2001 Tundra 4.7 V8 135,000 miles Rotella Syn??

[Lonnie]

I was talking about the add-on oil filters I've seen on several Tundras. We have purchased some year old Tundras that have a lot of life left in them. One of these also had a great big oil cooler and remote dual full flow filter setup, all with braded lines and AN fittings. It was a very professional installation. So we moved this truck into our sever service group. They all get mods to help them last a bit longer, life beefed up shocks and shock mounts, plates for approach and departure protection, big skid plates to protect all the goodies and beefed up trailer hitch. The engine needs nothing except a prefilter for the air filter and sometimes a snorkel. We also have modified the fuel injection on some models that idle a lot. It picks up the idle just a bit and if the engine gets hot, it picks it up some more. The mods were easy to do and can be changed with a laptop computer.

 

[WarDawg]

We had 3 ea 97's Chevy's used in light duty, have there tranny's go out under the 80,000 mile mark. In all cases it was the Sun gear shear off, and had another the 1shift modual go bad and it wouldn't get down to low gear. I switched to Toyota's. I have heard through a friend who owns a tranny business they ( GM ) reengineered the bad part ( sun gear )( I believe that's what he called it ) and it's good to go on the later years. I really loved the chevy's vortec motors but something always took them down. Water pumps, The nortorious intake gasket leak and wiper motors moduals . I had to steer away from them. A friend with a 2003 and 90K's on his Chevy has been trouble free. Except for the steering colum rattleing and moveing up and down on him. GM just repacked( grease ). it and was told it was a bad desidned part. But who knows. The Toyota has been flawless so far excepted for the Car alarm going off undistrubed. I just turned it off altogether. Tundra has a good feel to it's 4.7 V8. Cheers WarDawg

 

[Lonnie]

We keep going back to domestic pickups but too many little things go wrong. On a spreadsheet they are too expensive. It's not just the repairs but the down time. The odd thing is that we will get a domestic pickup here and there that is completely trouble free. One of these is a Chevy. We took delivery of two identical trucks, consecutive VIN's. One was one of these trouble free vehicles. The other was a shop queen. The list of problems will fill a book. I think it may be a quality control problem at the factory. We also have five new Surburbans and with about 10-20k miles each they are fault free. Could it be that the design and build have improved?

 

[RichR]

Lonnie,
Thanks for your insight.
Makes me all warm and fuzzy owning an '02 Tundra.
I have gone to Schaeffers 5w40 to meet all weather needs.