The Future of the Electronics

Good day,
This rather hard to explain and probably harder to answer but I have a 2016 TRD how much of the "electronics " can die and the truck still do it it,s job of getting me around ? I have had no problems and understand no one nkows the future but what of the extras like Crawl Control etc ? Is everything tie in so that if one part goes down you lose the truck ? I mean if times get tough money wise will I be able to still get around without paying big bills to repair " extras ? Thanks I know I should have asked more questions before buying as this was the first foreign vechile I ever bought but I jumped in anyway .

 

If you are worried about it I would buy the extended warranty from Toyota and once that is gone buy an aftermarket extended warranty. There are too many things that may or may not go wrong, that we simply can't answer.

 

Dont worry about it. Honestly, most electronics these days will last 150k miles before anything major.

If any electronics were to go out, its usually less than 100 bucks. Nothing that will break the bank.

 

I've actually been wondering about the crawl control software. After all, we've seen that the transmission software has needed tweaks, and that's something that should have been easy to test and gets used every day, so there's lots of feedback from owners as well as Toyota test drivers and field service people. But to be honest, I haven't used crawl control since I tried it out the day I bought it. And that was just on some hardpacked dirt. Is it going to work again when I need it? Ditto ABS software ... not a lot of opportunities to test it.

 

I bought the extended toyota platium warrenty so they can worry about it. After that whatever is failing will be well known and much easier to deal with. The only issue you may have is wither you can pass your registration with a warning light active on your dash.

 

Thanks to all for your response, we could be a looking a recsession mild or otherwise down the road and I was just wondering what I would have to fix to keep it as a daily driver as it is my only vechile . I would not care if simple things like electric seats quit as long as you can still drive it as the older vechiles never had it anyway . Steve, you are right about the etest and licenceing concern they just made reverse cameras manadtory here I only use it to hook to the trailer anyway . I don,t understand how much is connect to the engine to keep it going probably alot .Sometimes it is not the cost of a part but the labour to diagnoss it and get to it and change it. Cheers and Merry Christmas to all

 

When I read your question, I went a totally different way- I was thinking EMP or solar flares or something like that. I'm not a tin foil hat guy or anything, I am looking to buy a Taco soon and this same thing was one of my questions I was going to ask but I sort of doubt the sales guy will know an answer. Like you said, we never know but I'm going to ask about the platinum warranty as an add on so thanks.

 

I work in the service department, and while the electronics will usually last a good while there is almost NOTHING out of warranty that will be under $100 fix.

 

I was thinking solar flares, too. So you're not crazy. Or at least not alone.

My thinking is that looking back over the cars from the last 25 years, with all the computer stuff -- ranging from primitive to really wiz-bang -- it's still rare that a computer part hobbles a car. It's still usually a big expensive mechanical thing (like on a BMW or Benz) or just rust, neglect, "planned obsolesce" (think Chevy Cobalt-type cars), accidents or loss of actual financial value that send cars to the junkyard.

 

Perhaps not with highly marked up OEM parts plus $100/hr labor....but you can buy many sensors well under $100 and often under $50 from the auto parts store. Combine that with cheap OBD2 code readers and good web forums, and you can often do your own repairs.

If the ECU software is written correctly, there re a decent number of faults that can occur and the engine will still run....perhaps badly. Usually there are open loop limp modes. All this has been around for decades with EFI engines though, and reliability is much better than the old days of carburetors and points.

Extras like backup cameras, head unit integration, traction control, etc should not render the vehicle inoperable if something goes bad. You might get warning lights, but should not be dead in the water.

 

Whew! Good to know- Plenty of room in the pool LOL. I've grown up with electronics and have 20 years in wireless telecom- I've seen RF energy do some crazy stuff. I've got a Jetta TDI now so... Yea, computer in it's perfectly fine I'd imagine.

 

Anything that is switched on/off will have no bearing on the truck running.
Crawl control, 4wd, camera, entune head unit, lights, and others.
If something fails such as CPS then it will stall. There are some instances that put it into limp mode also.

 

lol.. you know, ironically, I came to my Tacoma after bailing on my 2010 TDI which was an electrical nightmare... I'd totally forgotten about that. So maybe I need to re-think the accuracy of my earlier post...

But I chalked that up to the VW being a particular piece of junk, "backed" by a lousy dealer and a less than customer-friendly corporate culture. That and the fact that I bought into the HPFF scare/hype (still not sure if that was justified or paranoia). Anyway, it just felt right to get out of that car before it became too much of a nightmare.

 

BSM and CPS failures will probably be the first to go...the latter most likely to leave you stranded

 

How would anyone know? The trucks been out for 2 years.

 

Ha, so I have a 2011 TDI - I've replaced the headlights 5 times. The sensor grid gets lit up like a Christmas tree at the most inopportune times and the DPF filter is 80% clogged. Oh don't forget the whole Diesel gate.... I'm just glad to be getting out of it and looking forward to my new Taco. Still trying to find out what I want. I have 6 or 8 web pages for TW world open right now