Engine Failure

If it was a flaw in the casting, we'd be seeing it on hundreds, if not thousands of trucks.

Not sure what may have happened differently in the last 5000 miles to let so much water into the engine, but glad OP is getting taken care of. No doubt the failed block is going to be sent to Toyota HQ for analysis, I'll see if I can get my hands on the reports.

 

For all we know we will see this on hundreds or thousands of engines. Hopefully that will not be the case, but the V35A-FTS sure as hell hasn’t covered itself in glory so far.

 

I get your point, but I think that even with some of the things going on, we can give it more credit than that.

as of right now the 5.7 V8 problems when it first came out were more widespread.

we'll see what happens, but they are taking care of it which is good!

 

No speculation on the point of intrusion at this point (or they haven’t relayed that info to me). To be completely honest, this truck has pretty much been a Pavement Princess, unlike my 2020 Tundra. Right now my local dealer is working with the remote dealer and both are working with Toyota corporate to figure out next steps (repair the truck at the remote location then ship back or ship back and repair at local dealer). I feel like Toyota is doing the right thing, but it is a concerning situation. If I end up deciding to keep the Tundra beyond the powertrain warranty I think I’ll definitely have to invest in an extended warranty. Best guess is a month at minimum before the repairs are complete, probably longer.

 

The V35A has been in a lexus since 2017. The casting is the same, in fact, all of the engines are assembled in the same plant, they just go to different finishing areas based on which vehicle they're going into. If there was an issue with the casting, we would have seen it years ago.

More than likely, OP's issue was a one off where a hose may have come loose and allowed water in, or some other edge case that happened to go wrong in exactly the right way.

Its a lot like the Tacoma Narrows bridge. It passed tons of engineering and design checks, but one day, everything went wrong in just the right way to cause it to catastrophically fail. That kind of stuff happens in engineering a lot more often than you would think.

 

Everyone loves to think the prior gen didnt have issues, it absolutely did...

Fight Toyota for a lifetime warranty on the truck or at least the highest level platinum warranty they offer.

 

yup, just last year my fuel pump went out and I was stuck in my garage

 

that sucks. sorry to hear. was that fuel pump replaced a few years ago as part of a recall ?

 

I made an account to comment on this thread. I’m not an engineer but have been repairing Toyotas for two decades as a master at the dealer level. I’ve seen and fix a lot of vehicles, including a broken valve spring on a 5.7, and yes that was a real thing.

To see two vehicles with the same lower end bearing failures on the first page of this forum is concerning, considering how small a sample size this forum actually is. As mentioned above, most people don’t go and share how their expensive new truck is broken. But the truth of the matter is, there are a good amount more trucks that ate bearings. Some dealers have reported having more than one. Another concerning point is that some have reportedly failed with a few hundred miles while others have failed at much higher mileage. What I’m trying to say is, I don’t think the op truck was a “perfect storm” one time one off thing, I think there is more of an issue that Toyota hasn’t figured out or admitted to, even if it effects less than a percent, I have never seen this kind of engine failure in so many new Toyotas. But so far my 23 tundra is great! Fingers crossed.

 

Yes it was replaced and the ecu was flashed , at first they said my oem platinum warranty would cover everything but then said there was a recall I think as well, I’d have to go check the paper work again but I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. Bummer was I had a Tacoma for a week and hated it, the person who programmed the trans logic should be fired immediately. They broke my windshield while it was in as well but stepped right up and replaced with oem Toyota glass ,. I was fine shit happens

 

Welcome from LA (Lower Alabama)! And thank you for sharing your experience!

 

Ignition timing. There is a specific amount of timing advance that achieves maximum torque for the given engine load called MBT. The closer you are to MBT, the more torque you can make with the same amount of fuel, or you make the same torque with less fuel.

A modern engine like whats in the 3rd gen Tundra can take advantage of a huge amount of octane, especially at higher loads like towing. My F150 Ecoboost wont max out timing while I tow even on 94 octane. I would need to probably be at 96 or 98 octane to get there.

A lot of the auto manufacturers want fuel to be higher octane ratings so they can design the engines for it and help achieve higher fuel economy as well as power.

 

Need some E85 baby !!

 

Or if they have a liquid-oil cooler for the engine oil.

 

It is not easy to get here in Utah. There are 2-3 stations about 1.5 hours from my house. If I was gunna do it I would probably have to get a 55 gallon drum and store it in my garage and throw it in a 5 gallon jug when I head to the gas station. It would be a whole process but would love to do it.

And then there is the issue of mixing it with 91 E10. Even at 30% ethanol I'd only be at like 95.5 octane or something

 

It’s fairly easy to score in Texas. In addition it helps the engine run cooler as well.
My 19 Mustang 5.0 has been tuned already for 40k miles for straight E85, no issues. Runs like a raped ape!! I do run a fuel conditioner/ additive to condition the seals and clean the fuel injectors. Does make a difference, as I notice the car runs a bit better and idles great.

 

Were they really more widespread? Sure doesn’t seem that way. Admittedly, Toyota wasn’t even on my radar back then. But most of the extremely high mileage 3UR-FEs that got there on basic maintenance are from those first few years.

 

Ya, the launch was a little rough back then too, the engine has some problems, springs or something, Im trying to remember exactly, also brake TSBs, etc. It was not a perfect reliable deal right off the bat that most people have the perception of.

I've been on these forums since the beginning, tundra solutions in 2000, lol. I had a tundra in late 99 Gen 1, and was stoked for the big motor to come out in 2007, I waited until 2010 to jump in, things were different for me back then.

 

@wedemmoez

 

A small lot of camshafts were bad. Pretty isolated problem if IRC

 

I understand how it’s possible for some engines to take advantage of higher octane fuel. Just not how a stock civic is able to.

 

Until we have both engines torn down and investigated, we can't determine that they're even related. I can't say anything about the specific number of failures, but according to what the dealers and QA teams are reporting to us, there are only a handful of bottom end engine failures in Tundras nationwide. Not sure where this user is getting information that there are so many. Either they have access to information I don't, or they don't know what they're talking about.

 

Are knock sensors still used to determine timing advance or have we somehow found a proactive way of determining how far the ignition timing can be advanced?

 

A “handful” is more than one, with the same failure, which can indicate a trend, or No? I get my information from my fts and networking with other technicians. Like I said, even if it’s less than a percent, it’s a failure trend and the situation is under investigation no matter how small the batch is. But it’s ok, I know you’re justplaying the pr game.

 

Multiple knock sensors and a crankshaft position sensor that senses acceleration of crankshaft and guesstimates if it was a misfire.

 

Glad you have a resolution!

I agree with what someone else stated, push for that extended warranty to be added!

 

My first line was that we don't know they're even related failures, but you seemed to skip that part. We're working on getting the engines to HQ for teardown and inspection to identify what went wrong. Until that happens, we don't know anything for sure. Every failure gets investigated, somehow you seem to think that isn't the case. If you're able to send me more information on these failures that you know about, I can work on getting those engines for teardown as well. I'm sending you a PM.

I'm also not playing any PR game lol, I'm posting info on this forum that could probably get me reprimanded or maybe even fired.

 

yes, I think everyone still uses knock sensors, but I would say that the timing tables and ability to adjust timing for octane makes them extremely accurate now and keeps the engines within a degree or two of max timing regardless of conditions.

 

Just wondering how may knocks occur before the timing is retarded?

 

We've heard about 2 or 3 on here. Seems like a thing.