Serious advice needed. Complete Transmission Failure

Since the OP seems to have vanished, I guess the main takeaway here is to pay attention when you are driving, and not rely on some bell, whistle or flashing light to warn you that something is wrong. Further, when you do notice something is wrong, STOP. I lost count of the times here I've seen some variation of "Even after observing ________________, I decided to drive it a few more miles to _______________."
A tow truck is a lot cheaper than a new truck.

 

Solid advice here, a tow is almost always cheaper than creating a bigger/more expensive problem by trying to make it that last couple miles with a known issue.

 

This could get sticky, since clearly you told the dealer you attempted to drive it home. Hopefully the collision center will make it right, but I would expect some pushback, given you acknowledged there was a problem and continued to drive it.
Hindsight is 20/20, maybe you were not in a good spot to stop, I don't know the whole story, but you should understand where their possible argument may come from.

 

Tranny oil makes incredible white smoke - I recall saying something like “officer, I barely saw your red lights behind me” while driving that oil burning POS Chevy Luv I had as a work truck in my first job out of high school.

 

OP Scooby doo...

 

Sucks it happened right at when the powertrain warranty just ran out 5yr/60K mi.

I'm sure the bodyshop ain't going to own up to a $5K+(new) tranny job.

Your options:

1)I see plenty of low mileage trannys on eBay for around $1K or less. You can be all in with labor for @1500.

2) remanufactured trannys $3K. @$3500 otd with labor

3)new tranny $5K+.

I'd go option 1.

You can try pushing the bodyshop to pay for it, but it's impossible to prove it was their negligence. The dealership might give you a small discount since it's barely out of warranty, but you're still paying $4K++ with a discount.

GL.

 

Warranty is irrelevant here. Even if still in warranty Toyota would deny this claim and rightfully so. This is on the body shop but getting them to pay may be difficult.

 

Ok I didn't zoom into the pic to read the details. Happened one hr after leaving the bodyshop.

Still GL trying to get the bodyshop to pay up. They'll just claim they never touched it. Was there even a need for the bodyshop to be anywhere near those cooler line clamps to do bodywork??

 

Thats why there are lawyers. No way would I eat this. They are responsible period

 

They failed to re connect trans line properly, they should pay

 

This is between your insurance and the body shop

Body shop will either own up to it, or more likely deny any wrong doing, and say it was caused by the accident, in which case your insurance should pay for it

 

There was a whole bunch of white steam/smoke. I immediately pulled over. I did not attempt to drive home. I’m not sure why the dealership put that in the statement. As soon as I pulled over into the shoulder and looked on the ground, there is a whole bunch of red liquid, which is transmission fluid. sorry I have been MIA. I’ve been dealing with physical and occupational therapy and a whole bunch of other doctors appointments since the initial car accident.

 

Same day. 1 hour after I picked it up from collision shop. Transmission failed at 3 PM.

 

I got my truck repaired at an authorized shop through my insurance. They did the initial repairs. Throughout the whole process they were ordering the wrong parts. They are ordering parts for a second generation Tacoma not a third generation Tacoma. so the whole repair process seems sketchy from the beginning, so I’m not really surprised that the transmission failed within one hour of picking it up from that dealership.

When the transmission failed I ,in good conscience, just couldn’t bring it back to the original repair shop so I had it towed to Toyota, which would be the third-party in this instance do an inspection to figure out why it failed and the invoice you guys are seeing is from Toyota.

It was a fender bender accident. The other driver failed to yield, which caused me to rear end them. It was bumper and grill damage. The headlight casings were damaged as well and needed to be replaced, and there was a hole in the AC condenser which they replaced, and other adjacent components.

which I’m assuming they never reattach the cooling line back to the AC condenser?

 

I did not become a ghost. I’ve been dealing with physical therapy and a whole bunch of other doctor appointments. Follow up phone calls, figuring out what’s wrong with the truck and where to get a repaired at.

I did come to a complete stop when I saw the white smoke screen/steam coming from behind me. I immediately pulled over into the shoulder, and then when I got into the shoulder, there is a whole bunch of red liquid, just leaking out from my truck.
I picked up my truck at 1 PM and I was on the highway seeing how the truck was feeling and if it was at the same performance pre-accident and then one hour into the drive 3 PM the transmission failed.

Prior to this I never had no transmission issues. The car has a well-maintained badge on Carfax. I’ve always changed my oil every four months. I take very good care of the truck.

 

I did not attempt to drive home. I was on my way home when the transmission failed. as soon as I noticed the white steam or smoke, I immediately pulled over to the shoulder.

 

Scooby snack

 

in regards to the warranty there is a powertrain wraparound warranty on the truck, and Toyota said that they will honor the warranty as long as the other dealership uses Toyota OEM parts and has a senior master technician come out to do the work.

 

After constant back-and-forth with everyone involved, the repair shop will be the ones to replace the transmission as they are accepted full responsibility for the failure. That’s another reason why I’ve been MIA. I want to say thank you guys for all your help. It has been very valuable.

 

Apologies. I stand corrected.