Toyota V35A-FTS Engine Teardown (1 Viewer)

[richord]

I don't think this counts as the evidence. The guy shows two sentence post on FB. No followup, with actual cause, repair bill, etc. There are 100s if no 1000s of reasons why a car might not start and ends up on the tow truck. Main bearing failure is just one of them. I am not trying to defend Toyota here. Maybe there is more to it than machining debris, but this video is garbage imo.

I don't know, maybe I am naive but I find it difficult to believe that Toyota would be replacing engines without getting to the bottom of the issue. They said themselves that it costs them ~$30k to replace a single engine. This is a huge loss. It means they haven't made any profit whatsoever on a single Tundra, GX, or LX sold until April 2024... So now they are doubling down? Why?

He did qualify his teardown a number of times. I think this has entertainment value.

What I did appreciate was a better understanding of this engine and all the components. It left me concerned, not so much about the root cause of this recall, right now it's all speculation, but if, in fact they want to replace my engine, I will be very concerned. Swapping an engine is not a dealership repair. The probability of the technicians making a mistake is very high.

Given this is Lexus, if an engine swap is done, I think they should go a lot further in compensating their customers. They "sell luxury and reliability". That's why we pay more money for this vehicle. I think for each customer whose engine is swapped out they should give some $$ for pain, suffering and mental anguish. Why did I buy this vehicle? My friends are mocking me. . I could have bought two Hyundai's! One as a spare.

 

[bart]

@richord I am not talking about the video OP posted. I follow "I do cars" and I enjoy his content. I am talking about the video gvan1998 posted that supposedly shows evidence that Toyota is replacing engines with the same faulty units.

Btw, there are videos on YT that show the engine swap process in tundra. I don't think it's as bad as it sounds tbh.

 

[richord]

@richord I am not talking about the vide OP posted. I follow "I do cars" and I enjoy his content. I am talking about the video gvan1998 posted that supposedly shows evidence that Toyota is replacing engines with the same faulty units.

opps, sorry. I didn't see that video. I thought they were replacing the engines with engines from Hyundai's. Just kidding. But if I were an "influencer", I would try to do that and post it.

 

[cmfhsu]

According to the car care nut the main bearing part number was changed sometime around April 2024 which is the date of cutoff for the recall. This teardown makes it seem like it’s more than the main bearing but I’m no technician, just a schmuck who finally splurged on a car that may have major engine issues.

I believe Car Care Nut's theory is corroborated by some details in Toyota's November 6, 2025 NHTSA Recall filing: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2025/RMISC-25V767-8528.pdf

In section 2, sub-note 2, it says "This recall covers V35A engines of a particular configuration, manufactured during a certain period at certain production plants and used in the vehicles produced as listed above... [Other engines] were produced with an improved main bearing".

I assume the "improved main bearing" is the part number change Car Care Nut identified. We'll have to see how successful the "improved main bearing" is for preventing failure and wear.

In section 6, under October 31, 2025, it states "For the Tahara plant, data from the recovered engines, study about the bearing robustness, and the field performance data indicate that an increased level of this type of debris is present in engines produced between recall 24V-381 and the implementation of the improvement to the #1 main bearing."

The way this is written, it sounds like Toyota is pretty confident the improved bearing solved the problem, even before it fully resolved the debris issue (or at least that's what they want to communicate to NHTSA), so fingers crossed. Nothing we can really do now other than to wait and see - and to register complaints with NHTSA if our engines do fail.

 

[NewSchool OldSchool]

LEXUS AUSTRALIA INITIATES SAFETY RECALL FOR CERTAIN LX AND GX VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH A SPECIFIC V6 PETROL ENGINE

Lexus Australia has today announced that it will initiate a safety recall

pressroom.lexus.com.au

And what's concerning is this caveat to the data in the link
"Note: Although the involved vehicles are within the above VIN ranges, not all vehicles in these VIN ranges were sold in the Australian market."

