My new (to me) 2021 tundra

Hey guys I purchased a 2021 tundra crew max limited trd off road the other month had 11k miles, 33 inch wild peaks trd pro bbs forged wheels and trd pro exhaust and eibach stage 1 suspension

I’ve owned a few 5th gen 4Runners a 3rd gen Tacoma trd off road and currently still have my 2nd gen single cab 5 speed Tacoma

I’ve only put a few hundred miles on it and I’ll try to be unbiased as possible
The fit and finish is almost like a giant Tacoma I do think the soft text or fake/real leather in my limited tundra is better than the softext that comes in the Tacoma and 4Runner premium models

has a jbl stereo system from the factory which sounds like trash and I’m not a huge audio guy at all and that’s why messing with the settings in attempt to make it better

otherwise pretty plain which I can appreciate and definitely eons of space larger than my 3rd gen taco was

now the almighty 5.7, so the allure of wanting to buy this truck in the first place was this motor, 99.9 percent the reason to buy this truck otherwise buy something else. And if you do buy it get the trd pro exhaust trust me on it best sounding exhaust since my ls1 days when I had a borla catback and a flow master

now for the weaknesses of the motor, obviously the gas mileage is atrociously bad I don’t care what anyone tells you otherwise. Going to work if I keep it under 70 I can get 16mpg which honestly is what I get in my 4cylinder regular cab Tacoma. Going home sitting in traffic I get 13

now here’s what to really be aware, everyone swears this motor is bulletproof they all mention that one single individual who drove his 5.7 over a million miles but there is one huge fatal design flaw I was utterly shocked by which apparently everyone has a different opinion on…the cam tower leak

for those who don’t know for reasons beyond me Toyota never used a gasket between the cams and the head instead just using grey silicone, yup that’s right just silicone. As a result oil pools up and causes it to leak on both driver and passenger side

to fix it the stealership needs to pull out your motor or lift your cab off the chassis and touotas solution? Put more albeit black silicone

Now here’s where it gets dicey, on tundras.com there are people who get them with their 2007 all the way up to 2021 so Toyota never fixed it, it costs about 2k to up to 7k from your local stealership to fix it and guys have gotten it as low as 5k miles on their brand new engine to at 200k miles

You won’t notice it until it either gets so bad it (oil) drops down to your exhaust manifold and you smell burning or you look between your wheel wells as it’s the only place to visibly inspect it

now here’s where it gets really bad, if you have it and even if under warranty you can ignore it or if it’s extremely bad and have no choice to fix it there are countless stories of the stealership fucking up the motor for life as most of the techs have never done it and it’s an extremely labor intensive job so basically you’re fucked no matter what

now most people will never notice because it won’t drip onto their exhaust manifold and they never heard of it and never check between the wheel wells so is ignorance bliss? I’m extremely neurotic and ocd so had I’ve known have bad of a design flaw this engine has im not sure if I would have bought it


Don’t get me wrong I love the torque and how smooth it is and the sound of the pro exhaust, it’s a very beautiful truck and a comfortable ride

For family hauling obviously tundra is a better choice, the payload is actually 200 pounds less than my single cab 4x4 which in all honesty did suprise me, in fact I dunno maybe I expected too much for a half ton but I expected the payload to be at least 2k pounds not the 1185 indicated on my door jam

The lack of 4x4 goodies suck since it is a trd off road no locker no atrac etc just plain 4hi and lo but I get it this truck is so damn massive and long it really shouldn’t be on anything but some fire roads but there are guys on you tube who wheel their tundras pretty hard so mad respect

lastly after driving my tundra all week and driving my Tacoma it was night and day how much tighter it felt driving my Tacoma meaning the steeering felt like I was driving a formula one car and the tundra steering felt like I was driving a steam boat down the Mississippi

my tundra is a crew max so it is a 5.5 bed I would have liked a double cab for the 6foot bed but my Tacoma is a 6foot bed I haven’t used the tundra bed yet so can’t really comment

in conclusion the tundra just like the Tacoma and every other vehicle ever made has it’s flaws but the main reason I bought the truck overrides it in my opinion (the v8)

 

Congrats!

