repair the threads with a metric thread chaser tap or helicoil kit. If you grease your tap with wheel bearing grease most if not all of the shavings will collect on the tap. After the repair is done drive it enough to heat up the differential oil and drain it. The magnetic drain plug will pick up the metallic shavings. Refill with one of the lower cost 75w90 gear oils and drive it a few days, then refill and repeat until your drain plug comes out clean.

Folks have been repairing stripped spark plug threads forever with no issues to the cylinder or engine. I watched my Dad perform that repair several times after his buddies screwed up and I was amazed how well the greased tap caught almost every shaving.

You can also tap the damaged breather threads out to a different thread pitch for a non-oem nipple, easy fix.

The dealer would be the last place I would take my vehicle, they would probably replace the whole rear axle and charge you for it. Lols, jk.

 

What a pain in the ass, all you want to do is chill and do a little modding to your truck and shit happens...... sorry to hear it brother hope it all works out for ya

 

Update: Had to call back Monday since I didn't hear from Corporate. Took a few minutes over 30 to find out the person assigned to my case didn't come in to work. Couldn't reach supervisor or anyone else...

Tuesday, get the call from someone else entirely at 11am (been telling every single person I can to put it in my file that I'm working night shift right now... Uggh), sent them the same photos posted here and explained that there was no way I could have damaged the bolt in that way by removing it. Going to be escalated again, servicing dealer gave them the estimate of around $3k so I'm assuming they're replacing the whole rear end or something.

I get to wait until Thursday now to hear back and be told whether or not I'm on the hook for 6 days of car rental.... THEN the ordering/repair process can begin.........

 

More good news, they can't prove that I did it (have a phone recording of this lol) and will repair it out of "good will".
Basically ordering a tap and rethreading it. I reiterated that I was fine with this as long as the Toyota piece I want is installed instead of the factory breather, because they flat out told me if I remove the bolt again it would be on me.

Have to wait to hear back tomorrow because I'm not willing to back down on a) keeping my warranty and b) relocating that damn breather.

Anything to worry about for tapping? I'm going to insist on being there for it because I don't want them to use the cheapest they can (helicoil) and introducing that little pin that has to be broken off, straight into my diff..

What should I ask for as far as diff flushes, since tapping will send metal right into the diff?
I'm thinking a flush right there and another one after a couple hundred miles, and maybe another one 1k miles later? Or is there another way to go about it? Open the case and remove from truck to tap etc? ....

 

I wouldn’t even worry about flushing, it’ll go to the bottom and stick to the magnet.

 

Does this dude ever get to the point?!

 

OP,

Please read above again. Grease

 

Ahhh man......he’s such a nice guy.....don’t go hating.

 

The threads are BSPT not NPT just for info, the taps are harder to find you can’t just run to Home Depot or autozone and get one.

 

I have no control what the dealer does. Got a call just now (2 hours after I went to sleep /sigh) that the dealer is going to simply retap/clean the threads up and install a new breather. How that's going to happen when there's missing threads, I don't know lol. But that's what's going to happen. The dealer won't budge on installing the breather and refuses to let me use his parking lot to remove and replace the bolt lol.

Called corporate back immediately to ask them to allow a substitution of Toyota part for Toyota part, they'll get back to me by end of business tomorrow lol. Dealer is doing this today.

I let them know that I believe this will be a last ditch effort and if they do manage to get something in, my worry is the threads won't be strong enough to remove and replace. And that my intention is to video me picking up my truck from the dealer and keeping it rolling until I park, get out, remove the bolt myself and show it re-stripped lol. I want to avoid starting over....
Well see...

 

Done right, helicoils are plenty strong.

https://crosstools.com.au/helicoil-type-inserts-technical-study-of-strength-and-pullout.html

 

I would suggest editing the subject of this one, opening with "Help! I might be Stuck" would lead people to think there is an actual emergency where someone is stuck and needs assistance.

Other than that good info on here and I'm glad things are getting sorted out.

 

My problem is the little tab that is punched out to set the threads. Only place it goes after being punched out is straight into my gears...

 

My concern with them saying if it's touched again it's on you is they will do a sub par job to bandaid fix it knowing that they only way you will even know this is if you try to tamper with it and modify it and then liability will be on you.

 

Exactly, which I'm trying to head off by telling them straight up, "there will be continuous irrefutable video evidence of me performing this mod after picking up from the dealer".

Trying to find torque specs now, anyone know? Found something that could be 11 ft lbs, but it's not clearly marked.

 

Good point, maybe use a monkey finger to grasp it and slip a needle punch in to tap it loose? Or slip needle nose in and tap the needle nose?

Some helicoils are tangless too.

 

Front diff breather is 8 ftlb according to https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-torque-spec-guide.318116/

Rear diff doesn't show. Since it's the same part, should be the same?
Note: kinda important to get correct value, cuz Toyota going to fight me on this lol.