Inside the Tundra factory

That was great. Thx for sharing.

 

They seriously need to make a 1/2ton HD version similar to the junk titan hd and silverado 1500hd.

 

Loved the video.

 

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

 

Great vid, thanks.

We've come a long way in 100+years thanks to Henry.


https://youtu.be/S4KrIMZpwCY

The narrator got a few facts wrong, but still an enjoyable watch.

 

Additional anecdote from my experience...this is a long but entertaining read. I've posted this before in a shorter format with some details missing.

I worked briefly at a brake testing engineering firm. This place is set up as a third party testing and evaluation firm for brake certification. It serves not only as an out source for brake system testing and evaluation, but also for third party evaluation of a company's own results...

so...I just started working. It was a great gig coming from working at a Ford dealership on the heavy-line engine repair side (a total witch's cauldron).

The company did tons of work with domestic oems and particularly light duty trucks.

The company was ecstatic to finally get a Toyota...a 1st gen Highlander. It was a gold one.

So I get the job to do a brake build and set up.

One thing right off the bat was strange: The Toyota rep never left my sight (or vice versa as the case was). He stood there observing with hands behind his back.

Ok...

I got the job book. Looked it over and started the build. These jobs take about 3 days to get going before testing. It also has to have a DAQ system put in and calibrated which takes 2 days alone...

I got the wheels off. Took off calipers. Took off brackets and then rotors.

Then I started reassembling with the parts for testing. I had to drill and press in thermocouples, and install vibration transducers...etc...

I get the instrumentation going so it can dry (epoxy recipe from hell) and I check thermocouple depth in pads.

Then I started putting everything back on. The minute I got bracket on, the Toyota rep stopped me (physically).

In broken english, I could tell he had extreme reservations with how I torqued the brackets. I told him it was according to our shop procedure.

Not good enough.

He attempted to tell me how I had to torque it 3 times in same exact way, same angle on tq wrench, but also use new bolts, and also-- how did I know if torque changed with lock tite on threads?

WTF?!?!?

Ok guy

So i replaced the bolts and retorqued three times. Got same click at same value.

I could tell he was non-pleased.

So I said--you know this won't change the result of the test right?

He said...you still need to check if torque with lock tite is different from no lock tite. You have no way to do this...all the hardware has loctite.

He told me to either find bolts without loctite or wash off loctite and re try. So I go to my shop manager and tell him what was going on (again with the rep like 3 ft away).

He was perplexed...and talked with the Toyota rep. Toyota rep refused to relent on this request. This was going downhill fast and tempers were getting piqued.

So we washed loctite off some older bolts. Sure enough there was a bit of a difference. can't remember how much...

So with the results he calculated what the difference in bolt stretch was lock tite, no lock tite. It was within range of what he expected and pointed to this in the job book.

Ok wow..

Then he starts in on how I'm physically engaging the tq wrench at an off angle, not in the same plane.

Now I'm done...Its like 3 pm first day. I'm supposed to have the front brakes complete and instrumented by 5. No way this is happening.

I tell the Toyota rep he is making things harder than they need to and these nuanced things he is fussing over won't change the test results.

LMAO..that was all he needed.

He stands between me and the highlander on the rack. and essentially tells me very calmly that "we are done here".

He puts all the hardware back on himself. the original parts. puts tire on. lowers the rack himself. torques bolts on wheel studs 3 times each.

takes off.

We get a letter two weeks later describing the issues the rep saw and how until these issues were corrected with Toyota validation, no more work for us.

Lesson learned:

Toyota didn't care what the schedule was. They weren't in our shop to "get things done and check boxes".

They wanted the tests to give them valid information. They didn't want 1000 other variables to chase down (like bolt stretch for caliper bracket).

They had specificity down to how someone holds the torque wrench.

They were there auditing us, in person, with someone who knew 1000x more than me about brake systems and had clearly done more research and testing than even our own engineering firm.

They were ensuring that our shop was approaching the job in the right way.

I mean bolt stretch on caliper brackets? Who gives a flying eff right?

Toyota sure did.

 

You have to wonder how dominant Dodge or GM would be if they carried the same attitudes.

 

Good story. I think that attitude is what lead a lot of us to purchase a Toyota.

 

Excellent

 

Boy do I have some anecdotes from the same shop in the same time frame.

From memory...

Ford chassis engineers at least showed up once in a while...but seemed more interested in partying since they were out of a Dearborn winter for a few weeks in Az. Really nice guys and they convinced me to continue my education and helped facilitate me getting on board with Ford (long story but work in oil field now). They showed up more than anyone but even this was about 4-5 times in a year....mostly in the winter months.

The trucks did ok. no mechanical, electrical issues.

