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Comments
As far as problems ... I did have the vibration in the center console but ever since I switched from Dunlop tires to Michelin tires ... I have had smooth sailing all the way! the sound system is average at best and the clock position is not in the best spot! The mileage could be better but what do you expect from a V-8?!
My only real complaint now is that the Keyless entry does not work very well! I have to be within 50 feet for the thing to work! I believe that this can be resolved very easily by adjusting the sensor in the keypad!
Good luck!
Todd~~~
Every piece of this is real and trust me I am very sorry that it happened to me. I tell this story (tell) to all of you guys to help you draw your conclusions about this new truck and make up your minds approaching it.
This whole thing happened Thursday the week of 09/13/99. We were for a week of vacation in Utah, visiting some of the national parks. After 5 days of great time and beautiful scenery we were supposed to drive the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands NP. We headed out on the trail around 2:45 in the afternoon with about 45 miles ahead of us to our campsite. With all my honesty the truck was doing great on this rough terrain. It was handling rocks, mud, steep climbs and the kind pretty well. The engine performance also is very nice. So after about 5 hours we landed at the campsite – Murphy B, shut the truck down and started preparing for the night. After probably 15 to 30 minutes ‘cause of the strong wind I decided to position the truck behind the tent so I could tie the tent to it.
And it happened the darn thing would not start. The engine was turning over OK but it wouldn’t start. Being out of all the possible places at the worst one, in the middle of the dessert, stranded with your brand new truck (2500 miles) I nearly cried. Imagine how I felt with my wife and my 15 months old baby. I looked at the manual for any clues, tried the procedures for flooded engine (almost impossible), checked for any loose wires or hoses but everything looked OK (it was dark by the time). The whole night I was tossing and turning around thinking of how in the world we were going to get out of this place. If we had to walk out of there it was 6 miles to the canyon rim traversing sheer cliff walls.
The morning came. I looked for loose wires again, checked all the fuses, made sure the fuel line was not broken – everything seemed OK. And the thing would not start. Luckily enough we found some people camping next to us that had a phone. After numerous attempts (the signal was real low) I managed to get a towing agency’s number from a guy from the Toyota Customer Service Line. Believe me you don’t wanna see your truck get towed out of that place. It almost broke my heart watching it. It cost us $1950 to get towed to Moab, Utah and took around 13 hours. The next day (Saturday) for additional $300 we got to the Toyota dealership in Grand Junction, Colorado. The guys at the service department of Western slope Toyota were real nice. With a scan tool they found out that there was no fuel pressure, energized the fuel pump with this tool and the truck started right back on. And it starts every time since. The bad part is that they could not figure out why it failed. They were guessing that the fuel pump relay was the problem but nothing positive. We were told that there is a chance that this could happen again any time we try to start the truck. So on Saturday afternoon we grove to Salt Lake city and stayed close to Carl Malone Toyota in case we had to resort for help again. We drove all the way to California on Sunday without even shutting the car down. Imagine if this happened again in the middle of Nevada.
Now the “fun” part. The truck was 3 days in the shop at Folsom Lake Toyota supposedly to get fixed. Even after the company rep looked at it they keep saying the truck was flawless?!?! I asked for the relay to get replaced and they did that – changed three relays that had something to do with the fuel pump.
Now, I am a computer guy and had those situations when a customer states there was a problem somewhere but we cannot reproduce it – may be one time data problem, maybe different environment or god knows what but this doesn’t mean that our programs are bugless. May be this is one time situation which I doubt, may be it takes a little shaking for this to happen, may be it’s my computer chips or this bug is everywhere, just waiting for the right time to show up (Utah desert). It just freaks me out. I will be using the truck in this kind of places. That’s why I paid my $30000.
I understand that Toyota is a great company with great customer service (they will pay for the towing) and this is version 1.0 of this truck and probably that story will not change my attitude but still there is a problem.
Since I can’t figure out what to do in this situation I would appreciate any input.
I pulled my boat (75 lbs. tongue weight) and hauled a bunch of camping stuff and noticed my bed sagged about two or three inches, and yes I distributed the heavy items toward the cab. Seemed to sag more than my Dakota did. I don't have the TRD package.
The alarm goes off if you open a door, or when the shatter guard senses a window breaking (haven't tested this part yet). The system is suppose to disable the ignition if the alarm goes off. The ignition is enabled when the alarm is turned off by a remote or by the ignition key.
I've had other aftermarket alarms (Cliford, Ungo, Viper) and this one seems adequate. It doesn't have a lot of the other features of the other alarms, but I find that I really didn't have a use for a motion detector and other stuff.
The good thing about the alarm (from my experience with the Camry) is that there are very few false alarms. On the other hand, I don't know how many TRUE alarms there were that scared a would be thief away.
