GX460 & GXOR B.S. thread

[r2m]

Im in the market for a vehicle. I really need two, a daily that is a beater and gets good mileage and also a pickup that can pull 10k lbs minimum. My current boat is a 2023 Yamaha 252sd and Ive been having to borrow the old man's Tundra because it's too heavy for my GX at 7,000+ lbs loaded. The problem, and It’s upsetting to say, is that Toyota doesnt make a single vehicle worth buying right now. Lexus only has one or two I would consider, and neither of those fit my needs. There is always some major issue present. They either have a CVT, a small displacement engine with turbos, not made in Japan, or massive engine, tranmisison, or overall quality issues. Toyota has really gone downhill. View attachment 4176444

I did a AI search for, "What is the best/most reliable diesel truck in the past 40 years."
The answer:
"The 1994–1998 Dodge Ram 2500/3500 equipped with the 5.9L 12-Valve Cummins engine is widely considered by automotive experts and diesel enthusiasts to be the most reliable diesel truck of the past 40 years. Its legendary status comes from its extreme mechanical simplicity, overbuilt industrial DNA, and complete lack of complex electronic or modern emissions equipment, allowing it to routinely surpass 500,000 to even 1 million miles with basic maintenance."
Unless you need all the fluff of a newer truck for long hauls cross country, get a used Ram and call it done.

 

[Rednexus]

I did a AI search for, "What is the best/most reliable diesel truck in the past 40 years."
The answer:
"The 1994–1998 Dodge Ram 2500/3500 equipped with the 5.9L 12-Valve Cummins engine is widely considered by automotive experts and diesel enthusiasts to be the most reliable diesel truck of the past 40 years. Its legendary status comes from its extreme mechanical simplicity, overbuilt industrial DNA, and complete lack of complex electronic or modern emissions equipment, allowing it to routinely surpass 500,000 to even 1 million miles with basic maintenance."
Unless you need all the fluff of a newer truck for long hauls cross country, get a used Ram and call it done.

AI is conflating a "truck" with "engine". The Dodge Ram 2500/3500 truck is not reliable. The entire front suspension wears quickly under the weight of the Cummins, the transmissions are weak and failure prone, the interior plastic/fabrics disintegrate, and the electronics are typical Chrysler. At least around here, most are total rust buckets (with the notable exception of my FIL's truck). The steering/handling can also be downright unsafe due to slop as they get miles on them, although my FIL's is quite a bit better after I put a RedHead steering box and brace in it for him. Coming out of my GX and into the Dodge Ram feels about the same as hopping out of my GX and on to my John Deere tractor (except the John Deere is more reliable than the Dodge ).

Of course AI would not know that as it's never actually driven one, tried to keep one in between the lines on the road when it has half a turn of steering wheel slop, dealt with the odd mix of SAE (Cummins) and metric (Dodge) fasteners, or had to manhandle a lift pump out of one . Still, I LOVE driving our family Cummins, but it's 100% due to the power and sound of the 6BT, not the truck itself.

 

[r2m]

You got me... Only full size truck I've owned has been a '94 F350 Crewcab. (loved that truck...)
Yeah, I've never driven one, but my Dad swears by them, but his have been after 2000.

 

[Hiluxforever]

My FIL has a cherry 1999 Cummins; I drive it and work on it for him sometimes. Amazing engine and a head-turner of a rig, but the build quality of the truck itself is on par with a 1999 Dodge Neon .

Yea, from a standby genpac perspective, Cummins is hot garbage. They cant even be trusted to work on their own stuff.

0/10 don't recommend. Cat is a million times better.

 

[Rednexus]

You got me... Only full size truck I've owned has been a '94 F350 Crewcab. (loved that truck...)
Yeah, I've never driven one, but my Dad swears by them, but his have been after 2000.

