Rather than posting in the many threads where we've talked about the gearbox issues, I thought the fix deserves it's own thread.

The fix to our gear change issues is contained in the Toyota Technical News Flash dated 30/11/04. It is a simple adjustment of the clutch pedal height and master cylinder adjustment. The gear changes are now crisp and clean regardless of where you are in the RPM range. Bang it off the limiter and flat shift with no baulking whatsoever. It's a different car to drive and best of all, with each gear selected, you stay on lift.

I had the mods performed by Nunawading Toyota (who were again prompt, professional with no fuss whatsoever) today.

All of a sudden I'm enthused again.

As the Nike ad says, just do it.

Cheers
gc

nice man, my friend with a vtec coupe said he had the friction point change which i guess would be similar.


i will speak to my boys first thing.

Just wanna I ask how can I get access to the Toyota Technical News Flash ?
Is that on the web?? Or is it a magazine that I can take from somewhere??

I wanna have a read of that ~~

not sure about the adjustment of clutch and that, but...

i've had my syncros replaced...and dayem....feels good to change and stay in lift once again.

as i said in another topic my clutch feels like a clutch and i can change and stay in lift now 2....... and they said they couldnt fault it

congrats people. so all the emails and phone calls finally paid off. Jenny and others in Toyota must have gotten sick of getting bombed with emails.

anyway, i'm glad to see a positive outcome. So does that mean this forum can get back to talking about how good our cars are again?

How come it didn't work for me? The techs rang Shane at Nunawayding Toyota for consultation and it still didn't work?

One thing is if i bang the limiter i usually have no worries shifting and can land LIFT always. Its when i don't touch the limiter that the shifter gets stuck.

As far as I can figure - and the symptoms bare this out - is that at high engine RPM, the clutch requires more travel to fully disengage. Whilst I can't rpove this, but it smacks of the clutch/pressure plate deforming under high inertia loads and closing the clearance between the friction plate and flywheel/pressure plate. When you bang the limiter, it sends a pulse through the clutch assembly which may be enough to free the clutch. It may be a case of yours requiring just a tad more adjustment to the clutch pedal height or master cylinder to give you more stroke at the slave cylinder.

Certainly in the case of our sportivo, the clutch now disengages and any RPM - consequently crisp gear changes.

Also, Shane is a service rep (and a great one at that) but he's not on the tools.

Cheers
gc

george - first you come in with the custom intake job and now this!

2 from 2 a pretty good effort if you ask me.

Thanks for posting and letting us know. I contacted my dealer after the previous post about the adjustments. My dealer mentioned that my car was 'already looked at' a month or so ago (before this new information) and it was okay!.

Now I got festivly p!55ed when he said this. I would expect a service manager to come back with. Well bring it back in and we will have a look at it for you, and also contact the dealerships that have done it (similar to gear cables)

So needless to say they have lost my business and I am taking my car to Lexus (aparently they have ones of the Bates techs/mechs there)

once again thx for the info/feedback guys

time to go a changing

I have just wrapped my sportivo up in cotton wool and bubblewrap and put it in a padded box in the cupboard.

I might take it out on Christmas day for a drive....

Not sure how he could say that because the bulletin was released on 30/11/04 - barely 11 days ago.

Cheers
gc

congrats.. im positive you will love it..
fairly large christmas gift though

This clutch news is definetly good news..
I havent had real trouble shifting gears, however it never hurts to check.
I will mention the adjustment when i go to have my 10k service.. (6500ks away)
Has anyone had any troubles with Cannon Toyota in Heidelberg?
the only problem my car has is shifting into 2nd at high rpm is very TIGHT.. but still doable without crunching. Also the clutch is very razors edge.. its either engaged or not.. lots of hopping along pretty much into any gear

p.s. where can we get the Toyota Technical News Flash dated 30/11/04?

If it's tight, then no doubt the clutch is just grabbing and needs a small period of time for the RPM to fall before it fully releases. By the time you've yanked it out of gear and pushed it through the gate into the next gear, it's probably slowed enough to release.

