Gearbox Crunch

[Noddy2]

Hiya all Noddy 2 here just worked out how to post on this sight so I will tell you about my little sr yaris, I bought it from our town Toyota dealer (Loders of Yeovil) I bought it December 1st 2008,It was an ex demo 6 months old with 3000 miles.

Nice little car for the first week then the weather got realy cold and it developed stiff gear changes esspesialy from 1st to 2nd gear, so I took it back as I thought it being new maybe some adjustment or there was a cure.NO no such luck I have had the gearbox stripped & rebuilt with some new gears & syncro's, no change. The Toyota Technical Team visited our small town to inspect drive and report on my car and another Yaris customer's with the same problem. This warmer weather it is not so bad but as yet there is NO FIX IN PLACE to quote the Toyota people so if any of you Yaris owners have trouble with your gear change espesially when the car is cold take it to your dealer and try to speed up the prossess then my car might be sorted by next winter. I would not have bought Crunchy if the problem was there when I test drove it.

The rest of the car is spot on just the ticket.

[toyboata]

Hi, I had a 56 reg, 1.3 yaris T3...which had the same problem!

Whenever the weather was cold...2nd gear would become near impossible to engage - or would "crash" into gear...you here the gears crunching like...somtimes 1st and 3rd were difficult, but it always effected 2nd the most..

It went in my local dealers 3 or so times to have it "fixed".

In the end i basicly had all new gear box internals, and a new clutch & clutch bearings etc etc - which sort of fixed the problem, but still, when it was cold, 2nd was harder to get.

I can only assume its a design fault but i dont know - i have now sold the car and am awaiting my new aygo..

Matt

[z-tune-z2]

I have a 55 T Sport, which would be before the model you guys have, however I too have an extremely stiff 1st to 2nd change. There's no crunch or gear mashing, it's simply 'difficult' to wrench in to second. Well, I'm exaggerating here, it's like going through two gears, 1st, clunk, clunk (2nd)! I didn't bother complaining about it when I bought it because I don't think it's really a problem.

Is that anything like what you experience?

[s m smith]

Quick tip and it sorted out my problem , and i have had the same problem with 3 Yaris in 9 years , use a thinner gearbox oil, the gears are harder to get when cold because the oil is thicker

[Noddy2]

Quick tip and it sorted out my problem , and i have had the same problem with 3 Yaris in 9 years , use a thinner gearbox oil, the gears are harder to get when cold because the oil is thicker

Thats been tried NO CHANGE.

[s m smith]

Quick tip and it sorted out my problem , and i have had the same problem with 3 Yaris in 9 years , use a thinner gearbox oil, the gears are harder to get when cold because the oil is thicker

Thats been tried NO CHANGE.

sorry only a suggestion, OK

[Noddy2]

It seems to me that the crunch especially in cold running conditions is more noticeable in the 2008 SR model and being a small car you would of thought that Toyota would of been quite concerned that it doesnt perform well in town conditions, esspecially that there is so much choice of that size of car. I believe that like me a lot of Toyota customers believe that the Toyota brand has un equalled in reliability and service sadly as I am finding out that is not the case anymore.

[gar]

I have been told that (older) Yarisisisis(?) have a modified Yamaha motorcycle gearbox.... not 100% sure on this, though... BUT, if true, perhaps we should be using motorcycle gearbox oil, which has different addatives, etc! May be worth investigating!

[Symes]

Have you tried taking any mats in the car out. It may be the clutch dragging and only by a full depression of the clutch pedal that allows gears to be selected freely.

[Danny K]

I have been told that (older) Yarisisisis(?) have a modified Yamaha motorcycle gearbox.... not 100% sure on this, though... BUT, if true, perhaps we should be using motorcycle gearbox oil, which has different addatives, etc! May be worth investigating!

Not quite as straightforward as that. The motorbike oil for the Yamaha gearbox is designed for wet clutch ooperation. In cars it's a dry clutch operation.

However, maybe that's the problem!

