NHTSA Complaint #11300231 — 2012 TOYOTA TUNDRA

MY TRUCK HAS BEEN HAVING HARD START ISSUES SINCE WINTER 2017. I FIGURED IT WAS MY BATTERY SO I REPLACED IT, BUT IT DIDNT HELP. THE HARD START WASN'T CONSISTENT SO I CHOSE TAKE SOME TIME TO SEE IF ANY OTHER PROBLEMS SURFACED. GOT THROUGH WINTER 2018 AND SPRING/SUMMER 2019 WITH IT STILL STARTING ROUGH ON OCCASION. BY OCTOBER 2019 MY TRUCK REACHED APPROX 78K MILES, AND ONE DAY IT DIDN'T START AT ALL. TOOK THREE TRIES TO GET IT GOING. I HAD THE BATTERY CHECKED ONCE AGAIN. IT TESTED BAD BUT IT WAS UNDER WARRANTY SO I HAD I LT SWAPPED OUT. THE PROBLEM PERSISTED. THIS TIME IT GAVE ME AN ENGINE LIGHT. MECHANIC SAID IT WAS AN 'EVAP CODE' AND RECOMMENDED I REPLACE THE GAS CAP TO START. CODE DIDNT RETURN BUT STILL HARD STARTING. TOOK ALMOST TWO MONTHS AND ENGINE LIGHT CAME BACK ON. THIS TIME P1604 STARTABILITY MALFUNCTION. WAS TOLD I HAD TO TAKE IT TO TOYOTA TO GET A REFLASH. I DECIDED TO DO SOME RESEARCH AND CAME ACROSS THE PROBLEMS TUNDRA OWNERS WERE HAVING WITH THIS FFV DENSITY SENSOR MALFUNCTION. PRINTED THE OLD SERVICE BULLETINS AND WENT TO TOYOTA TO TALK TO SERVICE DEPT ABOUT IT. THEY SAID TOYOTA JUST PUT OUT A NEW SERVICE BULLETIN IN DECEMBER 2019 FOR THE REFLASH BUT NOW ALSO REPLACING THE FUEL PUMP (TOYOTA TOLD ME DENSITY SENSOR ATTACHED TO THE PUMP). UNFORTUNATELY TOYOTA ALSO TOLD ME THEY WON'T COVER THE COST SINCE MY TRUCK HAD JUST GONE OVER 80K MILES, AND THEY ARE NOT FLEXIBLE WITH THAT AT ALL, EVEN THOUGH I TOLD THEM IT STARTED BEFORE 80K. T-SB-0166-19. SO I GOT PRICES. THE REFLASH IS ABOUT $140 AND JUST THE COST OF THE PUMP ITSELF IS $600, NOT INCLUDING LABOR. I HAVE SPOKEN TO THE TOYOTA USA CUSTOMER CARE TEAM AND THEY SAID THEY CANT HELP ME SINCE I DIDNT TAKE IT TO THE DEALER TO DIAGNOSE IT. APPARENTLY IT DOESNT MATTER IF YOU HAVE SERVICE RECORDS FROM ANOTHER SHOP. THIS IS MY 3RD TOYOTA, AND I LOVE MY TRUCK SO THIS BREAKS MY HEART.