at 140,000 miles the engine is toast. My wife has had all the service done as required, even bought the extended warranty, that doesn't cover squat. Now the new or rebuilt engine will cost 5600 to 6300. That's just for the pistons, the electrical is ok. My E350 v-8 didn't cost that much to rebuild. I feel like they should be wearing a mask, and holding a gun. If Toyota builds such quality, then why do we have the piece of SH-T
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
I began to hear this annoying ticking noise with my Tundra somewhere between 35-40000 miles and after having it assessed at dealership,they concluded that I had a leaking exhaust manifold on the driver side,the dealer offered the part free of charge but Toyota wouldn't pay anything towards this repair which had a labor bill of $400.00.I conveyed to them that if something like a manifold "which doesn't have nearly as tight of machining tolerance requirement as that of the internal engine parts itself"was machined so poorly that it needed replaced,then.what could I expect from the rest of the internal motor??
Furthermore upon further research,I discovered that the engine was manufactured in West Virginia,the remainder assembled in Indiana.I bought this truck under the big misconception that it were better than American trucks as the old Toyota's were notorious for,however,I wasn't aware that I was buying a truck with a West Virginia made motor in it,this in itself would be enough to scare off even the least skeptical consumers had we known this.I should have done my homework a bit more on the Tundra prior to buying it as having been a factory employee in the past that worked with close tolerances,Cnc machinery and the manufacturing process as a whole,had already realized that it takes decades of research and trial and error before you can actually consistently make a high quality piece of machinery with very tight tolerance requirements,thus,stands to reason why an American made truck has a much higher probability of being that of a quality one than that of a plant that's probably my last Toyota that I will ever buy and I'm in the prime of my buying years,Toyota could have averted this by simply doing the right thing and not even been around ten years.In concluding...this was my first and very paying the labor bill on this manifold job.
We have bought two different Toyota Tundras, a 2001 and a 2002, both top of the line with all extras. The first Tundra started having an engine knock and blue smoke coming from the engine. We took this truck in for service many times and were always told that there was nothing wrong with our truck.
We finally got worried enough about the truck and traded it in on a new 2002 Toyota Tundra with the salesman telling us that there must have just been a problem with the first truck that would certainly not be there in the new one. We had the new truck for a couple of weeks and then the very same thing started to happen with the new one. We have now taken the new truck in for service many times where it has been verified by Toyota and Toyota is stating that this problem is simply inherent in those models and that there is nothing to worry about with the motors.
Their Toyota "specialist," Carl Smith, stated that the "engine slap" was no problem and that he did not see any of the other problems that we reported to him. Our truck is knocking on cool and hot starting conditions, blowing blue smoke out of the tailpipe, failing to start three times now, 02 sensors failing (2 now in 2 months) and the gas gauge is not telling us when the tank is empty causing us to run out of gas twice in the last two weeks.
I wrote a letter to Toyota Japan to the President of Toyota, to Toyota Japan to the head office in Tokyo, to Mr. Brian ****, General Manager, North American Headquarters in Erlanger, Ky and also to Gulf States Toyota, Inc. in Houston where Mr. Carl Smith is employed. The letter to Gulf States Toyota was refused and returned, the letter to Mr. Brian **** was answered with a message to contact the Head Office of Toyota in California, the letter to Toyota in Tokyo was never answered and the letter to Mr. Fujio ****, President of Toyota was answered with a note telling us that we would be contacted by the North American Toyota office in California.
We were contacted by a lady identifying herself as Jessica Ketchum, working for a Mr. Juki ****, President of Toyota North America. She stated that Toyota was holding firm with the **** that Mr. Carl Smith had come up with and that the problem with our truck was not a problem at all and we had no problem with our truck that could be fixed by Toyota unless we wanted to take our problems to Arbitration. I assumed that we would be getting a letter to tell us this same thing and told this Jessica **** that I would just wait to get the letter from her office and my husband and myself would then make a decision as to how to proceed with this problem with our vehicle.
Jessica **** then informed me that she would not be sending a letter to us for any reason and that even if we sent another letter to Japan that her office and the President of Toyota North America would just ignore any other response from us. She did state that their office would be sending a letter to their office in Japan, but that we would not be getting a letter of any kind. I then told her that this was a very big mistake on her bosses behalf and that unless Toyota could make a living selling vehicles to their employees, that they might want to reconsider their business practices of just kissing off customers. Her response was that that was the procedure in her office and she had nothing more to tell me.
When we were at the Toyota Dealership each time having our truck looked at, there were many other folks there also standing in line waiting for someone to fix problems that Toyota said was simply not there in the first place. I believe that there is a BIG problem with these truck and Toyota is just trying to keep it quiet until their 2004 Toyota Tundra's come out. Their "specialist" Mr. Carl Smith and other Service Department personnel have stated that this is simply an inherent problem with this motor and it has now been fixed! This means that they knew about this problem when they sold us our current truck, but decided it was not in our best interest to tell us or anyone else!!
This has caused our family much mental anguish, along with now being faced with having to trade this 2nd truck off for another vehicle making it three in three years, which will cause us to lose all equity that we have paid on this and the last truck that also gave us the same problem. We paid over $18,000.00 down on the first Toyota Tundra and we will never get that back. My husband is a heart patient and it has caused him to suffer heart pain from worrying about this and what would happen if the truck broke down with us and it has also caused him to have to walk for several miles in 106 degree heat when the truck ran out of gas with the gauge showing it still had a quarter of a tank of gas. We have probably lost several thousand dollars in these trucks and will never be able to get it back.
Bought a spanking new 2002 Toyota Tundra June 15, 2002, in SC. Moved to TN two weeks later. With 800 miles on the truck, I took it to the nearest dealer for a knocking sound in the engine. The engine was defective. The engine was replaced. Thirty-one days after taking the truck into the dealer, sixty something days after purchasing it I got it back with the new engine. A couple of weeks later I had to take it back because the mechanic bent the brake rotor dust covers when he was replacing the engine. Consequently they were rubbing and making a racket.
I changed the oil in my Toyota Tundra after driving 4000 miles since a garage had changed it. The filter gasket from the old filter stuck to the engine block, causing an insufficient seal, allowing the oil to drain out. Twenty miles down the road, the engine skipped and I noticed zero oil pressure on the guage. I immediately stopped, but the motor was already toast.
My question is, how can Toyota make an aluminum engine without warning lights and buzzers for loss of oil? This is supposed to be Motor Trend's truck of the year and it doesn't warn you of low oil. Even my friend's old Ford Ranger does that.
