2025 Tundra Engine is down!

Yeah, I would assume there is contamination too, which is why I don’t understand Toyota’s short block “inspection” procedure. And then they give customers a 12/12K warranty on the job, ugh. Maybe Toyota will surprise me and expand the recall window through 2025 or whenever their team actually fixes this problem once and for all. It sure seems to me as though they are in duck and cover mode on this. I keep expecting to see an article that the 3.4 is going to be “all new” in 2026. If not 2026, I have to believe there will be a serious PR campaign to reimagine their flagship powertrains for 2027 Tundras/Sequoia/LC/LX/LS and they will pay for a lot of press to get that message out.

 

Yeah, right this is a big ball of cluster- look for a Magnussen class action suit soon and 35 dollars for your trouble.

 

@hagrid - you've been summoned.

 

This should be good.....

 

Wcan speculate, only way to know for sure would be to check a crank for truing, throw rods on dial indicator and check them for concentricity, check main caps, and block with straight edge etc.
A little debris in a motor isn’t going to kill an engine in less than 50K miles.
A lot will, but something should give a warning.
From looking at tear down of motor on car care nut channel, I would question how well the rods were machined, some of those bearings looked like rods might be out of round.
Front, and rear main bearing looked like maybe warping of crank, or bearing issues, or block warpage, although thrust bearing looked to still be in good shape, but no way to know unless an engine machine shops checks out those parts.

I haven’t looked, but are new failures all from the same facility?

 

They've had failures in engines made in both USA and Japan. One of the items being scrutinized - they don't use individual main caps. They use a one piece girdle system on the bottom of the crank.

 

What? Haha!

 

One piece main girdle has been used for many decades and not just by Toyota.

 

In 450tq/500hp small displacement engines?

 

What is considered small displacement these days? Plenty of diesels running much high boost pressure/cylinder pressures with it and they're doing just fine.

 

It seems so soon to have another update...

Started the morning off with two automated and cryptic emails that I'm assuming came from the dealer the truck is at (based on the phone number included), letting me know that "all special order parts have arrived". Before I was able to call them my "product concern" corporate rep called me to provide an update that while one of the backordered parts should have arrived at the dealer today, the short block now has a date of arriving 7/25. I also learned that she has still (from last Monday, 6/30) still not gotten a call back from the service manager at the dealer, and has continued to call and leave a voicemail every day for him. So that's great to know (since he told me last week that he spoke with her and "it was all taken care of").

In a miraculous change from the norm, my service advisor answered when I called and told me that the "Toyota engineers" are at the dealer again today and are "taking your motor apart piece by piece because it's a guinea pig, to figure out what happened". He also assured me that while he didn't know what had actually failed yet, I'm getting "a whole new engine, but it's piece by piece, just not preassembled like the recall trucks because of how it failed". For those wondering, their removal method is the hood-off option, not the cab-off option. I told him about the emails I got saying all my parts were in and he said "oh, ok", with nothing further to add. He also advised they don't have an ETA for completion of the work. I told him I'd check back with him next week and his reply was "yea that sounds good". It's a little disheartening to see others go from blown motor to vehicle on the road again in under a week, but at this point I'll take what I can get. The truck turns 4 weeks old on Saturday, and at that point it'll be 18 days in the shop.

 

I think that will be a $35.00 gift card redeemable at your Toyota dealer toward the purchase of a new Tundra.

 

They could just put in the 19000-F4040 and it would actually save them around $10,000.

 

So there's 133 trucks listed in there. That kinda proves my point. I don't think that sample size is enough to carve it in stone. Do we know how many engine failures in total have happened?

They recalled something like 100K vehicles with the engine, and as of May of 2024 Toyota was reporting 824 warranty failures. Bump that to 1000 failures for easy math and out of 100K recalled it is a 1% failure rate. That means the 133 trucks in that document are 13.3% of 1% of the total data on just the recalled engines, let alone the total number of engines. That's not enough of a sample size to say that more frequent oil changes does or doesn't help.

Source: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2024/RMISC-24V381-8150.pdf

Filtering the google doc to only show those who did 10K OCIs gives a total of 69 failures. That's just over half that had 10K mile oil changes. 51.8% actually. So in the sample, which is statistically very small, it's about an even split on the failures.

