Clutch material in the transmission pan

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

T

thehackmechanic

Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Threads
13
Messages
28
As the final step of readying the FZJ80 (just bought two weeks ago) to take the family on the Nanctucket beach vacation, I took it into a local reputable transmission shop to have them exchange the trani fluid (I did the diffs and transfer case this weekend). The guy just called me up and said "there's a lot of metal material in the pan." I drove down to have a look. From his description, I expected to see chunks of metal, but what he showed me was more a fine sludge of metal particles, he said from the clutch packs. The truck has 180k miles and an unknown repair history. I stress that the trani is working fine. I just drove the thing to Maine and back (250 miles). The trani fluid that was in it wasn't burnt.

He wasn't trying to sell me anything; he just wanted me to see the clutch material in the pan with my own eyes. He said they do a lot of trucks but not a lot of Landcruisers. I asked him to clean everything up, exchange the fluids, and put it back together.

I need to use the truck to drive about a 100 miles each way, then drive around at low speed on basically level sand (some of it soft). The run out to Great Point is 6 miles each way. None of it is rock crawling.

What do people think? Is clutch material in the pan not unexpected for a trani with 180k on it, or is it a DANGER WILL ROBINSON sign that the thing could start slipping badly at any moment?

--Rob
 
I wouldn't sweat about it. Did he clean the metal screen while he had it all torn apart?
 
He is cleaning the screen and the pan. He said "metal material in the pan." I may have misspoken above when I said clutch material. To me it all looked like reddish sludge. I guess it depends what constitutes a "shaving." I think of a "shaving" as fingernail-sized. I didn't see any identifiable chunks of metal. But I stress that the transmission is working fine. The fluid replacement is all prophylactic as part of baselining the car.
 
Clean the solenoids while he's at it.
 
These are large oversized transmissions. Some metal is normal, and harmless. We've heard of very few failures of the tranny. Heck, I'd bet that the majority of tranny's here on mud have been neglected, and are still running just fine.

Metal will be in the pan. That's why Mr. T provided magnets in the bottom of the pan (four of them). If no metal was supposed to be there, there'd be no magnets.
 
Drive it.
 
Ebag333 said:
These are large oversized transmissions. Some metal is normal, and harmless. We've heard of very few failures of the tranny. Heck, I'd bet that the majority of tranny's here on mud have been neglected, and are still running just fine.

Metal will be in the pan. That's why Mr. T provided magnets in the bottom of the pan (four of them). If no metal was supposed to be there, there'd be no magnets.
Click to expand...
Yea, what he said! And just for curiosity, you could take it back in and have the shop pull the pan off and check the filter and magnets again in a few thousand miles. That will show you how fast it is building up. You probably won't find a whole lot there after 5-10M miles. John
 
inkpot said:
You probably won't find a whole lot there after 5-10M miles. John
Click to expand...

5-10 million miles? :eek:

How long are you planning on keeping your truck?:lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom