For decades, Toyota trucks had a reputation for being incredibly reliable workhorses with powertrains that just keep on going. Then the Tundra went turbocharged. After two large rounds of recalls regarding engine failure, Toyota has announced a third. With another 43,566 examples recalled over internal engine problems, this story definitely isn’t over.
Let’s rewind to the start. In May of 2024, Toyota recalled 102,092 Tundra pickup trucks and Lexus LX 600 SUVs due to leftover machining debris potentially getting into the crankshaft’s main bearings and causing catastrophic engine failure. In 2025, Toyota issued another recall, this time covering 113,079 Tundra pickup trucks, 9,895 Lexus LX SUVs, and 3,717 Lexus GX SUVs. The problem? Identical to the previous recall.
Now there’s been a third recall covering a different batch of trucks built from Feb. 7, 2024 through Aug. 5, 2024, and the problem itself is rather familiar. As the recall report states:
The subject vehicles are equipped with a specific V35A engine that contains crankshaft main bearings which allow the crankshaft to rotate within the engine assembly while running. During a specific production period, there is a possibility that engine machining debris of a particular size and amount may not have been cleared from the engine during manufacturing and subsequently contaminated the engine assembly during the production process. For these engines in the subject vehicles, the pressure on a main bearing due to the engine configuration is such that, if the aforementioned machining debris adheres to that bearing and operation of the engine continues at higher loads over time, failure of the bearing may occur. This can lead to potential engine knocking, engine rough running, engine no start and/or an engine stall. In the subject vehicles, an engine stall while driving leads to a loss of motive power. A vehicle loss of motive power while driving at higher speeds can increase the risk of a crash.
That wording is literally identical to that of the last Tundra V35A V6 engine recall, which didn’t cover this batch of trucks. So what exactly went wrong? Well, it seems as in the process of making changes to the V6, some of the issue is still manufacturing-related while another part of the issue may be design-exacerbated. As per the recall report:
When filing recall 25V-767 in November 2025, Toyota continued to investigate certain vehicles with certain V35A engines produced at the Alabama manufacturing plant (TMMAL) with improved manufacturing processes and other changes built after those involved in that recall. Toyota investigated the effects of one of these changes, a cam housing clearance change, on bearing pressure and, together with the supplier, also studied the progression of bearing wear from engines in the field. To do this, both non-failed engines and engines with alleged #1 main bearing failure were collected, torn down, and had the bearing sent to the supplier for analysis.
Concerning the study of the cam housing clearance change, in February 2026 it was found that there was a stack up of bearing pressure based on variables that included timing chain tension and engine loading scenarios, but this pressure stack up could not differentiate those engines produced during the period under study from the engines previously recalled.
Now, this alone isn’t necessarily bad news. As long as pressure stack-up doesn’t overload the bearing, ride on. Introduce debris, however, and things can get not-so-fun. From there, Toyota and its supplier started bench-testing bearings for clearance and debris tolerance, finding “In late April 2026, Toyota and the supplier completed the bench testing and determined that, if a piece of debris of sufficient size is introduced onto the bearing, introducing additional pieces was not a significant factor on the fatigue strength of the bearings produced during the period under study.”
Judging by the wording, it sounds like one piece of debris is enough to cause a problem, which makes sense. Modern engines run incredibly tight tolerances, so one unceremonious burr or bit of slag can really ruin your day. From there, the next step was looking at field cases, and that’s where this all came full circle.
In early May 2026, Toyota and the supplier completed the engine collection, teardown, and analysis of the #1 main bearings from the field. The results of the bearing analysis showed that bearings produced during the period under study contained the same wear pattern that was observed on bearings produced during the periods covered by recalls 24V-381 and 25V-767.
Ah, yep, that’s it right there. Understandably, this meant it was recall time, although Toyota’s finding that “there are 30 Toyota Field Technical Reports and 360 warranty claims on the engines in the subject vehicles that have been received from U.S. sources that relate or may relate to this condition” probably meant the writing was on the wall.
