Died and Limped Home - 2023 TRD OR 4x4 w 15k ODO

I hope this works out for the best from here out. I frequent Yota Pros and will be due for minor stuff
around May. I'm on a chit-chat basis with the owner dudes there and owe him half-pound of coffee ( I roast my own beans )
so I might bring this up and see if it triggers any memory of this case. Of course with the volume of
work they do it might seem like a lifetime ago to him.

 

He seemed like a good guy and a straight shooter. I was expecting this to run $6k to $9k considering the amount of time he had it for.

 

Fearing that we had seen the last of the 40° mornings in Phoenix, the Wife suggested we take a weekend getaway to Prescott AZ where the morning lows were going to be 30° and the day time highs were around 46°. That's right in the range and COLDER than the failures happened at previously. You know, completely for "research" and "safety testing" and not at all for eating at some of their great restaurants and bars.

For starters - the truck thundered up the hill with confidence Friday afternoon. This is the stretch of I-17 from Black Canyon City and Sunset point where you gain 4000 feet of elevation in like 10 or 12 miles. Hilly and steep. The trip from Anthem to Prescott averaged 18.8 MPG. Solidly impressive considering the amount of up hill driving involved. We drove around Prescott all weekend going places and doing things and then drove back to Anthem on Sunday morning. Round trip was 19.5 MPG. It was 195 miles all in when I gassed up back at home. All in the trip up around and back for a weekend was less than half a tank. There was a fair amount of idling with the wife in the truck too. So considering the amount of idling, stop and go small town traffic, and hills, I would say conditions were sub-optimal for good MPG and the truck still came within a shade of 20 MPG.
I think we have fixed the MPG issue.

We were there for two cold mornings. I did not pre-heat the truck. I got in at 31° and then proceeded to drive straight up a hill about a half mile from the hotel. No failures. The truck didn't have a chance to get up to temp before we stopped to eat breakfast. It had another 45 to 60 minutes of cool down time and temps were still around 36°, so we got in and drove up another hill. No failures. I spent the morning trying to reproduce the failure under conditions most favorable for it. Two mornings doing this back to back and I couldn't get it to fail.
I think we have fixed the issue with misfires, shuddering, face planting, dying, and limping home.

Overall - I'm quite happy with the condition and performance of the truck. More importantly the WIFE is confident riding in it. We are now allowed to take road trips and go off-roading again.

Big Huge Ginormous Shout Out to Yota Pros for fixing what Toyota couldn't / wouldn't.
http://www.yotapros.com/

 

Wow, that's awesome news. Hopefully that was it. Sure makes the dealership look very unprofessional. I think all future maintenance may be best directed to the Yotapros shop.

 

Glad to hear the update and the good news of your recent trip!

 

What??? No Fishnet Stockings???

 

Great news and yea a few of us here are familiar with those inclines - they get pretty hairy
especially in the summer heat towing a small camper is something I don't enjoy doing.

 

Great news!

 

Great news! Agreed that stretch of 17 is no joke north of anthem. Awesome the issue has been resolved.

 

Great news. Now Toyota needs to pay the Yota Pros' bill. They can take it out of Todd's salary to make themselves whole.

 

Just got off the phone with Jennifer at Toyota Corporate.

She did review the invoice and saw the work done.
I reviewed the post repair progress with her as evidence that there was a problem with the vehicle starting as far back as around 5k miles when I started complaining about MPG and they ignored it and then when a safety issue cropped up, they blamed the customer when there was a real, tangible mechanical issue with the vehicle.

I asked her for clarity if she would like to refute the Bell Road Toyota claim that "anything electrical you connect to your vehicle will void the warranty" and she said "Well it depends. It can void the warranty if it was done incorrectly." I reminded her of the benchmark that Magnuson Moss sets for the burden of proof and that Bell Road Toyota eventually settled on "electronic harmonics" which has 0 web pages while flat earth pages number in the thousands. So it doesn't even rise to the level of wing-nut internet folklore and conspiracy theory.