When the clutch is properly adjusted, it ends up with a bit more modulation and less like a light switch - well it did with ours. Still not Porsche feel, but acceptable none the less.

The Technical News Flash is not publicly available however, I'm sure that someone will no doubt scan and post it under a totally fictitious alias in the not too distant future.

Cheers
gc

Yes some of us had look at this

link

Whilst I have had nothing but stirling service from the guys at Nunawading Toyota, I do understand that they are on the other side of town for many. If any Sportivo owners in Melbourne would like to have their cars checked in at Nunawading, feel free to PM me and I'll ensure that you receive a high level of service as well as discounted service and trade prices on parts.

No affiliation other than a 10 year relationship with them.

Cheers
gc

I'm very glad to hear this, I was worried about this issue so much that I took mine out for a drive the other day and kept changing at 8300 to make sure mine was ok.

Really officer, I was just testing the gear change. Honest!

- Matthew

I am so glad to hear this. My fingers are certainly crossed it is a universal fix for all those with the gear problem. It shall be a good christmas if this is the case.

Some good news for a change

Good to see a fix to the mystery gearbox problem. Congrats to GC for pursuing a different line of attack. So here's to GC and what looks like the problem solved.

Well, I can't take the credit. TMC came up with the fix, I was just the bearer of good tidings. And Nunawading Toyota were on the ball to put 2 and 2 together when I reported the problem.

See, isn't life grand?

Cheers
gc

I am going to try and get the clutch looked at again and have them adjust it further. The first time they did it it didn't work.

I am getting vibrations that can be felt through the gear shifter when trying to downshift into 2nd. It only happens in 2nd gear and it is when you have the clutch fully depressed, heeled-toed and trying to engage the shifter into 2nd gear when you can feel the vibration in the gear shifter. Are my 2nd gear synchros showing signs of weakness already? I only have 16,000kms on the clock but this sh*tty clutch made me crunch 2nd on quite a number of occassions so it could be that.. I am now thinking of getting that looked at too.

Those guys with the synchros replaced, what were your other symptoms except constant crunching of gears? My gears don't crunch as much ever since i used synthetic lube and additives.

Hi all,

I thought that this would be easy to do for my dealer, to get the clutch adjusted blah blah blah to fix this problem. I just got my car back today, hoping it would all be fixed, only to be told by the Service rep that he got into a massive argument with the mechanics. The service guy is a top bloke, just the mechanics who work for him are dimwits.

Apparently the mechanics don't think that the car should be changing gears greater than 6,000 revs, I even printed the email from Jenny Stewart that you guys posted up. He had also given the mechanics the Techinical News Flash that he had received. But the Mechanics reckon that "...> 6,000 revs..." means LESS THAN? What maths grade did they pass? Sorry, I needed to blow off some steam. I guess it was a good reason to leave work early!

Anyway, I'm hoping some of you guys who have had this problem looked at/fixed, if you could recommend me to the Toyota that you went to, to get it done. I am really keen on getting this resolved. I live in the West Pennant Hills area in NSW. Thanks all.

I was told today this clutch grab issue can cause serious synchro damage and the crunching will obviosly break a tooth on the gears in the long run. If you break a gear, Toyota will most probably refuse to warrant it as they will say its caused by driver abuse.

mines going into toyota on monday to have the clutch done so im hoping all will work out fine.
when i rang and told them about the email from jenny stewart they went an asked the manager and sure enough they had recieved the email report.
i said to them when did they recieve it and they told me 3 weeks agao.
so i said in that case why wasnt it dont the 2 times id brought it in over the last 2 weeks instead of telling me nothing was wrong with the gear box.
anyway they will fix it for me monday. hopefully i dont have any issues with the mechanics saying they wont do it thats just crap.

but this clutch grab issue is documented now. I'm sure they cannot just turn around later and say it was driving error....I hope.

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OUCH!

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