2012 Toyota Tundra
This year drew an ordinary 154 complaints for a Toyota Tundra — the model's median is 119. What they were about is the unusual part: 29.2% of them mention secondary, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Toyota Tundra, which began in 2007 and ran to 2021. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 154 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 119 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 15.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- secondary — 29.2% of this year's complaints, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation (6.3×). Owners wrote it as: secondary, secondary air, pumps, valves.
- mode — 36.4% of this year's complaints, against 13.1% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: mode, limp, limp mode, models.
- check engine — 34.4% of this year's complaints, against 13.4% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: check engine, engine light, light came, 4lo.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
CHECK ENGINE LIGHT AND TRAC OFF LIGHT CAME ON. CAR AUTOMATICALLY REDUCES SPEED CAUSING DIFFICULTY PULLING OUT INTO TRAFFIC. THE SECONDARY AIR PUMPS ARE DEFECTIVE. SOMETHING TOYOTA IS AWARE OF BUT DOES NOT INCLUDE MY MODEL. NO HELP FROM THERE WARRANTY DEPARTMEN…
WHEN DRIVING MY CHECK ENGINE AND "TRAC OFF" LIGHT COMES ON AND THE ENGINEER WILL NOT ACCELERATE ABOVE THIRTY MILES AN HOURS. IF YOU DISCONNECT THE BATTERY AND RESET THE COMPUTER IT WILL WORK FOR ABOUT THREE MILE THEN THE CHECK ENGINE AND "TRAC OFF" LIGHT COMES…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 13V014000 AIR BAGS
- 13V123000 EQUIPMENT
- 21V920000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 21E103000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota Tundra was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2012 Toyota Tundra? What happened to yours?
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