Just need to vent...

The only way they could have made these scenes funnier would be if the smokes were menthol
LOL

 

The good ole infotainment system in the old 2014 Tundra started it's old habit of just rebooting itself. I was on a phone call with my sister, yesterday, and it decided to just reboot itself....VERY annoying. I'll have to go in and remove my cell phone, forget the Toyota in my cell phone, and reconnect everything. (The only known fix for the stupid thing.)
I've researched replacing that entire thing with an after-market but Mr. Budget doesn't like the idea of dropping a grand!! Why are car electronics so darn expensive??? (And I really don't want some 18-year old Joe Shmoo messing with my wiring, I've seen their "work" on plenty of YouTube disaster videos.)

 

Count your blessings! If you had one of the new Turbo V6 versions, I see there's another recall for serious engine problems

 

Heck yea...I've been waiting to trade in the old Tundra for a new one but all these problems just keep pushing those plans back and back...

And I REALLY don't want anything with a turbo...all of my friends with turbos are always having issues. (And if I ever did, the oil would have to be changed every 2,000-3,000 miles because turbos runs so hot, burns that oil right up.)

 

Even as reliable as our Duramax turbo Diesel is, we were 50 Mi from nowhere (aka Miles City Montana) when our Turbo intercooler blew apart - robbing us of 90% power while pulling 5+ tons of trailer - up hill. Service tech told us, yeah it's a known issue. LOL

 

Yep, turbos and hybrids seem to be way too popular.....I'll probably keep my 5.7L V-8 for as long as she will let me. (But not even 60,000 miles on her, yet.) I'm thankful we don't get vehicle rust here in Colorado but I do drive her through car washes in the winter that have underbelly sprayers...on warmer days.

 

You need to be changing your oil every 3k anyway.....

Crutchfield.
Done.

I have 2 GMCs with turbos - and yes, I don't like them either, but turbos can be replaced.
I use 3k OCIs (DIY) and consider them to be 'disposable vehicles' that will be traded in or given away at 150,000 - 200,000 miles.
Now that somebody is pushing back against the Climate Industrial Complex and the Big-5 are not as afraid of naturally aspirated V8s a my vehicle choices might flatten out a bit.

 

Yep, I'm sure MANY Tundra owners, just like me, are hoping and praying Toyota comes to their senses and brings back the V-8 engines in the Tundra.

There's a little hope, the last V-8 Toyota has is the 5.0L V-8 in the Lexus LC500.....okay, Toyota, we'll take that, please!!!!! (But with no turbo...hybrid would be okay, would actually like my Tundra brakes to last a lot longer!)

 

I'm nearing retirement.
I'd be delighted with a truck the size of a Dodge D50 with a small, naturally aspirated engine.

A TRUCK.
Not a car cosplaying as a truck.

 

I've seen a video abt a year ago re: Y2Ks Ford F250 plain-jane crew cab in white, survive 20y of salted roads, all due to a PVC homebrew underbody sprayer in the guy's driveway. The same exact model / spec truck used by his employees, were bad enough to need junked, which was the subject of the video.

That-generation Ford rocker panels turn to tortilla chip in 5y where it freezes and are infamous for it... so when the guy put his truck on a lift in his local shop to see how it fared... only surface rust, no bubbles under the paint anywhere. Can't be mad at that

May get pricey... but a more up-spec synth oil may help, were you to buy one of those nightmares.

I personally warn against racing oils (which defo have additive packages for heat degradation out of visc), due to lacking other useful additives for street vehicles, but not competition ones (like acid buffers). I like Pennzoil's Ultra Platinum line, which is well-priced and worked beautifully in my 1.5L turbo Civic, which I drove quite hard. Just make sure it's Ultra Plat and not regular Plat...

LC's on the chopping block now tho... and given how many billions of yen were spent developing the most embarrassing trucks Toyota's ever made... turbos aren't going away (they're OEM on the next Corolla and probably Prius, if 5G isn't the last generation... due to the press Toyota delivered about their plans post '27.

