Fuel pump recall on the way

They did not seem to know when but (my impression was) they were bummed to have them sitting on the lot. I am not sure that they were supposed to have them prominently displayed but they did.

 

Toyota's reliability was never a "gimmick", it was earned. If you are old enough to have experienced Toyotas in the 70s and 80s you'll know what I mean. They even had high mileage clubs.

 

Extremely high milage. And extreme body RUST back then!!

 

I’d love to respond, but I can’t. Mods will delete my posts. Have a good one.

 

Just took the wife’s Lexus in for this recall. The dealer got the part in two days and just in time. Driving the 4 hours there, the engine started running rough if the RPM where below 1500, the tach would just drop to 1000 or down to 500 or somewhere in between and then come back up. At higher RPMs, no problem.

my new Tacoma is my 5th new Toyota pickup and my 8th over all. This new 4 week old truck of mine has been to the dealer twice for about a total of 10 hours, more than all my other 5 new trucks combined and Toyota engineers want it back for more testing. Toyotas reliability is legendary, but for me this is not what is happening. I am lucky that it’s non critical and I can still drive the truck, but it’s a pain when the nearest dealer is an hour away.

 

those are very cool! thx for posting!

 

Brought my wife's 2014 4runner in for the recall this week. Took them about 4-5 from drop off to pick-up. They were about 2 weeks out on ordering the part once we scheduled though.

 

Ime the rust issues came later when production was moved to the US. My 85 had no rust when I sold it 17yrs later but then again I gave it's chassis a solid coat of quality black enamel soon after purchase.


I can't make that claim for Chevy PUs and blazers of that Era, owned a couple of those too and repaired rust on quite a few.

 

And I grin whenever I read the pissing matches on TW between the 3rd Gen OR and Sport ride quality. Both 3rd Gen independent suspensions ride far better than the front leaf spring suspension of the 70s and 80s 4x4s. If this younger crowd rode in my old 85 with its front solid axle differential they would be whining big time.

 

I’m wondering what the “accepted” failure rate of a part is. Whether we like it or not there is a threshold of failure that is (for lack of a better word) “tolerated” before a voluntary recall goes out.

@hiPSI? A little help here brother?

 

Out of curiosity what do you consider the "younger crowd?"

 

Anyone young enough who never had a chance to ride or take long trip in one of those older versions of Toyota 4x4s. They're not very common anymore.

 

This is the truth! I had two 80s model 4x4s. But I really miss those trucks. They were solid as a rock. Loved the suspension and ride. I wish they still made them that way.

 

There are many different levels of acceptable mistakes. Most mistakes are accidents, meaning, no matter how hard the engineers try, they cannot anticipate everything as they are human. PM me if you want more. No human is perfect.

 

oooooo boy the live axle days. So sad ‘85 was the last year Toyota used it - my dad had one and he’d beat the living shit out of it off-road. Never any issues.

 

I was told by one of our mechanics (who was a factory mechanic for vw) that manufacturer's have an acceptable rate of failure - meaning xxx% of AC condensers in Lexus AC units can prematurely fail before they begin clutching their pearls. 0.2% - yawn, 0.5% mild concern, 1% holy shit we need a recall.

I've seen that term applied to this issue with Denso. Obviously we have forum members who interpret this information differently. Some immediately begin assuming all impellers will fail, but the truth is that all won't fail...some number will fail before their projected use cycle is up and that number is higher than anticipated. He used the HPFP issue with the clean diesels. The issue was rooted in the fact that the HPFPs were not meant to run on US diesel with lower lubricity ratings. The HPFP issue was all but non-existent in Europe, but they saw a failure rate of about 1% in the USA. It was much maligned issue, as when the HPFP went it often grenaded the entire fuel system causing 5 figures worth of damage. VW never had a recall..they just gave owners extended warranty coverage in some - not all situations.

I was just wondering if there is a target number that is applied to a part...an expected early failure rate. Anything below that rate is working as intended, anything above becomes a mounting cause for concern.

Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. Figured yours would be the best brain to pick my friend.

