Sunday Morning Blog

April 14, 2007

Toyota Tundra Blues

It is unfortunate that my first blog post in such a long time has to be about something negative, but I am at a loss as to what more I can do other than vent at this point. Two months ago, we decided to trade in both of our little Scions and upgrade to a safer, more long-distance travel friendly, full-size vehicle. At the end of January, after doing some research and taking it for a test drive, we settled on purchasing a left-over 2006 Toyota Tundra. The financing was sweet, the crash test ratings don't get much better, and how many complaints have you ever heard from a Toyota owner? We couldn't have been happier, until...

At approximately 750 miles, Jesse left work at lunchtime to run a few errands. When she turned the ignition key, the starter began cranking, and cranking, and cranking for what seemed an uncomfortable eternity... as though she were holding the key forward. When it finally stopped cranking, she tried to start it again- not even a click. A couple of minutes later, she got the truck to start, but it ran as though it were running on 7 of 8 cylinders. After lunch, she called me at work to tell me what had happened. I told her that I would call the Toyota dealership to have it towed. The truck was towed in, and we drove there after work in our other transportation (a used, 1997 S10 p-up that I had just purchased for our second vehicle). We were told they hadn't had a chance to diagnose the problem yet, and we were given a Toyota Highlander as a loaner.

The next day, they diagnosed the problem as "an internal short in the starter motor," and they began the process of trying to find us a starter. We were going away for the weekend, so the loaner would remain ours for the next several days. To make a long story short, we received the "repaired" Tundra back 5 days later. This repair visit converts into 4 dealership days if you are counting- which we weren't... yet.

All seemed ducky with our Tundra until a month (approximately 700 miles) later. The whole situation repeated itself. Everything reoccurred, right down to the truck being parked in precisely the same parking space at Jesse's work. This time, when the truck finally started, there was a strong fuel odor and the truck again ran horribly. The dealership service advisor's answer to this repeat event was to give advice on not trying to start the truck right away when this no-start situation occurs. Needless to say, this was not the answer I was looking for! As far as I was concerned (as any new vehicle owner should), we should not have a brand new $30,000+ truck repeatedly exhibiting a no-start condition... PERIOD! I scheduled another appointment for the truck to be checked out.

To make a long story endless, this trip to the dealership lasted far longer than the first. We were given a very tired Rav4 as a loaner (the brakes were grinding and the starter was making noise). During the first week the Tundra was in the garage, I received daily updates from a service advisor. They were unable to duplicate the condition and they could not find anything wrong. However, he did mention that there were some "unexplained body codes," that pointed to "some sort of communication problem involving the computer." So, I was elated... Now we were getting somewhere! Perhaps we were closer to a fix? I shouldn't have gotten so excited...

The daily updates stopped the day after I was told that they were waiting for a Toyota field representative to come look at the truck. A few days later, I was called at work and I was asked in a conference call to outline exactly what the factors had been leading up to this situation occurring both times: temperature, drive time, idle time, mileage, etc. They were going to make one final attempt at duplicating the conditions of both failures, because they had yet to pinpoint the problem. I should mention that it was 20 degrees warmer, and above freezing when the Toyota representative finally arrived. Two days later I was called, and told to come pick up the truck. They said that they could find nothing wrong with it. The trouble codes? They said that it was the computer searching for a keyless entry system that the truck was not equipped with. Why wouldn't they have known this when they first told me of the trouble codes?

I mailed a letter claiming my rights to a refund or a replacement vehicle under the Massachusetts Lemon Law on the morning of the day that they called to tell us to come pick up the truck (what a coincidence!).

The truck ended up being at the dealership a total of 13 days this time around (that converts to 11 open dealership days). If you combine these with the duration of the first repair attempt, we did not have our new vehicle for 18 days before even having made our second payment on the truck (the first failure occurred before having made one payment). The Massachusetts Lemon Law gives the dealership 15 days, before the consumer can pursue their rights to a refund or a new vehicle, giving the manufacturer one final repair attempt of 7 days. In other words, the dealership contacted us to pick up the truck on the 15th day. Do you think they were counting? We were by that point!

Toyota received our Lemon Law complaint and scheduled the truck to be dropped off and be checked out again on the Friday of the week that we had picked the truck back up. It was obvious that they were just going through the motions of performing their end of the final repair attempt. My wife was given the royal welcome and given a 2007 Toyota Avalon to drive for the day. They called us back later that afternoon to inform us that the vehicle had checked out fine, and that they were unable to duplicate the condition.

At risk of rambling and beating a dead horse, I will only point out my amazement at our treatment during this whole fiasco. Before becoming a Toyota owner, I had never heard anything but good things about Toyota and their local facilities here on Cape Cod. Since purchasing the Tundra, I have not witnessed the Toyota excellence that everyone raves about. To add insult to injury, after the Toyota representative saw the vehicle for its "final repair attempt," we received it back with shoe prints and scratches on the front bumper!

Keep in mind, this is a truck with 1400 miles on it. What responsible, trained technician does that?

We bought Toyota due to its reputation for reliability. We have yet to experience it. We can only hope that this was some freak happening that will never revisit us. If you have experienced a similar situation with your 4.7L Toyota Tundra, I would love to hear from you. Toyota claims that the situation can not be duplicated and, as such, no defect exists. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has documentation or the fix to a similar problem.

Please contact me at: d r e w w b at g m a i l dot com

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Toyota, "Toyota Tundra", 4.7L, Warranty, Defect, Ignition, Fuel, Starter, "No-Start", Tundra, 2006, Flooding

Posted by capecodcyclist at April 14, 2007 11:05 AM