Trouble w/ Toyota to some extent... is if your country's customers' driving habits / desired features / insurance rates are too radically different from JDM Japan's... they'll always default to making the JDM designs fit the rest of the world. Yeah they're vehicles specific to certain markets but the core engineering's based on a modified roadmap, first determined by engineering boundaries set down by Japanese drivers.

In Japan... laws dictate maintenance services be strictly complied to, Japan being a rather fastidious society anyway maintenance-wise, esp compared to us in 'Murrka. Makes it easy their excellent customer service social contract, provides for a super-nice exp to take your car in for an oil change; no surly kid at the f***ing svc writer's desk to give you attitude w/ every honest question; you're treated as a valuable customer and the process is very pleasant to exp. Works only in Japan tho, obviously.

Rather naïvely, the factory thinks people here will be just as likely to adhere to intervals -- which of course we don't for a variety of reasons. But even in 2026, after almost a century making cars... they still think their overseas customers will matter-of-factly adhere to the manual -- like they're supposed to, for best performance and longevity (we know now, that isn't always true -- oil intervals? ehht -- but in general still applies).

So perhaps in Japan, turbos aren't that big a deal, as most owners don't push them very hard, even work vehicles (if you've ever driven in Japan, most drivers not rich people's arrogant kids, or street thugs, or about-to-lose-their-licence-for-life drunks, are pretty easy on their cars). A few years back I'd traveled w/ family 300km (~4.5 hrs) from Sapporo to Hakodate via Honda rental van... and didn't exceed 80 kph. Yeah, there were kids in Starlets and other kei sports minis buzzing around... but not nearly the pucker-fest a long freeway trip is in most of the US, esp around a big Southern city like Nashville, Memphis, or Dallas (dbl at night when the street racers emerge in their catastrophic failures full of 6qts of oil, and deposit the lot w/ 15 lbs of boost on the freeway in front of you ).

Unfortunately emissions regs dictate drivetrains... so couldn't keep the obviously-perfect-for-purpose 5.7L V8 for Tundras... not to mention keeping two completely different drivetrains in the same vehicle worldwide (where even more strict emissions regs need obeyed) would be hugely expensive. Both are pretty non-negotiable to that boardroom, given Akio's insistence on non-milquetoast-driving Toyotas already rankle them

 

Yep, that Toyota V-6 (V35A) engine is getting a pretty bad reputation, for sure. One car expert said, in the past, Toyota engines usually had about a 0.5% fail rate but the V35A looks to be around 5%. That's, still, not bad considering 95% of folks won't have any issues but the 5% do let folks know.
Originally, they tried blaming the issues on debris from the manufacturing phase (just like so many other car engine builders) but, now, they are saying the debris seems to be caused by something malfunctioning.
This guy has been trying to get his hands on a failed V35A engine for two years and finally got one...failed at 18,000 miles. His guess is that the oil tolerances effecting the main bearings allows metal to come in contact with metal, creating debris which escalates....but he's only looked at one so would need to look at a lot more. (Which Toyota has been doing for years, now...you'd think they'd come out with a redesign or just giving up to go with another V-6.)

Sad that the ONLY engine option in the Tundra is the V35A....I'll never buy one...

 

In the saga re: bashed driver rear door on my 5G... ah, nothing like navigating the current state of the body shop process

Went to the shop what unbent my Civic... and the owner'd retired. Great... went to the current owner, and asked what to do about this.

His take were visually, unibody probably not bent, to about 99% certainty. If anything, the suspension has far more parts in it needing only slightly bent, in order to produce the driving behaviour I'm seeing. Take it to the Toyota dealer, have them align it, then see if it drives differently or remains wonky -- produce this w/ the dealer's documentation to the insurance company, who'll most likely cover the expenses. But if it does resolve, proceed with the prelim estimate we gave you. Okay, sounds reasonable...

