Toyota Tundra Forum

Here is an interesting article I found. Not good news!!!

Toyota fixing engine failures in new Tundra truck - USATODAY.com

Has anyone had any problems yet?

__________________


2007 Tundra DC 5.7 V8
SR5 Long bed 4x4
Tow, Ext mirrors, Backup cam
Blue Streak , St Stl Running boards
A.R.E. Fiberglass Cap

Man, I didn't want to know that. I have just bought the truck so it is probably way early to see a problem in mine. I will sure keep it in mind though. Thanks for posting it.

According to Skyhammer this is what's going on but I haven't been able to get a hold of him to find out his source. To me it doesn't look as bad as what a lot of people are making it out to be Unless it's your truck that craps out) and I can bet you that if I go back through all the Titan sites we had more engine failures than this the first year with no explanation at all from Nissan. From a Corporate standpoint I'm impressed with the speed and way they're handling it and I f I had a 5.7L Tundra I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

__________________
Good Gawd that is one ugly Tundra.

yes a very small problem. I have heard that it may be as little as 50 engines total that got the questionable cam.

Don't let the internet turn a mole hill into a mountain. Not the least bit concerned about it myself, if it happens, a new engine will be installed quickly.

__________________
2007 double cab, 5.7, 2wd, nautical blue metallic, bu, ds, kg, nv, wr, 37,ss, v5

"We've learned a lot," Nissan says about changing the Titan. The 2008 pickup is larger and has more horsepower.

Bruised Titan rises for Round 2 in pickup war


Automotive News
May 28, 2007 - 1:00 am
MINNEAPOLIS -- To establish the Titan pickup as a more serious Detroit 3 fighter, Nissan is studying plans to buy V-8 diesel engines from International Truck and Engine Corp.

Nissan North America also is considering offering the Titan with a V-6 gasoline engine to appeal to price-conscious buyers, company officials said.

The company wants to improve its marginal position in the fierce North American full-sized pickup market. Nissan, like its chief rival, Toyota, is getting more sophisticated in the U.S.-dominated truck segment.

Both Japanese automakers are learning that creating full-sized pickups is not enough. They also must build them for different customers and different uses.

"We had some problems with the first generation," Leo Mancini, Nissan's vehicle development performance manager, conceded at a press event here. "We've learned a lot."


Needed: More buyers
To make the Titan full-sized pickup more appealing, Nissan is making these changes for the 2008 model.

• Extended wheelbase
  500-pound payload capacity boost
  Heavier axles, bigger brakes
  More frame rigidity
• Decontented trim package

Wrong idea

The Titan debuted in the 2004 model year. Its goal was modest: 5 percent of the segment's approximately 2 million annual sales, or about 100,000 Titan sales a year.

Nissan came close, selling about 85,000 a year. But pummeled by bad consumer reviews, quality concerns and rising gasoline prices, sales sank to 72,192 last year. It also was hurt by big incentives spending by the Detroit 3 and a lack of model options.

"A key piece of this market is the E-grade model -- the plumber who wants a base model with plastic floor mats and a sticker price low enough to make the payments work," says Mancini, who previously worked on Ford Motor Co.'s F-150 pickup program. "We couldn't offer that before."

The base model Titan, with shipping, lists for $24,445. A base F-150, with a six-cylinder engine, sells for $19,200.

The Titan also was hurt by a lack of consumer awareness.

Nissan's consumer studies have revealed that despite its efforts to plunge into Detroit's big pickup market with a genuine contender, many shoppers assume the Titan is a mid-sized truck.

Down on the farm

Last week, the company took journalists to Wisconsin dairy farmland to show off the 2008 Titan. Even with gasoline prices skyrocketing and the market tilting away from full-sized trucks to more fuel-efficient cars, the Titan has gotten physically bigger. The pickup will offer more horsepower, longer truck beds, bigger brakes, heavier axles and another 500 pounds of payload capacity.

The Titan's new extended-wheelbase King Cab model will come with a cargo bed measuring 8 feet, 2 inches, while its Crew Cab will offer a bed of 7 feet, 2 inches.

At the same time, undaunted by high gasoline prices, Nissan said it also will offer a V-8 engine for the first time in its 2008 Pathfinder SUV. Pathfinder sales through April are down 25 percent from the first four months of 2006.

Asked whether the beefier powertrain was coming at the wrong time, in light of spiking gasoline prices, Nissan Pathfinder model line planner Jim Schubmehl said, "To the contrary, it's the perfect time for a V-8."

While sales of full-sized pickups and SUVs in general have softened since Nissan began mobilizing for more U.S. truck business, V-8s are growing as a share of the SUV market, Schubmehl noted. In 2002, V-8-equipped SUVs accounted for 20 percent of the market. Last year, they represented 30 percent, according to Nissan's data.

