Tundra engine recall - interesting news

What jumped out at me is it's a SR with the less aggressive tune - didn't save the engine.

 

What would that have to do with it?

 

So it was a short block not a recall crate motor??

 

so perhaps this motor isn't so "stressed out"?

 

I dont trust the short block replacement for shit, sorry mechanics, but that is just way too much to ask of your average dealership guy, its not even fair

 

The theory that it's not metal shavings causing the failure, it's LSPI causing failures, which would be less likely with the less aggressive tune on the SR models

 

Well, this is concerning. Not sure we've seen SR fails yet? Wait, didn't europedriver have SR and it blew up too?

 

It's making more hp / liter than a hellcat - it's definitely stressed.

 

needs more boost , HA

 

I think Euro's SR had a coil pack or something like that at well over 100k miles. It was an easy fix if I recall.

 

Meaning, some failures are still happening, but not being added to the tundras.com spreadsheet. Because life exists beyond this website.

 

So a quick break from the speeding/passing drama and the sad reality of @AZBoatHauler 's SR failure post, I'm going to drop back to a previous discussion of throttle lag from a few days ago.

To be clear, I have never experienced the 1 to 2 second complete absence of throttle others have reported. I've never had an "oh shit" moment pulling out into traffic and nothing is happening.
Mine is just the run of the mill "slow" throttle response under certain circumstances. You're moving, just not with the level of forward motion you would like to have. It feels doggy, weak.
Completely different issue I believe.

After experimenting with Tow/Haul mode, I'm inclined to agree with @KNABORES assessment.
Under these circumstances, (Regular drive modes, including Sport, slow roll, haven't come to a complete stop) the transmission stays in too high of a gear.
You hit the throttle to accelerate at a normal pace, and it stays in 2nd or possibly 3rd, and forward motion suffers. You can force a downshift with WAY more throttle than you would use normally.
Put it in Tow/Haul and life changes. The transmission will drop down that extra one or two gears on it's own instead of staying too high. Pulling away under light throttle feels smooth and effortless, like it should.
My morning drive routine is now: Tow/Haul from the driveway through my first 3 stop signs, then back to Sport once I'm past them. Much improved.

Haven't played much with attempting to "manually" down shift yet while in a standard drive mode. I'm betting the transmission programming won't allow for much forced downshifting. We'll see.

We now return to your regularly unscheduled 3rd gen breakdowns and speeding commentary.

 

I think every automatic vehicle I've ever owned behaves this way. And both of my 2.5 Gen 5.7's certainly have. It's never been anything so jarring / alarming that I thought it was outside of "normal"

 

I agree, there are a lot more drivers who don't bother with social media. But, on the other hand, it also means a lot of failures that happen, never make it onto social media.

For example, when my secondary air pump went out on my 2010, I had no clue this was an issue and only had recall paper in my drawer. When issue happened, I scheduled service department to look at it and they said it'll get fixed free of charge under recall. None of my information and completely painless experience made it into the internet until the very late years of recent years when I joined the great army of tundras.com

I'm almost ready to go out on a lumb and actually believe there are a lot more than 1% of tundras failing. Maybe 23% ?

 

For me anyway, the reason it stands out so much is because it's in stark contrast to the great performance of the engine and transmission everywhere else.
It's just during this one set of circumstances that it feels doggy.

 

This will sound like I'm being an a-hole 2nd gen'er (I promise I'm not), but I interpreted it as the opposite. As in, "even the detuned SR's are nuking motors"

 

I get it. That's so frustrating. I'm not suggesting that you are nitpicking, but if I were to nitpick my mostly flawless powertrain (after a 15 hour drive yesterday over hill and over dale), is that it is too quick to downshift from 6-5th on climbs, etc. Not alarming, but just noticeable. HP issue? Torque issue? Trans issue? Programming issue? Probably.

 

sure I see that argument, and I know your not a gen 2 a hole dude, most of those dudes got banned anyways, there is nothing wrong with discussion and other viewpoints.

it is what it is, not shit we can do at this point for those of us who have one.

Ill see next time Im in the market for a truck how I feel about the V35A trucks, but right now, I don't miss the ford or gm I tested.

it blows Toyota wont talk about this, it would go a long way, but its simply not going to happen.

so it comes down to a simple thing really, do you buy one or not, done, thats it, nothing more nothing less.

problem is, Im not so sure the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

 

Agreed. I dont think it's greener either.

