Avensis 2.2D - 2008My - 71.000Miles

June 2, 2012

Hi,

Just had my Toyota in the main dealer as I was losing water. They have reported as I suspected, that the head gasket has failed. Having read in the motoring press that it was a 'known issue' I asked if Toyota would fix it free of charge. I was told that:-

a) Its out of warranty (not dificult to work out)

B) My car does not fall within the 'known' vin number head gasket parameters

c) the car was not serviced by a Toyota Dealer - although it is fully serviced by a non franchised garage using approved parts.

Therefore no assistance would be given towards the 2K bill.

Shocked, I rang Toyota Customer Service who virtually said get stuffed and don't ring us again, minion!!!

I thought I'd buy a quality Jap car as I've been a Rover man for years (I used to work for them). Seems all that criticism about Brit cars is NO different to Japanese.

Luckily the car is under a seconhand warranty (the car was purchased in the M/Facturers 3 year warranty period) so they will foot 1K of the repair bill and the garage have dropped the cost now so I will pay only circa £230.

Another question that the more modern Technicians out there may be able to answer: They tell me the engine has to be removed to do the head gasket? - apparently a 13.5 hour job?? In all my many years as a Technician I've NEVER heard of a car needing the engine removed for such a repair. I'd like to hear some accurate reasoning behind that.

I was guided by the thought that this is a quality car that would give me many trouble free miles...I now regret not buying a Kia which I was considering also. I may sell this one and change to a Kia...7 year warranty sounds good to me.

Look forward to some feedback

Robin the Technician - I fix, therefore I am

June 2, 2012

Hello and welcome in to the TOC Robin, car sounds very nice.

June 3, 2012

Hi there. I posted this yesterday. The internal bulletin that Toyota have on this issue is WD 553 and outlines the approach the dealer should take. They also have to liaise with Toyota Europe at every step. The car has to be serviced to the schedule but does not have to be by Toyota.

"I have a 2007 plate 2.2 Dbd t3 spirit. Bought in December from Car Giant. It has 82 k on the clock. Driving up to southport in April (first big run) it started overheating. Drop revs and engine speed and it cooled. Also noticed heating blowing cold. Toyota said they would replace the head gasket etc pretty much straight away. Unfortunately the engine was much worse and this did not work. Yesterday Toyota Europe have agreed to put a brand new engine in. I just have to pay 239 for new clutch assembly ( which was on way out). You buy a Toyota for reliability and bullet proof technology. But when it does go wrong you buy it for customer service. Toyota have been excellent.

The car had been one owner before and had full service history but not Toyota main dealer. "

June 3, 2012

I think it's unusal to have problems with a Toyota, very strange.

At work we had a 3 month old Focus with less than 3000miles on the clock and that had some major problems, just shows it can happen to anything I guess. Still very annoying.

June 3, 2012

a) Its out of warranty (not dificult to work out)

Toyota have extended the warranty for this issue to 7 years/112k miles

B) My car does not fall within the 'known' vin number head gasket parameters

the technical bulletin covers Avensis D4D up to February 2009 ...

c) the car was not serviced by a Toyota Dealer - although it is fully serviced by a non franchised garage using approved parts.

as long as it has been serviced by a competent person to Toyota schedule/standards that should be irrelevant (although they may look more kindly on ones with full Toyota service history).

Therefore no assistance would be given towards the 2K bill.

actually, it could be worse - if the head has suffered "shuffle" damage it needs a new head as it can't be skimmed.

Toyota has replaced many short engines for this issue - £5-6k a pop!.

Shocked, I rang Toyota Customer Service who virtually said get stuffed and don't ring us again, minion!!!
I thought I'd buy a quality Jap car as I've been a Rover man for years (I used to work for them). Seems all that criticism about Brit cars is NO different to Japanese.
Luckily the car is under a seconhand warranty (the car was purchased in the M/Facturers 3 year warranty period) so they will foot 1K of the repair bill and the garage have dropped the cost now so I will pay only circa £230.
Another question that the more modern Technicians out there may be able to answer: They tell me the engine has to be removed to do the head gasket? - apparently a 13.5 hour job?? In all my many years as a Technician I've NEVER heard of a car needing the engine removed for such a repair. I'd like to hear some accurate reasoning behind that.
I was guided by the thought that this is a quality car that would give me many trouble free miles...I now regret not buying a Kia which I was considering also. I may sell this one and change to a Kia...7 year warranty sounds good to me.
Look forward to some feedback
Robin the Technician - I fix, therefore I am

Don't give up - take it to another dealer, arm yourself with more info (see both the Avensis & RA4 forums - common engine, common problem).

Toyota had appeared to built up some kudos & praise for how they had handled this problem even without the terms of the original warranty so either you are being given the runaround or Toyota policy has changed.

Also, post in the appropriate forum - this one is to introduce yourself not for problems themselves.

Lots of people that could help with the technical side won't read it here.