No effing trans cooler?! I'm out Toyota

The post is about 300K miles is nice but towing every day statement is useless. What reasonable person would tow EVERYDAY with a 1/2 ton unless its a 2Klb landscaping trailer staying under 45 mph in neighborhood. Anyone that tows that much would use an HD Truck and make real money. Time is time, no more time to tow 15000lbs than 15,00lbs but 15,000lbs pays much better....

 

Sorry brother but I think you miss understood what I was saying. I DO NOT believe that the lack of a auxiliary transmission cooler is going to cause any problems at all. Maybe under severe abuse but extremely rare none the less. I was simply stating the those who disagree with my thinking chalk it up a massive reliability issue (definitely not me).

And for those that feel that way should speak with a engineer before making that assumption; that a lack of an auxiliary cooler is going to kill their truck...regardless of knowledge or expertise.

 

I don't think reasonable is the issue. towing or not 300k miles in two years is simply effing nuts.

 

Sounds like too many of you continue to compare the 1/2 ton Tundra ,to 3/4 ton others when it comes to towing , just like it said one of other posts on here where someone said putting a slide in camper, even the basic,stripped down one will max out and with full gear , over load the Tundra. But alot still do it , and it handles the call, or some pulling 30 ft loaded campers, still handles the call. Long story is ,we all push or Tundras because of what they are , and who we are, and from all the reading on here sounds like no matter what , you aren't going to beat the TUNDRA.

 

I agree with Bucks04 and IMO prior to 2012? Tundra was in line with 3/4ton truck. Not today. I put the cooler on, I learned many times a rebuilt transmission never ever shifts the same as one that was never rebuilt. Doesn't downshift the same, slams into gear blah blah blah. Since I have a transmission shift fetish, i installed a cooler and I do tow at times 500-600 miles at a time 6klbs at 75 mph. Bottom line is all 2019 and newer still under warranty, its buying one used out of warranty where the out of warranty buyer may have to pay for the transmission. Then again the new model will be out and and the current will slowly be forgotten with any issues it may have had.

I just shocked my F250 diesel kept the trans temp pinned at 195F surprised as cheap as Ford is and they are CHEAP they still used a cooler....

 

@Berettafan i think the wait and see approach is warranted here. Toyota doesn't do anything without it working well and if they do something and it doesn't work or lacks something to be desired they constantly make changes to improve. I'd take the wait and see approach on it

 

I decided to not wait and see. Seeing what some people’s temps were unloaded in the summer made me think I’d rather just add the cooler and get it over with. It’s a pretty simple install. Just follow the fluid check procedure properly.

I think it’s great that he went 300k on a 2019+ towing with no ext cooler and no issues.

But isn't 300k miles in 2 years a lot different than 300k miles over a span of 10-15 years? Hopefully I will fall into the latter category, and I wanted the lower temps that an external cooler w/ a thermostat provide.

 

I’m with you here. My thought is that Toyota wouldn’t sacrifice their excellent reputation of reliability and dependability for an approximately $1000 trans cooler just for the heck of it. I’m sure they've done their diligence in research before deciding to eliminate it. I’ll at least wait out my factory warranty before deciding to add one or not. By then there will be many non-cooler Tundras with real-world testing.

 

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

 

I thought those were otters.

 

or Beavers....

 

Yes. It's why they are always jabbing people's genitals with their snouts.

 

Faaaa love paaaa...

 

Are you sure? I thought otters are river weasels.

 

I'd like to know all of his maintenance...has he changed the transmission fluid and when, gear oil changed and when, etc

 

Vin# would show all maintenance

 

Imagine the trans cooler cost them $700 more in parts than the thermostat-shaped spacer that is in there now. They sold 100,000 trucks in 2020. If they saved $700 in parts per truck, that is $70M in savings in 2020 alone.

Now think about the drivers grab handle they deleted in what, 2014? Say they saved $50 in parts deleting the handle. That’s $5M in savings for 2020 alone. Same story for all the years prior since they deleted it.

Of course they’ve added features since (CarPlay, safety sense, etc), but these features are a lot easier to spend $$ to R&D when you decide to delete something seemingly small or inconsequential or unnecessary from the truck.

I hate to say it as a Toyota fan, but I agree with the others in this thread who do not see it as an engineering decision resulting from careful data analysis but rather as a cost-saving decision emerging from a boardroom.

The transmission is the same as 2018. The fluid is the same. Nothing was done to offset the deletion, just a thermostat-shaped spacer added to seal off the thermostat port.

Soooo, the way I see it: either they’re wrong now, or they were wrong before. The worship of the almighty Toyota engineer here is kind of weird. Just my two cents.

 

Not if the owner did their own maintenance.

 

Wow. We had a member here who changed his transmission fluid on a ‘19 I believe after a significant amount of towing. I don’t remember who it was. He sent a sample of the old fluid to Blackstone. The results indicated the fluid was fine. We have a ‘19 Tundra with almost 300,000 miles and lots of towing and the transmission is fine. Yet we still have people saying Toyota is cutting corners and ripping people off by deleting the cooler. I don’t care what any individual does with their truck. You can put several auxiliary coolers on it if you like, it’s your truck. But please stop criticizing Toyota in the process. They’ve earned the benefit of the doubt IMO.

 

You are talking about 300000 plus trucks sold since 2019 , I am pretty sure they though pretty good before removing the external cooler , just imagine the cost of lawsuits and recall they have to cover ...

 

Just because a change saves money doesn't mean it isn't backed by sound engineering judgment.

 

300k trucks sold without coolers at $700 savings each would be $210M saved. For perspective, Toyota was awarded $25M by Dana for the decade of faulty Tacoma frames Dana produced for them.

Agreed. But are you then saying the engineers were wrong for years before?

Edited to add: just because a change was made by Toyota doesn’t mean that change is correct.

I say all this as a Toyota fan. I love my truck. I wouldn’t drive any other half ton. I’m just not convinced the decision to delete the cooler was made with longevity of the transmission in mind. Seems more a way to save a bit (or a lot, rather) of money as they R&D the new model.

 

are you saying that the number one company in the world known for its reliability would risk it all for 70M a year ??

 

I don’t think they’re “risking it all” with deleting this cooler. For most people, it’ll be fine. There’s a couple examples here that appear to be fine. That does not mean the decision was driven by engineering. And if it was, they have egg on their face for all the years beforehand where they said the truck needed it.

Speaking of money: for perspective, Toyota was paid $25M by Dana for all those years of Tacoma frames prematurely rusting. Are you saying that pocketing $70M/yr for the last three years of an aging 14-yr model run of a truck that only sells better than Nissan is inconsequential?

Again, I love my truck, and I am a Toyota fan. But like all companies out there, I don’t think every decision they make is the 100% best possible decision every time. I do think this decision was financially driven rather than engineering driven. I’m happy to be shown to be wrong. To me that would include showing me how the 2019+ transmission and/or cooling system is different since it no longer needs the ext cooler that these very same Toyota engineers said it needed for years prior.