Until I retire, I won't ever own a million mile tundra/toyota despite wanting to. Salt will just chew through trucks before 300k which at my current rate would take another 15-20 years to achieve. My wife had a 2005 Yukon XL that made it to 280k and her 2016 4Runner was what brought me over to Toyota (when my 2006 Sierra blew up) from a couple of GMs and a 7.3 Powerstroke. Toyota has been the first company that I've never "worried" about driving anywhere. The Yukon was a very close second and my other previous vehicles I was too young to worry and/or they met untimely demises for other reasons.

I dont have the warm and fuzzies with the 3rd Gen. I really hope Toyota can resolve this.

 

I was questioning this as well. I have not experienced this myself. Yes I have had the truck no accelerate quickly like normal, but the truck is if fact still moving when I press the throttle

 

I kinda prefer her to downshift if necessary, instead of luggage. Last gear is usually meant for flat supercruise anyway. In fact, mine is only gapped to downshift when 45-50. After that, she holds 6th more stubbornly. (4.6L)

 

With toyota proactively replacing potential seizures, the reported fails will/are become noise.

 

Agree ..

I go to a smaller Toyota dealership that has so far always treated me right and good mechanics. They even showed me at last oil change they have 3 crate engines on hand and have done 5 Tundras so far. When I asked " what if my pro grenades? " they said in all fairness you should take it to a much larger dealer who have done a bunch of short blocks.

 

100%. I was inches away from from buying a baby Duramax a couple of weeks ago and couldn't pull the trigger due to the "is the grass really greener" syndrome.
Re. Toyota communication, my impression is that they have the service advisors very schooled on what to not say. I had my truck at the dealer today and I've really come to dislike them but again, doubtful other dealers are better. The Big3 and Toyota have lost the story line on what good service is.


Meanwhile, my truck drives great, great mileage, range and power. My original tires are 1/2 gone and I'm putting a new set of shoes on tomorrow. Forward ho.

 

I was inches away from from buying a baby Duramax a couple of weeks ago and couldn't pull the trigger due to the "is the grass really greener" syndrome.
Luckily you didn't. My 2022 lost a coolant control vavle at 43,000 miles and I had to argue with them to get it fixed, when it has a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty AND an 80,000 mile emissions warranty. 3.0 Engine is great but GM's pollution control will be the death of their new diesels.

 

They even showed me at last oil change they have 3 crate engines on hand and have done 5 Tundras so far. When I asked " what if my pro grenades? " they said in all fairness you should take it to a much larger dealer who have done a bunch of short blocks.
Had my 5,000 mile service Monday. Talking with the desk clerk, and he said they have not had a Tundra come in yet with an engine failure, but have replaced 13 under the recall. Pretty sizeable dealer, they sell like 40 Tundras a month.

 

you're getting more disclosure than I am. My dealer is mid-sized and as of 6 months ago they had "4-6" failures which isn't many across the units sold.

 

I know people that have had zero issues with the small Duramax. On line 2, it seems like the GMC answer on everything is to deny warranty work. Flawed as it is, IMO, Toyota is still better than GM or Ford from a service standpoint.

 

It seems that dealing with Toyota or GM might have regional differences where service is better or worse. Our experience is the opposite and GM did a bunch of repairs on our truck and they did this with no challenges. Toyota wouldn't even call us back! This is our first GM so we were unsure of how that would go over.

GM overnighted a side mirror and installed it no questions asked. I just said it is a bit loose and vibrates when I drive, so $2,200 later they had fixed that and also installed a new NAV and media interface. And gave me a loaner to use for the few days. Different experience for sure.

 

It's more dealer to dealer

There has been a lot of consolidation among dealers. There are good dealer groups that own every brand. And bad dealer networks that own every brand

There is no universally good or bad dealer network. Each has some mix of good, average and bad dealers. Lots of examples of that in appliances for the example where company has a warranty but makes it impossible for a service company to get paid

You can run into makers of any products that are resistant to pay their servicers. That can lead to a broader bad experience where an item has warranty but it's nullified by no servicer wanting to do the work and fight for compensation