By May, it was clear that Toyota had to do something about it. frequent failures of the twin-turbocharged 3.4-liter V6 engine, Found in Tundra pickup trucks and Lexus LX 600 SUVsThe company has been looking into whether there is any way to improve this issue, but it seems the only way to satisfy customers is to remove the engine and replace it with a completely new one. This recall affects 102,092 vehicles.including 98,568 Tundras and 3,524 LX 600s. Toyota says it will replace the engine IN “all vehicles involved” free of charge.
Toyota, a company long known for its rock-solid reliability, has really stepped in. The Japanese automaker says the problem is due to a manufacturing process in which oil passages are not properly cleaned after machining. That results in metal debris floating around the engine’s lubrication system, clogging up operations. Whether the debris is in the oil passage or in the main bearing, it will eventually cause a failure. And the result is an engine that blows up.
The recall applies to all Tundras built between November 2, 2021 and February 13, 2023, as well as Lexus LX 600 models built between July 30, 2021 and November 25, 2022. Toyota says it has not received any reports of injuries related to the issue, which is good news, but it has had to stop production of a lot of trucks. Recall documents show at least 824 engine warranty claims regarding this issue.
The report claims that Toyota first became aware of the potential problem when a vehicle equipped with the V35A engine stalled in March 2022. “Toyota recalled the relevant parts and conducted an investigation into the engine failure. Through this investigation, it was discovered that the crankshaft main bearing had seized.”
In July of that same year, two more engines were found to have bearing failures. At the time, Toyota hypothesized that it was an engine contamination issue and ordered an update to the engine cleaning procedure. It’s interesting that Toyota would replace engines that were built as a precaution even after the cleaning procedure was updated. Better safe than sorry, I guess. And Toyota regretted it.