[Noddy2]

The car is only 18 months old I believe the Dealer and now allso because I have gotten Toyota UK involved that they should be sorting it out....They took my money quick enough and blagged me out of my 30 day right to exchange option.

[s m smith]

Hiya all Noddy 2 here just worked out how to post on this sight so I will tell you about my little sr yaris, I bought it from our town Toyota dealer (Loders of Yeovil) I bought it December 1st 2008,It was an ex demo 6 months old with 3000 miles.

Nice little car for the first week then the weather got realy cold and it developed stiff gear changes especially from 1st to 2nd gear, so I took it back as I thought it being new maybe some adjustment or there was a cure.NO no such luck I have had the gearbox stripped & rebuilt with some new gears & syncro's, no change. The Toyota Technical Team visited our small town to inspect drive and report on my car and another Yaris customer's with the same problem. This warmer weather it is not so bad but as yet there is NO FIX IN PLACE to quote the Toyota people so if any of you Yaris owners have trouble with your gear change especially when the car is cold take it to your dealer and try to speed up the prossess then my car might be sorted by next winter. I would not have bought Crunchy if the problem was there when I test drove it.

The rest of the car is spot on just the ticket.

Who stripped and rebuilt the gearbox, it would not have been a Toyota dealer they would have replaced it with a new box, if youre car is still under warranty keep on going back to them

[Noddy2]

They recon that is not Toyota policy to replace the gearbox without not knowing the fault I did mention that if they had to change the gearbox 50 times and throw 49 of them away it didnt matter to me . But yes it was a Toyota main dealer.

[alfiejts]

I think the fundamental issue is that nearly every 5-speed Yaris gearbox from France has the same design fault, with weak synchromesh in 2nd gear that doesn't work well when the gearbox oil is cold.

Most owners just live with it. Toyota make an attempt to do something when people complain, but there isn't really anything they can do as every car is the same....

Latest idea is to use a thinner oil so that the synchromesh ring doesn't drag as much, but even that isn't perfect.

We have two 2008 Yaris SRs and both are the same...

Its much better in the warm summer weather. I'll be interested to see how bad it gets when the weather cools again, now that the cars have each done a few thousand miles, compared to when they were brand new last winter...

[Noddy2]

That is the problem I am having most people just live with it so Toyota dont think its a problem the are dragging their heels thinking I will eventually get fed up with complaining. I wont cause at the end of the day its not as it should be a syncro hub is designed to slow the gears to the same speed to create a smooth quiet gearchange. not crap in the cold weather it doesnt crunch if you double the clutch like 50 years ago but its not what you are expected to do by other manifaturers is it.

[Raeman]

Wonder if it is a french built thing then?

Funny as my 2000 model has a great, crunchfree box. :D

[alfiejts]

The 2000 model was Japanese built. Not sure when French factory opened but I think it was 2001-2002ish.

Our previous 2000 1.0CDX was Jap built. We had it for eight years from new and it was faultless (apart from the MAF sensor needing cleaning once, but that was easy....)

The brakes and exhaust were still the original when we sold it and the first Battery lasted over seven years.

I bet we don't get that level of quality from the French built cars....

[kimi]

On my old 2003 yaris, 2ND gear was a nightmare & 1st was difficult too,but there was a cheap fix

I'm not sure about the newer yaris maybe there's a fix for those

i fixed mine with the help from a Toyota techy on this site,

my gear problems started at around 20k i fixed it and it was still running smooth at 28k when i sold it.

i would say the first thing to do would be change the gear oil, the dealer has told you they did that so,

the 2ND one is the Toyota fix what a member called pinkbits posted on here.

While i was doing the fix i added some ZX1 [ friction elemenator ] to the gear oil.

here's the fix GEAR FIX - IT WORKS

i used 2 washers and it was alot better after around a week i thought i would try another washer, that was perfect.

Hope it helps you, oh by the way my yaris was Japanese built.

