Throwout bearing again!!

Thought so...

I'll have to get toyota to check on that as well

 

I think the labor for a clutch on these trucks is five or six hours flat rate. Around here thats 450-540 at 90 bucks an hour.

 

The Toyota TSB replaces the bearing, clutch fork support and clutch release cylinder. The TSB says labour is 3.1 hrs (2.8 for 2wd) and that would include bleeding the new clutch release cylinder. If you don't have a proper transmission jack, it's heavy as heck and a little tricky to balance while pulling it off so it's probably one of those things that's worth it to pay someone else to do. I managed to wrestle mine off w/o one but it was a PITA.

 

^^ strange... they told me 2 to 3 days

 

Part of the TSB is measuring wear on some of the components and optionally replacing them so that may be why they need the time. They would need to disassemble, measure wear, order parts not in stock, reassemble. A lot of parts seem to be over-nighted now instead of stocked at the dealerships.

Just a guess but it makes sense to me. Actual labour shouldn't be that long though. You can fly through this with air tools and hoist.

 

wow, the more i read about this the more frustrated i become. first i thought i could "just" replace the TO bearing, now i'm thinking i'll at least have to replace the TO bearing, slave cylinder, fork support, and new clutch while i'm at it. no idea yet about the bell housing or pilot shaft. and here i sit with 61,800 miles on it and no dealer to do the work (i live on an island in the middle of nowhere).

 

The delta between changing just the throwout bearing or all 3 parts in the TSB isn't that great since you already have to take out the transmission and that's where most of the work is. The only extra labour of doing it with Toyota parts vs the aftermarket kit is the clutch fork support which is trivial, it's just spinning one bolt.

I have the TSB parts in my garage right now and the release bearing is about 1/4" shorter so it sits a lot closer to the clutch fingers and the release cylinder is 1/4" longer to make up the difference. So the action is more linear instead of sideways which gets rid of the wear problem on the quill. I bought the bearing, fork support and release cylinder online for about $140 so it's actually $90 less to use Toyota OEM parts than the aftermarket kit.

The advantage with the aftermarket kit is that if the aluminum quill on your bellhousing is past the point of no return, then the steel sleeve will cover it. I have no idea what the price of the bellhousing is if you want to stick with OEM parts. You only have to change the clutch if the fingers are grooved too much but that is standard clutch replacement criteria anyways, I don't think the throwout bearing issue has anything to do with it.

So, as long as you don't have a severly worn quill, the Toyota version is $90 cheaper than the aftermarket kit. Everything else is about the same.

You can do this with a 3/8" and 1/2" drive socket set and a few metric wrenches. The only part of this that is challenging is getting the transmission/transfer case assembly down, it's heavy and hard to balance if you don't have a transmission jack. I just built a platform with a bunch of wood blocks and used a cheap pulley to pull it off the engine. I removed alternate blocks to lower the transmission until it was sitting on the ground. Not trivial but I managed to get it done in my garage by myself. Just take it one step at a time ... follow the manual, be patient and you'll be fine.

 

wally, thank you, this makes me feel a little bit better. i guess i don't know a ton about doing the work myself but in all honesty it doesn't look too difficult. while i'm not a mechanic, living on an island has forced me to do a lot of repairs myself. my biggest concern was that i don't know the extent of the damage or won't know until everything is apart. knowing that i don't need a new bell housing helps, and i just figured that with everything apart i might as well do the clutch as well. as you can imagine, getting parts on an island takes MUCH longer than in the states, so the idea is that i'd like to make sure i have all possible parts at the time i start.

 

so... the dealer changed the clutch release bearing and it was still making the noise.... they changed the clutch and it's still making the noise...

They are going to get someone from toyota to take a look at it next week..

They've already had it for a week.. wonder how long it will take to figure out what the noise is...

oh well... I hope they find and fix it.

 

After 11 days at toyota, they fixed the noise which was not the TO bearing. It was the rear main seal.

By the looks of the parts they changed, when they initially changed the TO bearing they gave me the updated parts mentioned in the TSB.

The check engine light came up for a lean condition and they are blaming the supercharger for it... I suspect the MAF sensor needs cleaning. Its cleared now and I will check the sensor this weekend.

Glad to have my truck back

 

Hey all, new to TacomaWorld, first post (it's a long one, bear with me). I have a 2007 Tacoma 4x4 Double Cab 6spd manual with ~49000 miles (2nd owner). I started noticing the throwout bearing noise a couple weeks ago (noise with clutch pedal released...no noise with pedal depressed). It's getting progressively worse even over a couple weeks. It should still be under the original drive train warranty, but I purchased the extended warranty too, so I should be covered. Before I take it in, I want to verify a couple things.

Just to sum things up that I've read from other posts: The from-the-factory throwout bearing inner race is steel and the pilot shaft is aluminum. Sure, that seems to be a design flaw. There has been a TSB released and some "changes" made to the clutch assembly ("changes" as stated on T-SB-0365-10).

Can anyone tell us with some certainty what was changed/ redesigned to fix this issue?

