neutral safety switch

2015 tacoma 2.4K ( 4cyl)
Hi all
My gear shifter gets intermittently sticky and yesterday It froze completely and the dash lights that indicate which gear went out. Switched off the engine restarted and it went into gear. Toyota wants $300 for a new neutral safety switch however I found one on Amazon for $74. Question is …has anybody had any experience with the cheaper Amazon parts and more importantly will it do more damage than good if I get it. Money is problem right now so I’m very tempted to go that route… thanks for your input..
ps. I have yet to attempt crawling underneath and unplugging the wiring to see if it’s corroded. I will do that first in any case.
much appreciate any advice.
see attached image of part

 

I don't have direct experience with the NSS in your post but I have, on several occasions, gone the cheap electrical parts route in an effort to save money. I did an Amazon clock spring once, a generic, Ebay ABS sensor, and an "OEM" MAF sensor on my 1st gen that claimed to be a Toyota part but was clearly a counterfeit. All of these parts either ended up not working out of the get-go, caused more electrical gremlins down the road or failed within 6 months and had to be replaced again. I found them all to not be worth the money in the long run since, when I ponied up to the OEM part, it fixed the problem and did so permanently.

I'll still buy NAPA suspension, steering and drivetrain parts on occasion, but Toyotas seem to be really sensitive to OEM electronics, especially with the quality of parts store parts having declined over the years and the prevalence of counterfeit parts having increased the way they have. I highly recommend saving up for an OEM switch or buying a used OEM switch on Ebay, car-part.com, or at a junk yard nearby. You might even try Marketplace or Craigslist. Good luck!

 

awesome thanks DesertRatliff..
That confirms what my suspicions were. I will go with the Toyota part and hopefully that does the job. Seems a little tricky to get to, but it’s doable.
appreciate your help!

 

About the sticky shifter/a neutral safety switch warning light. I thought I would just chance crawl under and spray a ton of rust remover and lubricant on the shaft where the sensor slides on. Then I ran through the gears, sprayed it again and left it overnight. The check engine light went away and the shifter has never felt better. Now I hope this is not just a coincidence but maybe I got lucky. I will say that the freezing temperatures makes the condition worse and we are now in the plus temps , so maybe that’s partly to do with it as well.
fingers crossed

 

I had exact same issue. Replaced neutral safety switch twice years apart. Both times bought part online after visually comparing part from dealer with part purchased on eBay. As far as I could tell identical so I returned dealer part. Mechanic told me corrosion caused failure both times. I live in northeast where they bath the pavement with salt in winter. Guy at Toyota parts counter told me it’s a pretty common problem. I got the problem part back after first time replacing it and performed some exploratory surgery. From an engineering point of view it’s pretty simplistic part. Good for you bring it back to life but I suspect at some point in future you’ll want to replace it. Save the money and buy online.

 

Yep! I anticipate doing this again at some point if not totally replacing it. Here in Nova Scotia you got the salt on the roads as well as the ocean, but hopefully I dodged a bullet this time with just cleaning and lubing it.
very thankful for this forum and all the help provided

 

I have a 2012 and just replaced the NSS today. Took an hour to finally break the collar off the transmission shaft making sure to be gentle but with force to break the alloy stub off. I bought OEM and have 270,000 km in Northern Ontario with massive salt on roads. It has been failing for over 6 months now and severe issues in very cold minus days that the shifter literally froze and had to be gently pulled to get the shifter to move. I figured at 270k, the extra money for OEM was worth it, but I sure looked at aftermarket on Amazon. If you do replace it and I think you will be, the torque on the nut is 60 inch pounds or 5 ft. lbs. I was lucky to have my son help and I had a pit in the garage. It might be a longer job laid out in the driveway. Good luck.

 

Thanks!
I actually fixed it by spraying ( soaked over night , 2 nights) with rust check and lubricant. Or at least I think I’ve fixed it?
the check engine light disappeared, almost instantaneously. Been 2 weeks and the gearshift is like butter now!
fingers crossed

 

I replaced my NSS a few years back. The old one was probably original to the truck. It had gotten the salt treatment every winter (Chicago). I had a different symptom, I was driving around with my Reverse lights on. And the PRNDL indicated both Drive and Reverse. Probably scared the hell of of people behind me lol

I ended up prying the old switch off. Cracked it. But the center piece (the Double D shaped piece) was still seized onto the shaft. I ended up chiseling it in half, and only then I could splay it open to pull it off.