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08 Tundra issues

Discussion in '2nd Gen Tundras (2007-2013)' started by ant71992, Mar 26, 2019.

  1. Mar 26, 2019 at 9:25 PM
    #1
    ant71992

    ant71992 [OP] New Member

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    Hey everyone,

    I’m new here and I own two Tundras.

    I have a 2003 Tundra with 240,000 miles. It was passed down to me by my father who used it for work so it’s not the prettiest truck.

    And I personally bought a 2008 Tundra with 106,000 miles.

    I’ve always read how the 2nd gen were so much more reliable but I am extremely disappointed. I am having two big issues with my truck.

    1) I was up for a spark plug change so I decided to change them. I notice three of them have a decent amount of oil. My guess it’s the valve cover gaskets.

    2) There is a vibration that occurs primarily around 30-40MPH and at highway speed when I accelerate. It is something that is very replicable. When the shaking occurs at 30-40, it just happens. But I can make the truck vibrate pretty harshly around 3/5 attempts on the high way. Doesn’t matter if I’m driving on a flat surface or going up hill. Everything I’ve researched points to the dreaded transmission shudder and it seems that the only fix is to rebuild it. This is why I am so disappointed. I bought the truck so excited believing that it had low mileage. Because it does compared to my 03. That truck has been so damn reliable. We haven’t had a single issue with it besides a couple of o rings being broken.

    The only hope I have is that the shaking is related to the valve cover gaskets. Because I also owned a 99 Corolla that leaked oil into the spark plugs and it shakes violently before it actually threw a code out. That was an easy fix, 20 bucks for the gasket and an hour later it was driving like new again. But the problem is that when I shift it to “S”, the shaking stops. So I am almost certain it is transmission related but have my fingers crossed.

    I’m having the valve cover gaskets replaced on monday. My dealer quoted me 1,300 for the job. Hahahaha yea right am I going to pay that much.

    Is it a common thing with newer trucks to have their transmissions go out so early? I expected it from a Ford, but not a Toyota. Just kind of bummed out and disappointed. I’ve driven nothing but Toyota’s and have never had any type of transmission issue until now. And all my Toyota’s are in the 200K mile range.
     
  2. Mar 26, 2019 at 11:55 PM
    #2
    Sunnier

    Sunnier Pity the warrior that slays all his foes

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    Nope, not common. My guess (and we'll never know) is that the previous owner hauled more weight than supposed to... or just drove it like it was stolen. I'm sorry you're having these troubles.
     
  3. Mar 27, 2019 at 2:05 AM
    #3
    rons23

    rons23 Get The Led Out!!!

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    Sorry to hear about the problems. Transmissions are rarely talked about on our Tundras. As mentioned above, maybe the owner did a lot of towing. Hopefully someone will have a answer. $1300 for gasket replacement is ludicrous. It shouldn't be that bad of a job. I haven't done it on my tundra, but replaced one on my Altima. If you do change it out, torque values are important putting cover back on. Good luck
     
    TheBeast likes this.
  4. Mar 27, 2019 at 3:58 AM
    #4
    Trpl7

    Trpl7 My best friend Tate

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    Valve cover gaskets are a no brainer, as for transmission shake. Have you crawled under the truck and checked U-joints/carrier bearing? Have you checked anything other than just the transmission? I really haven’t read or heard anything bad about the transmissions in these trucks especially at 106000 miles.
     
  5. Mar 27, 2019 at 4:14 AM
    #5
    Professional Hand Model

    Professional Hand Model A.K.A ‘Golden Hands’

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    Try transmission fluid change/service. Could be as simple as that.

    Maybe have a Toy mechanic look and and test drive for a second opinion before throwing money at the wall. We see lots of people come through our forum here ‘guessing’ and asking for opinions of which you will recieve many. Many end up throwing good money at the ‘bad guesses’ without a proper fix.

    Without a complete picture of your maintenance history its hard to give an answer.


    Best fix is fixing it (the actual problem) right the first time.
     
    TheBeast and Black Wolf like this.
  6. Mar 27, 2019 at 4:46 AM
    #6
    Black Wolf

    Black Wolf Bigfoot Hunter, Sasquatch too, but not Yeti

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    This^^^
     
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  7. Mar 27, 2019 at 5:47 AM
    #7
    ant71992

    ant71992 [OP] New Member

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    The shaking stops if I shift it into “S” so I do think it is transmission related. But I have not checked those. I am planning on getting the transmission fluid changed so hoping that fixes it but I have my doubts. I’m just worried how much they’re going to charge me to rebuild the transmission. When my Dads transmission went out on his F150, they quoted him 3,000 which is reasonable. But if they are quoting me 1300 for a valve cover job.... I can only imagine for a transmission job. I’m hoping it’s around the same price. I actually do think there is a TSB on this exact problem.
     
