Tundra Troubles

I drive a Toyota Tundra…

Sorry, I felt that sentence needed its own line. I really love my truck even though it has 260,000 miles on it. That’s a lot for most cars, but these trucks are built to last.

Mine is a 5.7 liter V8 (or at least that’s what the decal says on the side). When you’re sitting at a stop light, sometimes you think a huge truck has just pulled up beside you towing an aircraft carrier, then you realize it’s just your truck being powerful, throaty and awesome!

So, when the check engine light, anti-skid light and some other light that I didn’t care to see illuminated, flashed on my dash about a year and a half ago, I was confused. These trucks don’t have problems!

I took it into the shop. The mechanic came out and told me about a bunch of stuff that needed to be fixed. It all sounded very important. I understood “oil change” and “air filter” but I didn’t know, “knock sensor” and, I didn’t like, “$1500.”

I smiled like I invented the knock sensor and said, “Yes on the oil change, and sure, go ahead and throw in a new air filter, why not, but let’s wait on the knock sensor for now…” He nodded, but looked at me like he didn’t expect me to make it out of the parking lot alive. Thirty minutes later I drove away with those concerning dash lights indicating immanent death.

I read some forums online, it was discouraging. A bad knock sensor left untreated could result in a complete system failure leading to consequences such as, pulmonary collapse, cardiac arrest, alopecia, impotence, and lordosis, not to mention what might happen to the truck. It needed to be fixed immediately. I looked up the parts. The shop had quoted me correctly at $800 for four sensors, plus new wires (may as well while you’re in there) and two new intake gaskets (may as well while you’re in there). The rest of the cost was for labor since getting at the four sensors required you to take apart half the truck…clearly a job for professionals!

So, I did what any sensible person would do, I made plans to take the truck into the shop. A year and a half later, last week in fact, I still had not managed to deal with the problem. Embarrassingly, I have had the oil changed, tires rotated, car inspected twice, and an assortment of other trivial things taken care of…after all, I love my truck! BUT $1500 FOR A SENSOR…COME ON!

Now, typically, when faced with issues in my life, I deal with them head on. I’m not the kind of person to put things off, especially when there’s a lot at stake. But with this knock sensor issue, I could still drive the truck even while the lights were on…most of the time. I just couldn’t find the motivation to dump all that money into a problem that didn’t seem to be that serious. I would think, “Maybe, it’s not entirely bad yet.”

It seemed to be worse on wet, cold days. Or, if drove it without letting the truck warm up. There is a tell-tale knocking sound that happens about a minute after the truck starts, definitely wait for that sound before putting the truck in gear. Also, dry hot days would sometimes set it off. And, you shouldn’t let it idle too long either. A few times, the knocking sound fixed the problem. In other words, I knew nothing, and a year and a half passed by while I worried.

last week, things came to a head. Three days of warning lights and none of my tricks were working. I’d started and restarted my truck 50 times, the lights still flashed. It was time. I could no longer put it off. It had to go back to the shop.

So, I watched a couple YouTube videos and went to AutoZone. They didn’t have the sensors in stock, but suggested, “If you drive to Taiwan, they might have them there by Thursday.” Not good! So, I drove to Advance Autoparts. They said, “We only sell these parts to people who look more capable than you…“

Annoyed, I went home, got my tools out of the laundry room without parts, and proceeded to removed bolts from my truck. I guess I thought maybe I’d find a Nintendo cartridge I could take out and blow on or something. An hour later the truck was disassembled with minimal blood…

…I realized I didn’t have any idea what I was looking at. I did find a small piece of foam sitting in this area that didn’t seem like it should be there and removed it, that was weird. I spent another twenty minutes looking at my truck (may as well while you’re in there) then put everything back together feeling like I’d wasted two hours.

I grabbed the keys, hoping I hadn’t made it worse, and started the truck. I fully expected to see the warning lights glowing a touch brighter, relishing in my defeat.

They did not! There were not lights at all, in fact.

It has now been a week and I have driven my truck every day. Still no lights. I don’t know how I could say, “I fixed it,” because I don’t think, “removed a little piece of foam” qualifies as repair.

Oh well, I’m cautiously optimistic, and simultaneously annoyed. I spent a year and a half worrying about, and being inconvenienced by, a problem that seems to have taken only two hours to solve (knock sensor on wood).

Once again, I’m learning that problems don’t go away when you ignore them and progress is never made through procrastination. I could have spent a very little time a long time ago and saved myself countless hours of wasted worry.

Don’t let ill-defined problems waste your energy like I did. Pop the hood and check it out. Maybe you’ll find out you’re facing a worst-case scenario. At least then you’ll know what the problem actually is rather than having to worry about every problem it could possibly be. Or, maybe, like me, you’ll find a piece of foam and accidentally save yourself $1500. Either way, we’ll get nowhere until we start moving.