Transmission/Tranfer Case issues with 2010 SR5

A

artstar1983

Junior Member
Hello everyone,
I have a 2010 SR5 that I am having the following issues with. I was hoping someone could tell me if they are experiencing these issues as well.

First, after I am sitting at a red light with my foot on the brake and I lift my foot off of the brake to hit the gas the transmission makes a “clunking” sound. The sound and the feel is similar to when you shift the truck in and out of Reverse, Neutral or Drive. This does not happen every time but happens frequently. Also, on rare occasions it appears that the truck is slipping out of gear but I have not been able to confirm that.

Second, I recently had an opportunity to take it off road. During a downhill descent I decided to use the automatic down hill descent feature. It seemed to work well but made a lot of clicking and snapping sounds as I was descending the hill. I looked it up in the owner’s manual and there is no mention of any such sounds so I am a little concerned that something was not working correctly.

Finally, I am experiencing an issue where the truck does not want to be shifted into low 4WD. I will shift the truck into park, and the 4WD lever will simply not be budged into low gear. The dashboard displays an error message suggesting that the parking gear will not engage. After combinations of shutting the truck off and playing with it over and over I can usually get it into gear. However, sometimes it pops out of gear and the gears grind in the process.

I am planning on taking the truck into the dealer this week to have the issues addressed. However, I would like to go in informed if others are having similar problems.

Has anyone else experienced these conditions and if so did you have any luck getting them addressed by Toyota?
 
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The "Toyota clunk" is normal.

The clicking and buzzing on the downhill assist is normal.

To shift into 4L you should be stopped and in N and you must use your man muscles, or girl muscles, whichever. Yes it seems odd, but you gotta push pretty firmly.... It is all normal.

Just wanted to add, there are a lot of threads about these subjects using the search function.
 
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shifting into 4 Low

You stated when in park you experience this problem. Try just putting the transmission in Neutral instead. I always shift to 4 Low from the Neutral position and have never had a real problem. It does require a little effort. Even shifting into 4 Hi there is some restriction. My older 4 WD vehicles shifted much smoother including my older 4 Runner. I presently have a 2011 SR5.
 
artstar1983 said:
First, after I am sitting at a red light with my foot on the brake and I lift my foot off of the brake to hit the gas the transmission makes a “clunking” sound. The sound and the feel is similar to when you shift the truck in and out of Reverse, Neutral or Drive. This does not happen every time but happens frequently. Also, on rare occasions it appears that the truck is slipping out of gear but I have not been able to confirm that.
Click to expand...

I never noticed any clunking sounds when starting after red light. Sometimes I got a feeling that transmission shifts just as I release brake pedal, some sort of small "push" but never anything audible.


artstar1983 said:
Second, I recently had an opportunity to take it off road. During a downhill descent I decided to use the automatic down hill descent feature. It seemed to work well but made a lot of clicking and snapping sounds as I was descending the hill. I looked it up in the owner’s manual and there is no mention of any such sounds so I am a little concerned that something was not working correctly.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah it's clicking as crazy, scared my wife when I used it first time. But I understood that it's normal, same for A-TRAC by the way.

artstar1983 said:
Finally, I am experiencing an issue where the truck does not want to be shifted into low 4WD. I will shift the truck into park, and the 4WD lever will simply not be budged into low gear. The dashboard displays an error message suggesting that the parking gear will not engage. After combinations of shutting the truck off and playing with it over and over I can usually get it into gear. However, sometimes it pops out of gear and the gears grind in the process.
Click to expand...

I normally shifted to N and then to 4Lo, never had an issue. Oh, just once I didn't shift the lever all the way (not intentionally) so I didn't see green 4Lo light. I pushed the lever forward just to make sure and had grinding sound and red AT light on dashboard. Though it might be end of my trip but put transmission back to N, pushed the lever all the way forward to 4Lo and red light was gone, green light was on and 4Lo was working fine.

I didn't even know that SR5 could have any messages on dashboard. If you pushed lever all the way down and it pops out of gear you definetely should have checked it by dealer.
 
artstar1983 said:
. . .Finally, I am experiencing an issue where the truck does not want to be shifted into low 4WD. I will shift the truck into park, and the 4WD lever will simply not be budged into low gear. . .
Click to expand...
You might want to try the method detailed in the Owners Manual:

Shifting between H4 and L4
  • Stop the vehicle completely.
  • Shift the shift lever to N.
  • Shift the front-wheel drive control lever to L4 or H4.
  • The low speed four-wheel drive indicator will turn on (L4) or go off (H4).
 
scanny said:
Oh yeah it's clicking as crazy, scared my wife when I used it first time. But I understood that it's normal, same for A-TRAC by the way.
Click to expand...
VSC as well. Discovered this last week when I took an offramp a little too fast...

