Gents,
I experienced an odd clutch failure that I thought you guys should be aware of.
I did a quick search and didn't find any other reports here on this.
On an extremely cold morning last March (-7 deg F) my clutch was torched because of a very strange lock up of the plates. Vehicle was on the driveway over night and I started it up soon after sunrise, let it warm for 5-10 mins to break the chill. After entering the local country highway already busy with Monday morning commuters I accelerated into traffic and as I shifted thru the gears there seemed to be no change in engine RPM. At first I thought I was missing gears and inadvertently slipping back into the previous gears. By third gear my engine was redlining. I continued to convince myself that I was just missing the gears and eventually hit 5th gear going about 35 mph but the engine was hitting fuel cutoff for too high RPM. I would have stopped and pulled over well before this point to ascertain what was going on except there was no shoulder and heavy traffic on a bitter cold morning. I did not want to cause an accident in such bitter cold conditions in which ice may have been present. Within less than a minute the RPMs eventually moderated and ended up locking back up into gear (5th) at normal RPM, all after a fairly large billow of smoke jetted out from under the tranny.
So, aghast, I took it into the Yota dealership and they confirmed the clutch plates were all but torched. My 2007 FJ had 53K on the odo. Although I had an extended warranty out to 70K, time had just expired. Several deployments kept my FJ's mileage well below expected. The dealership never could diagnose the cause of the aberration, but $1500, some upgraded plumbing, and a new clutch and I was back in business. Or so I thought.
Three or four weeks later the clutch started burning again while my wife was driving it. Afterwards, I sensed some slight slippage but wasn't sure. I eventually called the dealership and he confirmed that their work was warranted for a year and I determined to watch it and see. This past week with right at 3,000 miles on the new clutch I was moving an unladen aluminum flat bed trailer from my backyard up a decent hill and the clutch started burning again and slipping. I unhitched and drove it around the block a few time to confirm that the clutch was in fact slipping. Took it to the dealer and they informed me that there was a recent TSP released regarding a valve known to seize up during freezing conditions and have offered to repair at their cost -- thank the Lord. Although I must pay to resurface the clutch plates. After dropping $1500 on this I was a little miffed that I had to drop even an additional dollar on a Toyota-acknowledged problem but I'm just happy to have it diagnosed and fixed.
I'm still waiting to pick up the FJ and see if it is indeed "fixed" but thought I would pass my experience on to you folk.
Tim
I experienced an odd clutch failure that I thought you guys should be aware of.
I did a quick search and didn't find any other reports here on this.
On an extremely cold morning last March (-7 deg F) my clutch was torched because of a very strange lock up of the plates. Vehicle was on the driveway over night and I started it up soon after sunrise, let it warm for 5-10 mins to break the chill. After entering the local country highway already busy with Monday morning commuters I accelerated into traffic and as I shifted thru the gears there seemed to be no change in engine RPM. At first I thought I was missing gears and inadvertently slipping back into the previous gears. By third gear my engine was redlining. I continued to convince myself that I was just missing the gears and eventually hit 5th gear going about 35 mph but the engine was hitting fuel cutoff for too high RPM. I would have stopped and pulled over well before this point to ascertain what was going on except there was no shoulder and heavy traffic on a bitter cold morning. I did not want to cause an accident in such bitter cold conditions in which ice may have been present. Within less than a minute the RPMs eventually moderated and ended up locking back up into gear (5th) at normal RPM, all after a fairly large billow of smoke jetted out from under the tranny.
So, aghast, I took it into the Yota dealership and they confirmed the clutch plates were all but torched. My 2007 FJ had 53K on the odo. Although I had an extended warranty out to 70K, time had just expired. Several deployments kept my FJ's mileage well below expected. The dealership never could diagnose the cause of the aberration, but $1500, some upgraded plumbing, and a new clutch and I was back in business. Or so I thought.
Three or four weeks later the clutch started burning again while my wife was driving it. Afterwards, I sensed some slight slippage but wasn't sure. I eventually called the dealership and he confirmed that their work was warranted for a year and I determined to watch it and see. This past week with right at 3,000 miles on the new clutch I was moving an unladen aluminum flat bed trailer from my backyard up a decent hill and the clutch started burning again and slipping. I unhitched and drove it around the block a few time to confirm that the clutch was in fact slipping. Took it to the dealer and they informed me that there was a recent TSP released regarding a valve known to seize up during freezing conditions and have offered to repair at their cost -- thank the Lord. Although I must pay to resurface the clutch plates. After dropping $1500 on this I was a little miffed that I had to drop even an additional dollar on a Toyota-acknowledged problem but I'm just happy to have it diagnosed and fixed.
I'm still waiting to pick up the FJ and see if it is indeed "fixed" but thought I would pass my experience on to you folk.
Tim
