Truck broke down today...

More like 6 speed transmissions behind underpowered engines.
I have 6 speed sitting behind 5.7 iForce and there is no crazy shifting. It holds 6th up the hill with out issue.

 

Read this whole thread and my gosh I'm sick to my stomach. OP, so sorry you have to deal with this crap. I happened to be at toyota of El Cajon on Friday and walked through their shop, and saw a mag grey off road I believe with the hood in the bed and the engine sitting next to it. Made me cringe. I assume this is yours. I asked the lot guy if he's seen a lot of new tacos in and he said yeah, they're having a lot of issues. I happened to be there getting stuff out of my '16 DCLB sport because it needs the instrument cluster replaced. Trip meters kept resetting. Tranny was shifting like crap too and they found it 1 qt low. I got the feeling my two problems are pretty common.

Right, every manufacturer has issues. I had to lemon law a first year FJ cruiser and then took the cash and bought the exact same thing. Kept it for 7 years with no issues. But WTF is wrong with toyota on their QC of this new taco? WTF!!!!!!

My .02 is to do what will give you peace of mind for the long term. The funny thing is El Cajon gave me a '16 f150 crew cab as a loaner and boy does it drive like a dream. The 3.5 ecoboost is QUICK and it's so comfortable. I'm sure it would tow beautifully. 0% interest on them right now is intriguing as well. The lemon law route is actually a pretty painless process, if you hit your 30 days. Your issue could also be considered a safety issue which would help your case. Or, if they offer an unlimited mileage power train warranty on your truck that would be pretty sweet too.

I wish you the best, but don't stress, you do have a few options.

 

Very Possible,

I am with SOSHeloPilot, the fact that something, whatever, happened when she took her truck in for service.

Will we or the op ever find the real story? Probably NOT.

So now is the time, to move on to the repair. And what the op will be satisfied with.

oldracer

 

Aw man, sounds like my girl. Has pink inlay on the tailgate. Haha. Damn that sounds rough...the SW offered for me to take a look at it but I was finalizing the rental car (which I was particular about since I didn't want one in the first place considering the shady company that enterprise is...) But my dad went and took a look and it was pretty alarming I suppose. :/

 

IMO, you could still unravel this.

Who is paying for rebuild ??

If dealer did a mistake and billed it to TOYOTA Corp?

If OEM warranty, TOYOTA Corp would be furnishing a rental free I would think?

What if "lemon law" statutes come into play?

Was drain plug touched from factory?

There are many ways to check this out if you want to.


Shop cameras??

Follow the money (who is paying the bill) and you have a beginning point.

And, is the dealer taking advantage of an unknowing female?

I would find out all the facts fast and take it to the wall if I had some of the above answers in my favor or they refused to answer.

You need all records you can get and see relationship between dealer and corporate on this.

 

Why is everyone on the assumption that the dealer sabotaged her truck? Sometimes shit happens. She was towing which only adds stress to the motor, so if a component fails what do you think is going to happen?

 

OP, call the contact you have been talking to and ask for compression test results.
If this was an issue where tech messed up with oil, compression numbers will be all over the place. If it was just one cylinder down on compression then we can figure it was injector failure or broken rings on that cylinder. Also, by asking for compression results will show us if the dealer is covering something up or not. If this is indeed being covered by toyota, the warranty department would have requested a compression test before even pulling one head bolt out. If there was never a compression test done, something real fishy is going on.

 

... ^^^ ... I don't ever think it was sabotage, but I do think that it was possibility a mistake and the problem can be answered very easily with some basic questions.

Personally, I have had big mistakes at dealers in oil change area ... i.e. (1) oil was double filled because old oil was not drained and filter was not touched ... (2) old oil was drained and filter was changed, but oil was not refilled ... and several times where oil was not at proper level and/or filter was not touched. My oil change problems happened at several dealerships.

Granted, our information is coming second hand, however, some very weird and unexplainable things have happened with this situation.

With 8-10 questions asked and answered, you can get find out where this is going.

OP, you have been given some good information (from many people) to ferret this out if you want to, or you can just let this go and see what happens. In the end, it's your call and please keep us posted.

 

thank you for your service

 

This makes perfect sense coupled with the fact that there are other post mentioning that some of these 3rd generation Tacomas have been found to be low on trany fluid.

 

Got a call back. SW said the blocks are in stock and being delivered. So, assuming the short block has been assembled and is simply being delivered in its entirety to the dealership.
Here's the bad news....he also ordered an engine gasket kit and it's on backorder. The order is 4th in line and there's no ETA. I asked if that means that this has been a common occurance happening to tacomas and he said yeah, it sounds that way...you just drew the unlucky strraw in California.

 

that sounds like good news to me. Let them screw around and on day 31 its party time.

 

Haha, yeah, that's what I'm hoping for. I would feel better having a new truck that didn't go through all these issues before the first service.

 

They'll have no choice in the matter at that point.

 

Anyone else pick up on this one? Slightly concerning...

 

Very concerning. Sounds like it was the service writers opinion based on the fact that there was any backorder at all....
But something to keep in mind.

 

Gaskets on backorder with no expected date. How many days left for Lemon law? So Lindsay, are you going to choose another Tacoma or try to upgrade to a Tundra?

 

Actually there was a post here earlier this year from a Toyota Tech, on a V6 that had oil on the spark plugs and the engine was pulled. There was pictures and everything very similar to what was listed her. The tech wasn't involved at all with the repair but worked at the service center it was going on. So yes I would believe that being #4 in line is about right. Since this is the second occurrence of a pulled engine in a 3rd gen with oil on the plugs


https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/big-2gr-fks-engine-problem.406251/

 

I think it's about day 23/24?
I'm going to drive the tundra. I hate to make it all about aesthetics but I sure love the way the Tacoma looked and drove....that thing was my love and I have $350 wet okole seat covers, led headlights, running boards, etc, etc. And would like to reuse that in another Tacoma....lol, but whatever...I should have removed all that before they took it for so long. Ugh.
Anyway, i would like to drive the tundra and I'm also looking at the new Chevy Colorado diesel.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/posts/12165191/

This guy was passed off as a troll, but sounds very familiar with the OP issue