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Scared to own my Tundra much longer, opinions?

16K views 65 replies 33 participants last post by  baldguy 
#1 ·
Okay, so here's the deal.... I own and operate a small ( just me ) lawnservice business. Been doing this since 1994. I absolutely have to be able to depend on my truck to be able to tote my trailer ( a big heavy 7x16 enclosed trailer full of mowers and power tools )

In the past I just had my truck. It was my work vehicle and my personal vehicle and daily driver. Back in around 2003- 2004 I got tired of unhitching my truck from the trailer every day just to ride up to the store or go to the movies, so I bought a small car to drive when I didn't need to tow anything such as my boat.

Ive gone through a ton of trucks over the years, but never kept any of them long. Partly because I wanted dependability and partly because I was always changing my mind about what I wanted.... For example, in 1999 I bought a Ram 2500 diesel with 2wd and a stick, then a year later I traded in to get a 2000 2500 Ram diesel but with 4wd and a auto. Then literally a year later I traded in to get a 2001 1500 silverado 2wd with 4.8 v8 because it was all I needed and it saved me like 200$ a month on payments. Then in 2003 I traded in and got a 45 grand full loaded Avalanche, then two years later I sold it for like 2 grand less than payoff and bought a 2005 silverado stripped down work truck because a 300$ a month payment was alot better than the 650$ a month payment on the avalanche!

Anyways in 2008 I was once again in the hunt for a new truck and after looking at the new silverados, I decided to just take a look at the " new " tundras even though I figured they would be too expensive to buy. Ended up loving the truck and got a screaming deal on a new 08 double cab 2wd 5.7 Paid 22,700$ out the door with no trade in no down payment! Payments were a little over 400$ a month and paid on it for about 4 years, then just paid off the balance in a lump sum to be done with it. At that point, 4 years of ownership was a personal record, having never owned a vehicle that long.

Being that I kept the truck in basically " As New " condition ( I am super anal about keeping my truck and cars dent and ding and scratch free and keeping the inside spotless ) And being that at the time the truck maybe only had 60 thousand miles or so, and being that it is a TOYOTA and they are supposed to be super dependable and reliable vehicles, and also because the truck does everything I need it to do, I figured I would hold onto it for a while.

So fast forward to now, and Ive had the truck for 7 years 4 months... and 102,000 miles. Truck still looks like new, inside still looks new, but...... is the truck in my driveway this morning? NO. its at the dealership having the dam ABS system replaced to the tune of 2200$ because something went wrong with it last week and my speedo quit working, abs and brake lights and check engine lights came on.

Now Ive already had to have the starter replaced back around the 65,000 mile mark. Was quoted 1200$ for that! Luckily Toyota did some good will for me since the truck was just out of warranty and the dealer reduced their price some and I got it changed out for 500$ out of pocket. The starter and oil changes, brake rotors, and a back rear wheel bearing on one side was all I've had to deal with till now.

But I also have oil leakage on the engine, its coming from the front cover on the engine. Its not a ton of oil but over time its gotten worse. Dealer quoted 2500$ to fix it. Claims the engine has to be pulled out of the truck to fix this oil leak!

Then there is the concern of hearing of expensive water pump failures, and air injection pump failures, and so on and so forth.

It just seems to me that everything that can go wrong with these trucks costs serious bucks to fix, and I can't afford to be down without a truck for more than a day or two. 1200$ starter swap.... wheel bearing just one side was 4-5 hundred dollars as I recall.... 2200$ abs repair... What the heck is going to be next???

I remember when I was young, a car or truck with 100 thousand miles was more or less wore out. But these days you see so many people with 200, 300, even 4-500 thousand miles on their cars and trucks. Since I only use the truck for work purposes 95 percent of the time, I only put 200-225 miles a week on it. And thats not year around either, maybe 45 weeks a year. Thats only around 10,000 miles a year. Since the truck does everything I need out of a truck, is paid off, and still looks great, I want to keep it for another couple of years. Even 4 more years from now it should still be under 150K... certainly under 200K. But I am afraid of how much this truck is going to cost me to keep repairing it, if things start going downhill.

I know the logical way to look at it is, even if I have to spend 2500$ a year on some kind of repair, say the ABS thing this year, the oil leak next year, a new starter and some other stuff the next, etc.... It would be still much cheaper than 5 years of payments on a new truck and depreciation etc....

But I am still concerned, and have some fear of the truck, that If I keep it much longer I might be taking it hard in the rear so to speak, with expensive repairs. God forbid if the engine blew, that would probably cost more than what the truck is worth.

