My Rant

My rant on Tundras.


So far I'm not impressed with my Toyota Tundra. Not easy to work on, components that need occasional replacement, such as starters, alternators, etc., are located in areas not easy to get to or require removing half the engine/vehicle to get to the part you want to repair – poor engineering. Parts are expensive, independent mechanic are few and far between and dealerships charge an arm and leg to work on these vehicles.


I recently replaced the alternator in my 2011 Tundra because of an oil leak above it's location. After removing the alternator I cleaned the area and it appears there's a small leak from the junction between the Cylinder Head and the Cam Tower, just above the alternator. I've attempted to seal it externally with silicone, will run it for a few days and see what happens. Also, it should not take hours and most of the skin off your arms and hands to change an alternator – put the damn thing where it can be easily replaced. Toyota could learn a lot from GMC, Ford, Dodge & AMC.


Continuing, because it's such a small oil leak I would normally just let it leak, but it's leaking on the alternator and I believe this could be a fire problem. I could not see a way of diverting the oil from leaking elsewhere and not on the alternator, so I hope my silicone fix does the trick.


To be continued!

 

2 rant threads, you must be spicy

 

Simpsons did it
https://www.tundras.com/threads/how-many-of-you-dont-have-leaking-cam-towers.79993/

 

It’s good that Toyotas hold their value. You could trade it in on a domestic and get a lot for it.

 

Just one rant.

The other threads was asking where to post this rant.

 

Oil changes suck.

Remove the entire rusted out skid plate every time? And the stupid nut on the oil filter housing that requires far more torque to remove than the oil filter it's mounted on??

 

The first thread came off as ranty, “im angry, where should I rant?!”

 

There is a "what makes you angry" thread in off-topic.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/what-makes-you-angry.445/page-133

 

That's great news for those with ones that are gunked up with silicone.

 

I found the alternator to be quite the easy fix when compared to replacing the passenger side dipped headlamp bulb...

 

At least you don't have to replace it every 3 weeks like on the 2007-2013 GMs...