Four years in a Tacoma, a frustrating experience

So I can torture my engine for 100k miles in it's lifespan? Good to know. That was certainly the case with American vehicles 40 years ago, which is half the reason Toyota broke the mold and started producing engines that could reliably take you well passed the powertrain warranty. In reality my truck has probably seen 1,000 hard miles out of 32,000. I'm still not worried about it. A 4 banger Toyota from an 86 was also a full 30 years before the current 3.5, we've come a long way in refining tolerances and engine lubrication and cooling.

I'm curious how an auto repair shop has the means to tell if an engine was run hard or not, vs. a perceived lack of maintenance. It would take a complete engine teardown and a clear maintenance history and some sort of data log of the life cycle of an engine to determine if excess wear was due to running the engine at higher RPM's, seems anecdotal at best.

I agree that there's no reason to run the engine higher unless needed, but there's also a reason redline is at 6k instead of 4k. That's my entire point.

 

I absolutely love the Tacoma but have always wondered how that gear ratio even made it past the testing phase, let alone into production. It is shockingly bad for a vehicle from the factory. A tune, at minimum, and maybe even regearing can't even be considered an upgrade. It's a repair.

That being said, full size trucks have gotten laughably overpriced so I'll stick with the Tacoma.

 

He's got a pretty good report with the vehicles owners when they ask him questions the reasons for some of their issues. Most have told him they are not the easiest on them. I don't think maintenance has that much to do with it. I can tell you parts break when I was racing bikes no matter how well I inspected, and maintained them. Most of the time you can tell a vehicle thats been beat vs one thats a cream puff.
As far as your tacoma, hey do what you wish, its not mine.

 

That just isn’t true today. Maybe in the old V8 days. I’ve got a fleet of vehicles at work that have small to midsize motors , gas and diesel, and they run full throttle from the day we buy them and we never have mechanical issues with the motors. Most get to around 5000 plus hours. Do that math - 5000 hours converted say an average of even 40mph on a truck, that’s 200,000 miles. It’s not an opinion. I have a full time trained mechanic maintaining the fleet and he’ll be the first to tell you that when the rpm’s are up, oiling and cooling are their optimal range.

My good friend who is a certified auto mechanic says the exact same thing. And he’s the guy that told me to buy the Tacoma if I was planning on keeping it after 3 years.

 

I never understand these posts, they demonstrate a clear lack of understanding by the owner and while they can freely express their opinion it just shows how uninformed it is.

Sometimes people just buy the wrong vehicle, OP just needs to admit HE made the mistake.

 

Yeah, I'm still not advocating for beating on the truck all day every day, certainly not as hard as a vehicle used for racing. This is my first vehicle purchased new, and the only one I've spent more than $9k on purchasing, so I'm as invested as anybody with it's longevity. The biggest reason I decided to purchase new was because I could remove the unknown variable of how it was treated in the past. I'd argue maintenance is the biggest variable (that we can control) in how long a vehicle lasts, but obviously shit can and does break for a whole host of different reasons, many beyond our control.

Here's to hoping we all reach the 300k mile club, and beyond. To each their own on the path we take to hopefully getting there.

 

If full throttle works for you all the time with no issues, carry on. It never went well for me.

 

This what I’m saying. The power is there, use it. Sure, it sucks to have to rev it higher than what most people are used to, but stop being scared of 3K+ rpm’s. The engine won’t break.

 

I'm 6'3" and do have a sunroof. I've never hit my head even off roading. Maybe a really big bump might do it.

ETA I see you must be a fellow Rush fan.

 

A Toyota spec 302cid straight six would be the kind.

 

https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/detroits-straight-six-is-back-in-a-crate-for-2023/

For a turbo 3.0, that’s crazy truck numbers. Stump pulling to say the least. Looks like it’ll fit into a Tacoma’s engine bay too.

C’mon Toyota!!!!

A 5.0, no forced induction motor would be the way to go for a truck engine. (Forced induction guys would be feeling high ALL DAY)

 

I guess you never been in k20 and b18 and b16 or f20. Honda engine run reliable at 3.5k all the time on freeway and 8k rpm reliable.

 

No it's not going break, it just wears out a lot sooner. Your chances for valve train issues like broken springs or played out ones increase along with oil leaks....at least what a friend of mine has already seen on these 3.5's in other vehicles they're put in.

 

This thread has become the proverbial example of "beating a dead horse"

 

Race vehicles are meticulously maintained, way, way beyond the average Joe mechanic.

 

I've always seen everything under the redline as fair game to be used at my pleasure. I've never had a vehicle fail to outlive my use for it. That includes several 100k+ vehicles that spent much of their life in the top half of the tach. This is my first Toyota but if it can't equal that record, I am disappoint.

Still, if my choices are being frustrated with the vehicle for 10 years or enjoying it for 10 years and then breaking a valve spring? Broken valve spring, here we come.

 

I would not be able to merge on the highway at a safe speed if I didn't rev the engine above 2500 rpms. Here in Colorado Springs, we have stop lights in the middle of the on-ramps to ease the amount of traffic merging onto the highway. If I kept the rpms below 2500 I would be going 30 mph by the time I'm trying to merge onto the interstate with people going 70+. Revving the engine up to 4-4.5k rpms is the only way for me to merge safely. If doing that regularly kills my engine faster, then shame on toyota, but I feel like it should be able to handle it. Any vehicle should be able to do that for at least a couple hundred thousand miles.

 

I finally had the sack (since I got the rear Harrop E Locker) to climb the Middle Wall here at Hungry Valley in 4LO LOCKED with TRAC off. Hell yeah, with two other adrenaline junkies on 4 strokes looking on attentively from the top, I was OBLIGATED to put the Tacon up top with a symphony they won’t forget and a show they’ll talk about for time.

The 3.cinco started snapping in L-S1. It is a totally different beast with the TRAC not kicking in. The powertrain is just as bad ass as the 2nd Gen, but just so happens to be a smaller power plant:0)

It put on a hell of a show(I’m not showing off, it just did!), particularly at the ruts, slowing down, and then giving it hell for a Bronco dance on torque…and the Yota 3.5cid block sounded bad ass. I got LOCO with the snapping at the top…but in control.

3rd Gen Yotas por vida in the bad ass Milky Way Galaxy. (I had 4 second Gens)

 

You're not going hurt anything as a rule if using the skinny pedal now and then. It's the ones that are doing 70 mph in 4th gear everyday or a similar rpm. Btw, I've never needed more than 3k rpm towing a trailer up a highway ramp to merge with traffic with my truck. Your state speed limits for highways must be a lot higher than here being 65 mph.

 

As I said, there are stop lights in the middle of the onramps here in Colorado springs. You have a very short stretch of road, uphill, to get to highway speeds from the stop. There's no way in hell you're going over 30 mph from there towing a trailer uphill by the time you need to merge, if you keep your rpms that low. You have to give it the beans or you're merging at a really unsafe speed.