Hi, just a heads up in case others run into the same manual gear shift problem...
I have a 2016 Prado GX with manual gearbox and it has had a problem with the gear shift being stiff after driving at reasonably constant highway speeds for an hour or more in 6th gear and then changing down to 5th gear. You can still change down, there is no grinding or anything like that - but you have to give the gear shift a reasonable shove to get it out of 6th and into 5th. If you then change up and down a few times between gears it behaves pretty much perfectly. It will repeat this pattern of behaviour reasonably consistently.
For the record the car has done just on 10,000 kms now and has been behaving in this manner for the last 4,000 or so kms.
I raised the issues with my Toyota Dealership - and after a couple of reviews by their technicians they identified via Toyota that this is a recognised problem with the 2.8 litre manual HiLuxs (probably because they have almost exactly the same motor/gearbox). So there is a service bulletin for the HiLux issue - but not for the Prado at the moment (presumably because Prados are typically autos(?)).
The problem is caused by a selector pin that is located on the side of the gearbox and is literally described as 'hydraulically locking after running the vehicle at highway speed, eg 100 km/h for about and hour in 6th and that this causes the stiff shift when changing to 5th'.
The fix is really simple - they replace the existing pin with another that has a flat edge on one part of it to let the oil push past the pin. I have taken the car for another run at highway speeds and all appears to be fixed. I should know quite soon whether the fix is totally effective as we have about 8,000 kms to complete in the next few weeks....
Cheers
Chris
I have a 2016 Prado GX with manual gearbox and it has had a problem with the gear shift being stiff after driving at reasonably constant highway speeds for an hour or more in 6th gear and then changing down to 5th gear. You can still change down, there is no grinding or anything like that - but you have to give the gear shift a reasonable shove to get it out of 6th and into 5th. If you then change up and down a few times between gears it behaves pretty much perfectly. It will repeat this pattern of behaviour reasonably consistently.
For the record the car has done just on 10,000 kms now and has been behaving in this manner for the last 4,000 or so kms.
I raised the issues with my Toyota Dealership - and after a couple of reviews by their technicians they identified via Toyota that this is a recognised problem with the 2.8 litre manual HiLuxs (probably because they have almost exactly the same motor/gearbox). So there is a service bulletin for the HiLux issue - but not for the Prado at the moment (presumably because Prados are typically autos(?)).
The problem is caused by a selector pin that is located on the side of the gearbox and is literally described as 'hydraulically locking after running the vehicle at highway speed, eg 100 km/h for about and hour in 6th and that this causes the stiff shift when changing to 5th'.
The fix is really simple - they replace the existing pin with another that has a flat edge on one part of it to let the oil push past the pin. I have taken the car for another run at highway speeds and all appears to be fixed. I should know quite soon whether the fix is totally effective as we have about 8,000 kms to complete in the next few weeks....
Cheers
Chris