The flip side is I haven't been pricing new trucks lately but I don't think I could bring myself to spend 40-50 grand on a new truck. I don't need or want leather and all the bells and whistles, but I would want 4 doors, a decent sized back seat, power windows and locks, cloth interior and a engine strong enough to pull my trailer without fuss.

I gave some thought to selling my truck ( I think I might could get 15 grand for it ? ) and buying a Ram with the eco diesel. With the long term fuel savings of the eco diesel helping to offset the purchase ( my tundra gets a rock solid 10-10.5 mpg towing my trailer, I figure the ecodiesel would do more like 15-16mpg, which would be a 772$ savings each year at todays price for gas and diesel ) But the issue I have with the eco diesel, is I believe repairs on it will also be wildly expensive. Same with the Ford ecoboost stuff, I believe they will have many issues as they get to be the age and mileage my tundra has and they too will need expensive repairs.

one thing I do know, is I don't want to get back in a cycle of monthly payments and debt. I am debt free other than my home mortgage. So I don't want to sell my truck, to buy something else and 8 or 10 years from now be on a silverado or ram forum complaining about how my truck is beginning to be a money pit at 100K and I am considering dumping it before all hell breaks lose.

Long post, just wanted to convey my thoughts. Your opinions??? Should I just roll the dice and keep on truckin with the tundra, should I unload it because more expensive crap fails....
 
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#41 ·
I am amazed that with all those skills in building engines, airplanes etc, that you have this much angst in making a very simple decision. There are no guarantees so if a payment is not going to bother you, buy a truck. You are driving an almost new VW diesel and if you did your homework (which it sounds like you might have) you know that that will be an expensive car to fix. You have a Volvo, also expensive to fix.

I have no blind loyalty to Tundra but the oil leak is not going to stop you running around in the truck. Maybe it drips on your pavement but otherwise, not the biggest deal. I would not take an engine out of truck to fix an oil leak. I would watch it and top it off from time to time.

Go to a shop and have the work done and you can easily make that truck do what you want for a few more years. Basing life on payments that are low is an evil mistress. Fix er up and drive her or buy a new truck. You have an almost new VW that when it does break down will make your Tundra seem like a dream to own
 
#45 ·
Trust me, I know its a BIG roll of the dice with the vw. Thats why I bought it nearly new... It had one owner and 8000 miles on it when I got it. Was able to buy it for about 8 grand less than new, yet it still had 52,000 miles left on the warranty. My logic then and still now is to sell the car either right at the expiration of the warranty, or for sure by the time it hits 100K. My research showed the cars to be solid and mostly issue free for at least 100K. And resale value is super strong on diesel VW's and there isn't much difference in value between a used one with 50K verses 100K. At the price I paid for the car, I could safely drive it till the warranty runs out, then sell it for only 2 or 3 thousand dollars less than I paid for it, and my only expenses would be maybe a set of tires and a few oil changes. But now that Ive had the car for a year and a half, and have driven it quite a bit ( 25,000 miles since I got it ) I have had zero issues and really love how the car drives and the diesel's torque, and the amazing fuel economy. I may hold onto it till at least 100K.

The Volvo.... That was a used car I bought for 2500$, a beater so to speak. Only reason I wanted one was I had several friends who over the years drove nothing but volvo and they bragged on how durable and long lasting the cars were. The 940 model specifically. One friend of mine put just over 570,000 miles on his, and other than a occasional repair to the car such as new shocks, replacement headlights etc... the only " Major " repair was a replacement transmission at around 300K and he did that himself with parts from a junkyard. His original little four cylinder engine was still going strong when he sold the car. So knowing how good used 940's were, I bought one without much fear of problems, and mine had around 260K on it when I got it. The only issue I had was the cruise control didn't work and I got that fixed ( had to replace a module ) for around 150$ by a local volvo / jaguar independent shop. I kept the car for about a year before buying a nearly new corolla, at which time I sold the car to my wifes aunt and uncle. That was like 5 years ago, and they still drive the car daily, it has well over 300K on it now and still going strong.


Anyway the oil leak.... Maybe you don't understand how the parts are sealed where I am getting a leak from. There is NO gasket, no o ring between these parts. Just a bead of silicone. If the silicone were to blow out it could become a major leak. And no, Im sorry I am not going to have a truck that leaves a puddle of oil on the ground everywhere I go.
 