I found that the transfer case lever loosens up with use over time. I had to muscle it the first couple of months but now it just slides in easily.
 
Froggy said:
You might want to try the method detailed in the Owners Manual:

Shifting between H4 and L4
  • Stop the vehicle completely.
  • Shift the shift lever to N.
  • Shift the front-wheel drive control lever to L4 or H4.
  • The low speed four-wheel drive indicator will turn on (L4) or go off (H4).
Click to expand...

Interesting Froggy, mine says to go to H4 first, then shift to L4. And, since I can shift into 4H on the fly, no need to go to Neutral first. The H4 to L4 pattern is even imprinted on the 4wd gear shift knob. However, I do have to be at a stop before I go from H4 to L4. But as I said, I have to go to H4 first.
 
Jtraskell said:
Interesting Froggy, mine says to go to H4 first, then shift to L4. And, since I can shift into 4H on the fly, no need to go to Neutral first.
Click to expand...

:redbrick::redbrick::redbrick::redbrick::redbrick::ybrick::ybrick::ybrick::ybrick::ybrick:

If you would not mind providing the last 5 of your VIN # it would be a great service to this forum.
 
Froggy said:
You might want to try the method detailed in the Owners Manual:

Shifting between H4 and L4
  • Stop the vehicle completely.
  • Shift the shift lever to N.
  • Shift the front-wheel drive control lever to L4 or H4.
  • The low speed four-wheel drive indicator will turn on (L4) or go off (H4).
Click to expand...

Sorry Froggy, misread your post. Please disregard my previous and again, many apologies.
 
But we're all having fun lately...aren't we? Like one big, happy, dysfunctional family:D.
The "clunk" seems to be an unloading of the drivetrain when you release the brakes. Mine started happening a few months ago and seems to have gotten a bit worse. It used to happen rarely after a hard braking (a traffic light, for example) but now happens after instances of medium braking. I tend to wonder if it is the rear brakes disengaging before the fronts or ??
 
I have, on occasion, had a muffled "clunk" when transitioning from the brake to accelerator pedal, usually at a stoplight. It does not happen all the time just on occasion. I am thinking it is the brake release because of where the sound is coming from and I am not worried at all. Just my opinion
 
When I first bought my SR5, I was having difficulties with the 4 wheel drive. The manual stated I could shift it in to 4H at any speed under 50 Mph.

When I tried it I was going 10mph which seemed to be fine. Then I stopped put my Auto into Neutral and tried to shift into 4L.

The truck hated it.

The slight touch and the Transfer case would grind like mad and wouldn't go into 4L or 4H. I was stuck in Neutral!!

Being stuck in the middle of the street, I slammed the thing into 4L and after that it started working just fine.

But.............Now once in a while I'll have a clucking the front-end when leaving a stop light turning right. You can feel it under your feet. The 4Runner still shifts into 4H & 4L just fine. But there is a clucking.

I'll see what Toyota says at my 5000 Mile inspection.
 
1engineer said:
I have, on occasion, had a muffled "clunk" when transitioning from the brake to accelerator pedal, usually at a stoplight. It does not happen all the time just on occasion. I am thinking it is the brake release because of where the sound is coming from and I am not worried at all. Just my opinion
Click to expand...
After I posted I googled "Toyota Clunk". Got a lot of hits and read a Tundra thread and a thread here on the 4th gen forum. Lots of issues, opinions, and fixes. The general consensus is #1 "lube your shaft" (huh huh) and use a top quality grease M1, RP, etc..
A few folks actually replaced their prop shaft with one from Lexus. Some got it done under warranty. YMMV.
Here's the link...
 
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Has anyone found a good solution to fix the "clunking" issue? My 2011 sr5 just recently started doing this. At almost every stop once I release the brake to begin driving it's luke the transmission forgot to downshift and there is a very distinctive clunk. It has become really annoying almost to the point where I am ready to take it in to the dealer to play the fix it while under warranty game.
 
I know y'all want to blame Toyota or something, but every GM rear wheel drive truck I have had, driven, or worked on had it too. And so did my Datsun. The spline the drive shaft slides back and forth on (which allows the rear axle to articulate) needs some play so it can move.
 
I believe there is zerk grease fitting at that spline and from what I recall from other posts here, if you keep it greased well and on a regular basis you can keep the "clunk" noise to a minimum if not outright eliminate it.
 
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