Hard driven 5.7's

I know there are some of you guys out there that have driven and currently do drive your Tundras pretty hard. I drive my truck modestly to say the most. Being a first time Tundra owner I would like to hear from people that have had first hand experience. How tough are these engines and transmissions? What kind of issues can I expect to have? Thanks in advance!

 

Not sure what you mean by driving them hard, but I have a pretty heavy foot. I accelerate heavily, and don’t slow down as gradually as I should. I don’t do any towing. Only 35k on my current Tundra, but put 110k on my last one. No issues at all.
My wife’s Sequoia has almost 200k on it, with zero issues whatsoever. She doesn’t drive it hard though.

 

I had my last 5.7 for 10 years and was pretty leadfooted for a while, especially when gas was super cheap. Not much beyond normal maintenance, just a weeping water pump replaced under warranty.

 

I guess when I say hard I mean accelerating with high rpms regularly sometimes shifting it by hand,abrupt stops and was at the beach the other day and pulled a few people out of the sand

 

Yeah, I definitely accelerate with high RPMS. I do need to start stopping more gradually. I’ve always burned through brakes too fast.

 

Cant say ive heard of any common issues about driving a Tundra hard. Having a heavy foot, towing, trails, ect.. will always put more wear on related parts on any vehical but i dont think there are any specific failures that tundras are prone to.

 

Awesome, I chose this truck because even though I over do most regular maintenance on all of my vehicles my foot finds a way to break something that should have lasted alot longer. I've went through every automatic Ford transmission I've owned. And had issues with engines on everything else. Then I get this thing and the exhaust just eggs me on....just needed some reassurance. Regular wear and tear on parts is fine. Just dont want any unexpected failures.

 

Have always driven my trucks pretty heavy, Tacomas and now Tundra. All have seem to held up nicely. These are pretty solid engines and transmissions and so far I haven't come across too many issues. Just watch out for the cam tower leak. It gets fixed under warranty, but there is a sticky to check out on it. That doesn't have anything to do really with driving it hard, just something to watch out for, even on new ones.

 

There are some great threads on extended warranties. It sounds like you may want to consider one.

 

My wife’s Sequoia has I believe 198k on the odometer. Nothing has broken at all. The only work I’ve had to do on it is brakes, tires, battery, and headlight bulbs. Zero mechanical failures at all in eight years and almost 200k miles. It’s been driven on all over the SE United States, and has never let us down.

We drove nothing but Chevys for almost twenty years, and it was the complete opposite. Transmissions going out at 75k, fuel pumps, starters, alternators, the works. I will say my wife’s 2003 Tahoe has about 250k on the original motor though. We gave it to her parents when we got the Sequoia eight years ago, and it’s still going.

 

The previous owners of my 2007 worked the truck hard towing & hauling, and they averaged 27,000 miles per year for 10 years. The 5.7L had 270k when I purchased it... it will have 285k this week and other than the tune all I have done is replace plugs, fluids and filters. The DAP tune that I added makes the engine and transmission operate more smoothly, much better than the factory settings. I drive the truck hard, but it's towing & hauling days are over.

 

Wow, that's impressive

 

Yes actually i have looked into those. Right now I'm good with my truck sitting at only 5k but down the road, yes

 

I won’t say don’t do it, but I’ve never had to use a warranty on a Toyota or Honda.

 

The kiss kiss of death. Find some real wood.

 

Drive it like I stole it, no problems at all

 

True dat

 

Same here. With the last 5 Toyotas and 3 Hondas not buying the extended warranties at say $1,200 to $2,000 each, and never having to fix anything, I would say I am well ahead of the game. If anything significant breaks now and I have to repair it out of pocket, I am still ahead.

Back to the topic, these trucks can take a little hard work with ease. They are built to work hard. I try not to exceed 4,000 RPM just because between 3 and 4 is where it sounds the best, but I do 80 or 90 MPH for very long stretches every day, and I don't think that will affect the truck's durability in any way.