If you own an affected Tundra, expect to get a letter in the mail by July 20. Why so late? Well, Toyota hasn’t announced a fix yet, nor has it announced an official fix for the last round of V35A engine recalls. With the initial recall, Toyota changed the engines in affected models out for new assemblies. It’s possible that manufacturing changes will be made, and we’ll see the same sort of fix here. Until the official remedy technical service bulletin rolls out, we won’t know. Still, another 43,566 trucks under recall for the same major engine issue means there’s probably more news to come.
Top graphic image: Toyota
I think (and I’m not an engineer, so feel free to educate me) that the secret to Mercedes’ legendarily durable engines (back in the day) and those of the Lexus LS 400 and the GM 3800, was that they were relatively over-built and under-stressed engines. They loaf along doing what they have to do without coming anywhere close to their limits.
Relatively small turbo’d engines do work a lot harder a lot more often. My ’01 Jetta TDI was turbo’d, but it was the injection pump that was the Achilles Heel of my particular example. Two of them in 101,000 miles. The second one, not covered under warranty and hence, my unwillingness to spend another dime in the VWAG universe.
In current Toyota (hybrid) passenger cars, it seems like the most stressful parts of their duty cycle is handled by the electric side of the drivetrain, saving the mechanical (gas) side from the worst of it. It’s hard for me to know whether that was intentional or a happy side effect of the pursuit of great fuel economy.
Again, I could be wrong, but the J35 V6 in my ’17 Accord is very under-stressed, the way I ordinarily drive it. Thirsty around town but close to 40 mpg on long freeway drives. It will probably make a great used car when I decide I want something else.
Alabama, you say? Them engines blow up real good.
So when Toyota had to replace all those Tundra, Tacoma and Sequoia frames in the late 90’s through the 2000’s, was that a mark of an “incredible reliable workhorse”?
Salt will kill any vehicle. The difference is Toyota was using stronger, more-durable boxed frames for all of their trucks for the past 50 years. Salt and dirt unfortunately builds up in the frames and rots them out.
But American vehicles that used boxed frames, like the Wrangler, were just as prone to rotting out. There’s whole cottage industries to repair Wrangler frames.
hmm.. i’m sure all the european carmakers who’ve been galvanizing their cars for decades are doing it out of sheer boredom, it surely can’t help with road salt
/s
Yeah dog, European cars rust like crazy, too. I don’t think I’ve seen a Mercedes Sprinter that didn’t have brown rotten doors.
Wait, did South Carolina get admitted in the EU? since that’s where those vans are made 🙂
https://group.mercedes-benz.com/company/locations/production-network-charleston.html
Toyota is literally flushing its reputation down the toilet as fast as it can
I don’t think they’re coming clean here. They are having the SAME problem GM is having, which is the bearings aren’t holding up at all and probably due to these newer engines being turbocharged and put under nearly constant load as a result. Its a fundamental design problem. Now way I’m buying any of these newer gen cars an trucks with these engines. I can easily imagine premature engine wear and failures with these just due to what I mentioned above: Engines being worked HARD the entire time they’re run.
You want your Toyotas to have Yamaha/BMW/Subaru -designed engines, not Toyota 🙂
I’ve had 2 long term Toyotas (86 MR2 for 17 years, 2001 Highlander still going strong) and one Honda Acura 2004 TL until last March. As I have written before, the Acura got recycled and replaced with a 2027 Chevrolet Bolt with a 10K incentive from our local air quality district. Too early to say anything, but seems put together well. The Toyotas and Acura were near flawless.
If the new Bolt is anything like old Bolt, it’ll be bullet proof (except for the rather expensive steering gear issue)
Well, in their defense it’s pretty bleeding edge tech. It’s not like anyone’s been successfully using a 3.5 liter turbo six in a half ton pickup for like 13-14 years or anything /s
Seriously though, heads need to roll, and publicly.
The eco-boost isn’t without it’s issues either.
That’s true. But with Toyota holding back for a decade relative to Ford, I would have expected them to not eff it up. But they did. It’s frankly ridiculous.