So check your US vehicle VIN! Spoke with my So Cal Dealer yesterday and he said they were not aware of the GX recall yet.

 

[Silver Storm]

It doesn't feel great knowing there could be something wrong with your engine but the amount of speculation from content creators is laughable. As I always tell my kids, content creators are driven by views and getting paid and not boring facts. They are chasing trends and aren't really qualified to give an opinion about design, manufacturing or "forensic" teardowns.

I want to know the root cause of the issue, i.e. design flaw, debris, supplier issue but no one knows what's actually going on except Toyota. Is Toyota actively hiding stuff from us? Maybe but I think a simpler explanation is the issue is complex and Toyota's response is evolving.

Is the V35A a dud? I don't have the facts and I going to trust these content creators about as much as trust getting tax, investment and health advice from YouTube ... bring lots of salt

Good reminder that too much salt is unhealthy.

 

[NewSchool OldSchool]

I believe Car Care Nut's theory is corroborated by some details in Toyota's November 6, 2025 NHTSA Recall filing: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2025/RMISC-25V767-8528.pdf

In section 2, sub-note 2, it says "This recall covers V35A engines of a particular configuration, manufactured during a certain period at certain production plants and used in the vehicles produced as listed above... [Other engines] were produced with an improved main bearing".

I assume the "improved main bearing" is the part number change Car Care Nut identified. We'll have to see how successful the "improved main bearing" is for preventing failure and wear.

In section 6, under October 31, 2025, it states "For the Tahara plant, data from the recovered engines, study about the bearing robustness, and the field performance data indicate that an increased level of this type of debris is present in engines produced between recall 24V-381 and the implementation of the improvement to the #1 main bearing."

The way this is written, it sounds like Toyota is pretty confident the improved bearing solved the problem, even before it fully resolved the debris issue (or at least that's what they want to communicate to NHTSA), so fingers crossed. Nothing we can really do now other than to wait and see - and to register complaints with NHTSA if our engines do fail.

Excellent summary...thanks. We all need to stay vigilant on this topic. And I recommend anyone about to buy the GX, that they buy the lexus extended warranty to 100k miles. I did and it gives me peace of mind for the long term.

 

[Silver Storm]

Excellent summary...thanks. We all need to stay vigilant on this topic. And I recommend anyone about to buy the GX, that they buy the lexus extended warranty to 100k miles. I did and it gives me peace of mind for the long term.

Yeah, I'm thinking the same; I'll be getting the extended warranty for sure when my GX comes in.

 

[NewSchool OldSchool]

Yeah, I'm thinking the same; I'll be getting the extended warranty for sure when my GX comes in.

smart!! we can't predict when an engine might fail.....

 

[Silver Storm]

smart!! we can't predict when an engine might fail.....

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

 

[JG550]

I believe Car Care Nut's theory is corroborated by some details in Toyota's November 6, 2025 NHTSA Recall filing: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2025/RMISC-25V767-8528.pdf

In section 2, sub-note 2, it says "This recall covers V35A engines of a particular configuration, manufactured during a certain period at certain production plants and used in the vehicles produced as listed above... [Other engines] were produced with an improved main bearing".

I assume the "improved main bearing" is the part number change Car Care Nut identified. We'll have to see how successful the "improved main bearing" is for preventing failure and wear.

In section 6, under October 31, 2025, it states "For the Tahara plant, data from the recovered engines, study about the bearing robustness, and the field performance data indicate that an increased level of this type of debris is present in engines produced between recall 24V-381 and the implementation of the improvement to the #1 main bearing."

The way this is written, it sounds like Toyota is pretty confident the improved bearing solved the problem, even before it fully resolved the debris issue (or at least that's what they want to communicate to NHTSA), so fingers crossed. Nothing we can really do now other than to wait and see - and to register complaints with NHTSA if our engines do fail.