The data that is missing, though, is how many that have not had failures are also doing early oil changes. If the majority of the trucks that have not failed are also getting 5K OCIs then it could indicate that it is helping. That data is missing, and nearly impossible to obtain. If it showed a similar 50/50 ratio of 10K vs 5K OCIs, then the case could be made that there is no impact to the failure rates based on how often the oil is changed. Still, without that data it can't be declared one way or the other.

 

You’re being too nice. As one of the few 25’s to blow they want your truck to inspect. And instead of compensating you in any way to borrow your truck, looks like they’re actually inconveniencing you more. How many miles do you have? I don’t think it’s asking too much for them to buy it back and give you a new truck. I can tolerate a rebuilt engine on a two year old truck with 30k miles but hell no on a one month old brand new truck. I’d raise some hell until I got a new truck.

 

I'd 100% be asking for a buy-back. Afterall, Toyota is giving you a "brand new engine"..........for your brand new truck. Ridiculous.

 

1,270 miles... well, 1,271 after them driving it around the lot a few times moving it from one spot to another. My issue is that it's a rare truck, I had more than one dealer confirm it as less than 12 more were being built for model year 2025; and honestly, it's all I would want as a replacement. I guess I'm realistic enough to know getting one of those other 12 is nearly impossible and that I'm just along for the ride.

If it exceeds 30 days in the shop, I'm willing to pursue the lemon law route.

 

Yeah. I’d be willing to accept the crate engine, if I had to, but taking my engine apart into a million pieces. By a mechanic likely doing it for the first time, and re-using some of the parts oil touched is completely unacceptable.

 

Seems to me Toyota can send an identical build your way even if it takes a few months. I’d also ask if they are replacing the turbos as those are included in the “whole new engine” for recalled trucks. I’d also ask for an extended powertrain warranty for your troubles. 10 years / 150K would seem about right to me given the headaches you’re putting up with. OTOH, if Toyota engineers are really there looking at your motor, IMO they ought to buy it back for research purposes and give you a new one. Sucks you’re going through this.

 

If your short block doesnt come in till the 24th, you are there....

 

those are iron blocks typically bult to last a million miles. The aluminum blocks can warp with higher pressures just ask Subaru EJ owners.

oh and I misspelled Magnuson suits but i think you all knew what I meant.

 

Hence why the 2GR accepts boost without incident.

 

I appreciate the @ but I've been treading lightly in the 3rd gen threads.

It will take one hell of a mage, perhaps even a war caster, to put enough oomph in a Magnutsen Moss spell for this.

 

Let's call anything over 100tq / 100hp per liter small displacement.

This is a really good point. We used to call forced induction high pressure aluminum engines "race" engines and accepted the fact they had a 10% of normal life expectancy.


The engine on the race boat puts out 1200hp with an 8.8L big block Chevy - that's 135hp/liter. V35 comes in at 129hp/liter.

 

I’m at 20k on my ‘24 GMC 2500 AT4 Duramax and this truck has been almost perfect. Good luck with your gasser.

 

and I am at almost 30k miles on my truck and it has been too. So, I say failures happen, just you hear more of them from people who experience the 1-3 percent failures more so than from the 95-98 percent that don't fail.

 

Thx. I’m at about 6500 miles on my AT4 and no hiccups at all yet. It’s a nice truck for sure.

 

Here's this for everyone to get back on team Toyota for a few posts....https://fordauthority.com/2025/07/850k-ford-motor-company-vehicles-recalled-over-faulty-fuel-pump/

 

That math is off.

389HP/3.445L=112.92HP/L

EDIT: And even at Hybrid level - 437HP/3.445L=126.85HP/L

 

So to add to the fray....a bit more in depth discussion. Check this link.

Those poor guys | Toyota Tundra Forum
Let's not get into a pissing match with the 1-2.5 gen guys...we all know those engines are solid (once maintenance items are handled).

I am beginning more and more to believe Toyota's spec of 0w-20 oil and 87 grade octane on these trucks (to keep their "efficiency" ratings as a brand) is to blame for the most part. The "casting debris" I think is going to be a red herring.

Higher compression ratio, plus boost, piss quality oil recommendations, lowest octane recommendation, plus heat and load, spells a disaster in the making for these engines.

There's a reason most other manufacturers who've been doing turbo DI cars recommend 93 octane and have a high-quality oil spec.

Take it for what you will....I know what I am going to be doing going forward.