It looks like Tundras.com deleted the entire 137 page thread on the engine issues. I find that strange. I didn’t get banned, so I guess that’s good.
3rd Gen Engine Failures
- Thread starter Mattedfred
- Start date
And another thread on it got banned. So odd. You would think you’d encourage conversation on a forum. I guess not.
Yeah it got messy, with a lot of Code Of Conduct violations in that thread plus Toyota going hard on the forum owners because threads contained what they claimed were copyrighted materials, mostly boiling down to screenshots of tsbs, parts diagrams, and recall notices to dealers.
My take on the whole engine thing.
- I do think Toyota is honest that debris issue does in fact account for the vast majority of engine failures.
- I think Toyota is Disingenuous about the Hybrid model, the hybrid is affected in the same way but isn't legally needed to be in the recall.
- Toyota will need to be accountable for the hybrid owners by addressing it as well, even if that's a service campaign and not a recall
- The debris issue is no the only cause of failures, but the failure rate is probably drastically lower after they started cleaning engines properly. These other failures probably deal with specific assembly issues or errors that affected single engines or small batches.
- The design needs to be updated, but for the specific reason the current design is probably a bit too sensitive to assembly issues or may be error prone, rather than a problem that the bearings are not durable.
TheDo114
Well-known member
Yeah it's very strange what's happening on the Tundra forum. I was interested in buying one when my lease is up so I was following the forum and then shit hit the fan. Threads were popping up and the stories started happening and then the moderators deleted everything. If you go on the forum now it seems like everything is fine but you can't start a new thread on the issue as it gets deleted.
Yes, they are insane. I was part of the 4Runner forum for 6 years when I had one, and you could not share a bad experience. People would tell you that you caused the issue or that you drove it wrong or it was your fault because you were born under a star near mars that was perpendicular to Jupiter... The blindfolds are real over there.
I'm doing my usual truck news recap today and was just thinking on what the topic should be. I think I should lead off with the Tundra recall update and provide some perspective like:
1. Toyota should be getting some credit for being honest. They didn't have to tell you it was engine debris. They could have just said supplier issue. And they certainly didn't have to do the detailed report on finding the issue. I've checked two other manufacturers recall documents on NHTSA and they don't have those details.
2. I never once said ALL Toyota dealers weren't taking trade ins. I showed my sources. I think the Toyota fanboys are actually handling this information wrong. Instead of challenging each other and calling people liars, they should be creating a list of dealerships that are doing trade ins for good money and sharing that information.
3. A dealer offering a trade in amount for thousands less just to wholesale it still counts as no trade-in IMO.
4. I still believe the safety recall will be expanded. The notion the hybrid isn't included because it still provides motive power is just an excuse to not put them under a bigger recall.
5. Toyota will weather this storm. They are a big company and they have gone through these things before.
TheDo114
Well-known member
I think you should drop point #2. Don't feed the trolls or the fanboys, you can't win against them.
Hilux
Well-known member
Speaking from past experience the majority of Toyota owners are the most thin skinned people alive, you could cut through an Toyota owners artery with the feather of a dove.
I used to swill the Toyota Kool-Aid by the barrel, in the end Toyota left me I did not leave Toyota, it came to an end for me when Toyota made the Tacoma for the USA and the rest of the world got the far superior Hilux.
One of the things I used to do is go to this website Toyota Gibraltar Stock holdings https://www.toyota-gib.com/eng/index.html (still do sometimes I will take a Land Cruiser 79 single cab pickup) to see what the rest of the world got and we were stuck with the Toyota USA stinkers.
And this feedback is why I really like this forum.
I've thought many times of taking a trip to drive all the stuff we can't get in the U.S. I've pulled up flight details on Australia a few too many times. I just can't justify the $10k ticket (sorry not doing back of the plane for that long of a flight). I just don't see the ROI for a trip like that.
Hilux
Well-known member
You should take a trip to the Toyota Gibraltar Stock Holdings unit in Virginia, I am pretty sure they stock all of those cool forbidden fruit Toyotas in their Virginia location.
Honestly, I think it's because that is the flag on top of the hill for that brand. They are never innovative or mainstream so what they have is reliability. Which is probably why 90% of them bought a Toyota in the first place. So, they are not just defending Toyota, they're defending their own decision.
But they aren't unique either. I dropped from most owner forums because they become too "culty". They start acting like no one else, especially the manufacturer's own engineers, know anything. Only they know the truth and it cannot go against their core beliefs. They'll defend those choices regardless of whether there is data saying it's false. Mob mentality, ignore the facts go with herd.
Fightnfire
Moderator
You nailed it and I almost typed out a similar response. They don't lead in tech, infotainment, options, comfort, interior as whole, truck capability, off-road capability, performance etc. etc. They have reliability and resale value. However, the resale part is going to take a massive hit not only with the Tundra but with the inflated price of the Tacoma. 10 years and 150,000 miles down the road people are going to forget that they paid 5-10k more for their Tacoma when it was new. It should be worth 5-10k more when they sell it years later. We'll see.
Fightnfire
Moderator
Shoutout to Tim. TFL has covered this recall issue a couple times now and still haven't gotten it right with the Hybrid. In their latest video they said it wasn't affected. They have yet to show the portion of the recall that says It is affected but remains operable so it's not a major safety issue.
Hilux
Well-known member
As I remember that's another reason I left Toyota the 2004 Tacoma was more expensive than my 2004 Silverado rclb 4x4 $18,500 with rebates.
I remember a year two after I bought my 2004 Silverado I was having Toyota withdrawals and I went to test drive a 2006 Tundra rclb 4x4 and I went to start it and it was stone dead I told the salesman just forget it, he started telling me he could get a jump pack, I just left.
Not that this will change anything, but I did try to clear the air.
A good number of vehicle specific forums are manufacture owned ,and the majority of the posters with high post counts are "compensated" by the owners . at least that has been my experience .
I love the haters who think it is all about the clicks. If I was all about the clicks, I’d certainly have started a much different channel and become a shock jock.
TheDo114
Well-known member
I know I told you to drop point #2, but your approach to it was well made and came out nicely in the video, great work.
Unrelated to the Tundra, in your latest video with the GMC 1500 ultimate Denali, I think you made an interesting point at the end where you said that you always test fully loaded model and then us as consumers, we can see everything and then de-content the truck to our need or budget. That was a really interesting take and I think you're right overall for functionality but it's hard to imagine what the interior/exterior will actually look like once done removing the fancy options. This is made worse since they are not even on the dealer lot and the YouTube algorithm is not friendly to base trucks.
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TheDo114
Well-known member
They are also they only fan base in the world to defend drum brakes on a pickup truck in the 2010's... says a lot.