The Tundra Supertool
- Thread starter JCMatthews
- Start date
JCMatthews
Tour Guide
Well, Easter Jeep Safari left me with more problems. I decided it would be fun to sign up for a trail and chose Crystal Geyser, because it is only rated a 3, and I've been on 3D and Beef Basin, and they are also threes. Well Crystal Geyser should at least be a four if not a five based on the last gnarly hill climb. To make it even better, because it is a three, I had my trailer on. I figured I'd get on I-70 and head for home without even needing to return to Moab. Well, on the aforementioned hill, I broke the spider gears in my front differential. The spider gears went everywhere and my ring and pinion are scarred pretty good. I guess that it is time to regear. Toyota wants 2100.00 for a new front differential, and no one sells ring and pinion in the factory ratio. So I think that I can get two differentials set up for the price of the front from Toyota. Does anyone know of a good deal on an ARB for the rear of a 2005 DC Tundra? I believe it is the 8.4. If I add the locker, it won't be cheaper than the factory diff, but why open a diff twice.
I'll add pics when I get home.
I'll add pics when I get home.
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seanpistol
Explorer
Whoops! I have a third member in Salt Lake I'm trying to sell if you want to set up one separately.
JCMatthews
Tour Guide
Tell me more.
JCMatthews
Tour Guide
Well, it takes quite a story to answer your question. To put a band-aid on the ABS issue, I spent the winter with the ABS deactivated. I unplugged the right front wheel speed sensor. This worked just fine, and I had no trouble stopping in the snow. When I broke my front differential, things got interesting. The speedometer worked for us on the way home, but after the shop put it all back together the speedometer also stopped working . There is also a sensor on the differential or the front drive-line that they had to unplug. They called and told me they could not get the speedometer to work. This is the same shop that helped me unplug the right front sensor. I had to explain to them that the sensor was not just ABS but also a speed sensor. They plugged it back in and wallah everything works. By having a second sensor not reading it confused the system enough to reset everything. I have no light the brakes work properly, and I only had to have the truck back in the shop 3 times before they finally got the front differential right.
I do believe that I was the cause of the broken spider gears. As I replay the scenario in my head, I was trying to power over an obstacle but did not want to get my wheels spinning too hard. So, when I knew that I was hung up, I stomped on the brakes, hard, to stop me from spinning or rolling backwards. The problem was that I had just hit the accelerator and the computer lag had not yet allowed the engine to wind up. As the engine wound and the wheels started to spin, I stomped on the brakes acting as traction to both front wheels causing the spider gear to break. I hope this makes sense. I think that if I had taken it easier on the brakes and allowed the wheels to spin a little, I would not have had any issues.
I still love my truck and am very happy with it. I wish I was made of money and could afford front and rear lockers, because I could have crawled that hill locked and my diffs would be stronger.
Here is the only picture I took of the broken spider gear.
I do believe that I was the cause of the broken spider gears. As I replay the scenario in my head, I was trying to power over an obstacle but did not want to get my wheels spinning too hard. So, when I knew that I was hung up, I stomped on the brakes, hard, to stop me from spinning or rolling backwards. The problem was that I had just hit the accelerator and the computer lag had not yet allowed the engine to wind up. As the engine wound and the wheels started to spin, I stomped on the brakes acting as traction to both front wheels causing the spider gear to break. I hope this makes sense. I think that if I had taken it easier on the brakes and allowed the wheels to spin a little, I would not have had any issues.
I still love my truck and am very happy with it. I wish I was made of money and could afford front and rear lockers, because I could have crawled that hill locked and my diffs would be stronger.
Here is the only picture I took of the broken spider gear.
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JCMatthews
Tour Guide
I just have to say this. I know people swear by Toyotas and preach how much better they are than other brands. I have owned a few Jeeps, a Ford, and I regularly drive a '93 GMC. My brothers ( four of them) have a 2015 F150 ecoboost, an '11 Grand Cherokee, and two 4 dr. Wrangler Rubicons. I mention this to say I have been around a lot of vehicles. I just got through doing a $500.00 alignment. Stripped cam bolts, seized control arm bushing sleeves the works. I know that at 100 K miles there are things to be expected, but never on any of my other vehicles have I had this much trouble getting a simple alignment. My Expedition needed new cam bolts, but it was easy. If you read above I had a heck of a time with my ABS which miraculously healed itself. I don't have any frame rust, but it sounds rather common as well. I just think that we have decided that Toyotas are great, and are willing to pay the Toyota tax, when they really are very similar to other trucks.
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tyv12
Adventurer
Everything breaks eventually, I'll only buy Toyota partly from nostalgia as I grew up in them, part because they have never left me on the side of the road and statistics wise they have a high reliability rating. I feel that sometimes because they have a reputation for being reliable people assume they'll never have to put any money into them.
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JCMatthews
Tour Guide
I knew it would need maintenance, but my ford needed much less. and my Cherokees problems were all self imposed by lifting and rock crawling it. Maybe I'm just sour because the truck has needed a lot in the last two ears. Much of which are not Toyotas fault.
toyotech
Expedition Leader
I rather put money in a Toyota than any domestic vehicle. I guess I just know all the common issues and I usually replace them before it becomes an issue.
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OutOfBounds
Adventurer
I kinda hear what your saying. I've put around $3000 into my 2005 Tundra since I bought it last summer. $1000 of that was my choice, upgrading a few parts, swap to synthetic fluid etc. But I've had both sway bar stabilizers break in that time (I don't do any offroad tougher than logging roads) among a few other little bugger issues. The truck is 12 years old, and has 136,000kms on it so some stuff is to be expected. I was hoping though that I wouldn't have to pay so much so soon.
That said, my last truck was a 2013 F150 that I bought in 2014 with 32,000kms on it. I sold it last summer (2.5 years ownership) at 72,000kms. In that time it had over $6000 in warranty work, plus another $1800 out of my pocket and there were still a host of other issues I never bothered to fix. I never knew if it would start and actually cancelled many backcountry trips because I had no faith it would get us home. It was so bad, that there's never another Ford permitted on my property again. But it does go to show that even newer vehicles can be built like turds.
My experience with Toyota began with my first ever vehicle, a 94 pickup which got me home multiple times after my idiocy should have left me hiking miles out of the mountains. Even though I've had some issues with my current Toyota, I trust it. I wouldn't say I'm a fanboy (my favorite and most reliable truck I ever owned was a 2011 GMC Sierra), but I do understand where the hype comes from. They may have their issues, they may break at silly times, but they'll always get you home.
I do hope your luck gets better with yours. Hopefully you'll hit a point where you've replaced all the worn out pieces and can relax for awhile.
GoodEnoughforGabe
Adventurer
Nice Tundra. I've got an 04 DC in the exact same Phantom Gray. I just removed the front sway bar last night and have Bilstein 5100's with 886 Coils installed. Why did you choose to leave the sway bar in after the links broke for Off roading? I'll let you know how mine handles this upcoming week when I get a chance to do some freeway driving and some off roading.
JCMatthews
Tour Guide
I tow with mine and haul my family and want it as safe as possible. I replaced the broken links with links designed for an F350 and one of those has broken as well. So now I only have the driver side link. Essentially I have no front sway bar.
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