Toyota dealer service writer: if we were to seek anything bent on your car, (a) it's probably better to have a body shop with a frame rig, to see if the unibody has damage, as we don't have that capacity here (gave name of body shop that does, and it isn't the one that fixed my Civic )... and (b) you'd have to pay all the billable flat-rate hours for the tech... who isn't the best person to determine the source of your complaint anyway. Had to say, that was both altruistic and well-considered... another reason I'm glad to own a Toyota rather than a Honda on this island. Go see the guys at this other body shop, as they have the jig and can serve you a lot better and cheaper. Thanks given, headed out there...

Now... mind you I've not had a great exp with this bodyshop in past. Remember that earlier 7th-gen Civic I used to call 'the Cavalier of Civics'? Took it there when someone tagged my car with a grazing blow 10 yrs ago... and they did a wholehearted halfarsed hackjob. probably because it were an old car... but doesn't mean you do half-as*ed work. So a bit tenuous (and yep painful) climbing those stairs...

Head writer there... were an Irish guy (other girl just worked there, no idea how to address my questions other than to look to the Irish guy ). Heard my story... and suggested I get an alignment first. Why? Because one, if it resolves, the job costs you less if you bring it here, both in time and money, since we don't need to look for anything bent in the suspension and tear up the rest of that corner of the car to find it. How would it do that? I asked, since I'd been told by the first body shop guy, the frame rig would be needed to determine plumb of the unibody.

Answer: if the unibody or anything else were bent and making the car drive badly, it'd be detected by the alignment rig. We sublet alignment to [alignment shop] all the time, who only charges [trust me, a smol amt]... and they let us know about hidden damage picked up by the rig. So better for you to try that, then come see us or your other shop, before committing w/ insurance.

So at this point, up until getting this info... was quite non-plussed by the bash-repair process, esp its long timeframe. After this tidbit... felt man, think the process is actually giving me some quite good info, rather than soaking me, as feared from past exps.

So maybe not all venting today -- hmm, this may actually may turn out... pleasant? Won't go that far into flowery-optimism, not in my ex-mil nature But do feel a bit grateful, everyone so far's been decent with me. We'll see if this persists thru getting the car back, straight and shiny -- and driving like before

 

Tax time approaches.

I use Turbotax. Best price is Amazon, Costco or Sam's Club, depending on the year. But can they just say it is Xx dollars. No, they have to say it is XX dollars minus the gift card, store credit or in-box certificate you probably will receivfe and probably will cash in..but maybe you will lose, forget or never receive.

O.K. Done with rant until next year.

 

I've used the online version of TurboTax for the past 5 years since receiving an inheritance with some quirky investments and RMD's from two 401(k)'s. I've been figuring out my taxes the long-hand way succcessfully for many years. I retired last year so there is one more year with a partial W2 and then it will all be 1099's. The first year using TurboTax I tried to keep up with the automated calculations on a manual form 1040. It was difficult to the point where the charge for using TurboTax was making sense. My only complaint is the widely variable charges from year to year. I think perhaps Intuit, the owner of TurboTax, charges with respect to liability if IRS were ever to question some of their figurings. I could be wrong though.

 

There is three which are really just one with different skins. I use the one calling itself Taxhawk. Even the extended forms are free. The federal filing is free, but they charge for the state one. Pennsylvania's income taxes are simple, so I just copy into the state efile site.

 

There are free Turbo Tax versions for US but they are just for simple returns. Turbo Tax does promote it and gets you to setup a password and enter data until you are almost finished when they spring the paid version on you because you are excluded for xyz reason.

This year Turbo Tax is advertising walk in stores.

The IRS also has a free simple tax program that is not advertised much if at all.

Still there are people who use independent paid services when all they have is one W2 or maybe just a social security SSA-1099.

Most of these are not even required to file due to low income. Obviously if an employer deducted income taxes, they file to get a refund.

 

They really don't want you to file separately - if married.