Hello all:

First off, since I'm a newbie, I'll haze myself by slugging a few beers funnel-style! OK... now I feel a little more expressive about my automotive problems

I have a 99 Taco (60k, 50 of them city miles ) with a manual transmission, 6 cyl, stock everything, recently changed MAF, plugs (NGK per manual), wires ('Yota specials for 60 clams), PCV valve (another special from the stealer for $10), and cleaned throttle body. I know, I know... CLEAN the MAF and don't sport the 150 for a new one... did this trice (that 3x) and it seems to fix things for a day, then back to the knock (but that's a different thread, I'm sure!).

It's all on the line now... the annoying problem is that I'm having some trouble with my tranny. Took it to Jiffy Jube (laughter lower, please) and got a fluid change a month or so ago. My requested services included a transmission oil change, differential, motor, et al, because I was too lazy to do it myself in the garage of my apartment complex (maybe I had a complex and was afraid to spill oil on the floor of my rip-off Pasadena apt… :| ).

Anyway, shifting became very difficult in 1st and 2nd gear, to the point where I sometimes had to skip 2nd and go to 3rd from 1st (all gears above 2nd were fine). I went to Toyota and they couldn't find a problem (it had good and bad days) so they suspected it was the wrong weight transmission oil that JLube put it, and proceeded to put it their own.

It does seem better now, but not like new, so I ask: what is the life expectancy of a taco 5-speed, and is all this plausible?

 

Welcome to the board. I understand your pain, I have a 5 speed as well. I cured mine with synthetic lube and overfilling it slightly.

Do yourself a favor, since you are new here. Click the search button and type in [notchy shifting]. You will get a page full of results to read through and draw your own conclusions. This will help you significantly.

 

The Tacoma 5-speeds (and 4Runners IIRC) are known for notchy shifting, especially between first and second, and when they are cold. Just this morning I ground the gears going into second because of it. I just choose to live with it, but like Jim said, use the search function to look for possible remedies. If you really have trouble shifting into second, try some of the suggestions in those threads.

 

Thanks for pointing me to the correct search term. In short, my two options are shifter seat and bushing replacement, and switching to Redline MT-90.

Thanks to the detailed directions on how to change the shifter seat and bushing, I did that tonight. It took right about 40 minutes (the hardest part was taking the bushing off the end of the shifter) and the parts were 20 bucks total at the Toyota dealership down the road. I took it for a little test spin, and so far I'm liking the results. I'll follow up in a couple of days after I've had a chance to give it more time.

Thanks again for your help.

 

OK, just in case this post helps someone down the line, here's what's happening...

It's been a couple of days with the new shifter seat and bushing, and this didn't fix the problem. My next course of action will be to bleed the clutch line in 2 days. I'm getting clutch enguagement at different points in the stroke of the pedal, so I suspect there is air in the line that may be casuing some trouble. I'll report back in a few days and let you know how things are progressing.

 

Day 20... It's been 2 days since the clutch bleed, and there was some major air in the system. For what it's worth, I'm glad I did it. The pedal is much smoother, and the enguagement is more consistent. As for the notchy shifting, it hardly ever grinds now, but it's still tough getting the shifter into 2nd when cold. This just may be the way the tacoma 5-speeds become after 5+ years of city driving.

I'm not going to try the overfill method since everything I read says that it's better to underfill than overfill when it comes to tranny fluid. Plus, the last thing I want is that burning transmission oil smell in the cab when the pressure gets high enough to blow some of that nasty stuff out!