 

I tow a 5000 lb Bay Boat and that is the main reason I own a Tundra. I had 2 Tacomas prior to buying the Tundra and pu almost 100k on both with no problems. Before I bought the Bay Boat I had a Ranger bass boat that scaled 3400 lbs. I bought the Bay Boat 300 miles from home. I had to fill up a couple of times due to the small tank on the Tacoma. Surprising that the MPGs towing are almost identical between the Tundra and Tacoma. I only have 39k on my Tundra a so far no problems at all. Commute is fairly mild 30 miles of mostly IH @ 60-80 mph. I do get on it quite a bit when merging or someone ticks me off (happens often in DFW). Highways to the hunting ranch are mostly 75 mph and I usually do 80. Then there are miles of rough ranch roads. GM was the only other consideration when buying. I wrote off Ford in 2008 and never have or will own a Dodge. Because I own a Tundra I can harass the Ford owners on the Texas Fishing Forum who think Fords are the greatest thing since sliced bread. I just tell them to quit put done Tundras if all they can find fault with is MPGs.

 

All great things, hopefully in another 100k I'll be the guy on here letting the next know it's all good . Appreciate it guys.

 

I get front wheel airtime once in a while in mine. No chassis issues so far haha. 292000 miles and still beating. Replaced a starter and a transfer case so far.

 

I would say I drive it hard. I have a 25 mile commute to work every day, down rural roads, with a stop sign every mile. So lots of acceleration/braking/transmission shifts/rough roads.

I typically will get up to around 60-70MPH in between stop signs with modest acceleration (2500-3200 RPM). I am a very hard braker, I wait until last minute.

I always have something in the bed of the truck, and if you look at the bed, you can tell, it scratched and dented up like a Sherman Tank after WWII. The inside of the tailgate has been "beat in' by a truck jack ramming into it repeatedly, as I accelerated.

I bought the truck with 120k miles on it. I now have 178k miles on it. The only issue I have run into is the "Fuel Sending Unit" no longer works correctly. So I am out of gas when it says, I have 1/3 of a tank.

I have noticed that the transmission shifts rougher, sort of choppy, at least more than it did when I bought it. Honestly, I think it is just the computer adjusting the shift points to how I drive.

There might be a slight issue, that I am not sure what it is. So there is a soft grinding noise which I can hear coming from the back of the truck when the window is down, and I am under acceleration. It could be the rear-end, the transmission, or a wheel bearing, not sure. Either way it has been doing this for 25k miles now, with no catastrophic failure.

I think she should hold up to 250-300k miles.

Admittedly, I think my old 2000 4runner (with the 3.4l v6) was more reliable, but not by much.

 

I drive all my trucks hard and only spent a shit ton of money at rock auto.

I change brakes once a year if they are needed or not.

It is cheaper to change them every year then it is to guess when they are needed.

 

I agree. Something to consider if you know you’ll be hard on yours. When we purchased ours the dealer included a lifetime power train with any new vehicle purchase, like a lot of dealers do, for just buying it. We did however get offered to purchase a lifetime bumper to bumper, yes unlimited mileage no expiration bumper to bumper when we purchased it. Has a $100 deductible but 14 years from now when my son starts driving it and the radio dies, it’s covered.

 

I’ve only had to use an extended warranty once on a Toyota. My wife had a 2010 rav4 and it was out of factory warranty. On cold start ups the cam gear would rattle on the first cold start up. You could immediately turn it off and start it back and it wouldn’t rattle. Just the first. It had a tsb for it but would only cover it if it was still under the factory warranty. More of an annoyance than anything. The 2015 Camry that I drive back and forth to work does the same thing but I’m not worried about it. Doesn’t hurt it just annoying on the first cold start. I got it used at 102k miles and it drove nicely. Has 116k miles now and I’m about to take it on a 12 hour one way trip. Not worried at all with these Toyota engines.

 

I've had the truck since november with 128K on it and now its at 140k. I drove it pretty hard up until i got a new catback. As soon as I got my 6" system on my truck I rarely take it out of manual shift mode and I use downshifting more than I use my brakes. I shift it like its a race truck and I haven't seen any issues so far.

 

I live my life a 1/4 mile at a time....

Seriously though, I live in Pasco County, its literally the taint of Florida at this point. Everyone wants to race, soccer moms, fat and delirious wannabe's, BMWs and Mercedes especially douchie and always wanting to be first and of course the lowly Craptor. Its an unusual day when I am not pegging red line in 3-4 gears multiple times on the way to and from work or just running around the corner to Wally World.