Remember, this is the company that was an early adopter of sophisticated DOHC engines in the 80s, the powerful twin turbo 2JZ, the 1mz 3.0-liter V6 and 3.5 liter 2GR V6, and 4.7 and 5.7 liter V8s. These were all excellent and advanced engines for their time. Then of course the hybrids that were reliable from the get-go.
WTF happened?
I completely agree that it’s inexcusable for Toyota to screw this up.
But I just wanted to point out that the degree of success of the eco-boost remains debatable.
None of them have had bottom end design issues, though. There are documented 300K mile and beyond Ecoboost 3.5 engines. Several with big ticket repairs like timing chains and/or turbos, but again none of those are more expensive than a short block. And pretty much none of these usually failing at under 30K miles
Weren’t all of those engines designed by Yamaha, tho?
None of the ones I mentioned.
You come on here to post a chain of comments about how bad you think Toyota engines are and you don’t even know which ones were designed with Yamaha?
2JZ had a Yamaha-designed head, and the 3SGE/GTE, 4AGE, 2ZZ, early Toyota V8’s, LFA’s V10 and some others I can’t remember were all Yamahas.
Hiring too many US educated MBAs and losing the traditional emphasis on detail engineering and quality control. Studying Carl Icahn instead of Ed Deming.
Everyone makes mistakes, even Toyota. They seem to putting a lot more effort into actually fixing it than GM though…(coughheavieroilviscositycough).
I refuse to believe it’s just debris. Hyundai/Kia said the same thing and while I acknowledge the issue technically improved, we’ve been seeing seizures all throughout the Theta II GDI’s decade plus run.
Downsizing is stupid.
There’s that famous Toyota reliability again. I swear, they’re no better than Ford or GM. Maybe they once were (I’m not convinced), but it sure seems like they’re no longer earning the reputation.
Ford and GM have been catching up.
Ford has. GM? Ehhhh not on the truck engines, at least
The 5.3’s are still reliable.
They don’t have the low end issues like the 6.2 but they absolutely still have the lifter issues
The lifter issue is an extremely low percentage despite what internet commenters suggest.
Anecdotal but in my family we have over a million miles on the 5.3’s and zero lifter failures. It’s still the engine I trust most in the 1/2 ton market.
That just sounds like brand loyalty then at that point. The Ford 5.0 doesnt even have lifters to fail in the first place and that engine has no known common problems. Same with the 2.7 turbo which has been Fords best engine for a decade at this point. Maybe you could argue about cam phasers on the 3.5 but all 3 Ford engines are known better than GM’s v8s right now. The GM 2.7T seems like its pretty stout though but I don’t like direct injection engines
Yes, I have some loyalty based on that experience. But it’s a fact that the lifters fail at a low rate.
The Coyote engine has it’s own issues. Earlier generations have had valvetrain issues, cam phasers, and oil consumption issues. The current generation has the ‘coyote tick’ which I believe the Autopian wrote an entire article about.
I actually quite like Ford’s 2.7L but I’m weary to own one with how often I tow a 7,xxxx LB boat. I don’t want to be in boost the whole time I’m towing through the Ozark hills.
I don’t know anybody who hasn’t had some sort of issues with the 3.5L ecoboost.
If you think the LS AFM lifters have a low failure rate, then the Coyote tick has a next to zero failure rate.
Oil consumption was an issue in 18-20MY, I’ll give you that. No widespread cam phaser nor valvetrain issues, though.
I’m with you on Ford, but it seems like GM is still doing “Old GM” things (like putting heavier oil in the 6.2 to “solve” the problem, but really just pushing out the problem and expecting the class-action lawsuits will cost them less than fixing it under warranty).
GM will do anything to save a nickel.
The more I hear about Toyota engines, the more I’m amazed at how they can both be so reliable, but also so unreliable. They have quite a few bad engines in their history book. Overall they’re reliable, and should be great appliances, but there’s always an asterisk even to the most reliable manufacturer.