The 90s Fords seem to hold up much better than GM and Dodge trucks of the same era. I also love that they still have wing windows on them! I've heard the Crown Jewel of HD trucks is a Ford Super Duty with a 6BT Cummins swapped into it

Supposedly the 2003+ Ram HD trucks also suffered from the same weak front ends as the 1994-2002 trucks, although I have not owned or driven one myself, and haven't researched them. I did see a Ram 3500 flatbed of that vintage towing a trailer the other day. The weight of the trailer was bending his entire truck such that the gap between the headache rack and cab was much larger at the top than the bottom bottom, and you could see the whole truck flexing as he went over bumps. Either that truck was way overloaded or his frame was about to snap (or both).

Yea, from a standby genpac perspective, Cummins is hot garbage. They cant even be trusted to work on their own stuff.

0/10 don't recommend. Cat is a million times better.

My John Deere has a 1.6-liter 3-cylinder Yanmar diesel that I love (made in Japan). It's indirect injection with an electronically-controlled mechanical injection pump (still haven't figured that one out....), but it has no emissions components other than EGR. It's a great little engine that uses almost no fuel and is very torquey. This fall I'm putting an Ag Diesel Solutions chip in it to take it from 24.4 horsepower to ~32 horsepower, for mowing purposes .

 

[Hiluxforever]

The 90s Fords seem to hold up much better than GM and Dodge trucks of the same era. I also love that they still have wing windows on them! I've heard the Crown Jewel of HD trucks is a Ford Super Duty with a 6BT Cummins swapped into it

Supposedly the 2003+ Ram HD trucks also suffered from the same weak front ends as the 1994-2002 trucks, although I have not owned or driven one myself, and haven't researched them. I did see a Ram 3500 flatbed of that vintage towing a trailer the other day. The weight of the trailer was bending his entire truck such that the gap between the headache rack and cap was much larger at the top and bottom, and you could see the whole truck flexing as he went over bumps. Either that truck was way overloaded or his frame was about to snap (or both).

My John Deere has a 1.6-liter 3-cylinder Yanmar diesel that I love (made in Japan). It's indirect injection with an electronically-controlled mechanical injection pump (still haven't figured that one out....), but it has no emissions components other than EGR. It's a great little engine that uses almost now fuel and is very torquey. This fall I'm putting an Ag Diesel Solutions chip in it to take it from 24.4 horsepower to ~32 horsepower, for mowing purposes .

My current standby gens are a little more than that...

 

[Roody]

Alright so after a solid week of no issues the electronic woes are back. Had been driving it daily without issue. This afternoon I started it and let it run for about 10 minutes then drove it for about 5-10 minutes. Shut it off at daycare to pick up the kids, and when I turned it back on all of the warnings were back out of nowhere.

Here's the weird one: High Transmission Fluid Temperature warning.

Meanwhile, the Scangauge says the ATF is only 173*F... which isn't even close to being a high temp.

After a few minutes and driving about 1/10th mile the majority of the warnings went away, leaving only the ABS and TCS lights:

Haven't had a chance to pull codes or play around with anything yet, but my frustration with this situation is coming to a boiling point.

 

[aztoytec]

Check your kick panels, carpet, etc for moisture, maybe something is getting wet. Any recent rain?

 

[Roody]

Check your kick panels, carpet, etc for moisture, maybe something is getting wet. Any recent rain?

Planning to pull the sill/kick panels and as much of the carpeting as possible this weekend, but no rain over the last few days that would have set the warning lights off.

I'm thinking there's a loose ground or a bad/corroded connection somewhere. Problem is, I don't know where to start.

 

[Roody]

Just to keep a track record of my saga.....

No warning messages this morning.

This afternoon: Started the truck around 2:30, no warnings. Drove it 5 min, turned it off to run into a store, started it again, all the warnings came back. Drove it 2 min, turned it off to run into a store, started it again, only ABS and TRAC warnings. Drove it 2 min, turned it off to get gas, started it again, no warnings. WTF.

 

[Hiluxforever]

Does it ever do it cold?

 

[Roody]

Does it ever do it cold?

As in after a cold start, i.e. sitting overnight?

