Truck Broke (Bad ECM) Update

If you’ve done any troubleshooting on interconnected electronics you wouldn’t find it too suspicious. It’s not all that uncommon to work a fault down to a solution only to discover the original point of failure was not the fault you were troubleshooting but rather a symptom of an underlying problem in a connected but separate component.

 

If it's a warranty issue and paid for by the manufacturer, there is no way the dealer is going to admit the ECU was fine and they misdiagnosed it instead of the throttle body because the warranty would likely not cover the ECU and the dealer would have to eat the costs. So.........both parts are bad. Really. Trust us. Wanna buy a new truck? We'll give you a great deal........we promise.

 

OP found a shitty shop, not a shitty truck.
@turbosnail called it a while back,, parts cannon

 

That may be the case. The way they layed it out to me was that when they diagnosed it all they could see was that the ECM was fried, once they put in the new ECM I guess they got the other fault that the TB failed. Assessment was TB failure is what fried the ECM. Sort of a what came first chicken or egg kind of thing.

 

Maybe, but they have been ok otherwise and I'm sure there are quite a few GA members have used them. There are definitely a few better independent shops around and I used them when I have to pay for stuff. I'm not paying for warranty work, if they wanna put new parts in they can replace till their hearts content.

 

It is certainly possible. But the fact is, a lot of shops don’t have competent technicians. And a lot people are afraid to admit they “just don’t know”. The normal process now is “try this” if results are not as expected, “try something else”.

I guess what I am saying is, the repair industry has taken a turn for the worse.

Honesty and integrity are things of the past. I’d rather someone just say, “I don’t what the problem is”. And we can go from there.

What I don’t like is “stories after the fact”.

 

Is this the same dealer you bought your Tacoma from, or another Toyota dealer? Other brand dealers, not only Toyota, probraly the same. You buy brand new from one dealer, go another dealer for warranty, or other chit, they BS.

I got it. Get “professional parts changers,” keep putting in new parts, hope that is the problem. Don’t know WTF they doing!

 

Something like that.
I mean, I'd rather have someone that has an "general idea" of what could be the problem. Then someone that has no idea at all.
But I don't know how much more the average consumer can take. Guessing cost a lot of money. Sure, sometimes you have to make a decision.
But let's not make "guessing" the normal diagnosis procedure. That cost time and money. Tow thing most people don't have.

 

It's the same dealer I bought my Tacoma from, and the same dealer I have used to service this one and the last one I owned and that I use to service the kids hybrid Corolla.

 

2nd gen used to break in half because of frame rotting. 1200$ fix is not that expensive, things do happen.

You sound like GM guy

 

3rd gens have the same frame as 2nd gens

 

Something weird after the ECM and throttle body replacement. So I had a 2016 Tacoma TRD OR and the screen that shows how many miles you have on a tank would always read 385 when I filled it up. When I got the 2020 TRD OR the truck always showed 335 every time I filled it up. Since the ECM and TB was replaced the truck now reads 380 on each fill up....sometimes vehicle are weird.