So my thoughts in reading that filing is that nothing was fixed in that first recall of 24v-381. They thought it was debris and tried to fix their washing process, but that obviously didn’t work. So now they have an improved main bearing that we hope fixed the issue. I think the whole debris thing is a load of BS.

I wonder what they do with the tundra engine replacements that were done before the main bearing change.

 

[SkyHigh]

I wonder what they do with the tundra engine replacements that were done before the main bearing change.

I think they put them in the 2024 GXs.

 

[bart]

So my thoughts in reading that filing is that nothing was fixed in that first recall of 24v-381. They thought it was debris and tried to fix their washing process, but that obviously didn’t work. So now they have an improved main bearing that we hope fixed the issue. I think the whole debris thing is a load of BS.

I wonder what they do with the tundra engine replacements that were done before the main bearing change.

Maybe every replaced engine was manufactured with improved bearings? They announced initial recall in May 2024 and started replacing engines in June of that year? Car Care Nut in his video said that bearing part number was changed in January 2024. So it's possible that everything produced after Jan 2024 got new bearings.

I think it would be insane for Toyota to replace a single engine before they were sure that what they're putting in is trouble free. I don't see any reason why they would choose to replace engines knowing that the problem isn't fixed. If they wanted to kick the can down the road surely they could've come up with some BS that doesn't require them to replace 250k engines. Maybe same manufacturing issue that GM mitigated with an oil specification change? Obviously changing the sticker on the engine is a lot less expensive than changing the engine This is why I think debris was not BS. Of course it's possible that Toyota thought that debris was the issue and it later turned out that it wasn't. But again, I would think they would've done their due diligence pretty thoroughly before committing to spending $7B on engine replacement program.

 

[tsnubbs]

It's honestly hilarious that people think Toyota would be replacing 200K+ engines for the hell of it without knowing that is the root cause of the failure. They have data from numerous failed engines to evaluate and test. The engine cost alone for replacing that many engines is astronomical, and then you have the labor costs which is no minor amount.

 

[RetiredSteelWorker]

It's honestly hilarious that people think Toyota would be replacing 200K+ engines for the hell of it without knowing that is the root cause of the failure. They have data from numerous failed engines to evaluate and test. The engine cost alone for replacing that many engines is astronomical, and then you have the labor costs which is no minor amount.

Agree completely.

To take this further, anyone on social media pushing or suggesting otherwise is doing so as clickbait to increase their views and their income tied to view counts.

 

[joodokick]

Seems like mostly tundras , not many LXs GXs and Sequoias that share that Motor.

This is because 150X more Tundras are sold than all those others combined

 

[Mikey]

Hi all,

I was in at the dealership on Friday for my second scheduled service. My GX550 is a December 2024 build and so it is not a part of the recall.

I asked some of the techs, what's the go? - They said in Australia that only 10 vehicles are affected by the recall, we received the GX much later than in the US and other regions, so there are few 2023/24 builds

We only get this engine family in LX600's (Australia prefers the LX500d with the F33A-FTV) and GX500's and the few limited numbers of Tundra's in Australia are Hybrid only.

Of the impacted Lexus vehicles, they were only aware of one engine failure and thus replacement to date in Australia. However, volumes in this country are low compared to the US, although the GX is now Australia's top selling luxury 4WD, followed by the LX in the >$120k bracket. About 200 combined per month, so a small sample size.

The guys also said that they are using an acoustic ultrasound analysis technique to check on the suspect engines to listen to the bearing. They expect Lexus and Toyota will end up extending considerably warranties on the Engines to try to deal with the reputational damage.

 

[S SUBERI]

Does anyone know how many GX Engines have failed to date. Mikey indicated one in Australia. Has anyone heard of any more? I wonder how many there have been?

 

[oldseniu]

Does anyone know how many GX Engines have failed to date. Mikey indicated one in Australia. Has anyone heard of any more? I wonder how many there have been?

Mikey said one of the impacted "Lexus" vehicle, not specific to a GX and most likey not.