2017 Tacoma. Kick in the gut

J

JMacs

Observer
Got a kick in the gut today. While driving to work this morning, the engine just stopped. Flashed a "Transmission High Temp" warning then the engine just shut itself down. All the lights were still on. Everything else seemed to be working fine. Called the tow truck. While waiting, I tried to start it again. It turned over and over, but never started. No weird or grinding noises. Guess it put itself in safe mode. Fast forward to the end of the day. I get a call saying it has completely lost compression in cylinder #5. Choice was to replace the heads / valves or to replace the entire engine. Yeah, neither of those options are cheap (kick in the gut here). At least at the dealership. Haven't had a chance to call anyone else.

The truck is a 2017 with 135,000 miles. I've changed the oil every 5-6,000 miles since I bought it new. Followed every other recommended service. Never had an issue with anything. The dealership has always treated me well. The only service they keep trying to push on me is a engine cleaning. If I didn't have many miles on it, or if I never got the engine warm enough to burn off the internal crap, I would consider it.

This is only my third Toyota truck since 1992. Never had to deal with any sort of engine failure before. I'm going to go out for a second opinion. What questions should I ask, things should I know, answers should I watch out for to make sure I get a good answer about what is wrong?
 
beef tits

beef tits

Well-known member
Get a second opinion from an independent Toyota shop.

We thought my dad’s 480k original mile 4runner took a ********. Started knocking one day… turns out it just ate a spark plug and it was juts clacking around in the combustion chamber. Was fine after it broke down enough to be digested.

Still running today. No strange noises. That was 2 years ago.
 
TLar25

TLar25

New member
JMacs said:
Got a kick in the gut today. While driving to work this morning, the engine just stopped. Flashed a "Transmission High Temp" warning then the engine just shut itself down. All the lights were still on. Everything else seemed to be working fine. Called the tow truck. While waiting, I tried to start it again. It turned over and over, but never started. No weird or grinding noises. Guess it put itself in safe mode. Fast forward to the end of the day. I get a call saying it has completely lost compression in cylinder #5. Choice was to replace the heads / valves or to replace the entire engine. Yeah, neither of those options are cheap (kick in the gut here). At least at the dealership. Haven't had a chance to call anyone else.

The truck is a 2017 with 135,000 miles. I've changed the oil every 5-6,000 miles since I bought it new. Followed every other recommended service. Never had an issue with anything. The dealership has always treated me well. The only service they keep trying to push on me is a engine cleaning. If I didn't have many miles on it, or if I never got the engine warm enough to burn off the internal crap, I would consider it.

This is only my third Toyota truck since 1992. Never had to deal with any sort of engine failure before. I'm going to go out for a second opinion. What questions should I ask, things should I know, answers should I watch out for to make sure I get a good answer about what is wrong?
Click to expand...
Man that sucks. They did a compression test then?

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Y

yamaha225

Member
Unfortunately I have personal experience with the exact same issue. My mom has had now a total of four Tacomas. Her third one was a 2017 double cab short bed with the manual trans she bought new. Somewhere around 110,000 miles the check engine light came on and it seemed to be running a bit rough. I scanned it with my scan tool and got codes for something about a misfire on cylinder #5. I can’t remember the exact codes but there were a couple. Initially I assumed it needed plugs or maybe a coil so we tried that. Those didn’t make any difference. I did a little research and found this to be a fairly common issue on the early 3rd gen’s with the 3.5. So we had our local mechanic do a compression and leak down test on that cylinder. Sure enough, it had low compression. She then also took it to Toyota and they confirmed it likely needed a head on that side. They quoted something insane like 48 hours of labor to pull the motor and change the head. I think it was some over $5000 for the job. We talked about a used motor but used 3.5’s are upwards of $5000 as well. We ended up deciding to just get rid of the truck since it was a northeast truck and had some rust and such starting too. She bought a brand new 2023 with the manual last fall to replace it. The crazy thing was she got over $23,000 for it on trade even with disclosing to them that it had this problem.

Interestingly hers never shut down or stopped running. In fact she continued to drive it for about 6 months with the issue. It was a little down on power and rough running but it kept on trucking. My understanding is that this has been corrected with a tweaked head design on the newer 3.5’s. I want to say somewhere around 2019-2020 Toyota fixed it, at least from my research.

Really sorry to hear you’re having to deal with this! It’s never fun news to get and there aren’t any great options to fix it in this case. I think if it had happened to my personal vehicle I would have attempted to pull the head myself and get it fixed.

*Edited to note, that I have also seen multiple 3.5’s that have gone over 300,000 miles so it’s not all of them. There was one well documented 2018 on YouTube that was pushing 400,000.
 
J

JMacs

Observer
Talked to another mechanic. Apparently, it isn't that uncommon for these engines to have valve spring issues. He says about 1 in a 1000. He can replace the engine for around $12,000. Dealer came down to $15,500 for a used engine with 17,000 miles.

Scoping it out, they found damage to the cylinder and to the spark plug. Rebuilding the engine would end up being more than a new engine.
 
TLar25

TLar25

New member
JMacs said:
Talked to another mechanic. Apparently, it isn't that uncommon for these engines to have valve spring issues. He says about 1 in a 1000. He can replace the engine for around $12,000. Dealer came down to $15,500 for a used engine with 17,000 miles.

Scoping it out, they found damage to the cylinder and to the spark plug. Rebuilding the engine would end up being more than a new engine.
Click to expand...
Holy cow. What a nightmare. I'd look at what you could get for it trading it in. I'm surprised that Toyota never issued a recall if it's that common of a known problem on the early models. Is it an exhaust routing issue like the old 3.0 3vze had? Too much heat causing HG failures in one specific spot.

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TLar25

TLar25

New member
JMacs said:
And to add insult to injury, the dealer called me 2 weeks ago and asked if I wanted to sell it. This could have been someone else's problem.
Click to expand...
Man [emoji28] that freaking sucks

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Y

yamaha225

Member
If it helps, it looks like used engines have come down a little since I was looking. Here is one for $4,000 on eBay with 42,000 miles from a 2022 truck. I would think you could find someone to swap it in for less than another $8,000 in labor. Or if you’re handy maybe attempt it yourself.

www.ebay.com

16-23 Toyota Tacoma 3.5L Complete Engine Assembly w/o vacuum pump 42k | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 16-23 Toyota Tacoma 3.5L Complete Engine Assembly w/o vacuum pump 42k at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com

I did see some other ones for even less than $4,000 so you might have some options. I would not pay the dealer $15,500 for a used engine, nor would I be inclined to pay $12,000 for a used engine but that’s just me.
 
J

JMacs

Observer
I'm not real happy about paying for it either. But replacing an engine is a little more than I can do. So, I am at the mercy of the mechanics.
 
J

JMacs

Observer
For every one's information about the vacuum pump comment. I did some research about that. TRD Off-Road and TRD Pro's engines come without the vacuum pump. They use an electric pump for the boost. The rest of the Tacomas use a vacuum pump attached to the engine to create the boost for the brakes. Other than that, the engines are exactly the same. You can take an engine with a vacuum pump, remove it, put a blank-off plate in its place. There is a catch. You also have to add a ball to the end of the cam shaft to block off an oil passage. From what I was able to gather, adding the ball isn't too difficult. Getting the ball out to add a vacuum pump to a non-vacuum pump motor is not that easy. Most talked about replacing the cam shaft instead of removing the ball. (paraphrased from some posts on www.tacomaworld.com )
 
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