Toyota Specialist Calls Out the 2022–2024 Tundra Reliability Problem: “They Forgot the One Important Part”The people most qualified to critique a car brand are usually the ones who’ve spent their careers defending it. That’s what makes a recent video from the Car Care Nut, a YouTube channel run by a Toyota specialist and third-gen Tundra owner, rather credible. His verdict comes from someone who actually chose to own the truck.His read on the new generation’s design and capability is genuinely positive. On the twin-turbo V6, the interior, the towing experience… he’s enthusiastic about all of it.“Start with the engine. Forget about the problems. Again, we’re just talking design. Engine has a lot of power, a lot of torque. You tow with this. It is seamless. V8 was great, too, but this is better. Flat out. There’s no other way to say. Comfort on the inside is great. Amenities great. Not too much, not too little. Just enough modern technology to keep things good. I think the biggest standout of this truck is towing capability.AdvertisementAdvertisement“Look, it’s not a 2500, but this is now a lot better at towing. First, the features. Second, the actual feel when you tow with it. I think that part is the best part about this.”That’s the good news. The bad news is what follows.Why Toyota Forgot What Tundra Buyers Were Actually BuyingThe specialist’s argument is that Tundra owners weren’t buying the truck because it dominated capability comparisons with Ford and Ram. They were buying it because it would run for 200,000 miles without drama. That was the trade: trail behind on raw work-truck specs, lead on the one thing that actually matters to someone who depends on their vehicle.“For the longest time, all the big three trucks, they’re very capable as work trucks, as actual trucks to be used, but they’re just put together with cheap glue and zip ties. And the dollar store zip ties, not the good zip ties. When they work, they work great, but they don’t work great for long. The Tundra, it was always trailing behind in capability, but reliability, it makes up for it.AdvertisementAdvertisement“Yeah, it’s not the smoothest riding truck. It’s not the best towing truck. This not the best frame twist and all this this irrelevant stuff. But the thing ran and ran and ran and never give you trouble. That was the best part about it. Cuz folks, what good of a truck that work that breaks down all the time? That that’s that’s the main thing.“With this truck, they got the part where it’s trailing behind as a work truck, right? But they got everything else wrong. Flat out. They forgot the one important part. People buy Tundras because they’re reliable, not because they’re are great work trucks that break down all the time. That’s the problem that they didn’t get right.”There’s reliability data that backs that up. The third-gen’s most significant problem has been catastrophic engine failure – starting with the 2022 model year, hundreds of Tundras experienced sudden seizures, often at low mileage and without warning, caused by machining debris left inside the engine blocks during manufacturing. Those metal shavings worked into the crankshaft main bearings, scored the journals, and locked the engine up.Toyota’s initial recall in May 2024 covered roughly 100,000 trucks from the 2022 and 2023 model years, and a second recall in late 2025 added over 113,000 more vehicles including 2024 models, putting the total number of affected Tundras and Lexus vehicles north of 200,000.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe engine failure isn’t the only problem. A transmission recall addressed a condition where trucks could roll unexpectedly while in neutral, and separate recalls covered backup camera failures and multimedia screens that would go black or lock up on a camera view.In August 2023, Toyota also recalled 168,179 Tundras over a plastic fuel line positioned against metal brake lines – a clamp could loosen over time, allowing contact and eventual wear-through, with leaking fuel creating a fire risk.All of it combined has made the third-gen Tundra the most recalled Toyota of the past decade.Consumer Reports rates the 2022 Tundra as “much less reliable than other cars from the same model year,” with 13 NHTSA recalls on file.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe specialist isn’t writing the truck off. His point is deeper than that: Toyota solved the capability gap that critics had pointed at for years, then handed back the one advantage that made the Tundra worth choosing in the first place. For buyers who could live with a truck that wasn’t the quickest or the most capable hauler, knowing it would never leave them stranded was the whole value proposition.As one assessment put it, the current-generation Tundra “delivers modern performance and efficiency gains, but at the cost of the bulletproof reputation that defined earlier generations.”That’s a tough trade to defend, especially to someone who already handed over the money.