On Our Second Epic Road Trip

[St Thicket]

Now it was time to take our rav on a long road trip away from the urban environment of Bergen, and go the 1000 miles to the Lofoten islands.

To prepare for this, I changed the SCVs and lubed the VSV, as per anchormans advice. Unfortunately it still goes into limp mode when driving uphill in fifth gear at 2000 revs. The SCV replacement improved acceleration bigtime, but I fear that the VSV is ready for replacement if we are to avoid limping our way back home. Are there any quick fix for this, or should i get an appointment at the garage?

Anyway, we experienced that the rav is becoming small when having two kids in the back, and luggage for 4 people. We bought a large Thule roof box which is very handy, but still there is a luggage problem. Having a face bacwards child seat in the back requires a lot of space between the front and back seat, so now the passenger in the front have to sit in a 90 degree position with the knees agaainst the dashboard. Not comfortable in the long run...

So now we're looking at the 2010 Rav, which I like the looks of. Does anyone know if it is bigger in the boot, and more legroom between front and back seat compared to my rav4.2? I had a quick look at the dealer the other day, but didnt see much. It did however look like the boot is larger, but didn't notice any improvement on the legroom.

[anchorman]

If it goes into limp mode it will store a code - you need that code to take some of the guess work out. Code readers are dirt cheap these days.

Regarding the 2010 model, yes there is more leg romm but you really need to go and look. The boot floor is much higher which reduces some of the space but provides a more practical landing height. You can store quite a considerable amount under the floor (not like that little well on a 4.2 and the seats slide forward to give more boot space. However that steals leg room from the back so the best thing is to take the kids and sit them in while you have a look.

[St Thicket]

Silly me... I did read the codes, and it was the same as previously: the VSV valve.

So there is storage underneath the floor as well? Didn't really think about that :) The plan is to have a thorough look after a new SUV this autumn. I really want to get a new RAV, but considering the insane £40,000.- we have to pay for the entry model, it's more of a "lets see how much we can get for the money" type of look.

[anchorman]

Try by-passing the VSV. Get a rubber pipe long enough or a short piece of plastic or steel to make a connector then go out and road test.

[bothwell_buyer]

and dump the kids - far too expensive!

[St Thicket]

and dump the kids - far too expensive!

Thanks for your advice... as always to the point :)

I don't have my tools available here, so the debugging have to wait until I get back home. I did however take the rav to the garage, and they did a complete check of the turbo and VSV. They didn't find any fault with the VSV, and the Turbo only had a minor leak of oil to the outlet air. The oil leak wasn't very serious, but now I'll have to pay extra attention to oil consumption.

So what could be the problem then? The fault code states the VSV, but if the garage sais it's OK, then I'm clueless.

[anchorman]

Did you try bypassing the vsv?

[St Thicket]

Did you try bypassing the vsv?

No i never did. Wouldn't this damage the pressure sensor? Why is there a valve there if it could be bypassed?

[anchorman]

There is a guy running with his permanantly disconnected but in your case only long enough to test it. If it behaves OK you can safely buy a new vsv.