2GR-FKS Engine Problem/Failure

Bought Used 2017 TRD Sport RWD @ 80.5K miles

Mileage that problem/failure happened: 81K

-What actually happened: P11EE "Cylinder #3 Air/Fuel Ratio Imbalance" Low Compression in Cylinder #3

-Vehicle usage (towing/off-roading/pavement pounder): Daily Driver for me... Who knows what the previous owner used it for

-Vehicle modifications (tune/geared/tires): None

 

2023 Tacoma SR 4x4, V6 2GR-FKS
3 months old, 4000 miles.
Video of noise giving original concern:
www.youtube.com/@matthewrash1974

Dealer states multiple parts being ordered including cams, timing chain, timing chain sprocket, oil pump, OCU, 1 cylinder head but maybe 2 heads, lifters, vacuum pump (which is on NATIONAL BACK ORDER). Dealer states initially looks like issue stemming from manufacturing debris.
Still at shop as of this posting (14 days so far).

 

2017 TRD Off Road, bought new.
Mileage that problem/failure happened: 233,000

-What actually happened: P11ED "Cylinder #2 Air/Fuel Ratio Imbalance". Low Compression in Cylinder #2 (90psi)

-Vehicle usage (towing/off-roading/pavement pounder): Daily Driver

-Vehicle modifications (tune/geared/tires): None

 

18 Taco with what seems to be 3 separate motors and continued issues over the course of 2 years resulting in a lemon law buyback. Pictures look to be a shattered oil pump gear in the oil pickup.

 

2021 TRD Off Road. Bought new. 52k miles. No mods. Daily Driver. Occasional dirt road. Never towed.
Pulled in a parking lot when engine overheated. Immediately shut down.
Dealer inspection showed a crack in the block which dumped all the coolant. The dealer said it probably had bad cast when the block was poured in the foundry. 6 weeks in the shop and finally came out with a new engine. Dealer did provide a loaner for the duration.

 

Well, here I return to this thread again.

Last night was driving down a short stretch of freeway going about 45 and went to pass an 18 wheeler. Got it about half throttle, around 4k rpms, and it made a loud "POP" followed by a hissing, scratching, scraping noise.....and then the "Low oil pressure" warning came on. I immediately turned it off and coasted off of a nearby exit ramp and called AAA. I started it up once to listen to it....motor isn't knocking fortunately, but something is broke and scraping around somewhere and causing low oil pressure.

So now I don't know what to do.....do I have it towed to a dealer and have them look at it. I'm pretty sure they're gonna try and sell me an entire engine....Do I call around independent shops and see if any one wants to get involved with this potential mess?.....or do I let it go to dealer and call Toyota corporate and tell them exactly how disappointed I am and hope they are least try to help?

I'm very doubtful of the last one working....but I have heard of it before.

It's a 2017 TRD Pro 4x4 with 102k miles. I was hoping to get well over double that before something like this happened.

 

Yeah, that's another thing I've been thinking about.
There has been nothing but a bunch of little issues ever since that happened.

I'm starting to wonder if a hydraulic lash adjuster popped out of its bore and that's why the oil pressure dropped....and the noise Im hearing is the loose timing chain slapping around.

 

Update on my engine.

Dealer pulled apart the front of the motor...and found that the oil pump suffered catastrophic failure. How, and why, they aren't sure. It doesn't appear to have sucked something up, but with how badly it was destroyed, it was hard to tell. That being said, when it failed, it immediately starved the engine for oil....so while it's possible to put another pump on, it's a bit of a gamble in hoping nothing else in the engine was damaged collaterally. So it looks like I'm taking the used engine option, with a 3 year, unlimited mile warranty.

 

2018 Tacoma TRD-Off Road 41,000

CEL came on in Oct 2023, two months before end of 5yr 60k warranty. The dealership I purchased the truck from has done 90% of maintenance. I took it in they diagnosed the problem as Emission System needed cleaning. Two months later and 8 days out of warranty the CEL comes on again. I took it back to the dealer. They found a misfire in cylinder 3 after compression test and leak down test. They are replacing the cylinder head, valves and gaskets. Gave me a loaner and all work is covered by warranty.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/what-can-cause-code-p11ed.806945/#post-29411038

 

Check engine light came on at start up few days ago... didnt notice anything majorly wrong during driving.
Pulled codes and P11EC code came back.
Based on a quick call from the dealership, #3 cyl was burnt and leaking so they're going to do some major work. Details not known yet
20 days away from warranty expiring and just crossed 50k miles.