[Raeman]

On my old 2003 yaris, 2ND gear was a nightmare & 1st was difficult too,but there was a cheap fix

I'm not sure about the newer yaris maybe there's a fix for those

i fixed mine with the help from a Toyota techy on this site,

my gear problems started at around 20k i fixed it and it was still running smooth at 28k when i sold it.

i would say the first thing to do would be change the gear oil, the dealer has told you they did that so,

the 2ND one is the Toyota fix what a member called pinkbits posted on here.

While i was doing the fix i added some ZX1 [ friction elemenator ] to the gear oil.

here's the fix GEAR FIX - IT WORKS

i used 2 washers and it was alot better after around a week i thought i would try another washer, that was perfect.

Hope it helps you, oh by the way my yaris was Japanese built.

How comes it was Jap built if it's a 2003?

[kimi]

How comes it was Jap built if it's a 2003?

99.9% phase 1 & 2 Tsports were jap built.

[techy]

Hi Guys,

I have a March 2006 1.3, and it been stripped down several times, and i think had two new clutches, and the oil changed..

I am sorry to tell you the gearchange won't get any better than that, i had been more or less told by Toyota, go away , as it is a normal feature of the car, i gave up through fatgue, and being worn down over 3 years by the dealers and Toyota, and other numerous faults, many of which are still not fixed !..

I don't care what anyone says, the French Yaris, is nowhere as good as the ones made in Japan, i have had 3 and the first two, both made in Japan were faultless.

Due to Toyota's indifferent take it or leave it attitude, this will be the last Toyota i ever own !!

Best of luck to you !..

[Noddy2]

Hi Guys,

I have a March 2006 1.3, and it been stripped down several times, and i think had two new clutches, and the oil changed..

I am sorry to tell you the gearchange won't get any better than that, i had been more or less told by Toyota, go away , as it is a normal feature of the car, i gave up through fatgue, and being worn down over 3 years by the dealers and Toyota, and other numerous faults, many of which are still not fixed !..

I don't care what anyone says, the French Yaris, is nowhere as good as the ones made in Japan, i have had 3 and the first two, both made in Japan were faultless.

Due to Toyota's indifferent take it or leave it attitude, this will be the last Toyota i ever own !!

Best of luck to you !..

[Noddy2]

Hiya there still no reply from Toyota about Crunchy's gearchange now the weather is getting colder again its getting worse so I will have to start writing to Toyota again to try to get it sorted Why is it that Toyota have got like this my money was good enough for them when I bought it. Gone are the days when the customer was right and problems fixed.

It winds me up that they make it seem Im the problem because I complain when the gearbox is faulty everyone else puts up with it apparently.

[alfiejts]

The reason why I just put up with it is that there's obviously no cure.....

If I thought that by putting myself out, by spending hours complaining and chasing and getting the gearbox stripped down, clutch replaced, etc., that I'd actually get anywhere, I might do so, but its clear from the forum that its a general issue with the gearbox design and despite many hours of disruption, no one's successfully got their gearbox reliably fixed.

So I'm afraid I'm one of the silent majority. We've two 2008 1.3 Yarii, manufactured 1000 cars apart and they're both exactly the same....

I'll mention the issue when it goes in for its first service next month, get the issue recorded against the car's record and say that if I do experience any future more major issues, I'd want them doing as a warranty claim, but there's no point losing the car for several days with no real hope of success...

[sisaven]

Thanks for your recommended cure, pinkbits69

I have a 2008 1.3 Yaris, This must have a different design Gearbox to the type you describe, as there is no "24mm Bung" on top of the gearbox casing,

There is a 18mm Hex Plug on the top leading edge of the casing just below the Selector Arm, which is marked with (anti tamper) Green Paint,

Could this be the the Access Plug/Nut to the Indent Spring and Ball that you described so well in your original Post, and if I used the same Washers behind this Plug would it have the same affect?

I don't want to remove this nut without some form of confirmation as the car is still under warranty, (Although I could probably match the blob of Green Paint) and there is no workshops Manual in print at this time

Looking forward your replies, Thanks