I want to find this out before I take it to the dealer for repair. If a steel pilot shaft is NOT included in the "changes", I will consider purchasing the URD kit with steel sleeve and have the dealer install it while it's all apart. In my opinion, if the shaft is still aluminum, the problem will likely happen again.

 

I think it would be great to hear from anyone who has had their truck repaired under the T-SB-0365-10, had their transmission replaced and/or have installed the URD kit.

Let's hear it!

How may miles have you put on your repaired vehicle, replaced transmission, or URD kit? Any problems so far?

 

Just wanted to share my experience with everyone. I bought and installed the URD sleeve kit one year ago and since then have put 19,000 miles on my truck. There has been absolutely no signs of the chirping since my install. I installed it last winter, and have has no noticeable chirping. Living in Va, my truck has been through an entire years worth of seasonal temperature changes too.

Overall I've had a great experience with the URD kit, especially since I was no longer covered under any warranty. Goodluck to everyone who is experiencing the TO bearing issue

-Steven

 

Just wanted to share my experience with a local dealer in Simi Valley, CA:
I recently took my '07 4x4 v6 double cab 6spd, under extended warranty, to the dealer for the T/O bearing issue. It has 51k miles. At first they couldn't duplicate the problem, so I went over there to point out the noise. He agreed that there was a noise and confirmed that it went away when the clutch pedal was depressed. I picked up the truck 2 days later after they had replaced the clutch parts per the TSB (bell housing not replaced) - free of charge. I was polite and made it clear that I didn't want that particular TSB to be overlooked. I did not have to be forceful.

The dealer was DCH Toyota in Simi Valley, CA - they were pretty easy to deal with (I only had to take the truck in once). FWIW, I also bought the truck (used) from them with the ext. warranty.

Anyway, I got the truck back and it still makes noise when the clutch pedal is not depressed. It sounds like a bearing whine and is loudest when the truck is cold, and almost completely goes away when warm - which takes about 10 minutes. It's loud enough for me to be concerned, and even my wife noticed it... I'm thinking that the tech and I may have misdiagnosed the problem as a T/O bearing, when it really could be a tranny issue (or just normal noise?). Am I being paranoid or is there a problem here?

Thanks for the help guys.

 

Does it sound like a high pitched chirp like a bad belt or idler pulley? Or is it more of a growl, like a power steering pump?

Mine had the throwout bearing chirp. It was a high pitched squeak/chirp. It went away when I lightly held my foot on the clutch pedal without pressing the pedal down more than a half an inch or so.

My truck also had/has a growl when the transmission is in neutral. The same regional service manager who approved the throwout bearing replacement also heard this growl and stated that this is a normal noise for the six speed to make in neutral. It's been there for the last 20K (since I bought it used) and has not gotten any louder. It's more noticeable when cold, I think that's because of the high idle. I didn't notice it on the test drive the day I bought it, but I heard it first thing the next morning after backing it out of the garage. This noise will only go away if the clutch is pushed to the floor. A light pressure on the pedal will not affect it at all.

I've posted about the growling noise before. From what I have heard from other members, it seems like the newer ones don't have the noise. With all the updates they've done to the six speeds since 05, I think that the input gears are different pitch and that's why the newer ones don't seem to have it. It kind of reminds me of the way a straight cut reverse gear sounds when you're backing up in a hurry with an older truck.

 

Well guys I had the same problem and had taken it to the dealer and told them what the problem was and that it was posted all over the Internet on several forums,so a tech was going to take the truck for a run and he didn't have too the trany was chirping away at idle, so we set a date for the repair and all was good they replaced the release bearing,fork and cylinder, the girl said something about a new bushing design or something like that, the way I was treated I thought I was going to leave there with a happy ending,all was under warranty do some research let your dealer know about these forums,oh and my truck was gone for a whole 6hrs,I love my TocoTrd the best commercials on the tube if you guys get the same as we do here in still wintery BC(snow yesterday) no trick computer graphics like other companys to boost sales, check it out Toyota Truck commercial Canada , good luck guys

 

Jesus Pauly, what are you an RX7 racer? I don't know what's up with that TO bearing either - have you read up on the aftermarket alloy sleeves available?
-Austin

 

EXCELLENT write up SnoBoarder. Thank you for taking the time and posting these pictures. I'm currently dealing with this same chirping noise myself that goes away when I engage my clutch. Even the slightest pressure of the clutch pedal makes the chirping go away. I have a 2008 Tacoma V6 4.0l 6speed manual with 41,000miles on it. It's still under warranty(60month 60,000mile powertrain warranty) but, I have an after market 2.5" lift that I installed myself. I just dropped the truck off this afternoon and the sales manager says if Toyota rules the "Throw out/Release Bearing" as a wearable part, then I will be paying for the repairs out of my own pocket. I'm a little anxious to see what they tell me tomorrow.

If you have any other advice, I'm all ears man. Thank you again for the post.

 

Could you tell me which dealership repaired this for you? I need to some research just in case mine comes back and says I need to repair it on my own.

 

Is it at all possible you could send me a copy of the invoice. I need firepower just in case my local dealerships screw with me.