First 2024 Toyota Tacoma Breaks During Moderate Off-Roading (What Went Wrong)
A brand-new Toyota Tacoma breaks down on a snowy trail and twenty Toyota engineers are trying to figure out what went wrong.
Why do people love the Toyota Tacoma? There are many reasons, but one of the big ones is that the mid-size pickup truck has a reputation for being indestructible. All the world over the Tacoma is used in the harshest environments, taking on the toughest conditions, and it rarely puts a foot wrong. If there was any knock against the Tacoma it was that it was getting long in tooth. It was using old technology. Sure, that technology has been proven reliable over the years, but it was time for something new. So, the 2024 Toyota Tacoma was fully redesigned. And now there is video of one of these redesigned trucks breaking down on a moderate off-road trail. Uh oh. Has Toyota messed up the impeccable reliability reputation that the Tacoma has earned? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
A video was recently posted on The Fast Lane Truck YouTube channel that shows the truck breaking down, and what exactly broke. The 2024 truck was just purchased on February 2, but has been driven regularly and already has over 3,000 miles on it. Still, we consider it a brand-new truck. And it is an early example. The VIN indicates that this is just the 319th redesigned Tacoma built. Could there still be some kinks that Toyota needs to work out? Let’s take a closer look at what happened.
I Heard a Pop
The truck that broke was a TRD Off-Road model. The most off-road-ready Tacoma that you can buy (until the TRD Pro begins production). At the beginning of the video, we see the truck taking on a snowy and rocky trail. The trail is more challenging than the local mall parking lot, but it is not exactly the Rubicon Trail either. It is a moderate trail that the new Tacoma should be able to handle. After a few seconds of struggling for grip on an icy rock there is a loud pop and power is cut to the front wheels. Thankfully the guys managed to get it off the trail and the truck seems to drive fine, albeit in rear-wheel drive only. Looking under the truck reveals no obvious failures.
Further Diagnosis
Back at The Fast Lane Truck headquarters the truck is put up on a lift for a closer inspection and again nothing seems to be physically wrong with it. However, the roller test shows that no power is getting to the front wheels. The front driveshaft is spinning but the front wheels will not turn under their own power. It seems that the failure happened inside the front differential. The truck is then driven to the local Toyota dealership so they can determine exactly what happened. After a few days with the truck the dealership confirmed that it was a failure of a part inside the front differential. Specifically, the Automatic Disconnecting Differential System (ADD) failed. Interestingly, there is a part in this system that is designed to fail under extreme conditions to prevent further driveline damage.
While this truck was off-road when it failed, we would not classify this as an “extreme condition” where the part should fail.
What Does it Mean?
This truck had a failure, and that is concerning. But it is not a reason to panic yet. One failure does not mean the truck is an unreliable mess. One data point does not indicate a trend. So, we should all take a deep breath before we accuse Toyota of ruining the perfectly reliable Tacoma. At the same time, the guys at The Fast Lane Truck have a relationship with Toyota. They know the engineering team and the chief engineer even called them to say he was sorry, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible. Toyota said they had twenty engineers working on this problem. That is great if you have a relationship like that with Toyota. But what if this was my truck? Or your truck? Would you be getting the same attention?
In any event, the truck is being repaired now and once returned it will be tested again. Is this just a one-time glitch, or the sign of a systemic issue across the model line? That remains to be seen.
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