2022 Transfer Case and Diff Issue- Full Replacement

Last weekend I put my truck into 4H while plowing through stones on a riverbank and some lights flashed in the dash, I stopped, went to 2WD, then back to 4H and it engaged and all good. Worked great the rest of the time. Btw I usually let up on the gas when I shift into 4H and wait about 2 seconds for it to engage, I had over 5,000 dirt miles on my 2018 Tacoma.

Wednesday I randomly opened my Toyota app and noticed a HEALTH ALERT though no codes displayed so I took it in and the dealer said Toyota wanted to do a live call with the tech. Today they just called me to let me know Toyota wants to replace the transfer case and front diff. I’ve got to wait 5-7 days for parts so I’m going to keep driving it in 2WD, but it’s over $9,000 in parts.

9k! Yikes.

Well honestly I hope I’m the only one here, but they said they have 6-7 cases they are reviewing.

-UPDATE-
So I spoke at length with the head tech at my dealership, who is a great guy. He basically communicated that he doesn’t think there’s something damaged but it did kick up a code that was stored. In 20 years he’s had 2-3 times where Toyota wanted a part back for examination and communicated he believes that it’s an over abundance of caution and R&D on how parts are performing in the field. They have a few around the country they want to take a look at and he thinks it will likely be a software change to adjust the timing in which certain parts actuate and engage one another. So likely the first time I attempted 4H something didn’t line up perfectly which resulted in the code, but then everything works fine so likely no damage. He thinks they want the diff and the transfer case together to see how well they mate to determine if there’s any corresponding issue. He also explained that turbo gate was a clocking issue and a little bit of the play in the mechanism which they now have adjusted, they try to test for everything but they can’t catch everything.

He also said they’ll be a TSB soon for the front louvers because if you go over 100 on the highway they close to make the front of the truck more aerodynamic. However if you have a headwind or go even faster then the air pressure can overcome the louvers and it will kick on a check engine light. Nothing is wrong but again another software fix.

So that’s the lastest one my end while I wait for them to get the parts in, and I have my truck back.


At the dealer today


The riverbank of infamy

 

wow, 9K, they are going to have to raise prices again with all these repairs, lol

they didn't say what went wrong?

 

Some kind of wear/damage issue and sounds like they want it back to evaluate it.

 

ok wish you the best and I hope no other issues pop up from all that work and that the tech is a good one!

if I follow through with one of these things, damn Im getting the 10 year 125K mile bumper to bumper with all the BS going on.

 

Sucks that this happened. I'm glad they're not giving you a hard time about it. I know some dealers out there would try to slap blame on you first pointing to you off roading it or maybe to your wheel/tire setup.

 

I had my 2014s Tcase replaced around 7k. Took me 4k miles of arguing with them to finally get it taken care of.

 

The hits just keep on coming for the 3rd gen.

 

Damn, this is insane. We are only seeing the very few select people who choose to post on this forum. Imagine the amount of issues that are actually going on that we don’t know about… Coming from someone who has had like eight different issues in the first 30 days.

 

sure feels that way. Im really leaning towards waiting until the 2023, thinking that will give toyota enough time to resolve all this shit.

 

Maybe even 2024 or 2025…. These trucks have only been on the road a few months and it seems like new issues are coming up all the time. I’m hanging on to my 2.5 gen until it or I die.

 

2750

 

So I spoke at length with the head tech at my dealership, who is a great guy. He basically communicated that he doesn’t think there’s something damaged but it did kick up a code that was stored. In 20 years he’s had 2-3 times where Toyota wanted a part back for examination and communicated he believes that it’s an over abundance of caution and R&D on how parts are performing in the field. They have a few around the country they want to take a look at and he thinks it will likely be a software change to adjust the timing in which certain parts actuate and engage one another. So likely the first time I attempted 4H something didn’t line up perfectly which resulted in the code, but then everything works fine so likely no damage. He thinks they want the diff and the transfer case together to see how well they mate to determine if there’s any corresponding issue. He also explained that turbo gate was a clocking issue and a little bit of the play in the mechanism which they now have adjusted, they try to test for everything but they can’t catch everything.

He also said they’ll be a TSB soon for the front louvers because if you go over 100 on the highway they close to make the front of the truck more aerodynamic. However if you have a headwind or go even faster then the air pressure can overcome the louvers and it will kick on a check engine light. Nothing is wrong but again another software fix.

So that’s the lastest one my end while I wait for them to get the parts in, and I have my truck back.

 

Sounds like the guy pretty knowledgeable, on top of things, and communicates well. Thats hard to come by these days.

Hopefully the parts don’t take to long to come in.

 

Yeah he even gave me his card if I have questions or need instructions for random stuff like taking apart the dash or door handle (my next project). And he said just put in 8QT’s of oil and not 7.7 like stated. Haha

 

Bummer! Glad they are fixing it though and that it wasn't a catastrophic failure.

Can we address the fact that anything on the truck can go wrong now and it will throw a "Check engine"? How in the hell is the front air dam malfunction part of the engine?

 

You have to have your brand new truck torn apart at less than 3k miles so they can do some r&d? Tell them you are charging a finders fee.

 

Taking of the door handles and replacing them is quite easy. I replaced my chrome Limited handles. Watched Taco Tunes (YouTube) on how to remove door panels and then it was a matter of figuring out the latch mechanism for the handle.

Know anybody that wants chrome handles? https://www.tundras.com/threads/chrome-handles-and-tailgate-garnish.105778/

 

I agree, I am not going to bend over and let Toyota give it to me. I am getting/have gotten some form or compensation for every issue and everything this truck has promised to be, but turned out not to be.

A lot of people on here just seem to take it, I guess that is probably just the average consumer.

I own a business and every single product I sell I fully stand behind, I expect the products I buy to be backed by the same support.

 

I don’t but curious if the they do sell

 

Thanks for the details. Sorry that happened to you. Crazy that Toyota is swapping out the entire front diff & transfer case even though the truck was driving fine other than throwing the error codes. I plan on hitting the trails tomorrow, and engaging 4wd for the first time on this truck. Going on 1900 miles. It's reassuring that 4wd still performed as normal, even though it threw a code. Hope i don't experience the same issue.

Another guy on the Tundra owners Facebook group posted that his front diff blew up while in 4Hi while driving just 10 miles on washboards roads.. he explained he didn't do anything out of the norm for it to "blow up". Im curious if Toyota knows something and not telling us or if this is even related, in his case he completely lost 4wd. He expained it was a 'defect at birth', but who knows how he actually drove the truck when it happened so I can't speculate.