Unreliable Toyota. Help.

[Graham Piccinini]

2011 Toyota Tundra, 4.6L/RWD, Double Cab.
After 11 trouble free years with a 2009 Tacoma 2.7L, my dad is quite disappointed with what was supposed to be the upgrade... More space is nice, more power is nice, capability is great, and still ok on fuel consumption.

But now we got an issue: the secondary air injection stuff. (C'MON TOYOTAAA!!!!.... ) Apparently pretty widespread, but I never heard of it until we came with it face-to-face...
Initially my dad, unbeknownst to me, replaced driver side assembly, and a couple months later the passenger side. But since he used aftermarket parts - the driver's side is failing again. So now being a few hundred dollars into it we're plotting the next course of action. Dad is already talking about selling the truck, but it makes zero financial sense and thankfully he understands that.
That's where I hope some of y'all can chime in.
- Is it worth going with OEM?
- Or maybe there is that one aftermarket supplier who makes great quality parts?
- Another option is Gen2 Secondary Air Injection System Bypass Kit (Plug & Play), but I don't know anyone personally who used it. Is it reliable long term? Worth the ~$500?

And while we're at it - any more widespread issues on the 4.6L that I should be aware of and repair/replace early? Truck has 160K miles.

 

[dogememe]

Dorman makes air pumps for these. Yes it's Dorman but it has lifetime warranty so buy once and swap it out however often you need to. From my experience selling them, they last at least a couple years. Likely OEM would last far longer but also cost more and dealer parts don't usually have the no-hassle lifetime warranty like Dorman stuff from your local national chain auto parts store.

 

[cptbarkey]

Water Pump, Radiator is on borrowed time. Neither are challenging to do.
Coolant Valley Plate leak is possible but not a guarantee.
Counting my lucky stars no air injection pump issues, I replaced the foam filter with a different unit on my GX460. I think the Tundra has a different design.

Personally I love the 4.6, extremely smooth engine and might pick up a Tundra just like your dads in a few years.

 

[michaelluscher]

He's outside of the LSC for the SAI issues?

 

[GON]

From what I have read the secondary air pumps purpose in life is exclusively for cold engine start up emissions. Once the engine is running, it is reported the secondary air pump serves no purpose. Every person I read who used the aftermarket bypass seemed happy. I can't say on your Dad's model, but on the Toyota 4.7L V8 the secondary air pump replacement is an extremely labor intensive job.

 

[Trav]

Repair it with OE parts only. Good for another 12 years.

 

[meep]

Agree. The bypass kits get no complaints. Mine was on original pumps afaik at 150k when I sold it. I had a gen 1 and it was a really good truck.

 

[Astro14]

All you need is a repair. It still runs. It hasn't broken down.

It's a 12 year old truck - it's not unreliable.

 

[supton]

I sweated owning mine, for this issue, but want to say it was like $4k back then to repair.

Check the spark plug tubes. Mine had a leak on at least one cylinder, but I never got around to fixing.

 

[Delta]

Tacoma guys have no issues with the air pump delete kits on their 2012-2015 4.0L V6 trucks. Not the same truck I understand, but some of the same manufactures make kits for both trucks.

 

[supton]

I thought one of the ECU updates could prevent the blockoff from working? IIRC there was a dongle you had to buy, along with the plates, in order for the blockoff to work.

Also, dim memories indicate that some Chevy product had the same airpump but for less money.

Anyhow. I got rid of mine around 160k so I have no idea about after that. Mine did snap a leaf spring, after moving and towing my enclosed trailer several times, don't think I overloaded it, but then again, no idea how it snapped a spring otherwise. Yours is old enough that the front diff bearing problem would have come up long ago and been fixed. That leaves water pump, maybe serpentine tensioner and pulley--but those are practically wear items.

Liked mine, still miss it. Bench seat, column shift, simple.

 

[Delta]

I thought one of the ECU updates could prevent the blockoff from working? IIRC there was a dongle you had to buy, along with the plates, in order for the blockoff to work.

Also, dim memories indicate that some Chevy product had the same airpump but for less money.

Anyhow. I got rid of mine around 160k so I have no idea about after that. Mine did snap a leaf spring, after moving and towing my enclosed trailer several times, don't think I overloaded it, but then again, no idea how it snapped a spring otherwise. Yours is old enough that the front diff bearing problem would have come up long ago and been fixed. That leaves water pump, maybe serpentine tensioner and pulley--but those are practically wear items.

Liked mine, still miss it. Bench seat, column shift, simple.