 

[Hiluxforever]

As in after a cold start, i.e. sitting overnight?

Yup. Sometimes cold solder joints open when they get hot. Its gotta be something goofy like that to be so inconsistent or a bad ground buried somewhere.

But my truck also failed to start when I forgot to turn my kill switch off for my winch or compressor. It threw some wierd ass codes. Dont remember what. As soon a I killed it, right as rain.

 

[Roody]

Yup. Sometimes cold solder joints open when they get hot. Its gotta be something goofy like that to be so inconsistent or a bad ground buried somewhere.

But my truck also failed to start when I forgot to turn my kill switch off for my winch or compressor. It threw some wierd ass codes. Dont remember what. As soon a I killed it, right as rain.

Occasionally, maybe? Mostly when I've been driving it and shut it off / turn it back on.

Nothing attached to the battery now other than the main leads.

 

[Hiluxforever]

Occasionally, maybe? Mostly when I've been driving it and shut it off / turn it back on.

Nothing attached to the battery now other than the main leads.

So it only does it after its been warm. That's a start, for troubleshooting.

Is it possible that something in the charging system like the voltage regulator is freaking out when it gets hot?

Or expanding and no longer making a good connection. How are all of you ecu terminations?

I am an adhd controls engineer so trying to mentally work the problem.

 

[BigSwede]

Alright so after a solid week of no issues the electronic woes are back. Had been driving it daily without issue. This afternoon I started it and let it run for about 10 minutes then drove it for about 5-10 minutes. Shut it off at daycare to pick up the kids, and when I turned it back on all of the warnings were back out of nowhere.

I had headlight system warnings when I had broken front wheel sensor wire.

 

[Roody]

So it only does it after its been warm. That's a start, for troubleshooting.

Is it possible that something in the charging system like the voltage regulator is freaking out when it gets hot?

Or expanding and no longer making a good connection. How are all of you ecu terminations?

I am an adhd controls engineer so trying to mentally work the problem.

Mainly does it when warm.

As for the charging system... maybe? I don't know how to access the voltage regulator (presumably on the back of the alternator?), is there a fuse or other way to check it other than hooking up a multimeter to the alternator?

ECU terminations: What should I check?

I had headlight system warnings when I had broken front wheel sensor wire.

Wheel speed sensor?

 

[Rednexus]

As for the charging system... maybe? I don't know how to access the voltage regulator (presumably on the back of the alternator?), is there a fuse or other way to check it other than hooking up a multimeter to the alternator?

Voltage could be checked with a USB charger with a voltage meter that plugs into the cigarette lighter (i.e, something you get for $12 on Amazon). You could then monitor for weird spikes in voltage.

Otherwise, I'm stumped by your problem. You could try to isolate it by disconnecting all accessories and going back to your OEM head unit. If it still does it, it might be time for a trip to the dealer - I would probably be at that point if it were my rig.

 

[Roody]

Ok so there's definitely a pattern. Was driving it just now and had no warnings, then hit the brakes on a rough patch of road and every warning came on. Came to a stop at a traffic light and after about 30s all warnings except ABS and TRAC went away. Then going over some bumps the warnings came back on, then at the next light they went away, then under braking the warnings flickered on/off and went away. Driving on smooth roads the rest of the way home only ABS/TRAC were on the dash.

Man is this one a doozy...

 

[Hiluxforever]

Ok so there's definitely a pattern. Was driving it just now and had no warnings, then hit the brakes on a rough patch of road and every warning came on. Came to a stop at a traffic light and after about 30s all warnings except ABS and TRAC went away. Then going over some bumps the warnings came back on, then at the next light they went away, then under braking the warnings flickered on/off and went away. Driving on smooth roads the rest of the way home only ABS/TRAC were on the dash.

Man is this one a doozy...

I bet if you reset the ecu with torque those would go away too.

The ecu connector will.show having a loose connection with excessive wear or corrosion. If it looks good its probably good. I dont know if anyone has a means to test one.