So I have an '06 with only 42k miles on it that I baby and take care of. I don't dump the clutch, I let it warm up, in general I'm nice to my car and have has no problems until recently. Originally I set up an appointment with the local dealer to inspect my windshield because of the settlement for '06 xb windshields. A few days later the day before my wedding a grinding noise starts. It would be audible from about 10mph to 40mph and it was rotational noise, so it would speed up with the speed I was traveling not rpms. Braking or acceleration would affect and sometimes eliminate the noise, pushing the clutch did not change anything. So I thought maybe an axle, bearing, or loose brake parts. Since I already had an appointment to take the car in for the windshield, I didn't bother to call Toyota since I was going to be on my honeymoon and wasn't going to be driving the car for two weeks. I figured they can look at it when I take it in. Besides I was getting married the next day and I had better things to think about. So I parked it.

So two weeks later I get home and take my car in for its appointment and tell the service manager about the noise so they could inspect. He asked when my warrenty will be up since it was a 2006 and I wasn't sure but thought I had bought it in October of '05, when he looked it up, turns out I bought it Sept 7th of '05 and it was now Sept 20th, so my 5 year drivetrain had expired! He said don't worry, lets see what's going on and we'll figure it out.

Turns out it was something from the transmission! The dealer service guy told me Toyota does not let them tear into the tranny to inspect because they loose the core. So they just swap out the whole unit, which is $2700 plus $1100 labor! Worse yet, my warranty was 13 days past!

I didn't have any receipts for oil purchases since I do it myself after the first 3 free oil changes from the dealer. Toyota wanted to see my service records to see if they would give me some grace. Luckily I write down mileage at every tank fillup in a notebook (I'm ****) and in that I also keep track of when I change my oil, and rotate tires etc... Since I had tedius records they (national toyota) decided they would cover the $2700 tranny but I would pay labor.

A few days of research and some phone calls to national scion customer service, I got them to consider my case. At first it didn't look good, officially the noise has to be diagnosed at the dealer before the warranty is up and they were already being generous by those rules, but in the end they said if I pay up front the dealer labor, Toyota will send me a check in the mail and cover the labor! Yay!!! Happy ending!!!

SO happy with the customer service both national level and my local dealer. They got my car back to me quick and it's good as new now. Best part is, now I have a warranty on the tranny at least for the next 12 months. Didn't need to replace clutch, it said it had tons of meat left on it and it was clean as a wistle in there as I figured.

Still have no idea what was wrong with it though since Toyota won't let the dealer open up the tranny. Maybe it was built on a monday?
Just thought I'd share my unexpect tranny swap and happy ending!

 

anyone else out there here of a 1st gen XB needing a tranny swap? Especially with low mileage?