Bad News, Good News

Sooooo...

The Tundra went in to the shop to have the "Check Engine" light diagnosed. What they found was that there was "water in the secondary air pumps"--whatever and where ever they are. The cost of repairs? $1900+

The good news? Toyota recognized this as a defective design problem and extended the warranty on this particular case to 10 years or 150K miles. My Tundra is a 2007 model and has 126K miles so all it's going to cost me is time and $ for gas to go back and forth. Initially I was told the job would take 4 hours so if I wanted to go home, they had a loaner for me to use. A brand new red RAV with about 170 miles on the odometer--and very little gas in the tank. (I put $25 worth in there just to e sure I could get home Thursday and back on Friday. Came t-h-i-s close to filling the tank.)

I say I was initially told it would take 4 hours. In fact, they barely got started when they discovered they were missing one necessary valve. Why? Because 1) they have had a rash of similar repairs in the last week and 2) the strike/slow down in the west coast ports are delaying delivery of parts. So that valve is back ordered and expected the first week of May.

Unfortunately, they would not let me keep the RAV until then so I had to go retrieve the Tundra and return the pretty, red car. (Never had a red car before.) They said I could drive the Tundra but that the "Check Engine" light would be my constant companion. *sigh*

Except for that darn light, the Tundra is running fine. A little shimmy in the front end but that could be because of clay/mud from the dirt road in the wheels or elsewhere. I can live with it until I go back after they call to say the part is in. I'm hoping that will be in 3 weeks. Meanwhile the TUndra and I will continue our rehab routine. Together.