#42 ·
I have to agree with the OP, the skid plate removal is a PITFA. Stupid in fact. Great thing is, a TRD Pro skid plate can be purchased to handle this issue. Sucks none the less. I will have to time my next oil change. I either do them at work and it doesn't matter if it takes 5 hours. At home with beer in hand, I'm guessing 30 min.

Wish the oil filter was on top like my Tacoma. That is just so kick ass to spin the filter off, clean, lube new filter, spin on.

I have never owned a vehicle 7 years, so I will say no more.
 
#44 ·
102k miles is not very much these days. That said, If you don't do your own wrenching, owning an older vehicle can get very expensive. I will say that if you were quoted 1200 to replace a starter, you are being quoted for a brand new starter. Remanufactured units can be found for around $100 whereas Toyota wants to charge close to $500 for a (presumably) new unit. My advice, if you want to keep the truck, and you don't work on your own vehicles, is to find a mechanic (not a dealer) you can trust, Once you are out of warranty, I believe its time to kiss your dealer goodbye.
 
#46 ·
It was for a new OEM starter. I could have spent far less and got a re- manufactured starter from autozone, but the logic was, do you want to spend 500-600 in labor and install a rebuilt starter or a brand new oem starter? Ive had short life out of rebuilt starters in the past on other vehicles and didn't want to take a chance. Also, toyota did step in and offer to help, even though the truck was just out of warranty. They agreed to split the bill with me, but they also insisted the starter be OEM. If the starter was something you could crawl under the truck and put your hands on, I would have done it myself and would have certainly used a autozone starter!
 
#48 ·
Biggest thing with the tundra is the skid plate removal for oil changes. $32k+ trucks and they couldn't build a better skid plate for 1, and 2 they didn't have enough brains to install a damn access cover for the oil filter/drain plug. The way the trucks are built if you go without the skid plate it leaves a lot of vulnerable components out in the open...another stupid idea by Toyota rather than tucking things up farther in the truck there's a lot of stuff down there to get easily damaged by road debris.

Definitely won't buy another Tundra...going to have to go with a 3/4 or 1 ton and it won't be new, most likely back to an 80's or early 90's. The horrible IFS limitations for being able to actually use the tundra up in the mountains to pull trailers full of firewood on the logging roads is asking for expensive repairs. Glad my old F-250 is still in the family I use it now when I need to leave paved roads the tundra is far from offroad capable for those of us who have to pay for our own repairs....and actually care about maintaining a vehicle properly. Seems many on here don't keep a vehicle in their driveway longer than a few months before they think they need a new one.

Heaven forbid people open their eyes and ears to others' ideas. Sorry the Tundra isn't the greatest...there isn't a greatest vehicle out there, but in my experience it has fallen short in many areas that Toyota if they listened to customers who actually use their vehicles for work rather than as a family car could have built a far better truck.
 
#51 · (Edited)
People aren't nannified into wanting soft trucks (OK, maybe some), but they want to be able to use it for a multitude of things. You don't want a truck, you want an iimplement. I use trucks for many things, most people do too. Most people don't want bump steer, harsh rides, or a less safe vehicle. Do you hate air bags also? So, you're truck is 7 years old, and it MIGHT need a fuel pump? Damn, you really should look at some of the other forums and see what big 3 owners deal with. As far as the alignment, jeebus dude, that is part of maintenance, it happens to ALL trucks, especially if you beat the crap out of it.

Don't even start to bitch about $100 or less a month for heat, that's called utilities, and I'd bet most pay more than that.

Bill, every time you post, you just seem like a woe is me kinda person who wants to go back to the stone age.
 
#54 ·
Weird thread! I had a 2001 Z71 silverado that I put 300,000 work miles on it. Only major problems were a rear pinion seal leak (really no big deal) and AC needed to be rebuilt (was a big deal, when you live in the Sacramento area which has become a desert). Sold it to a guy that works with me, it still ran great and runs good to this day. My work vehicle now is a 2004 Z71 Silverado that has 150,000 miles on it that I bought new and have had no major mechanical faliures to date. I do all my own maintenance whether its a PITA or not. My 2014 Tundra is my weekend non-work truck for now. I expect the same durability as the Chevys and have full confidence that it
will. As to the original poster, keep it. If maintained well, it should last another 100,000 or more. Sure things will wear out and break, its a mechanical machine. They all break, dont trip when they do. I kinda rotate my trucks, when the 04 has around 250,000 I will sell it and use the Tundra as my work truck and buy another new one as my weekend play truck. As to what I will buy next, well it will not be a Dodge or a Ford that's for sure.
 
#55 ·
I work my truck. Not sure what some peoples problems are.

