We’ve recently heard a lot of reports about the 2024 Toyota Tacoma transmission. If you listen to YouTube reports, the Tacoma transmission is failing across the board and mass recalls are ahead. Publisher Tim Esterdahl dug into the issue in a video, and the prognosis: The sky is not falling.
So, what’s really going on with the 2024 Toyota Tacoma transmission, and what does Toyota have to say about it? Here’s what we know.
2024 Toyota Tacoma transmission problems
If you look at the National Highway Safety Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website, you can see the 2024 Toyota Tacoma has a total of seven complaints. Five of those appear to be related to the transmission.
If you don’t feel like clicking through to see what the complaints say for themselves, here’s a straight cut-and-paste from the NHTSA website for each complaint (without any editing, much to my dismay) in chronological order:
Complaint issued April 16, 2024:
“Vibration between 25 & 45mph Confirmed by dealer technician possible transmission issue. First noticed on drive home after purchase. No incidents yet”
Complaint issued May 7, 2024:
“I’ve only had the vehicle about a month with only 1245 miles on it. I was leaving a parking lot and pulled out on the road and the vehicle shifted in neutral after a minute or so the vehicle then slammed back into gear. It did this 2 or 3 times. I pulled into a gas station turned the vehicle off and waited a few minutes. I turned the vehicle back on backed out and preceded to drive when the same issue happened again. But now the vehicle would not shift into other gears. This time the check engine light came on with 3 reported errors 1. Advanced ultrasonic detecting and ranging system malfunction. 2. Drive-start control system malfunction. 3. Check engine light stating malfunction in the electronic control of the engine, throttle, or automatic transmission has been detected. I was only about a mile or 2 from a Toyota dealership and was able to limp the truck to the dealership. The dealership informed me today [XXX], that it will need a new transmission and that there were similar issues on new Tacomas across the US. There were no prior signs of any issues prior to the transmission failure. This happened on a roadway with traffic that comes in both directions. Thanks goodness this didn’t cause an accident has it happened out of the blue. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)”
Complaint issued May 8, 2024:
“Vehicle only has 209 miles and the transmission is out ,not driveable”
Complaint issued May 27, 2024:
“The contact owns a 2024 Toyota Tacoma. The contact stated while driving 10 MPH and depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle stalled. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact was able to pull to the side of the road. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed that the transmission had failed and needed to be replaced; however, the part to repair the vehicle was not available. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and two cases were opened. The contact stated that there was a case for the vehicle replacement and another case for the distribution of parts to the dealer. The failure mileage was approximately 989.”
Complaint issued June 8, 2024:
“Brand new 2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road automatic 2700 miles Truck is two weeks old The Toyota dealership called and reported that the entire transmission needed to replaced after being at the Toyota dealership for a week. Yes it is available for inspection. Toyota tech said that there are no spare transmissions in the U.S. and that it could take 3 months or longer to replace. Toyota tech found metal shavings in transmission fluid. Truck is entirely stock from factory with no customizations. Truck started shifting hard between a few gears and then got stuck in a higher gear and would not move forward even with accelerator to the floor. This was in the middle of the road with multiple vehicles behind me. I am not aware if anyone other than Toyota technicians have inspected the vehicle. There were no warnings, messages, or dashboard lights illuminated when this happened. Toyota dealership also refused to supply a rental car in the meantime while truck is being fixed. I am in the military and have no means to provide transportation to myself or family unless I pay out of pocket.”
From the information provided on the NHTSA website, it appears that all the affected transmissions are automatics, and it doesn’t appear that there is a singular issue other than four out of five state that there is a complete transmission failure.
Thus far there have been 54,508 Tacomas sold in 2024, but it’s hard to parse out how many of those are 2024 models versus 2023. If we make a guess that the 2024 models didn’t start hitting dealers en masse until April, we’d be looking at about 32k sales so far, which means there’s about a 0.02% reported failure rate.
The bigger problem is availability of parts. Because these trucks are so new, it could be months before the new transmissions are available. And that sucks for the 0.02% of the owners having a problem.
What does Toyota say?
First and foremost, Toyota won’t speculate about any potential future recalls. But Toyota is fairly proactive when it comes to recalls. In fact, they often announce them on their own website before it gets to the NHTSA website – like we discovered with the recent Toyota Grand Highlander and Lexus TX recall.
Rest assured, Toyota has an eye on this, but when I reached out to the PR team, it said there is no official statement about the 2024 Toyota Tacoma transmission at this time.
“There’s just been a couple of isolated reports,” said Adam Lovelady from the product communications team. “[It] doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a trend. So, as always, with any product thing, we’ll continue to monitor and take action needed.”
The bottom line
Is there a huge problem with the 2024 Toyota Tacoma transmission? Frankly, it’s too soon to tell. But the sky isn’t falling, and unlike the YouTube reports would lead you to believe, there isn’t a mass failure of transmissions. This clearly is a miserable situation for the owners who are having a problem, and if I were a Toyota dealer that wanted to keep my customers, I’d find a way to get that customer a loaner. But, maybe that’s just me.
This is the first model year of a next-gen vehicle, so we’re more likely to chalk this up to growing pains than a huge problem.