Yeah, they definitely have made some stinkers in their time. To be clear, I don’t Toyota is bad, or any worse than the others. I just don’t necessarily think they’re better. They may have pioneered higher quality, but everyone is better now and I don’t think they stand out anymore. Objectively, all manufacturers have improved dramatically since even the 80’s and 90’s. Cars last a long time now. The expectation isn’t 80K to 100k miles any more, its 200k++, even for the unreliable brands. A few hundred bad engines wouldn’t have been a blip in the ’60s and ’70s. Now they recall hundreds of thousands of vehicles if that happens. And yeah, it happens to all of them.
Was just thinking last weekend about trading my 2016 Silverado for a Tundra. Woof, this reminded me to keep those dollars in my bank account.
Going to do a full suspension upgrade instead to refresh the Silverado and keep it rolling. It has a door starting to rust a little, but it only has 78k miles so getting rid of it feels like a silly thought.
It’s probably the fiscally responsible choice.
Save your money for avocado toast or something.
Good think I bought a house before the avocado toast!
Fluid Film is your friend. Spray it all over including inside the doors. It will stop the rust in its tracks. The best for cars is with their sprayer but the rattle cans work fine too. Expect a sore thumb after a few cans.
I’ll do this, this weekend. Thanks for the tip. My rockers, cab corners, and fenders are still solid, so I’ll start being preventative on them.
I’ve got a 2018 and had it undercoated with Krown the 6 years I’ve had it. It’s oily, but rust free underneath. Worth the mess to keep the rust at bay.
Where did you go to have this done?
https://krown.com/en
See if they have a location near you
It’s hard to wrap my head around how heinously Toyota of all companies managed to bork this powertrain
And it’s not even from using unproven technology or trying to push a design too far; it’s just sloppiness. It sounds like all Toyota had to do was take a little more time to make sure the parts were clean before assembly.
I also imagine that building the engine in the US has something to do with it as well. I doubt we’d see these issues with any of their Japanese products. There’s a level of pride and consistency to Japanese craftsmanship that’s legendary for a reason.
Here in yee haw land it’s about pumping as much slop out as possible to make the line go up. If I were to suddenly need to produce large quantities of something complex and cared about quality I certainly wouldn’t immediately jump to “get me a room full of Americans to do the job!”….
America is expensive. Pay them more, to attract better talent, and it may change. For better or worse, we are money motivated. I mean, the country’s origin comes from being taxed, without representation of course, but, cutting wages by way of weaseling out of union representation amounts to the same thing. Less money in your pocket both because of lack of representation.
The issue is, the Japanese assembled ones have this issue too. The LS has had these failures as well, just not enough to warrant a recall.
The Tundra was always built in the US though and never had problems. Nor did the Matrix which was built in the NUMMI factory that they sold to Tesla
The Matrix was made in Canada; the Vibe was made alongside the Corolla and Tacoma in NUMMI as part of the Joint Venture in that plant.
But, but, but car reviewers will continue to sell the idea that Toyotas are bulletproof.
I mean… they historically have been and have deserved the reputation.
This particular failure is very, very GM of them, and is a possible disaster for Toyotas reputation for reliability. And they seem to also be handling it a lot like GM too, unfortunately.
It seems we’ve entered an era where powertrain reliability brand to brand has unfortunately devolved into a crapshoot, which sucks. I don’t even recommend shit to people anymore.
Reputations don’t just magically jump from one reliable model (like the legendary Camrys from the 90s and 00s) to another, new unproven one (basically any 2020+ MY vehicle). As with most things, reputations are earned, but pinhead journalists use a wide brush to label all Toyotas as ultra reliable even if it’s a new, unproven platform with new, unproven power train or electronics. Sick of that complete and utter bullshit from journalists, and then dealers use that to hike up prices on anything with a T logo.
I don’t know enough about Toyota trucks to say if this will hurt them since I’d never consider one of their trucks.
A hit to their full sizers probably isn’t as damaging as that is a growth area rather than a core market for Toyota buyers.