5K in rock + 3K in trailer:



My Tundra moved every single bit to the bricks, rock, fill dirt for front and rear of my house (the rear had about 20 yards of dirt moved with my old Dodge, out of the 60 moved). I wore out my plastic bedliner, it looked like swiss cheese.

Started off at around 7K in weight, then the blizzard came. We actually had to pull over and shovel off snow and ice. It was just getting crazy heavy.




Another 6400 lbs one:




I really can't post or take pictures of all the work my truck has done. Some pics would not be posted anyway. On my current trailer I can put 11K on it plus the 3K in trailer weight. Leave it at that.
 
#59 ·
Try pulling all that off paved roads you'll quickly find out what the problems are. 1 the truck is overloaded in a few of those pictures, and 2 the IFS won't handle it very long.

What I don't get is that supposed rancher in Texas had a tundra for 100k and they claimed that even after overloading it and driving it off paved roads for a lot of those miles pulling a gooseneck trailer they claimed everything on the truck was fine...yet a couple of simple off pavement chores I did with a much smaller and lighter load caused alignment issues.

Where I live and have to drive at times IFS is not the way to go...found that out the hard way, and won't ever own another IFS vehicle.
 
#56 ·
You can always buy another truck unless and until obama outlaws them. Drive what you have until the threshold of pain (repairs) exceeds your comfort zone. Then get another one. Buy a new one-another Toyota. Trade in your truck. Even if it doesn't run it is still worth something. Get a color you don't like then it will last forever.
 
#57 ·
Original post question is whether to keep it or not. right? Price out a new truck and figure out what your payment may be versus some repair costs. I love to see how long some people keep their trucks. I believe that most of them are fairly dependable. Some are better than others. My last truck was a 2014 GMC sierra, and unfortunately i could not get rid of it fast enough. It was disappointing, considering the truck before that one, was a Chevrolet that i had 298,000 on it when i sold it, and it is still running strong. I work at a farm operation and we push our trucks hard and we have ran them all. We have over a 100 trucks. Our original fleets were Chevrolet, and they were great and held up well. We went to Ford, because they were less money, and now we have a fleet of (junk) trucks that we only can keep about 4 to 5 years and then they cost us a bunch in repairs. Nothing is holding up with them. So long story short, there is nothing out there that is completely immune to repairs. I am somewhat of a gear head and love to do my own repairs. We have 7 Tundras on the farm now, and everyone of the managers has been able to put a lot of miles on them with very minimal repair costs.That is why i am trying a Tundra this time. I can tell you right now, that i absolutely love the Tundra, and i probably will never go back to another brand. I put about 30,000 to 34,000 miles a year on my trucks, and i expect to have better resale value with the Tundra in a year than i ever did with my other brands.
 
#62 ·
Dealers charge too much for parts and labor. Unless the vehicle is under the warranty and the repair is covered under warranty, I go to an independent repair facility. Most repairs not involving issues that compromise the tune set at the factory can be done just as well at an independent shop such as starter, brakes, fluid changes, etc. I know a person that took his Toyota Highlander in to have the Spark Plugs replaced and walked out with a $500 plus bill from the dealership. He has a reliable mechanic at a different shop and learned he paid too much at the dealership.
 
#65 ·
^^^ My dealings with Toyota have been great. I have no problems with Toyota at all.
I was just stating some of my recent experiences with GM and experiences of other people I know that have or had GM trucks. Things do wear out or break, but when brand new trucks are blowing engines and transmissions and GM doing nothing to solve the problems, it makes you wonder about them and the way they do business here lately. Basically they are telling their customers to bend over and take it.
I was a long time GM customer until recently.

The OP needs to decide what will work best for him, but it is possible that keeping his current truck and doing regular maintenance will be the most cost effective.
 
#66 ·
being 100% honest - OP, if I were you I would seriously consider buying an old ford or GM truck and using that for my business. and I don't mean old as in early 2000s. get like a 1978 F-150 with a smallblock v8 and get it running like new. everything about owning that truck will be cheap (except maybe fuel) and anything on it can be fixed in your driveway. they are also extremely dependable vehicles if you keep them maintained. it won't be the most cushy high-teck truck on the road, but with a decent mechanic (you) keeping it in shape it should do good work for you for a really long time. My grandfather drove his 1964 F-100 for about 30 years. So maybe you put in a new engine 10 years from now. $3-4k. new trans? $750. I think you get the idea. you already said you like having a second vehicle for puttering around in. let that one be your fancy vehicle and let your work truck be a solid piece of tried and true american steel.
 
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