Tailshaft Clunk

[Riv39 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Riv39]

Hi Riv,
Chatswood.
After going nuts yesterday and getting pretty fired up with them.....today I got a call. "We have spoken to toyota again and explained the situation and they have agreed to replace it....now on order and we'll call you when it's in stock"
Incredible - but the service guy I usually see told me today he had never heard of the replacement - I'm inclined to believe him as he had absolutely no hesitation in doing the mudflap replacment and rear end respray all at toyota's cost. It seems that with the mudflaps Toyota sent out a notice to all dealers......but I suspect they have not done the same with the propeller shaft and unless the actual service centre screams then nothing happens.
Anyway - will wait to see if "clunk" finally gets sorted.
Rgds
ML

ML, good news....it may be that they don't service many Prado's but I doubt it as the clunk is a carry over from the 120 series design and is also present in the 200 series. I had no trouble at CHT, after the normal couple of attempts at greasing it was changed out.

[bertram35 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bertram35]

Riv,
Yes they knew about the clunk form the 120 series......seems like they have never replaced the shaft....strange.
Anyway - good result and will wait to see if it finally fixess the problem.
Did it fix it for you?
Also, have had the mudflaps replaced? If so - what do you think of the new ones?

Thanks for your feedback
Rgds
ML

[Riv39 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Riv39]

ML
30,000+ kms and not a clunk to be heard!!! Mud flaps were done ages ago and much much better than the 'aesthetically pleasing' flaps that used to be in place......

[bertram35 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bertram35]

OK good news.
Thanks again RIV
ML

[jeff butler Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close jeff butler]

Had new tail shaft fitted yesterday,after complaining at every service. At 80,000 plus they finally changed it,dealer told me they had to really push Toyota to get it changed.(the car was at the dealer as the Toyota techs were working on the car trying to fix the 1500 drone). Mine was clunking on the 1st to 2nd auto change and stopping at lights. Never lasted more than 5000k after a service before it started clunking again. Don,t let them tell you it will get better with age or that they are putting in a special grease. Mine got worse with more kilometres.

[Dusty74 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dusty74]

I'm still complaining and still getting greased, in more ways than one! 30,000k coming up in new year, probably first week, so will bring it up again. I'm having to return every 4-5,000 k's for it to be greased!
Not happy Jan!
Oh and to add insult, the rear diff housing started leaking. Took it to the dealer and on inspection every nut around the top hat was about 3/4 a turn loose. They tried blaming ARB for it when they fitted the suspension. I asked how many coil springs they thought ARB fitted into the diff?
Having a real love hate relationship with Toyota, some days more hate than love.

Cheers,
Dusty

[Croz Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Croz]

I had mine in for the 10000 k service tonight at burleigh. Told them about the clunk on the way home from buying the car and at the 1000k check up they said it would be replaced at the first opportunity. After three month of different stories from different staff and the service manager telling me that my car had the new shaft from the factory and it needed greasing I followed them up three times before this service. When I arrived they had a new shaft waiting.

I've only driven it 3 ks home from the dealer since fitting but already the first to second gear hange is soooooo much smoother.

Annoying thing is, the service guy passed it off by saying that they'd done hundreds Of them. Said they usually try to grease it first time and make it go away...

Well anyway I'm happy so far. Driving Gold Coast to Sydney tomorrow so that should give me a chance to find out if its as good as it seems.

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

I've only driven it 3 ks home from the dealer since fitting but already the first to second gear hange is soooooo much smoother.

Do you have a manual or an auto? I have an auto and notice a lag with the gear change but don't know if it's shaft related, just thought it was a flat spot in the acceleration. I've had my Prado's tailshaft greased and can't say I've noticed a clunk since; but then I haven't driven that many K's since it was done.

[Croz Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Croz]

I've got an auto, it's a bit laggy. Don't know if its a gearbox thing or the turbo. Before the shaft was replaced if you put your foot down in traffic it would hesitate and then you'd get a whump! As the thing grabbed.

There is still a bit of lag there but I think that's just the way the car is. I asked the service guy about it and he said it was the nature of the beast. Sometimes it just feels like the auto doesn't know what gear to be in or sits in a high hear for too long.

[starbuck76 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close starbuck76]

I've got an auto, it's a bit laggy. Don't know if its a gearbox thing or the turbo. Before the shaft was replaced if you put your foot down in traffic it would hesitate and then you'd get a whump! As the thing grabbed.

There is still a bit of lag there but I think that's just the way the car is. I asked the service guy about it and he said it was the nature of the beast. Sometimes it just feels like the auto doesn't know what gear to be in or sits in a high hear for too long.

There is a firmware upgrade (or a software fix by another name) for the auto transmission ECU which should fix your lagging issues. See your service department who will be able to check what version firmware you are running. You shouldn't have to pay for it either.

[Croz Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Croz]

Thanks, ill let Toyota know that they can possibly fix it for me!

[vh_ofc Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close vh_ofc]

Just out of a 60,000km service where I complained of a clunk when stopped at the lights as if the auto had finally decided to shift down to 1st (did not happen all the time just sometimes). I had complained to them in the past about a clunk when braking which they shrugged off as normal for the brakes?? Anyway this time they said it was the prop shaft binding, so they removed it, cleaned it up and re-greased it with some special copper grease. Bottom line is the clunking has stoped but with only 9 months to go before the warranty runs out, if I hear or feel the slightest of "clunks" then it will be straight back to have it replaced and making sure that the history is well documented so that if it happens again out of warranty I will hit them with a replacement claim for a known defective part that they failed to fix under warranty.

[Kev7762 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kev7762]

Just picked mine up after 60k service and after complaining about clunk at every service (2 states and 3 dealers) they have finally gone to Toyota to replace as a warranty claim, so still not replaced but getting closer.

Finally had it replaced, told them I was sick of reporting every service and best they replaced it - job done now.

[BIGW Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BIGW]

Complained of the clunk @ 1000km service - Re packed with Grease
Complained of the clunk @ 10000km service - Re packed with Grease
Complained of the clunk @ 20000km service - Repacked with Grease but done with a 'new' methodology
Spoke with the service manager when I picked up the car yesterday for the 20k service, explained to him that I don't want to cause a scene nor carry on in the showroom, and asked how he wanted this to play out as far as replacing the tail shaft.

He advised they haven't replaced a single one at their dealership, sympathised with me and advised I should write to Toyota. If i knew of anyone who had had their tail shaft replaced by another dealer, if I could provide the paperwork to that effect he would put forward a claim to Toyota. I left feeling like someone is pissing in my pocket an telling me it's raining.

I explained I went through a similar process with Lexus with my previous car and that resulted in a very public resolution.

Before I could get on here to see if anyone could forward the paperwork I got a call from the dealership advising a new tail shaft has been ordered and will advise an installation date.

[Jeffers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jeffers]

Good to hear BigW...

Toyota know exactly whats going on. My dealer didn't hesitate when I mentioned the new tail shaft.

It pisses me off when the friggen dealers carry on and try to treat us like idiots.

Anyway, I'm glad they are onto it for you.

Cheers,

Jeff