  8. Mar 27, 2019 at 12:52 PM
    #8
    Trpl7

    Trpl7 My best friend Tate

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    I don’t know if you can work on this stuff yourself or not and giving a shop the idea you don’t have any idea what you are doing will in turn give them the idea they can basically rape you. The valve cover gaskets are not the easiest to do, even though I have not done them myself on my truck but I have done them on other vehicles, but it’s a great place to start if you are trying to teach yourself and building confidence. If you have someplace to do them and the tools my suggestion would be to give it a try. Do one at a time and take your time. There is a ton of info on the web and there is even more help on this forum. You have more support than you think.
    As for the trans. This is the second most expensive assembly on you truck, I would go through change the oil like said above and try to look for different issue before pointing at the trans. I get that you can make it happen by manipulating the throttle but like I said at 108000 miles is strange unless previous owner somehow smoked the living hell out of it. You did not mention slippage or bad shifting or leakage so I would start by thinking either u joints, carrier bearing something other than trans. itself. Maybe the computer needs to be reset, I don’t know just trying to have you start with small fixes before somebody strips a ton of cash out of you and still not fix real issue.
     
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  9. Mar 27, 2019 at 7:58 PM
    #9
    ant71992

    ant71992 [OP] New Member

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    I agree. I just don’t have time to change the valve covers myself. Knowing my work, I’ll be at it for weeks until I can finish it. I just dropped it off at my mechanic shop. They’re charging me 500 bucks which I still think is pretty expensive for valve cover gaskets but it’s better than 1300.

    I plan on getting the transmission fluid changed after. I’ll provably take it to my local Toyota dealer although I am hesitant to mention the shaking because I feel like they will try and push me to rebuild the transmission right away. Crossing my fingers this truck gets fixed with these services. It is a very pretty truck. 0B389E81-F372-47C8-915C-7F7ADDD82E11.jpg
     
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  10. Mar 27, 2019 at 8:01 PM
    #10
    ant71992

    ant71992 [OP] New Member

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    And here is my first gen Tundra

    D5F1B7A2-F434-4990-8A71-DF7C36B0081C.jpg
     
    sf319 likes this.
  11. Mar 27, 2019 at 8:21 PM
    #11
    Trpl7

    Trpl7 My best friend Tate

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    Damn right it’s pretty, it’s white. Best/fastest color. Good luck whatever direction you go, I understand the time problem.
     
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  12. Mar 29, 2019 at 12:16 PM
    #12
    ant71992

    ant71992 [OP] New Member

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    So a bit of an update. I got the valve covers replaced and on my test drive here it did not shake a single bit! I drove it on the highway and accelerated and it did not shake at all. I am going to test drive it more after work but fingers crossed! Hopefully she’s fixed!
     
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  13. Mar 29, 2019 at 2:06 PM
    #13
    Bpowa

    Bpowa New Member

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    Strange. I never heard of that. My plugs were soaked also when I replaced the plugs. There wasnt enough oil in the tube to warrant a gasket replacement yet. Im lazy.. I may do it this summer. Keep us posted.
     
  14. Mar 29, 2019 at 2:35 PM
    #14
    TheBeast

    TheBeast The Beach

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    keep us posted
     
  15. Mar 29, 2019 at 7:04 PM
    #15
    ant71992

    ant71992 [OP] New Member

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    Ok so another update. Got to test drive it some more.

    Unfortunately, the shaking is still there. Although a bit less prevalent.

    I also noticed something else. Whenever I’m cruising and am around 50-60mph and suddenly press on the gas, then it shakes.

    If I’m cruising at 50-60mph, take off my foot from the pedal, and THEN suddenly give it gas, it doesn’t shake.

    So now I’m wondering if it’s something to do with the throttle? Idk, but the valve cover job and spark plug made the shaking a bit less instense so now I don’t know if it’s truly the transmission. The truck feels fine otherwise.
     
  16. Mar 29, 2019 at 7:13 PM
    #16
    Trpl7

    Trpl7 My best friend Tate

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    Clean the MAF and throttle plate, you maybe on to something???
     
  17. Mar 29, 2019 at 7:14 PM
    #17
    Vince

    Vince New Member

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    I would check all your u joints and axles, bearings
     
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  18. Mar 29, 2019 at 7:28 PM
    #18
    Vince

    Vince New Member

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    You could also do a sea foam treatment
    1 oz of sea foam to everyquart of oil put in the engine oil fill tube 250 miles of drive time then change oil.
    1 can of sea foam in fuel
    1 can of the sea foam spray in the intake adjust the spray nozzle to where it is 1/4 inch from throttle plate (need 2 people 1 to spray and 1 to keep rpms at 1500 )
    don't let it die. Replace and tight all intake boots before you start the truck to do the process.
    After all that is done kill the truck let soak 30 min before starting.
    Do not leave the intake rubber boot off will throw CODES my 11 just needed battery to reset.. sea foam has a whole break down on there web page.
     
