My 2022 Toyota Tundra Is Going Back To Dealership For 3rd Motor Going In At 49,000 Miles

I am so glad I have kept an eye on several Toyota Tundra groups and pages on social media to keep up with the problems of the new Tundras. It looks like the older Tundra trucks are more reliable than the newer ones and people complain about the emission standards and the green agenda, saying they hurt Toyota's reliability. I don't know if the emissions standards are hurting any car company's reliability, but I have read about it in other car-brand related forums as well.

Anyway! It was only two days ago that I wrote about a frustrated new Toyota Tundra owner who said his 2024 Tundra has a blown engine at 7,000 miles and asked if he should fight for a replacement of the truck vs the replacement of the engine. Many of you commented under that article and gave him good suggestions. But now I am seeing another very hot discussion in the 2022+ Toyota Tundra Owners' group on Facebook in which a man, named David Wallace, posted the picture of his 2022 Tundra going to the dealership for the 3rd time for a very frustrating reason.

Wallace says, "My 2022 is going back to the dealership. 3rd motor going in. First engine replacement happened at 30k miles. This one is at 49k miles. Engine locked up while cruising down the highway at 60mph. This is the third and last time this truck will leave me stranded on the side of the road."

At the time of this writing, David's post had generated 285 comments.

"I don’t get it, did they just partially replace the engine? Seems like there’s something about your truck that is chewing up engines," writes Shawn Ace.

Wallace replied and said, "Toyota only offers short blocks for engine replacements. So cross contamination off an older part is a real possibility."

Asked if there are any technical reasons these failures happen, one of group members said that they are quite frequently discussed in the group and the main bearing seems to be the most common failure in some of the new Toyota Tundra trucks. The cause isn’t really known, but is speculated based on a few factors. Improper cleaning of block, improper torquing of the engine girdle/main caps (it’s one piece) and/or a single person not doing their job at TMMAL... The first few failures are sometimes caused by a bad batch of bearings per someone who use to work for the bearing manufacturer.

As I mentioned the problem with the other new Toyota Tundra in my previous story (linked above), I am coming to conclusion that when these engines fail they should be replaced with a completely assembled long block. There is no telling what metal is where when you put old engine parts on a new short block after a failure.Just thinking of the labor costs of taking an engine apart and putting old heads on a short block is just crazy to me as far as common sense and labor costs.

It seems to be that the hybrid Toyota Tundra trucks don't have issues vs the non-hybrid ones. Marshal Hayes has an interesting comment in the discussion, which I find very revealing. He writes, "I just bought a 23. The Toyota dealer I went to told me that they had had zero issues with the hybrid model. But they are inundated with issues in the non-hybrid. Must be some failure point there that the hybrid doesn’t experience."

In this case, my advice would be this: you need to test drive both the Hybrid and the gas-only version of the Tundra to help you decide which model best fits you and your driving needs.

My view on the situation.

David, that's incredibly frustrating to hear about your Tundra's engine problems.  Two engine replacements in under 50k miles are definitely not what you expect from a new Toyota.  Glad you're safe after the engine locked up, that could have been dangerous on the highway.

Have you reached out to Toyota directly and explained the situation?  They should definitely be stepping up to resolve this issue for you definitively.  Maybe some other Tundra owners in the group have had similar experiences and can offer advice on how to deal with Toyota. Please click on the red link below and write your comment if you have had any experience with a similar situation. What would you suggest David to do?

Images by David Wallace, from the 2022+ Toyota Tundra Owners group on Facebook, credited and linked above in the article.

Armen Hareyan is the founder and the Editor in Chief of Torque News. He founded TorqueNews.com in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Youtube. He has more than a decade of expertise in the automotive industry with a special interest in Tesla and electric vehicles.