Toyota Tacoma transmission problems identified in 2024 model, company admits

If you frequently visit Toyota forums, then you probably noticed that a not insignificant number of owners of the new 2024 Toyota Tacoma have been complaining about transmission gremlins. It seems like the problem has been specific to those who opted for the eight-speed automatic transmission. Having a bad gearbox in a brand-new truck is surely frustrating.

Toyota is officially recognizing the issue and is doing something about it, sort of. According to a report from CarScoops, Toyota is offering to replace faulty eight-speed transmissions in 2024 model-year Toyota Tacoma trucks, though this isn’t a safety “recall,” but rather a technical service bulletin that’s been issued to dealers. Toyota isn’t considering this a safety issue and is not replacing transmissions on all Tacomas, only those that have already broken.

Furthermore, in order to qualify for the fix, your Tacoma must display one or more of six specific fault codes when its onboard diagnostic system is scanned at a dealership.

For reference these are the fault codes in question:

• P07407F
• P079571
• P08BA71
• P271371
• P280771
• P281671

Judging by the codes, which have surfaced on a forum, it would seem that the cause of the issue is a stuck pressure control solenoid actuator, or a torque converter clutch actuator being frozen in the off position. If your Tacoma displays one of the codes, Toyota will replace the entire transmission and torque converter assembly.

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Trucks with the manual transmission aren’t affected by this problem, so if you have three pedals in your Tacoma you can rest easy. If you own one of the affected trucks, then at least you know a fix is coming. The question is how widespread the problem is, and how long will it take dealers to fix it. Replacing a transmission isn’t a quick job, even with experienced techs that have all the proper tools. We recommend reaching out to your local dealer ASAP before a long queue develops.

Potential transmission problems aside, when we first drove the 2024 Toyota Tacoma, we were highly impressed. We found it to be a huge upgrade over the previous model, while keeping the character that Tacomas are known for. We would still recommend the truck, though it's worth maybe waiting until Toyota sorts out this transmission thing or better yet, opting for the truck's manual transmission, a fast-disappearing option on midsize trucks generally.

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