Based on users profile
Truck: 2019 Tacoma SR5 QS DCLB
Mileage: 50k miles
Mods: OV Tune 2.0, UpTop Rack, RTT, Total Chaos Bed Rack, larger tires
I will update this post with more info when OP posts, or if OP posts here I'll delete this.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/dreaded-p11ec-error-code-check-engine.821183/

 

Toyota brand oil filters are all I ever used. Bought them by the case through the dealer. But keep in mind, the filter is AFTER the oil pump. The pump draws directly through the sump pick-up tube in the pan.

 

Conclusion to my engine BS saga. Got my truck back finally.....$12,686 dollars lighter. My dealer ended up giving me a $2500 dollar credit on the service because even they received resistance from Toyotas Brand Engagement department for any assistance....so my total cost was $10,186. Extremely grateful for that much, as I wasn't expecting anything.

Engine has a 3 year, unlimited mileage warranty on the engine itself and the labor on the job. The engine was used, 42k miles on it.

This is where things get interesting......it runs GREAT. Smooth as glass, and extremely quiet.....much quieter than it ever was before, even new. There is the soft, muffled injector tick and HPFP tick, but its barely noticeable, and non existent with the windows up. It also pulls much stronger than before too, noticeably stronger.

It runs so great....I feel it actually runs FAR better than it ever did new. It's also drastically quieter like I mentioned before......which now has me suspicious that there was something not quite right with the original engine right from the very beginning. It's possible it had looser or slightly too large clearances in the bearings or even a slightly mis-manufactured oil pump that never performed 100% and thus, always had lower oil pressure.

Like before, this engine is only getting Toyota oil filters, and now I'm only using Toyota brand oil too, and I got a case from the dealer right off the bat as well. Everything is going to be continually well documented as proof Im maintaining this engine as well as the first one.....and I'm curious to see if it ends up getting noisier as it gains miles. If it doesn't, then I know something was up with the original one and it was a problem that took 102k miles to rear its ugly head.

Despite my initial disappointment with my truck when this happened...I found myself quite happy to be driving it again, and especially even moreso that the dealer returned my truck better than new.

 

Replacing that engine was beyond my capabilities at my garage. I could have done it with a lift and engine hoist, but it would be impossible without those...and I have neither.

That being said.....I found out that by pulling the transfer case and transmission first.....you can actually pull the engine right out from under hood, without even needing to take the hood off. Also noted, the tech that did my job...was a 20 year employee who's a certified Toyota Master tech, so I gotta give him some credit for pulling that off too.

 

For what it's worth, the Toyota branded oil is mobile one. As much of a headache as that is, I think we're all glad to see you back in your truck better than before.

 

Do yourself a favor and change the oil in your 2GR every 5k.

Also, every iteration of the tundra has had a transmission service interval recommended. Toyota doesn't do that whole lifetime transmission doesn't ever need service thing.

 

Dude are you reading what you write? You have posted in several different threads almost the same thing. Beginning to think your a bot, troll, or ai.

 

So I also killed a 3.5 in my 2019 tacoma. Rod knock at 120k and burning oil like crazy. Regular services done. I've owned 5 tacomas previously 1st and 2nd generations. All of which I've put way more miles on them. My 3rd gen 4runner has 308k and my first gen tacoma has 275k. I believe more and more problems are popping up with these 3.5 motors. I've heard they made a large batch of these engines where one of the cylinders were machined out of spec. If that's truly the case Hopefully there will be some sort of settlement or class

 

Haven't heard that about an entire cylinder but I've definitely seen some interesting things with these motors in the shop.

Some of the old farts have pointed out that the 1GR was very similar when it was "the " Tacoma, and basically because those are legacy models now, we all have survivorship bias, aka all those 4.0s still running perfect .... Are because all the bad ones have died off by now.

 

2016 TRD Off Road Manual Transmission Bought New
Probably around 30,000 miles towing
130,000 miles CEL for cyl 2 Air Fuel Ratio Imbalance.
Found ACIS gasket damaged and failed leakdown test on Cyl 2/4.
Ran for appx 2k additional miles with no issues other than CEL on before trading it in.

 

Did you not read the 1st post? Cmon man.