Tip for Tundra TV owners

[SCBillandJane]

I have been very positive about recommending a Tundra as a tow vehicle. My Tundra has taken us 40+ thousand miles to all 4 corners of the country. However, while starting my Tundra at my house, the check engine light came on. The usual cause is a loose gas cap. I couldn't get the light to go off by tightening the gas cap, so off to the Totota dealership we went, and I wasn't sure I was going to make it. The "limp home" safety mode had been activated electronically. I could barely accelerate and could not go over 55 on level ground even with full throtle.
The cause was determined to be a secondary air injection pump. According to the service manager the only thing this pump does is turn on for 45 seconds during a cold start to pump extra air into the engine to reduce pollution during start up. The pump evidently gets rusty from condensation and quits with no warning. It has nothing to do with driving in water. The computer then cuts power even though there is no danger to the engine in this situation. You could pull into a campground just fine and might not have enough power the next morning to get out of the campground.
I told the service manager that this worries me because I pull a travel trailer, and this could happen again when I was way away from home or a Toyota dealer. I could maybe limp home, but not with my trailer. He had a temporary solution that you might want to try in an emergency that I was clueless about. He said that if you could get the Tundra up to operating temperature and drive to a auto parts place or any type car dealer that they could "clear the code" electronically. This would allow the Tundra to drive normally until the next cold start.
My situation is not unique unfortunately. On one Tundra internet site there are 95 pages of discussion about this pump problem. I am just passing on this emergency get home tip that I hope you don't ever have to use. I hope that this is not too far off the subject.