However...big however...I never understood how Ford was going to get clear results. They had the most sophisticated testing array. Tires, calipers, pads, rotors, brake hoses, brake boosters, brake fluid, wheels, lug nuts...but the tires...my god the tires...All mish mashed into a testing array. They also wanted to use different testing hardware. different thermocouples at different depths. different vibration transducers at different locations...man in my opinion way way too much data that just became utter noise with no signal. No big surprise then their stopping distance variation and pedal force variation was a major major point of contention.

They were also borderline psychotic about brake noise...you could tell they were getting killed on warranty from brake noise.

Seemed like priorities were off, and carts and horses were reversed. If they could get a good result from a tire change then they were ecstatic.

In the end it looked like they were using our shop for more and more in depth brake system design validation instead of testing their best 3-5 systems.

One funny/sad brake force test.


on a Windstar...we were measuring brake force applied vs hydraulic pressure at caliper. We were trying to get some insanely high hydraulic pressure like 500 psi...it required a measured force of 1500 lbs on the brake pedal.

No one could get there. We had our biggest guy try with both feet and holding on to steering wheel....ding! only 800 lbs. This was engine off, no vac assist.

So I tried...I got it to 900 but could only repeat one time. There was no specification for how to reach this. So i used the seat back for support.

Tried it a few more times and only got 1000 lbs.

One last try....bang! the seat broke in half...

GM...hello is anybody there? We have results you might be interested in...this test is 3 months old now... The trucks had a few injector failures. Other than that pretty stout. The brake hardware was good to decent. No major issues. They weren't a huge fleet for us, but man they were hard to communicate with.

Dodge...sent TRW reps in their stead and between the two companies, it was frustrating. They (TRW) only came one time when we could not maintain run out specs on bearing-hub assemblies. Dodge told them to deal with it. The hub assembly was a Dodge part but they sent TRW guys...wtf?!? We paused alot of tests because of out of spec hubs...Dodge was blaming TRW for out of spec rotors...it was an out of spec hub assembly that they had a years long TSB out on...wow.

We built a test fixture and showed them the rotors were good on horizontal and vertical run out.

Not just the domestic OEMS...the Germans too.

Mercedes sedan...ECU malfunctioned twice in a row. Mercedes blamed our shop and wanted us to pay $5,000 (ECU part cost) twice to repair. They even sent a Bosch rep to look and they saw no issues.

VW...The cars were so unreliable for so many reasons it was unbearable. Funny/sad anecdote...they insisted on using their own water filled dummies for ballast in the car instead of pig iron filled bags. hahah they leaked all the time causing shorts and... well the weight distribution wasn't right either. Seat tracks would rust as a consequence and it was necessary to replace these for different brake force tests. Seats were wet all the time...

BMW...how bad does an engine oil leak have to get if its affecting brake testing? The leaks...my god the leaks...

 

I worked at the Tundra plant for seven years in Princeton, Indiana when they first started making the smaller tundra model. It still amazes me how they do it all.

 

While I am glad to hear about their stringent protocols and adhering to them when it comes to complex critical components, it baffles me as to why/how they missed an incorrectly wired front turn signal harness.

 

Maybe it's only a Texas thing. I just watched the Toyota Kentucky video and there, you wear tank tops and Ozzy Osbourne t-shirts.

 

Mine are wired correctly...

 

A miss-wired harness could easily be a misunderstanding during training, or a 3rd party supplier error that wasn't caught in QA. But it's a LOT easier to correct the wiring issue than it would be to replace steel that wasn't up to standard. They're not perfect, but I think they are trying pretty hard to get there.

 

Quality inspection job=that new car smell, allllll day.

 

3rd party supplier most likely.

just like fuel pump recall.

toyota probably in sourcing all fuel pumps after this just like air bags.

 

That's pretty cool. Gave me flashbacks when I worked on the Kenworth assembly many moons ago.

Loved seeing the people measuring the gaps between panels. That's something my Ford lacked...measuring, not gaps....the gaps were huge and inconsistent. Sure wish someone would train one of those many quality people to recognize orange peal in the paint...just saying.

 

At the beginning of the vid it states 100% American steel.

That's surprising but really great to hear!

 

Toyota sources more locally manufactured products than the big 3 combined.

 

The steel, or at least a large percentage of it, comes from a steel mill about an hour north of Mobile, AL.

 

But what about the lack of a trans cooler?!!!!


Seriously though, I’ve been to the San Antonio plant twice and it’s great. Go to the Toyota plant, the Alamo, and the river walk. Also, somewhere downtown sells gigantic cinnamon rolls. A little something for everyone.

 

Yep. And the 5.7L motors are built in Huntsville.

 

This made me laugh more than I expected. Probably because I can relate.