Lightning struck 25' from my 2 day old Tacoma

Been reading here for a while but this is my 1st post. On the 2nd day post purchase of my 2016 TRD off road (loaded except for leather) I attempt to crank my truck and all it does is turn. After getting dealer on the phone we towed to Service dept. They spent the afternoon scratching their heads unable to figure out the 30 something error codes. Upon getting home I noticed lighting had struck a big pine tree 20-30 feet from where truck was parked on my driveway. I immediately called service manager and he concurred that electromagnetic pulse would fit the cause of my issues. Toyota has been beyond good with their response but State Farm has taken 6-7 days to get an adjuster out (not happened yet) Toyota hooked up an ECM (engine control module) and the engine now runs but my truck won't talk to their diagnostic device. Have to wait on adjuster now and see how many components are damaged. 131 miles, 2 days old and I'm sick about it. Anyone have experience with similar situation? TIA

 

That's crazy. I was driving to work about a month ago and lightning hit a pine tree about 75 yds in front of me. Blew tree shrapnel across the road right in front of my truck. Had to stop and move it and then call 911 because the tree was on fire. Wish I had a camera mounted in my truck to capture that kind of thing. No ill effects to the truck though. Good luck with your insurance and getting it fixed/figured out.

 

wow thats bad luck. id buy a lottery ticket for the truck with numbers from the VIN. hope they can get it all sorted, i couldnt imagine how many sensors could be potentially damaged

 

The aircraft I work on get struck by lightning every so often. If it hits the prop it will magnetize the bearings inside the engine. It's off to overhaul after that. There's a whole lot more electronics (avionics) in an aircraft and they are rarely affected, however they are designed for such an occurrence. I doubt the tacoma is. Good luck, let us know how you make out.

 

You might wanna inspect the exterior real closely. There's a chance it hit your truck. It will be about 1/4" burn mark if it hit it.

 

https://youtu.be/OGR6Wk3Kboo

 

Sorry to hear and even sorrier to tell you - you might have a total loss. Had a 1984 Tercel Wagon 4WD that was struck by lightning a lot of the wiring was fused and rather than try to rewire the whole vehicle, the wrote it off as totaled. Since yours was so new, maybe you'll be in better shape than I was with the vehicle and the insurance.

 

The insurance maybe dragging their feet because they probably feel it should be covered under warranty. I feel the same way too.
Ships in high seas get hit all the time and are not disabled, and if it happens in the boondocks with no cell signal, are we to be stranded out there?
Hell no, let them build better systems. All vehicles are at risk and we pay a lot already.

I know you were trying to be helpful, but that is what they are trained to do, fix chit they can see is broken.

And btw,thanks for letting us know, I'll keep my mouth shut if it happens to me. I see no evil, I hear no evil.

Hope that helps
Cheers!

 

You can clearly see where lightning exited the base of the tree and the 20' trench it created as it ran down my lawn in the opposite direction of the truck. Most interior gauges appeared to be working properly.........State Farm has not taken the position that it's a warranty issue. Their efficiency seems to be comparable to the IRS when handling a claim. They seem to have no problems taking my premiums though. I've already rattled a bunch of chains in their command line to no avail. It's totally up to the adjuster now to direct the dealer on how to proceed.

 

At least you weren't near it at the time (**NSFW audio/language**):

 

It's probably not really "totally up to the adjuster" to determine what happens from here. State Farm is notoriously parsimonious when it comes to paying legitimate claims and I would not be surprised if the adjuster wants to cover only the obviously damaged components. When it comes to electronics the damage may not be apparent for months or years. If I was in your situation, unless the dealer says positively that they have identified everything that could ever go wrong as a result, I would press hard for a finding that the vehicle is totaled. If State Farm does not total it I would ask them to promise in writing to treat all electronic and electrical problems that arise as long as you own the vehicle as damage from the lightning strike. If that does not happen, consider contacting your state insurance commissioner.

 

Welp, after 18 days, Toyota stepped up and repaired the truck. Service manager was likely fed up with dealing with State Farm in addition to having difficulty proving beyond a reasonable doubt the damage was attributed to EMP. They replaced the ECM that controls engine and transmission. Truck would run but not communicate with Toyota's diagnostic software. They got a factory tech involved and he suggested replacing the crank position sensor. Magically, the truck resumed communication with diagnostic software and all the codes were cleared. Toyota put 28 miles on it while testing in addition to a health check on the electronics. Bottom line is I now have a truck that runs great (am I allowed to say that here) and doesn't seem to hunt for gears as much (yes they installed TSB 077-16). I paid -0- since State Farm contributed nothing even though everyone knows EMP caused the electrical problems and my claim will remain open to cover any future issues that arise after the warranty. Holding my breath (somewhat) that future issues do not arise. Kudos to Toyota and State Farm still sucks out loud!

 

good news OP! hope nothing funky plagues you down the road

 

Well, good to hear your truck is repaired. I hate insurance companies, they're ponzi schemes. I hope you have zero issues later on!

 

Glad you got it back!

 

I know you were trying to help and be honest which is great, but I don't think I would've said anything and just let Toyota deal with it. I'm really happy that you got it all taken care of but it could've went south quickly. I would've had it towed in and just said I don't know it just doesn't run.

 

Glad you got it back, and I wouldn't worry about future issues, I've recovered many vehicles that were under water up to the dash, with only a ecm replacement, in particular a Ford ranger in our fleet that was brand new and we used it for over ten years after to run errands, never gave us trouble, just tune-ups, oil, tires, gas and go.
As for Toyota steeping up to the plate, it's what they do. All in-spite as what some bashes say here.
They replaced the entire dash on my 12 yr old 4th gen 4R because it had cracks in the dash cover, a very expensive and labor intensive task I may add. Who does that??

Hope that helps
Cheers!

 

I guess I am lucky....I have USAA.....they have always been great about anything....Also, they have the lowest rates of any company around...They have part of your premium go to a saving account and pay you dividend in December....usually $300-$700 and since I am a senior, we get an addition payment in February......That account has around 10K but is limited to government rules and regulation

 

OP, I'm very glad you got things all fixed up.

Reading this, I'm scratching my head: So the CPS got EMP'd and that prevented communication for diagnostics? I know the ECM got replaced also, and I assume that was the main problem, but how the heck does a CPS cause those symptoms? I've seen that it also causes transmission overheat warnings (presumably bogus). What the flip is up with the CPS implementation that it has all these funky side effects? It's like the software only loops if the thing pulses. I know that's wrong, but for such a simple function, the CPS failures seem to have an abnormal range of side effects.