  19. Mar 29, 2019 at 7:29 PM
    #19
    Vince

    Vince New Member

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    I did it and you would not believe the carbon burn off it up chuckd out
     
  20. Mar 29, 2019 at 8:34 PM
    #20
    ant71992

    ant71992 [OP] New Member

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    Does anybody think it may have to do with the computer or something? I just find it weird how if I let go of the petal and then floor it, it doesn’t shake. But if I am giving it a little gas, and then floor it, it shakes.
     
  21. Mar 29, 2019 at 9:02 PM
    #21
    Trpl7

    Trpl7 My best friend Tate

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    Well if you had the vcg’s Replaced than whoever did it touched spark plugs and the intake tube.
    You said that problem is better but not gone, so you probably should have put new plugs in it and like others have said do the sea foam clean. Get yourself some MAF cleaner, take it out and clean it and your problem may disappear. While you are doing this house cleaning unhook the battery and let the computer reset itself so it will adapt to your driving. All of this costs less than $100 and it may totally clear your issues. All you can do is hope and if it does than you just saved thousand which goes back to the first time I posted in response to your issue.
     
  22. Mar 29, 2019 at 9:02 PM
    #22
    Vince

    Vince New Member

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    I don't think is. The truck has never been driven with 9600 miles a year they only did 1 oil change a year I would put some treatment in the fuel clean the throttle body clean, mass air flow sensor both really easy to do after that was done I would just drive it blow the cob webs out of her.
     
  23. Mar 29, 2019 at 9:08 PM
    #23
    Vince

    Vince New Member

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    Sea foam treatment cost 8.00 a bottle
    Sea foam spray is 9.99
    Mas cleaner is 12.00 bucks that's the route I would of already been.
     
  24. Mar 29, 2019 at 9:33 PM
    #24
    ant71992

    ant71992 [OP] New Member

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    It has brand new Denso spark plugs in it. They also changed them out since the old ones were soaked in oil.

    I have MAF cleaner so I’ll definitely do that next.
     
  25. Mar 29, 2019 at 9:41 PM
    #25
    Trpl7

    Trpl7 My best friend Tate

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    Do the sea foam like the guys have already said and unlock the battery for awhile, oh and someone mentioned injector cleaner. Dump that in too. Good that the plugs are already done but do the other items also. Hopefully your issues will disappear.
     
  26. Mar 29, 2019 at 10:04 PM
    #26
    sf319

    sf319 New Member

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    My Grandpa always told me to fix the cheap part first when working on a car or truck. It is always good to clean the engine, so the sea foam everyone is suggesting would be a good idea no matter the outcome for the mileage. That should clean up the oil on the plugs. When you do the sea foam pay attention to the feel of the truck as you rev the engine. If it only happens while driving and under certain conditions, and no other transmission related things like slipping or gear selection problems, I would rule out carrier bearing and u-joints first, climb under and take a look. Like others have said, these transmissions are tough. I would even say over built. If a guy can drive one of these 2nd gens a million miles hauling oil rig equipment around the country I think your 108000 should be solid.
     
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  27. Mar 29, 2019 at 10:18 PM
    #27
    Trpl7

    Trpl7 My best friend Tate

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    Well put SF
     
  28. Mar 30, 2019 at 5:45 AM
    #28
    Rex Kramer

    Rex Kramer Vinyl Spinner

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    I picked up my '07 when it had 270k on the odometer, the first thing I did was SeaFoam the gas & oil. I drove about 200 miles and changed the oil & filter, then changed the plugs about 100 miles after that. The trucks runs smooth, and it's got about 284k on it today and all fluids & filters have been changed.
     
  29. Mar 30, 2019 at 8:21 AM
    #29
    csfuser

    csfuser New Member

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    working on upgrading the audio..
    I had a similar problem with a non-Tundra vehicle (also non-Toyota) but don't know if this applies to the Tundra's or not.
    Mine had a front axle stabilizer bar, which was designed to reduce head shake and stabilize the front end at higher speeds.
    It started to go out, and I would get "shake" at certain speeds, and could trigger it as the OP has identified above by accelerating after slowing, etc.
    It was especially bad around 55-60 mph, but I could drive thru it.
    It was a $60 replacement. Solved the issue.
    Don't know if this is applicable here or not, but given the potential expense of a tranny ???
     
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  30. Mar 31, 2019 at 3:22 PM
    #30
    ant71992

    ant71992 [OP] New Member

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    I cleaned the MAF and it didn’t do anything.

    So I crawled under to check the u joints. No play in them but there is play in this area. A significant amount. Not at the U joint but at that center piece. Is this the carrier bearing?

    CDEBCEF6-5338-4715-AFF5-463AC7AEA999.jpg
     

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