Corroded transmission cooler line

While out of town recently, the transmission in my 2016 Tacoma slipped a gear and shortly thereafter the check engine light came on. Another 10 or so klicks to my destination, and the truck was parked and the cause of the light investigated. After removing the skid plate, and topping up transmission fluid, it was determined that one of the above mentioned lines , picture attached , had corroded considerably leading to lower fluid levels and transmission failure. This did not happen overnight and would have been almost impossible to detect, but could have been prevented, in my opinion
My truck is serviced regularly, undercoated every 18 months and babied .
Purchased in October 2015 and with 77000k, Toyota s response was "past warranty." ! Too bad, so sad !!
I have owned 4 Runners, and Tacomas since early 2000, and have put over 200000k on each of them with never an issue. I think , Toyota cheaped out by installing these lines and now I am out of pocket by approx 4500$ , and that was the lower end of the scale !
This post is to advise other Toyota owners with a trailering package to have those lines checked by your favourite mechanic to ensure you don't experience the same aggravation and frustration I have, and if you find the same failures, make Toyota Canada aware of the short comings.
I am also curious if any one else has experienced this same situation, since I have been advised by Toyota Canada, that this was the first they had heard of this particular problem.
Thanks for taking the time to read, and possibly reply

 

You're saying the trans is toast? I had the same thing happen to my 00 Explorer. I was six hours from home when it happened too. I just topped it off every hour or so and drove it home. Changed the line at home and drove it another 50k miles without issue. Trans had 200k miles on it when I got rid of it.

 

Sorry to hear about your situation. Pretty costly fix. How much fluid was lost? Were there any symptoms prior to the slip and failure or did the line fail all at once?

I’m not surprised at Toyota Canada's response given their non interest in the 3rd brake light leak issue.

 

Welcome to Tacoma World.

Now this is something that was going on for a while by your own admission. You never noticed the fluid on the ground where you park regularly? The smell while you drove down the road? The oily film on the back bumper and tailgate? This is quite common on all vehicles with transmission coolers across every brand in the rust belt of North America. Sorry to hear you have to purchase a transmission but this was preventable as you say.

If you live in the Lower Mainland, there is one on Craigslist for much cheaper...

 

how much transmission fluid did you add? if it didn't happen over night the only way for the transmission to be that low to affect shifting would be if it puked all 11 qts very quickly? did you patch that section with a piece of hose ?

 

^^This^^

 

Have you had this verified by a reputable independent transmission shop? Assuming that the trans is shot, then go for the used option; this is a very-doable driveway job if you have a buddy with a bit of know how and access to basic tools.

 

@schruder , do you live in an area with higher than needed use of road salt or corrosive road spray? I thought that the Ottawa area used way too much and way too frequently when I lived there.

 

cant corrode a transmission cooler line if you dont have a transmission cooler #2020-21

 

Most places neglect to coat plenty of the little out of the way parts that are prone to corrosion. Power steering and trans cooler lines are high on that list.

 

These lines are certainly something to keep an eye on. This was the first thing to start corroding on my fathers 2012 Tacoma. Krown never really sprays behind the skid plates….. Good luck with your fix

 

Except you do have metal cooler lines too...

 

Welcome to TW. You joined just to say that?

 

Gotta start somewhere, and it was a decent post instead of the "what's the biggest tire can I fit stock?

 

Living in the salt belt myself , Thats about the worst cooling line I have seen coming from a 3rd gen 2016 Tacoma with 77K
Who diagnosed the transmission as being faulty ?
Was there an attempt to fill the transmission back up and test drive ?

 

Wow, cooler lines/pipes are always made out of shit steel. You can run a soft hose in stead of the hard pipes.

 

I believe you’ve been another victim of undercoating. In all honesty, it looks like that cooler line has rubberized undercoating on it, which is 100% guaranteed to rot it out. Anytime you spray Ziebart or any other asphalt or rubberized undercoating on anything under the truck, you are sentencing that surface to a quick death by corrosion. The more often you spray it, the worse it will be. Looks like that line ended up with water under the coating (which it will) and then rotted away. The heating and cooling of the line would have compromised the coating in the first day or two, and the rest is history. This is the reason why Toyota doesn’t put that stuff on at the factory.

Anyways…….on you next truck……don’t use that stuff.

 

I don't live in the rust belt anymore, but when I did, it was an issue. I tried coating all the metal parts with white (lithium) brake grease being careful not to get on the rubber. Messy!
Replacing metal with all rubber may not be not a good idea imo, but I think I would try heavy automotive paste wax on all the metal. Easy to putt on and shouldn't damage rubber if any gets on.