The time is nigh for the great Toyota engine swap. Undoubtedly one of the largest and most expensive recalls in the automaker’s history, Toyota dealerships are heading into December as prepared and as anxious as they can be.
In May, Toyota announced a recall of its 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6. The affected models are the 2022 and 2023 Toyota Tundra pickups and Lexus LX SUVs. The issue was engine failure due to metal debris contaminating the circulating oil. The reason this debris, called swarf, existed in the first place was because internal passages within the engine block or cylinder heads were not thoroughly cleaned during the assembly process.
The obvious fix would be to remove the engine for disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly, followed by reinstallation. Sounds simple, but it’s a labor-intensive and time-consuming repair. Instead, Toyota opted to replace the engines entirely.
However, the size of the recall (102,292 vehicles), the complexity of the repair (some 13 to 21 hours of work), and the resources needed (technicians, service bays, loaner cars) make this course of action equally daunting.
According to Automotive News, from the get-go, Toyota’s planning process “has been to try and reduce complexity for our technicians,” said Kent Rice, Toyota Group vice president of quality. “We’ve spent a lot of time consulting different groups, including dealer councils, and they have been really helpful in their feedback.”
Toyota wants to streamline its repair efforts and make engine replacements as easy as possible for dealerships and technicians. If the recall repairs run as hoped, the benefits are twofold: an efficient (and cost-saving) recall repair and new skills training for junior technicians.
A replacement engine weighs approximately 400 pounds. Toyota says the swaps can be done by a single technician but acknowledges that each store operates differently and may utilize two techs per repair. Some dealers agree that as expansive as the recall is, it does provide an opportunity for new technicians to gain experience with engine replacements earlier in their careers.
“We’ll take a man or a woman who is primarily doing light maintenance and offer them an opportunity to work with a master tech,” said Steve Gates, owner of the Gates Auto Family, to Automotive News. His group has 13 stores in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana, and among them are three Toyota locations and one Lexus location. He said about one-third of the 100 technicians at the four impacted dealerships will be working on engine replacements. Gates pointed to a previous Toyota recall involving replacing rusty frames on Tacomas as an example of how technicians took advantage of the learning experience.
“We ended up with techs that could do it so fast that they wanted to come in early or stay late, and they wanted to work weekends,” said Gates. “We had one tech that designed his own special tools and he could knock out that job like crazy. I am certain we will see the same thing with the engine recall.”
Similar to how some of those techs turned into frame replacement specialists, Gates anticipates the same with the engine changes. “It’s a great opportunity,” he said. Managing the flow of customers is a different story, though.
“If we had 50 customers that came in all at once for the recall, it would be a little challenging,” said Gates. “The dealers I have talked to are saying their customers are telling them they are not going to do this right away because they are not experiencing any problems…There’s some curiosity, but no panic.”
The engine replacement will be done by appointment, as most dealerships won’t be stocking replacement engines. Instead, they will be ordered from Toyota once an appointment is confirmed and a repair scheduled. This allows for the same tech to work on the vehicle from start to finish.
As for vehicle loaners, Toyota is paying for those, but not everyone has the appropriate inventory. If a customer uses their Tundra for work, offering them a Corolla doesn’t quite fit the bill. Gates, for example, plans to move trucks from new inventory into his loaner fleets as needed.
Tundra and LX owners will be notified by early December to schedule engine replacements. There is no timetable as to when the engine recall program will be completed. Owners can check if their vehicle is part of the recall by visiting Toyota’s website or by entering its Vehicle Identification Number or license plate info at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
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