The engine may be similar to the Lexus 470, but don't kid yourself, it is different. Bore and Stroke may be the same, but I wonder how many other parts are different. Besides having a cast iron block, this engine was designed to run on regular gas so it will have a different compression ratio (probably different pistons, wrist pins, connecting rods and crank). It is also designed to have more torque (probably different camshafts and port design). This is only speculation because I don't know all the specs of the Land Cruiser.
Hope Toyota is stand up about it (for my Tundra's sake too). Like the previous post says, I too am a software developer and understand the complexity of getting something perfect the first time (or even consistantly). I know my pride in my work comes with the fact that my customers know if something does go wrong, I will fix it and take care of them.
1. Limiteds do come with hitches, port installed.
2. Don't send you wife to get a hitch installed.
3. Don't Buy from Garry McKinney in Fort Worth, There sales team will take your money and treat you like a cheap tramp... I will NEVER GO BACK. Tell Your Friends :-{
Thanks for your time,
John
(about the brighter headlamps I mean ; )
Tim
Hardly any freeway driving, mostly mountain highway driving. 50 Miles of the trip included a very steep mountain road with many steep elevation gains and hairpin corners, I was in a serious hurry and drove the truck pretty hard. I expected to get poor mileage on this tank as I “got on it” lots of times.
This is in sharp contrast to one of the first tanks where I “babied” the truck and got 14.5 mpg.
This was Northern California gas that has many “smog” fighting additives and MTBE which decreases overall BTU.
My Tundra is not “the perfect” truck but I am VERY pleased with it, and would do it over again. I don’t think there is any such thing as a “truck for the one percenters”.
About the engine difference between the Tundra and Landcruiser:
I HEARD (don't know if it's true) that the only difference is the Tundra engine has a much longer intake manifold, similar to a "high rise" style manifold. This is supposed to provide more low end torque.
Can anyone explain to me the difference between horsepower and torque? Is horsepower the ability to keep something in motion and torque the ability to accelerate? I think I know that HP is just plain energy while torque is a "twisting power". Any further explanation would be appreciated.
Hp = time rate of doing work, Torque X RPM.
Your explanation was right on!
More junk than you'll ever need to know.
I love my Camry and tried hard to buy Toyota, but it looks like I'm about 6-8 months too early. Big time bummer!
Looks like I'm being pushed into a F150....
Bob in PA
Good luck with your truck - consider the extra you paid part of your education expense.
For acceleration, you need a positive change in torque. But since for all speeds above zero you also must have rpm, horsepower describes acceleration too. In fact, since horsepower includes terms for both torque and rpm, if you know any two you can solve for the third.
In a more subjective sense, torque gives you an instantaneous acceleration, but it takes horsepower to maintain it. A small elevator in an office building can accelerate at the same rate as one that serves a skyscraper. But the one in the skyscraper maintains that rate of acceleration longer, to a higher final velocity, and thus requires more horsepower for the same torque.
-Art
BK from PA
Best of luck with your Tundras gentlemen, and I hope to join you next May when my lease runs out!
For those of you out there; a little advise.
-NO is the most powerful word in an negotiation.
-He HAS to sell the truck a lot more than you NEED to buy it.
-The long he doesn't sell the truck, the more money he loses, the longer you don't buy the truck, the more money you save.
-And finally, for every perfect truck that you HAVE TO HAVE, Toyota will make 1000's more EXACTLY like that one.
Keep these points in mind when you go negotiate a deal.
If so what manufacture?
Thanks.
Synthetic oil is over kill, much like buying high octane gas if your truck/car doesn't need it. Synthetic oil does protect your engine better in extreme operation. Under normal use (including light towing and daily commuting) the difference is very minimal. The benefit of synthetic comes in when your engine is running hot and hard (in the top 80% of engine performance regularly). In other words unless you are running your engine in top gear at near redline in hot or high altitude environment, or weigh your truck down so that you have to almost floor it to get it moving, or just floor the throttle from every stop sign and stop light, the extra cost of synthetic oil is probably not worth the gain you get in the engines longevity.
I know, some people will say it's cheap insurance, but if that's the case, why don't you fill up with the most expensive gas all the time (to prevent pinging), or pay a detailer $100 a month for a hand rub wax to protect the finish, why don't you always buy the extended warranty at Circut City. There's a lot of things that pay extra for, but your decision is usually based on your perceived benefit.
One last thing ... don't forget to check the oil level after you change the oil. I think the manual was a bit optimistic in saying 6 to 6.5 quarts. It's more like 7. Even if you take your truck to a shop (or even dealer), take 30 seconds and check your oil level before you pull out. I've found that most places just assume engines take either 4 or 6 quarts.
My $0.02
The manuals are incorrect and the service personnel must not be well advised as to the correct oil quantity. I think that the oil capacity maybe be closer to 7.5 quarts. I sure would like to know exactly what it is.
I think what Pete said is true but for an extra $7 per oil change I have added piece of mind.
Anybody want to buy a slightly used Tundra?
You are right I would hate to stick a plow on the front just as much as I would hate to sell. This truck has been great, I do not have one bad thing to say about it, the more I drive it the more I like it.