[Unnsteinn Elvars]

Hi all,

I recently bought my first Tundra, a black 2007, 5.7ltr, crewmax. Tundras are quite rare here in Iceland and I have been waiting to find one for a while. Got it in November this year and have done a lot of work on it.

Recently there was an orange engine light that came up due to air pump but was turned of by a mechanic and has not come on since. However, a few days later a whining/electrical noise appeared when I start the car. The noise is quite loud and lasts for up to around 30 seconds. The sound is coming from the passenger side of the car and is very much noticable when siting inside and also outside. I have read that it may be the secondary air pump but I am not to sure.

The video I took of it with sound is to big to upload. Will try to take a shorter one later today and post.

Is there anyone who recognizes the problem and if I should be worried about it at all or if it is normal?

 

[Unnsteinn Elvars]

It should be noted that the sound does not come on everytime I start. It does most often but does not seem to be linked to temperature. We had -5 degrees celcius this morning and it did not appear.

 

[Unnsteinn Elvars]

Here is the Video

 

[jmansouri]

I don't know much about those air pumps other than they seem to be ridiculous to have replaced... That noise is not normal however.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[cerisestars]

Hi all,

I recently bought my first Tundra, a black 2007, 5.7ltr, crewmax. Tundras are quite rare here in Iceland and I have been waiting to find one for a while. Got it in November this year and have done a lot of work on it.

Recently there was an orange engine light that came up due to air pump but was turned of by a mechanic and has not come on since. However, a few days later a whining/electrical noise appeared when I start the car. The noise is quite loud and lasts for up to around 30 seconds. The sound is coming from the passenger side of the car and is very much noticable when siting inside and also outside. I have read that it may be the secondary air pump but I am not to sure.

The video I took of it with sound is to big to upload. Will try to take a shorter one later today and post.

Is there anyone who recognizes the problem and if I should be worried about it at all or if it is normal?


View attachment 884161

Mine has a high pitched frequency that starts at about 35 MPH and stops at about 45 MPH.

 

[Ditchhooker]

the sound is the air pumps running and doing its normal cycle, however they are not normally that loud. the air pumps come on when the engine is cold enough that the catalytic converters need extra air to "light off" faster for cleaner emissions, if the engine is warm, they will not come on. Essentially it is a cold start item for cleaner emissions. Sounds like one of the air pumps is going bad. The older Tundras had/have water intrusion issues on these pumps causing failures. (extended warranty on those models, but expired a couple years ago for the 07's)

 

[Mikecol]

This is an air pump problem. There are air pumps and there are valves in the exhaust that open and close to allow the air from the pumps into the exhaust to dilute the pollution coming out the tail pipe (yes, that is what they do. By diluting the tailpipe emissions with air, they can claim a lower ppm pollution content during startup). The exhaust valves get caked up with exhaust black crap and quit opening and closing right. They sometimes fail open, and sometimes closed, and sometimes somewhere in the middle. The truck can sense when they are open or closed and that is what trips the check engine light. It is crazy expensive to replace this system, but you can bypass is easily. Somewhere, there is a long extensive post about this issue from back around 2010-2011. It details how to make a bypass system to blank off the exhaust valves and disable the air pumps.

Basically, you tap into the air temperature circuit and fool the truck into thinking the air temperature is colder than it really is because this system only comes in above a certain temperature (about 40F if I remember right). So basically, there is a relay that comes on that adds a resistor to the temperature measurement circuit to fool the ECM into thinking the air temp is colder than it is while you are cranking the starter. So while cranking, the ECM reads the lower temperature reading and does not energize the air pump system. Then, when the engine starts, the relay trips back to standard position eliminating the resistor in the circuit, and tells the ECM the correct air temperature, and as a result, this air pump system never comes on, it never fails again.

I am sure if you google a bypass system you can find the thread and fix your truck for about $15. There are also companies that sell a kit to bypass the system. I think the kits are around $250 or so.

I have to give credit to the guys that developed this kit. They did a ton or work. The initial development was for the 5.7L. I was the first to install this on a 07 DC with the 4.7L and it worked great. I was careful to hide all my wiring work and installed the relay below the battery so no one could detect the modification. I traded it off long ago, but I had this installed for a couple years and it worked flawlessly.

 

[SLPR]

This should solve your issues, if they are willing to ship internationally...good luck!

Hewitt-Tech Secondary Air Pump Valve Bypass Kits

Secondary Air Pump Valve Bypass Kit Toyota Lexus P1441,P1442,P1444,P1445,P2440,P2441,P2444,P2445

hewitt-tech.com

 

[Tundra56]

Hi all,

I recently bought my first Tundra, a black 2007, 5.7ltr, crewmax. Tundras are quite rare here in Iceland and I have been waiting to find one for a while. Got it in November this year and have done a lot of work on it.

Recently there was an orange engine light that came up due to air pump but was turned of by a mechanic and has not come on since. However, a few days later a whining/electrical noise appeared when I start the car. The noise is quite loud and lasts for up to around 30 seconds. The sound is coming from the passenger side of the car and is very much noticable when siting inside and also outside. I have read that it may be the secondary air pump but I am not to sure.

The video I took of it with sound is to big to upload. Will try to take a shorter one later today and post.

Is there anyone who recognizes the problem and if I should be worried about it at all or if it is normal?
There’s a recall on the air pumps, I have a 2007 Tundra and I had them replaced a couple years ago. I think the service advisor said it was a $2000 repair. I’m in the states so I’m not sure how you would handle it.

View attachment 884161

 

[Unnsteinn Elvars]

I want to thank everyone for taking their time to answer my question above.

I took the car to the Toyota dealer here in Iceland and it was in fact the secondary air pump. One of them is basically done but the other is in a decent conditon. Getting it fixed with new parts at the dealership costs about 2.800 USD for both pumps. Going to see if I can find any other way to lower the costs as I have spent a lot of money on getting this car to the condition I want it to be in.



Thanks again.

 

[Mikecol]

That is as lot of money. Are they replacing the both valves and both pumps? If you are going to spend that kind of money, you should get all new parts because this is going to fail again. The only real way to permanently fix this is to disable the system.

There was a revision to how this system works. I don't know when it was done, but my 2015 has a newer system. It visually looks like has all the same parts to it, but one difference I have noticed is that when I turn off the engine in my 2015, the air pumps kick on and run for a second or so and turn back off. I assume this is to purge any moisture that may have accumulated while driving. I have 120K on my truck and no problems so far. If my system fails, I am going to bypass it.

But you might ask if they are going to update everything to the new system and get details on any changes that were made to fix this problem. The newer trucks may have different valves and pumps and there certainly has been some updates on how the system works. You should get as much updated as you can for that kinds of $.

 

[Unnsteinn Elvars]

I think I will buy an aftermarket secondary air pump and see how that goes.

 

[Unnsteinn Elvars]

Just to follow up. I talked to a mechanic today who says he can program the cars computer to bypass the secondary air pump system altogether. Has anyone heard of that solution? I have not come accross anyone talking about it.