Timing Chain Bad After 50,000 miles

I am having timing chain trouble at 50,000 miles. It's a 2013 TRD Off Road Double Cab 4x4. Anyone else having problems with timing chain? It's my understanding that they should last for the life of the engine. If that's true, I'm in a world of hurt. I have reservations about having my local Toyota dealership do the work but it is still under warranty. Is this something a dealership can handle?

Also my rear diff oil gets black after only a few thousand miles. Is this normal?

 

How do you know? Not only is that unusual, it's not an easy diagnosis.

That's what warranties are for. IF you truly do need a chain, you don't really want to pay OOP for a shop to do that.

Why are you looking at diff fluid every few thousand miles? Are there metal shavings on the drain plug?

 

It really should last the lifetime of the vehicle but things happen. If it's under warranty definitely let Toyota handle it.

 

What exactly is timing chain trouble? Are you having the common misfire? Taco tick?

 

I can hear chatter when accelerating and the gas mileage has gone down. I brought it in to my mechanic, a fanatic who builds vehicles from the ground up. He drove it and immediately thought it might be the timing chain.

The reason I checked the rear diff oil was because after coming to an abrupt stop and then accelerating, my transmission would hesitate and then slam into gear. The dealership ended up disconnecting the battery for 30 minutes to reset the computer. This seemed to fix the problem. They also changed the rear diff oil at the same time. When I brought the truck to my mechanic to check out the chatter in the engine he found the oil to be black but did not change. This was maybe about 1,000 miles after the dealership changed the oil.

My plan is to bring it in to the dealership tomorrow and let them diagnose. I just don't have a lot of confidence in their work for many reasons which I will not bore you with here.

 

Gear oil turns black, it's fine.

You haven't experienced nasty gear oil until you've changed it in a 20+ year old truck that has never had it changed.

 

I remember taking a company car into a Jiffy Lube for its first oil change at 5,000 miles and having them show me how black my diff fluid was and how it needed to be changed. I just laughed at them. Black diff fluid in normal.

 

I highly doubt you have a timing chain issue. Allow the dealer to do their job under their warranty.

 

sure it wasn't axle wrap?

 

This is not a cold engine problem. I live in Florida and it's summer. It does not go away after engine temp reaches normal. It happens during accelerating from slow speeds, 20-40mph. I did not hear this until after 50,000miles. I am wondering if maybe one of the chain guides, which are plastic, is the problem.

I don't know what the common misfire is. I understand that the valves may slap a bit until they are warm and expand, but this is not that.

 

Well, that's a 'thought', which isn't the same as an actual diagnosis. Which he qualified with 'it might be'. But that also means it might not be.

Since it's under warranty, that's the right approach IMHO.

I'll just go ahead and crawl out on the internet limb here and wager a Diet Coke the issue has nothing to do with the timing chain.

 

I hope your'e right Bill. I would like to take a trip out west in the next month or so and would be pulling a 4000# trailer. Some of the places I go are not populated. I might go two or three days without seeing anyone. Don't want to have a problem with my truck out there. Another problem with this situation is that I will be going out of warranty on this trip.

 

This leads me to think it is the engine pinging. Maybe try a higher octane fuel like 92 octane for a few tanks.

 

.
...^^^... Switched to 92 octane and my engine noise stopped.
.

 

I think there is a TSB for that problem... A new ECU flash update.

 

Take advantage of the warranty if there is a problem. Why wouldn't toyota techs that are specifically trained on toyotas be able to handle working on it? They swap frames on these trucks, which is way more involved.

 

Thanks for all the info. There was a TSB in the form of an ECU update. Problem fixed. I have been away from this forum for a while. In the future I will try to keep in touch because there is a wealth of knowledge here and friendly people who give it out.

 

This. OP is in Florida (sorry OP ) - Hot temps and sea level will do it.

 

I'll PM the info on where you can send my Diet Coke

Just kidding. Glad it was simple.

However, I would be concerned about my mechanic shooting from the lip like that, getting you all spun up about a potential complex issue that wasn't even close to being right.