Hi Scotty, wanted an expert opinion so this the first place I thought to go. We purchased a used 2020 Toyota Highlander with 43k miles after our family truck was stolen. Within 6-8 months and 55k miles I started noticing a whining noise while driving and it just didn’t seem right. I took it to the dealer and they said that the transaxle was failing and they had to replace the entire unit. Luckily I was covered under the Toyota 6 year powertrain warranty and the original UA80 8 speed transmission was replaced with a refurbished UA80 transmission. It has a 12 mo unlimited mile warranty. I was grateful for this because others have had to pay $8-12k out of pocket if they were out of warranty. I did some more research and many people seem to be having issues with this transmission over many Toyota models. People are also trying to get class action lawsuits started related to this transmission.
Have any of your customers had this issue? What are the chances the remanufactured unit from Toyota would fail as well? Would you recommend me taking it back to the dealer before the warranty expires and pay to have them check it again? Right now my plan is to just drive the car and enjoy it. I am diligent with maintenance and want to keep this car a long time. I was going to do a drain and fill with Toyota WS fluid at 30k instead of 60k as well.
Thanks in advance for your help and also congrats on the new hybrid Camry - you deserve it!
Jessey
Well, some people don't like the way the transmissions shift. They don't particularly fail all that often. Since you bought the car used. You don't know what kind of history it had. Heck it could have even been flooded out. Now it's for remanufactured transmissions. I'm always leery about them. No matter who does them. You want to read the warranty and out. If it was getting almost out of warranty, I wouldn't take it to a Toyota dealer. They'll just tell you it's okay because they don't want to fix it for free. In that case, I take it to an independent transmission mechanic to check it out before the warranty was up
@scottykilmer good idea, thanks!