As for Toyota, most people give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to powertrains because they’ve earned it. Even when they come out with a new powertrain, it tends to be well sorted, and frankly, most of the time they’re not exactly cutting edge anyway. When a journalist is going to frame why someone would buy a Toyota, it would be sort of ridiculous for them not to mention their reputation for reliability, as that’s typically the only reason to do so. Like any brand, whether it be clothing, electronics, cars, if you’re buying based on reputational quality and reliability, you’re playing a game of “we’ll keep coming back until you fuck us”. For most people, Toyotas haven’t fucked them, and that’s why people keep buying them.
If and when Toyota has enough fuck-ups under their belt, well, that’s where the double-edged sword of trading on reliability will hurt them. Since every Toyota review tends to stuff a line about reliability, you’re going to be seeing something along the lines of “will Toyota get it right this time and move past their struggles with engine failures?” That sort of stink will be impossible for Toyota to avoid and could lead to an irreversible “fall from grace” narrative.
Agreed. Tundra is not a top 5 selling Toyota product, so many owners are still insulated from this development and based on the earned brand loyalty the Tundra has had its best selling years EVER with this generation. Proof that consumers are not doing their research (yet), as they have been used to getting stellar reliability from the brand.
I can’t entirely blame them for not doing their research before buying, but we can’t take any brand for granted anymore. it’s a model by model and powertrain by powertrain scenario.
So does this finally include the hybrid models, or is Toyota still hiding from that?
If the issue happens due to loads, its entirely possible that the hybrid wouldnt be as affected since the Atkinson cycle is often gutless and they use the electric motor to make up for it
Based on what I read on the drive, they’re not recalling the hybrid because even though the engine may grenade, there would be no loss of motive force due to the hyrbid setup. Basically it has the same problem, but you’ll at least be able to pull over to the side of the highway.
Toyota. We make Ram look reliable.
1/2 tons and engine failures go together like peanut butter & jelly these days.
Suddenly, I’m much less upset about the 12-15mpg my 26 year old Excursion is getting. (although I am brainstorming ways to eek more mileage out of my 7000lb behemoth)
A little piece of me died reading “26 year old Excursion” in my head those things just came out a few years ago right? RIGHT??
Never in my life would I have thought ford of all companies would be the reliable one in the room
looks like they’re trying to get their 90s mojo back
Same, my 7.3 Powerstroke just keeps on chugging.
One of the reasons I went with the Ram, the Hurricane hasn’t had any significant issues.
I recently watched a deep dive of the Toyota issue; they did a comparison of all the 1/2 ton engines and their main bearing surfaces. The Toyota has less than half the bearing surface that the Hurricane while dealing with over 2x the bearing load.
The Hurricane has larger main bearings, and there are 7 of them vs only 4 in the Toyota. Straight 6 for the win.
“Six in a row, ready to tow” has been the Cummins model for a longggg time.
I would hate to find out that the ugly truck I bought because I expected it to be reliable isn’t even reliable.
LMAO! Even if they were reliable, the looks are enough to scare me away from them.
I have already seen “articles” about people choosing Nissan over Toyota because of current reliability issues.
Everyone likes to hate on Nissan but their BOF products are decent*
* the exception being what ever craptastic diesel they used in the Titans.
The ones with the Gold Standard branding of “Cummins” written all over it?
Lol. After dealing with Cummins ISX15 and X15 engines blowing up at 600k or less while Detroit Diesel Dd15,Volvo d15, and Paccar MX13 engines go close to a million without a rebuild, Id say that Cummins being crap is right on par. The only Cummins with a good rep is the one in the Ram.
The one that was so bad, even Ram said no thanks.
I didn’t even consider the Tundra when looking at half tons. I’m extremely happy with my Hurricane powered Ram.
It’s a failed design, they need to re-do the entire thing, but they won’t admit that, so the recalls will continue.
Best thing I’ve seen online is that the oil pump and system was not done correctly and you can’t resize that, without re-sizing the other stuff. Nothing they’ve said has made any sense, or proven true. The dis-honesty is a “New Toyota” trademark. As I’ve said 100 times already, I miss the old man.