Ahhh Toyota and their leaf springs. Even coated the ones on my 2021 Tacoma got rusty in short order. Probably gonna happen on my 2022, but it will get better leafs here soon. My old '09 Taco has the springs replaced under recall.

OP's truck is a 2WD, so no front diff to worry about.

 

[Graham Piccinini]

He's outside of the LSC for the SAI issues?

I believe so. Read somewhere that it's 10yr/150k miles deal.

Dorman makes air pumps for these. Yes it's Dorman but it has lifetime warranty so buy once and swap it out however often you need to. From my experience selling them, they last at least a couple years. Likely OEM would last far longer but also cost more and dealer parts don't usually have the no-hassle lifetime warranty like Dorman stuff from your local national chain auto parts store.

I will double check on which ones he bought. Fingers crossed that it's Dorman...

Water Pump, Radiator is on borrowed time. Neither are challenging to do.
Coolant Valley Plate leak is possible but not a guarantee.
Counting my lucky stars no air injection pump issues, I replaced the foam filter with a different unit on my GX460. I think the Tundra has a different design.

Personally I love the 4.6, extremely smooth engine and might pick up a Tundra just like your dads in a few years.

Very pleasant and smooth engine. Plenty of power, and much better fuel efficiency than its larger sibling.

All you need is a repair. It still runs. It hasn't broken down.

It's a 12 year old truck - it's not unreliable.

The loss of power was pretty bad, felt like a limp mode OF the limp mode. Then engine died a couple times, but restarted. Thankfully dad was only 2 miles away from home, so he was able to limp it home that way. Any farther away - and towing would likely be needed.
It is an older truck I guess, but (from our Toyota experiences of the past) I'd expect such a critical failure waaay down the road, past 250k miles or so.
Full disclosure: my benchmark for Toyota reliability is based on how good the many 1UZ/2JZ/1MZ powered vehicles served our family in the past. I guess the reliability of those engines will never be matched by this "old" 1UR, or any of the current Toyota offerings...


Anyways, seems like a delete kit is the most cost effective option.

 

[Soft Cars]

From what I have read the secondary air pumps purpose in life is exclusively for cold engine start up emissions. Once the engine is running, it is reported the secondary air pump serves no purpose. Every person I read who used the aftermarket bypass seemed happy. I can't say on your Dad's model, but on the Toyota 4.7L V8 the secondary air pump replacement is an extremely labor intensive job.

Their purpose is to help the catalytic converter warm up quicker on cold starts.

 

[wemay]

This is a 12 year old truck with 160k mi, right? No need for drama as if it's a 2 year old vehicle. Fix it and it will go another 10 years.

 

[zzyzzx]

Anyways, seems like a delete kit is the most cost effective option.

Wouldn't that depend on if emissions testing is required in their area? Will a CEL be the result of the bypass?
Also, I would assume that using some sort of bypass fix would free up engine space?

 

[Graham Piccinini]

Wouldn't that depend on if emissions testing is required in their area? Will a CEL be the result of the bypass?
Also, I would assume that using some sort of bypass fix would free up engine space?

From what I learned so far - that bypass kit requires complete removal of the Secondary Air Injection System, then provided block-off plates are installed, and a plug-n-play module is installed in place of original Secondary Air Injection modules/controllers. Supposedly looks OEM, so far I found no complaints from users across different forums, with some of those users going a few years with that bypass kit. The provided module and wiring completely simulates the operation of SAI system, so that keeps the ECU happy and no CELs. Also no emissions testing here, just OBD2+safety. On pre-1996 cars - just safety for $13.

 

[Delta]

Their purpose is to help the catalytic converter warm up quicker on cold starts.

On the 'Yota's they also give a puff of air after you shut off the engine to clear out the exhaust system. Our 2014 had the SAI system and it was the oddest thing hearing the pump whir up shutting the engine off on a quite night getting home from work.

 

[dfarr67]

If I didn't absolutely need it (emissions parts)..........gone.

 

[Graham Piccinini]

Another $1k later, and Tundra finally runs like it should.
Initially bought the $500 Gen 2 bypass kit from Hewitt Technologies. Pretty easy install, took all of 30 mins. Was fine for less than 48hrs, and then limp mode came back.
Unfortunately it wouldn't "talk" the same language with the aftermarket SAI valves that were installed. So spent another $500 on 2 pressure sensors from Hewitt. Now all works like it should.
For now left the (now inactive) valves on there, but eventually will remove that whole SAI system. Weight reduction lol.