"We believe the market has bottomed out," he said of the slowdown in large truck sales.

That would be good news for Nissan as the Titan scraps for its 5 percent market share. But to be safe, planners are considering more options, including the V-6 engine and diesel option, for later in this decade.

You may e-mail Lindsay Chappell at lchappell@crain.com


some titan information for your titan site, from automotive news

Toyota chases Tundra camshaft failures

Mark Rechtin
Automotive News

LOS ANGELES -- A batch of camshaft failures in 5.7-liter V-8 engines has dinged the launch of the Toyota Tundra pickup.

Camshafts in 20 engines have snapped, says Toyota spokesman Mike Michels. The outside camshaft supplier, which Toyota declined to identify, has traced the problem to "a metallurgical defect in the casting, a flaw in the metal which they have corrected," he says.

To date, Toyota has built 30,000 of the engines, and the company is determining how many might be affected. Michels says that it was "an early batch," and that "Toyota is confident in the production from that point on."

A camshaft is a spinning rod that opens the engine's intake and exhaust valves in sequence. Toyota's camshafts are designed to avoid collateral damage if they snap.

Toyota rushed the 5.7-liter engine into production in time for the Tundra's February launch. The 5.7-liter initially was scheduled to arrive this summer. But Toyota dealers and product planners told the manufacturing arm that the Tundra needed the big V-8 at launch because the 4.7-liter V-8 would not make a strong enough statement.

The 5.7-liter represents more than 70 percent of the engine mix.

Toyota's top executives repeatedly have stated their concern that Toyota is growing too quickly to keep quality at past high levels.

Toyota likely will not test each camshaft to see if it is prone to failure. Rather, customers whose camshafts fail will have their entire engines replaced.

One Toyota dealer service technician who declined to be identified says Toyota asked him to ship overnight a defective engine to its V-8 engine plant in Alabama.

"The guy was towing a small trailer, not under full load," the technician says. "Other folks have been towing 10,000 pounds with no problem."

You may e-mail Mark Rechtin at mrechtin@crain.com

This Article is from Pickup truck .com. Out of a run of 30,000 5.7-liter V8 engines, Toyota has had reports of 20 camshafts snapping -- a minuscule number in light of the total (0.06 percent, as a matter of fact). Toyota says the outside supplier of the camshafts has discovered the problem, which was "a metallurgical defect in the casting," and the company is trying to figure out how many of the remaining 30,000 engines could also be affected, though because of the company's production method, the final number is not expected to be large. The camshafts have been designed to prevent collateral damage in case they break, but Toyota will replace a customer's entire engine if the camshaft failure should occur by sending a new 5.7L via airfreight to the nearest daeler. Apparently some Toyota execs believe that the new number one global automaker has been growing too fast to maintain proper quality control. Yet with the Tundra being a new truck with a new engine in a new market for Toyota, there are going to be teething problems, as we've seen. What remains to be seen is if, or for how long, these problems will continue.
Thanks for the tip, Tracy!
[Source: Pickuptruck.com]

This article basically says the same thing, the major difference is that this article says that Toyota is replacing the whole truck and not just the engine.Toyota reports problem with new Tundra - May. 29, 2007

__________________
2007 Tundra DC Limited 5.7L 4X4
TRD,NAV,TOW
Xlerator Exhaust
aFe Stage 2 CAI
BFG AT/KO 285/65/18
Desert Sand Mica

well, that's all interesting. thanks guys. I am not at all worried. My truck has almost 2,000 miles on it with no probs yet. I would imagine that if you have one of the few that have the cam prob, it would go before the warranty ran out. Additonally, at this point I believe that even if you had a cam shaft snap at 40,000 miles Toyota would step to the plate.

Even if they wouldn't, you would have a pretty good case against them.

__________________
**************************************************
2007 Tundra DC SR5 5.7L 4X4
TRD, Leather, Backup Cam, Tow
Blue Streak

Mods: Black Line-x bed, Husky Liner floor mats, Yota billet shifter, Flowmaster Super 40 muffler (dual in/dual out) with rear exit SS exhaust tips, Firestone Destination 285 65 18 MTs. Truxx 3-inch lift/level kit. Bushwacker pocket fender flares. 4-cleat Tundra deck rail kit. Westin bull bar.

Thanks bud! I don't now how I missed this but the gang over at the Titan site thanks you. Guess I need to pony up the $ for a subscription.

I wonder if anyone has found any more details on these failrures? VIN ranges, or production dates?

__________________
CrewMAX 5.7 SR5
Surrey, BC Canada

LINE-X Bed Liner, Tekonsha Prodigy Brake Controller, ScanGauge II

Geddes Family Homestay - Hosting international students in Vancouver, Surrey