New to Toyota Nation

Hello all,

I purchased a used 2011 Toyota Tundra 4x4 4.6L with 166,000 miles about 4 months ago from a small dealer here in Missouri (this will play into my story a little later). I was a Ford guy until my new boss kept on pushing me to purchasing a Toyota, he would say, "You've never heard of a million mile Ford, they have all kinds of issues with cham phasers and spark plugs." So after putting 240,000 good miles on my 1999 Ford F-150 (beast of a truck), I decided that I needed to get a four door truck that could comfortably sit my large family of 6. I looked around for about two months and my boss sent me an ad from the above mentioned car dealership in Missouri and said that it was priced well. Long story short, everything checked out good, the truck rode and shifted fine and everything worked as should except some dents in the passenger side door and rear bumper.

It didn't take me long to find out that the previous owner was a huge a**hole and treated this truck like a neglected dog with the mange. I bought this truck because it was priced fair and I knew there would be some maintenance that I would need to perform on the truck, but I didn't realize between the a hole previous owner and Toyota, that I'm about to loss money on this vehicle purchase.

The first thing I had to do was fix the air flow in the truck. I thought the AC blower was going out and I decided to check the cabin air filter to see if there was anything blocking the flow of air. Sure enough, I pulled out the cabin air filter and there was a mouse/rat nest the size a softball and I replaced the filter and vacuumed out as much of the nest the best I could.

The brakes were extremely mushy but there was no metallic sound when you pressed on the brakes. I decided that I would replace the fronts...which was not easy, please note the previous owner was/is a huge a hole and it was nothing but metal on metal. I also noticed that the bottom on the truck was covered in what I thought was mud...no big deal, but it's not mud. I don't know what it is but its hard as hell to get off with the pressure washer. I also thought it would be a good time to check the spare and what would you know...there's a screw in the tire and it's completely flat. No bid deal, I patched it, aired it up, and got it ready to go for future use.

Then the TPMS light came on and I tried to reset it with the instructions in the owners manual. That was a big fat no-go and Toyota said the TPMS gauge is out and needs to be replaced which they can do for the low price of $200.00 dollars (more on the dealership later).

A couple months ago, my check engine light comes on....and get that felling in your gut is telling you that you were a huge idiot for getting rid of your perfectly good Ford F-150 for a truck that is currently batting .000 isn't sitting well with me. I take it to my local Toyota Dealer and they say that me secondary air injector is out and they can replace it for the low cost of $2,600.00 and if I didn't fix it, the truck would go into limp mode. The traction control and 4 low light are both on and blinking but the truck somehow doesn't go into limp mode.

Also, my truck recently started shifting hard especially when I hit 40 mph, and it also violently shakes when I start to attempt to go up a hill. I think I know what's wrong, which is what brought me to this forum in the first place.

Not to mention that I had to change the oil after month after I purchased the vehicle which tells me the dealer didn't even do that for me. What a bunch of motha fu**kas!

So...here is my list of things that I plan on doing in order (while also assuming the previous owner was a huge d bag and towed heavy objects for 166,000 while performing no maintenance).

1. Drain and fill my transmission fluid. I hope this will address the hard shifting that I recently started experiencing.

2. Check and replace the carrier bearing. I think this will address the violent shaking while going up hill.

3. Purchase and instal a by-pass kit to address Toyota's piss poor air injection design.

4. Replace the rear differential oil.

5. Change the rear brakes and hope that it doesn't turn out like the fronts.

6. Replace rear bumper.

There's no way I can get rid of the truck in its current condition nor sell it to a private party..I don't want to do the same thing that the dealer did to me to another person.

I'm not bashing Toyota at all, I really do like the truck, I think its just the victim in the story and I think I can get her up to speed.

If any of you have experienced these issues before, please share what worked for you. Please keep in mind that I do most of my maintenance myself and my father-in-law is a mechanic that can fix anything. I refuse to take it to a dealer for repairs.

Thanks,

Dr. Goesinya

 

Hiya and welcome from SoCal!!!

 

Welcome from TX!

 

Welcome from OK, good luck with your issues!

 

Welcome from CO!

 

Welcome to the group!

Man, sorry to hear about your issues. You never know how well or poorly a used vehicle has been treated. Sounds like you had bad luck on that front.
I’ve not had any of the issues you speak of with any of the five Toyota vehicles I’ve had. I had a Sequoia gone over 200k, and still have a Tundra with about 118k on it. I’ve never had any issues whatsoever with the Sequoia. The alternator on the Tundra went out at around 100k, but I feel like that was on me. I had a bad battery that I kept putting off replacing, and I think that caused the alternator to fail.

Other than that alternator, I’ve not had a single mechanical failure on any of my Toyotas at all. Nothing but brakes, battery, stuff like that ever needed to be replaced. My wife even had a 1974 Celica she drove up until the late 90’s that never really gave us any trouble.

Of course, I’ve always done my best to take care of my vehicles. If the previous owner of yours didn’t, I can see where you would be frustrated.

 

Welcome to the party!!

Sorry for your luck.

 

Welcome from

 

Welcome from NC
Yes, the previous owner did not appreciate what he had before the neglect.
You have your hands full but very do-able. Once done, you should have a great vehicle.

 

Welcome from Cypress, TX.... and good luck in getting your truck problems all resolved.

 

Welcome Doctor Goes In Ya.

 

Welcome from Iowa

 

Welcome. Sucks you got a truck that the PO rode hard. Once you get your issues ironed out, the truck should be great for you.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome from NY.

 

Welcome from East Tennessee

 

Welcome from Colorado

Hope you can solve as much as possible with minimal costs

On a positive note, truck still starts and runs

 

Welcome from Nevada