I feel like I’ve also seen independent teardowns indicating the problems are from fundamental design flaws, not debris.
I haven’t trusted toyota since the unintended acceleration claims that it was all from floormats, ignoring videos showing a vehicle bouncing off the rev limiter in neutral with no interference, and then quietly issuing a software update. Not that I trust any of the other corporations either, but I also don’t understand why people think toyota can do no wrong.
I do find it humorous hearing comments from industry meetings along the lines of “I don’t get why toyota didn’t just copy the ford 3.5 ecoboost, since it is a better, cleaner engine.”
Are the recalls limited to the one time period ending in ‘25 because they stopped making the engine after that?
They keep adding build dates as they are forced to. So the newer ones haven’t been failing as often and they aren’t added yet. Once some miles get put on them, they will be added. People keep being lied to by Toyota and their dealers, so they buy new ones. This is Toyota’s dieselgate imo once the truth finally comes out.
Gotcha.
No. 25s are failing, as are some LS’s from when the 3.5 came out.
true, but they are not recalling those yet as there are still a few brand new 2025 trucks on the lots and a recall would stop Toyota from selling those.
Agree. 1000%.
I still think the lack of a 360-degree thrust bearing surface has something to do with all of this.
Whomever decided to hire Mr. Takata to run engine design needs to be fired.
Toyota used to brag that nothing stops a Tundra. Turns out the Tundra can stop itself.
My tundra isn’t moving!
Sounds earthly.
Should have gotten a glacier, since by definition they move, even if slowly.
…until the brakes give out. Then the Tundra can’t even stop itself!
I used to think the only thing that could stop a bad guy with a Tundra was a good guy with a Tundra, but it turns out both of them are standing around waiting for a tow truck.
Funny to me that the recall notice explains the purpose of crank main bearings. I’d assume that people reading the notice itself are very very likely to know what crank bearings do, and people that don’t know their purpose are not the demographic to go out and read recall notices.
I’m not sure I agree with this.
I’m stereotyping, but a median new Toyota owner being a conscientious and educated person who will read a notice like that, but not being a car enthusiast or knowing anything about crank bearings doesn’t seem far fetched at all. In fact, it describes a lot of my family.
I don’t agree with this either.
My mom is the sort of person that knows very little about cars, but if she were to receive a recall like this, would read every damn word and ensure she understood all of it. She was also an insurance underwriter for 35 years and is about the most risk averse human on the planet (presumably, she did purchase a Subaru).
People like her are going to want the explanation.
But does she own a Tundra?
No but she does own an Outback. Which I’m sure will be seeing it’s own recalls (well if not recalls extended warranty for the crappy CVTs Subaru has been pumping out).
Make sure she’s changing her trans fluid every 30k miles. They’ll last ok if you do that (but its annoying and expensive to have to do that, of course)
Our Forester’s first CVT didn’t even make it to 30k lol. The second one we’ve already changed the fluid, at about 25k (on that transmission).
Weirdly, the CVT issues (anecdotally, sample size being half the people I know as damn near every family has at least one Subaru here) never seem to hit the Outback. It’s mostly Foresters that seem to have the issue. Then again, the throttle mapping of the 2015-2018 Forester is bizarre, driving it smoothly even from new is sort of difficult.
Anyway yeah, I recommend anyone with any sort of CVT keep up on fluid changes, but Subarus (and of course Nissans) doubly so.
I’ll add that at least Subaru extended the warranty on the CVT to 10 years 100k, and they replaced the first one without a single complaint or a bunch of fake diagnostic BS.
Both my mother and mother in law are the same way. My mom has my dad to explain such things to her (he’s a car guy), but she would still very much want to know exactly why her car was being recalled.
My dad would just get angry at the recall notice without actually reading it lol.
Very fair point, I guess I was thinking car owners broadly, but Toyota and especially Toyota truck owners are definitely the sort of people who would read recall notices.
The people reading the recall notices are the owners when they get it in the mail, not necessarily people watching the NHTSA website for recalls.