I told her the reason for my call was to make sure she was aware of the completed repairs and the balance that I'm expecting Toyota to cover. She was a little wishy-washy, apologetic, and still backed the organization, "Oh I talked to the director, and the bla bla and they verified that they didn't miss anything diagnostic..." So I told her that today she owes me $1235.95. If I have to invest any more time in this I'm adding up all of the lost MPG since 5,000 miles, all of the car rental time, all of the uber rides, all of the meals I bought someone for giving me a ride during the 25+ days I was without a vehicle, the inconvenience for my handicapped wife, my part time job bird dogging this issue, and seeking compensation for that plus punitive damages for 3x that amount for wilful negligence because I have given Toyota ample notice of the issue and ample chances to take care of the problem and they let it escalate into a safety issue where I was left dead in the middle of the road twice.

"I'm sending this over to our reimbursement team and the process should take 2 weeks but you'll be getting a check in the mail, may I validate your address."

All in Jennifer has been very nice and professional, but ultimately has had to back her overlords that sign her check. I don't fault her, I fault the organization. When she apologized again I told her that I didn't want this to come off as cold or harsh, but I'm not concerned with apologies, I'm concerned with making it right. Cut the check, quit burning oxygen apologizing to me and take that energy internal to correct the organization. I'm much happier to know that no future customers will go through what I have been through over the last 5 months than to be apologized to. She said she's doing that. Does she really? Maybe. Maybe not. But I'm not burning any more oxygen with them either, unless that check doesn't show up in a few weeks.

Looks like this is 95% case closed pending reimbursement.

 

Jennifer did not ask about sending them the fuel injectors? Toyota really does not want to know they have an issue, do they?

 

NOOPE! Apparently not.

They either:
A. Already know and try to avoid the work as much as possible by blaming the customer for BS reasons (non standard valve stem caps could be the next big fault)
B. Don't care / Don't have the ability to diagnose issues with the fuel injectors at scale / not worth the time.
C. Will send the return shipping info with the check.

ETA ==> It does make me wonder.... of the Million (guessing here) 2GR-FKS that Toyota has produced over for over six different car, truck and SUV models, how many have had this issue? It is possible that it's just me. I'm the one guy that caught a defective injector from the factory. Or.... Does everyone with a Tacoma that gets crappy MPG not explained by lifts and tires need to get checked out because 10% to 20% of them may have the same issue?

FWIW & IIRC - Mine was produced around February of 2023. If this is a problem for others is it tied to that production range?

Would be funny if this pops up enough they have to issue a safety recall for it.

 

I only get 13mpg on my 23 TRD off road but my truck idles all day.

No way was your MPG anything near normal. Glad you found a competent garage who didn’t string you along like the dealership. I found that dealerships don’t like doing diagnostic work. The service writers will sell you services and parts but there is no $ in diagnostics.

 

OP how is the truck running and your refund?

 

Been too busy to get to the mail box this week so the check may be in there. I think Monday makes an official two weeks.
Truck is running great. I'm getting 20 to 23 MPG commuting on the freeways probably closer to 18or 19 in town with a lot of stop lights.
Got 170 miles on the current tank with a mix of the two driving conditions and it's at 20.2 MPG.
What's better is no dying in traffic.

That Evil Devil Ham Radio that Todd blamed for the problems (that totally wasn't the problem) gets upgraded and goes back in this weekend.


Short term it goes back in the way it was but I've got other stuff I want to add so long term will have a totally separate fuse block under the hood.
1. What's a good one / recommendations?
2. Where's a good place to pass through the firewall?
3. Also - I want to get an OBDII Scan tool that connects to your phone. Just in case it happens again I'd like to have more information. Searching for one has been overwhelming with the amount of AI generated BS that is now clogging up the web. Any favorites out there? Blue Driver and OBD Link MX+ stand out for me right now but not sold on it.

ETA ==> Above 85MPH the MPG tanks horribly. Drops to near 13ish on the dash gauge. But at that speed you are driving an Amish Barn at nearly the speed of sound so it is to be expected.

 

I dont think there is any way to do a real leak down test without a gauge of some kind and a compressor

You can definitely do a compression test “electronically” though, by measuring the current draw of the starter and knowing the cylinder under compression. I’ve never seen it used for precision numbers, just gross compression problems

 

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wow ... just wow ... ... what a thread

 

These newer models are sounding like trash, sell it and buy a 3rd gen.

 

Reading comprehension problems?
OP has a 23 model. That's a 3rd gen. truck.