2017 Tundra Problems Dealer Can’t Diagnose

Hoping some of you guys can help with this problem my Toyota dealer can’t diagnose. My truck is a 2017 4x4 SR5 access cab with 123k on it.

I was towing my bass boat down south for a fishing trip. The boat/entire rig is probably about 3,500 lbs. Very light. The tundra tows it easily.

So about 400 miles into the trip I felt a “bang”. I am deaf but it definitely felt like a bang like something snapped or I hit a really bad pothole and I really didn’t think I had hit a pothole at all.

I didn’t notice anything wrong and I wasn’t entirely sure what it was. I thought maybe it was the boat might have hit a pothole or went over something. It was at night and dark. I drove about 200 more miles. Everything was fine and I stopped for the night.

Drove about 500 more miles the next day and later on in the afternoon the truck seemed to have a little less power. And then I thought I felt another “bang” come out of nowhere. But nothing happened that was noticeable or specific. It was still driving and shifting smoothly. I continued driving into the late evening.

I pulled over for a couple of hours to run some errands/get food, etx and then got on the road for the last leg of my trip. Had about 200 miles left.

About 100-130 miles later, my RPMs started fluctuating. I was losing power. It felt like the transmission was slipping. I started losing oil pressure too. The oil gauge was going up and down.

I was going up a hill at the time at around 70 mph and I lost power to the point where I couldn’t go over 40 mph. I pulled over at the nearest gas station and found a nearby hotel I could get to using back roads.

So, I had the truck towed to my dealer. And go figure. They can’t find anything wrong at all. They said no codes are showing. The truck is driving just fine. The service person I talked to said maybe the transmission went into “limp mode” but I don’t understand why a code wouldn’t have been triggered if that happened. I asked about the transmission fluid color and he said it looked and smelled just fine. Note: I have never changed the transmission fluid.

So anyway, I don’t know what to think. I definitely know something is wrong with the truck. I bought it brand new and have never had a single issue with the truck until now.

Not sure what to do but it would really suck just having to drive the truck until something happens again. I do a lot of towing and fishing. Lots of 4-10 hour long drives with the boat. Would hate to break down on the side of the highway with the boat.

Really appreciate any ideas or suggestions.

 

Check the battery? Tundra's are known to act weird once the battery goes bad.

Truely low oil pressure is pointing to an engine issue. Not good.
Bang is also not good.

Change the oil and look for any metal in it.

If the tech said your tranny fluid looks good and is not burnt, he likely did not check it as you said you have never changed it at 123k miles.

Thats my advice to start looking into it.

 

Thanks. The battery is pretty new. Probably 6-7 months old. Good advice about the oil change. I wonder why my dealer didn’t suggest that. I’ll get that done today.

 

Transmission fluid should be changed every 60k miles. Hopefully it's not the transmission. If it's low on fluid it will shift very rough. Kinda like the bang your describing. I'd check the battery too.

 

New battery likely rules that out, but have it tested to be sure, it's free many places.

I've heard of other Tundra's doing all kinds of crazy stuff due to a bad battery.

Funny side note, my battery has tested for a bad cell 3 times and my truck still works fine lol.

Oil change is pricey, but good insurance that engine is not grenading.

 

Just trying to follow the timeline of events, did it ever happen when you weren't towing?

Or has it happened since the dealer looked it over?

 

Does your trailer have brakes? Electric, or electric over hydraulic?

I’m wondering if you have an intermittent electrical short in your trailer circuits making the trailer brakes apply suddenly(maybe the banging as the hitch and coupler slop?).

Brake light power feeding back to the truck will cause loss of throttle due to the brake override programming, which could explain the engine RPM drops with no codes. Some drop in oil pressure is normal with a drop in RPM, to some extent, especially on a warm engine. But I’ll be the first to say this is a WAG from over the internet.

 

Kinda strange, wondering about bad gas maybe.

 

No, never happened. I have another small boat without trailer brakes that I towed regularly for about a year and a half. Never had any problems. This boat is probably only about 800-1000 lbs though. This was the first time I towed my new bass boat. I haven’t tried towing that boat again. Truck’s still at dealer. Picking it up today.

 

That’s an interesting thought. Yes, it’s a dual axle trailer with brakes. Not entirely sure exactly what kind of brakes. I would need to check. I had to have the boat towed back and the guy who towed the boat is an experienced professional. He had a Chevy 3500 and didn’t report any problems. I feel pretty sure he would have noticed if there was an issue with the trailer or brakes. I’ll ask him again.

 

I'd definitely take a close look at the new boat/trailer setup. If that's the only new variable it's a great place to start.

 

I’ll do that. Thanks. It’s interesting thinking that the trailer hook up could have caused these problems with my truck, the RPMS and oil pressure fluctuating but I’ll definitely get it checked out. Asking the guy who towed my boat if he noticed anything funny right now.

 

Just got out of the dealer. Asked them to do an oil change and check for shavings. They said the oil looked fine. No shavings in it.

Waiting for the tow driver to text me back. I feel like he would really have let me know if he noticed anything off with the trailer but we’ll see what he says.

Thanks for all of the suggestions and ideas!!!

 

Might want to ask the tow truck driver if he even connected the trailer brakes or just hooked it up and went.

 

Boats usually have surge brakes as electrical brakes dont like water. surge brakes work great the downside is they clunk. Surge brakes work when the tongue telescope in and out. A true sign is everytime you take off you will hear a clunk as the tongue is beign pulled out. It can get annoying after awhile. On the highway where the road isnt perfectly smooth there is a damper in the brake which prevents it from applying on and off constantly due to the road variations. One thing if you dont have your electrical connector installed you wont be able to back the trailer. the trailer wheels will lock since you are pushing the tongue in.

 

They should only clunk when you have a bad actuator or low on brake fluid. I get no clunking after I replaced my actuator.

 

Even from a dead stop when you accelerate you don't get a clunk? New Shorelander trailer and it does I figured normal.