Common Issues in New Tacomas?

You're going to sell a one-year-old vehicle over a creak and annoying vibrations under hard acceleration? Tacoma or not, that doesn't sound like the most financially sound plan

 

Mine has been at the dealer 2 times for what sounds like a door seal squeak but it is actually behind the dash. The first time, the tech removed the dash (yes the entire dash) and tightened everything he could find. This made it better, but when the truck sits, it comes right back. This is not a minor squeak--it is pretty significant when going over bumps, turning, or twisting the body of the truck. So, back to the dealer again, and they have had it for 4 days including a visit to their body shop. The service manager and the tech both agree that this is unacceptable for a new truck and I think they are really working to fix it. They gave me a loaner car today, and a Toyota engineer is coming to look at it. Hopefully it will be done by Thursday (5 days with holiday weekend from now)?? I should note that they have indicated this is not typical of a Tacoma.

 

Mowingguy, that is quite a horror story. Please let us know how it works out. Good Luck.

 

I noticed that my passenger floor was wet, I'm pretty sure it was raining. I've never heard about this before this thread, but that's a common problem? Anything I should do about it?

 

My wife's rav4 did that. its from the cowl vent, and I just took some pipe insulation and cut it about 1/4" wide strips and plugged bout half of them startin at the most driver side vent and sodium towards the passenger side. that was over a year ago and they're still in place and no leaks

 

Sorry, but my annoying vibrations do not only occur during hard acceleration. If only during hard acceleration, I could live with it. I'm thinking I will have to go with a one piece drive shaft as the dealer has been no help.

 

My 2013 is 8 months old and other than the a/c cutting off at will, the brakes squick every morn when I back out of my drive way. And oh yea the damn steering wheel shaken at 45 to 70 every things good!

 

But you said...

 

Sorry, but that is not my quote. My vibrations occur during normal acceleration. Have not had any issues with the seats.

 

Paint and box liner seem to scratch a little too easily.

Sitting in the seats for a while hurts my back and I have to get out and stretch every hour or less (Could be mostly attributed to my age).

Otherwise I love the truck. No regrets.

 

I had a 05 frontier, thing rode like a radio flyer wagon, just terrible. At 99 k the rad and trans fluid mixed on me. What a night mare, caught it just in time luckly.

If you look through the forums, people complain about noises and rattles on their tacos. But Frontiers have major issues. They just dont have the long term reliability like the taco .

Its tempting to get a frontier since it comes with alot more bells and whistles for less money ( dealers were knocking $ off MSRP without me even asking when I went to see if I like the 2012 ) but Id still recomend the taco


The 2014 deisel titan might be something worth checking out, But I wouldnt get the first year cause Im sure it will have some bugs to work out in its first year or two.

 

Big issue. The wife likes driving it too and takes off with it way too often!

 

I got the truck back. The Toyota engineer isolated the noise at the front cab corner under the fender and the pinch weld behind the fender flare. They drilled relief holes and filled them with "special expanding foam" to keep the metal on metal contact from happening. I picked up the truck, and 5 miles down the road the noise came back. A day later I washed the truck and it is worse than ever--now including on accel and decel. So, it goes in again tomorrow and the engineer is coming back. It is going straight to the body shop for disassembly and "light welding".

Again, I think the dealer is really trying to take care of it. While it is frustrating, I still love the truck having traded from a full size. I am getting 18 MPG around town and it has done everything I ever used my full size for. So, hopefully this time they can get it fixed. In the mean time, thet are giving me a Camry loaner car. So, I will be spending some time on the "camryworld" forums--not.

 

That would be a tough decision... trade the wife or the truck...

 

Wow! That's a lot of miles. And I thought 42K on my 2012 DCSB 4x4 Sport was high.

So far I have had no issues. Slight steering wheel shake and driveline vibes now and again, but not enough to annoy me.

 

I'm noticing some people are having engine knock issues with 2012/2013 4.0's, including myself.

 

Bug shield eliminated my noise....

 

Yes, it occured to me on the drive home yesterday after reading your comment, that I have noticed knocking in my 2013 4.0L before. It's not pervasive though- usually a combination of toasty weather, short shifting, and running 85 octane when I probably ought to bump it up a grade.

(In Colorado, 85 is about equivalent to 87 at sea level)

 

It's an 8 year old Truck and I bought her with 45k miles 4 years ago.Front bearings went out at around 100k miles, other than that it's been a very good reliable TRUCK. Might not never go back to FORD or Nissan..LOL

 

It's not just Tacomas, either. If you pop over to Youtube, there are a few people showing off the issue (faint knock/ping under high gear/low RPM acceleration) in other Toyota vehicles (RAV4 comes to mind).

But wait, it gets better. If you get on Google and put in a competing make's name and "pinging" or "acceleration knock" or anything similar, you get reports of this from people with all sorts of newer vehicles (Mazda and Nissan were big ones, also found some from Ford, Honda and Chrysler).

One post on another forum (Mazda CX-5) said something interesting - many of these problems are cropping up on cars built after the 2008 MY. Right around the time our Commander-in-Chief & Friends started to make noise about jacking up CAFE standards. IOW, the manufacturers are playing really close to the fine line between maximum efficiency in existing engine designs and going beyond acceptable operating parameters.

Another comment really stuck out - a guy with a 2009 Frontier who had a noise similar to the Tacoma 'ping/knock', was told 1) it's normal and 2) run 91/93 octane gas. He ran 91, no change.

This is not coincidence.