 

I misunderstood. I thought you were talking about defective parts but I re-read the post and have no clue why I thought that!
I can only speak from my world but I am reasonably sure the automotive engineers use the same rules.
Here goes:
A product is designed for a certain lifecycle. This means that product is designed to operate nominally for some measure of... something. This could be:

• Time, usually measured in hours
• Cycles
• Loads
• Torques
• Power
• etc.

To further confuse things, many times parts are tested as parts and not the assembly made up of a bunch of parts. Sometimes they are tested as assemblies and not individual parts! So you can see how this is hard to translate into a time frame that normal people use, like number of miles or years. However, there is a reason, and a really good reason, that engineers use these measurements instead of translating them into miles or years. The reason is duty cycle and environment. You've read a few of my posts right? So I'm sure you have seen me use these words many time. They don't translate well for a normal consumer though. Let's take something simple, like a wheel bearing. Those bearings have been tested for the past 140 years and they are basically the same as they were 140 years ago. But before we go further, let's set up a few examples:

Example A
I buy a 2020 Tacoma Offroad. It stays bone stock and they hardest it works are Home Depot runs on the weekend. I take it to the dealer at recommended intervals for all maintenance. I live where the road are not salted and not many mountains.

Example B
You buy the exact same truck as me on the same day. You have big tires, different offset wheels, lift kit, skids and all sorts of electrical mods waiting for you in your driveway. You are a normal enthusiast, meaning things like scrub radius and thrust angles force vectors are not words you normally use in your job. You do all your mods and the truck looks badass. It looks so badass, you join a club and offroad it every weekend.

Now, back to the lowly wheel bearing. When those bearings were selected for use by Toyota, they selected them based on max vehicle weight and used all the stock geometry and, expected use. In example A above, his wheel bearings could last 20 years. In example B, the guy who did everything wrong with respect to the life of a wheel bearing, they might not last a year! You have changed the geometry, added constant weight and operate in an environment where there is lots of mud, sand, water crossings, etc.
Now, to some, their logic is "Well, it says offroad on the side of the bed so it must be designed for use off road." Well, it is... to a point. But now comes the sticky part... show me a definition of "off road" that is a standard definition. Is it the Rubicon? Moab? Fire road? Dirt Road? Grass field at you child's soccer practice? Lol there is no definition that is a standard for everyone, which is how Toyota gets to use "Off Road" and Jeep gets to use "Trail Rated" and GMC gets to use "Professional Grade" and Ford gets to use "Super Duty"... you get my meaning right? None of the previous terms are define-able, so the manufacturers use them because they... wait... I digress but you understand. Sure, the Off Road gets a locker and cruise control for rocks and a few other odds and ends. But the bearings, fenders, brackets, core support, axle and about 5000 other parts as the SR version, which are not "Off Road."

As far as if you had two "Example A" people who drove exactly the same and one had a bad wheel bearing and the other didn't, well that's just bad luck and probably what you meant to begin with!

75ppm. Let's say that for wheel bearings, 75 out of one million fail. That's good for most, bad for a few. But now you put that wheel bearing into an assembly and that assembly is tested and it's failure rate is 100ppm. That gets added to another and another... and then you have a vehicle with 6,000 parts.

I guess bottom line there is no "acceptable" failure rate. People need to remember that failures cost money and nobody is in the business to lose money. This is also why Toyota continually is improving their processes.

Sorry to ramble. There is a reason that "brand new" vehicles don't happen often. Even the New Bronco is not "all" new as there are parts on it from the other vehicle lines. The Gen 3 Tacoma has a ton of content from other vehicles.

Last point and you probably already know this, but a stock vehicle is in the most reliable and durable configuration. As soon as you make any changes, you make it less reliable and durable. Hopefully, even though I didn't answer your question fully, you got something from this rambling mess of letters and words.

 

Got the same message from my dealer while getting my free 20,000 mile oil change. Dealer did say that the Corolla's, had to have another update after the first one since putting in new pump.

 

X2

 

Seriously, as much as I want to keep my truck for the long hall this makes me want to jump ship and trade it in before the pump shitz the bed. But I like my truck so much I can't bring myself to do it.