The launch of the all new 2007 Tundra full size pickup continues to go anything but smoothly for Toyota. Automotive News is reporting on a string of twenty recent camshaft failures in Tundras equipped with popular i-Force 5.7-liter DOHC V8 motors. Toyota is trying to determine how many of the 30,000 engines built so far might be affected by, "...a metallurgical defect in the casting," according to Toyota spokesperson Mike Michels in the story. The company is blaming the defect on the camshaft's supplier and says it has been corrected.
A camshaft is a metal rod with lobes, or cams, that spin and push open an engine's intake and exhaust valves to let the air/fuel mixture into the engine and the exhaust out during combustion. Double overhead cam motors, like the 5.7-liter V8, use four cams - two per head - to allow for better gas flow and more power.
Toyota will pay the costs to replace the entire engine of any new Tundra with a failed camshaft.
Read Article