 

Nice truck, congrats ! Agree the exhaust is niice. The cam tower leak does not affect every truck. From my understanding, when the machine that lays the silicone runs low or it's lines get clogged, some trucks get by with less than standard 'gasket' resulting in failure at some point. Mine is bone dry at 82k now and know another with 293k miles (2012) as well. Still it does suck but many who get it do nothing (like you said) because it never really gets worse. The smog pumps are worse imo ... these WILL fail at some point and are a big job pita and $$

Overall Sweers designed a very nice overbuilt machine ... looking fwd to a 3rd gen 1794 at some point but over 70 g's otd is a gut punch.

Enjoy your new rig !

 

If your biggest problem with a truck is a gasket that may or may not leak a little at some point, you're doing pretty well. Ever taken a look at the competition's trucks' reliability?

 

Thanks for the welcome guys! Sorry I wasn’t trying to come off as bashing the truck or motor, tundras.com is a little like tacomaworld where all the members will make a molehill into a mountain and I always buy into it lol
I’m still under the factory warranty and can buy the Toyota platinum warranty, I found a dealer selling a 10 year 125k miles one for 2k
But ya so far love this truck

what’s funny is obviously parking at some places definitely takes a little bit of decision making before execution, i drive a big rig for a living so am used to parking big trucks in little spots but I’ve noticed sometimes when you’re forced to park in super tiny spots the cars next to you can do some serious door dinging probably the only real “gripe” I have so far

 

Oh man I’m scared to even ask about the smog pump, never heard of it

 

I thought that was only an issue on the 2nd Gen (2007-2013).

 

They sell a bypass kit ... Secondary Air Bypass Kit: Gen 2 (Plug & Play) | Hewitt Technologies (hewitt-tech.com) ... but if I experience the failure, will just have pumps replaced the right way. I mean the cost would only be like 3 or 4 new truck payments on a 70k + new platinum,1794, or Pro (and now capstone uggglol)

 

god damn how common is this problem? Suprised I haven’t read about it on tundras.com

 

search AIP ... spoiler : pumps can fail on taco's, 4runner's and 1st and 2nd gen Tundra (not sure on 3rd gen)...some seem to think humid climates play a roll. I think they just wear out eventually. Your warranty will cover the cost. From all that I've read it's hit or miss but after 150k on up to 400k is when they fail the most.


I still think the Tundra is by far the least problematic full size truck. Love modding it. Just ordered some durobumps .. https://durobumps.com/ enjoy your ride !

 

Just got a 19 tundra. Certified preowned. Would my warranty cover that leak?? I’m scared to know the truth.

 

Ok to update I got rid of my tundra here were a few quirks with it, the outside moulding was never on right but it didn’t bother me to fix it, headliner behind the rear glass it looked like they just cut it and left it hanging, transmission had a seep/leak noticed at 15k miles

I loved loved loved the 5.7 if the tundra (2nd gen) came with rear locker had a six foot bed with the crew max but shrunk down the truck to the size of the 1st gen i probably would have bought 3 of them.
Ultimately why I got rid of it was the 5.5ft bed I currently own and a single cab six foot bed (owned it well before I got the tundra) and I didn’t know that after I got the 5.5 how bad I would want/need a six foot bed also the transmission seep made me say niet still a great truck and maybe one day I’ll buy a six foot second gen

 

Double cabs are 6.5' beds while the Crewmax is 5.5' bed. I honestly thought I would want the 6.5' bed but after owning a crewmax for 4 years, I've realized that those 12 inches are barely enough to notice. If I consistently was hauling a lot in the bed I could understand wanting the larger but for everyday use, the extra foot is negligible.

There's always the option of a third gen where you can get a crewmax with the 6.5' bed. A lot of the quirks have been worked out on the new gen.