Head Gasket Failure What Are The Choices If Its Outside Warrenty

[FROSTYBALLS]

Part Ex for another Toyota! You must be joking I have an immaculate car outside that is now Junk. I've owned several Toyotas but this wil be my last. Once bitten twice shy. I know no car companies ever own up that they built a bomb but then that's why I don't trust them anymore. What are you likely to get as Part Ex for this age and mileage of car?

If it is the head gasket, Toyota have already admitted there is a problem and covered rectification for 7 years - which is more than most other car manufacturers will do.

BMW have issues with timing chain failure on some engines, and haven't offered anywhere near the cover that Toyota have.

[Roker]

Point taken about the head, I skimmed the head on my Mitsubish for very little cost but it would appear Toyota are not designed for this.

Toyota may be giving 7 yrs on their engines, but other companies are giving 7yrs on the whole car vs Toyota 3 yr (in Ireland)

[Heidfirst]

Toyota warranty in the UK is 5 years/100,000 miles (& extendable up to 10 years for payment).

I think that the only ones that better that are KIA with 7 years & Vauxhall with "lifetime" (but both still 100,000 miles warranty).

The devil is in the details though & how likely the manufacturer is to actually stand by their warranty & not try to weasel out or apply some charges.

[Mike169]

I have skimmed many cyl. heads on many makes of cars, are Toyota engines designed differently or are the tolerances to close to be able to skim their cyl. heads does anybody know?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Think at post 23, Devon Aygo meant to say that there is no tolerance to allow for either the head or the block to be skimmed.

[Roker]

An interesting point because it only takes a few thousands of an inch to skim off.

As a mater of interest Mitsubishi are giving 8 years warranty in Ireland

[FROSTYBALLS]

The Mitsubishi 8 year warranty in Ireland comprises the standard Mitsubishi 3 year/60,000 miles manufacturers warranty, and an extended warranty covering years 4 to 8, or up to 93,200 miles (whichever occurs first), offered by the importer (Mitsubishi Ireland) and the Mitsubishi dealer network.

[Lazyporter]

Hi there.

Do you still have the car? Mabe some one mentioned this before but, it could just be the water pump, or mabey you have a high pressure leak that only kicks in when the engine is hot, check first before you get rid of it, most of the time the simple solutions work best. If the head gasket has gone the coolant will come out of the exhuast as white smoke smelling sweet and tangy or you will get baileys on your dipstick as the oil and water mix in the lubrication system. The only two things that will give you water droplits flying around the engine compartment are the ones I mentione earlier, well in my experience anyway.

[benjyboy]

Probably no heip to you, but what makes a head gasket fail? Lack of maintenance, style of driving or sods law. My 2.2 d4d has 101k, is it on borrowed time. Can I do anything to prevent it happening?

[tubaman]

My 2006 D4D T180 has done 93K miles and I took out an extended warranty with Toyota purely because of the known head gasket issue. At least I now have peace of mind - couldnt risk a 7K pile of junk

[avensisd4d786]

I was looking for a video on the ad head gasket repair and I came across this. its a repair on the 4a-fe engine.

watch out for the mileage at the end. not all Toyota's are bad!

[Lazyporter]

Probably no heip to you, but what makes a head gasket fail? Lack of maintenance, style of driving or sods law. My 2.2 d4d has 101k, is it on borrowed time. Can I do anything to prevent it happening?

Normally it is just sods law that during the manufacturing proses something did not go to plan and the head gasket goes poof. Sometime desighners overlook something small and the car gets a bad reputation due to a commomon fault atributed to that specific model. Rover is one that pops to mind, their K-Model engines gave up the ghost only after doing about 80 000km, when rover did the recall they found that the head gasket had a to small opening in one of the rear most waterpassages of the gasket, the updated model worked and it worked well.

Bit long winded but I hope it helps.

[eddiek]

Hi i have a 2.2 diesel avensis 57 plate. The first engine failed around 73k another one which was evidently modified was fitted in 2011 under warranty that has just failed at 66k water blowing out the expansion tank. Does anyone know if i was to buy another engine from toyota is it still the same junk or have they fixed the problem

[Heidfirst]

Other than on a few early T27s this issue doesn't seem to rear it's head anymore - it appears that current production is sorted.

Was your replacement engine a complete Toyota warranty replacement unit or did the dealer rebuild from parts?

Afaik Toyota doesn't sell the warranty replacement units & the cost of a brand new engine & fitting may well be more than the car is worth.

[eddiek]

hi thanks for replying, to my knowledge it was a complete replacement as they said I had to wait as they had run out of parts and were now fitting engines and I had to wait for the engine. If I was to order a new 2.2 diesel engine for my avensis tr 57 plate from my local Toyota dealer tomorrow its around £2300 and I will get the garage who service it to fit it, would it have the same problems or is it a totally new engine and different from the one that was fitted in 2011 and also would it need some firmware updates etc before it would start, the firmware if that's what you call it was updated when they fitted new injectors a week after the engine was fitted as these failed aswell

[Devon Aygo]

hi thanks for replying, to my knowledge it was a complete replacement as they said I had to wait as they had run out of parts and were now fitting engines and I had to wait for the engine. If I was to order a new 2.2 diesel engine for my avensis tr 57 plate from my local Toyota dealer tomorrow its around £2300 and I will get the garage who service it to fit it, would it have the same problems or is it a totally new engine and different from the one that was fitted in 2011 and also would it need some firmware updates etc before it would start, the firmware if that's what you call it was updated when they fitted new injectors a week after the engine was fitted as these failed aswell

£2300 is NOT the correct price for a brand new engine Try £5000+. £2300 is the price for a reconditioned engine the same unit as that fitted to your car back in 2011 ( if a rebuild was not carried out ) there is no difference in the units supplied now and those back in 2011. Also your dealer cannot sell you a recon engine as Toyota restrict its use to warranty repairs only and will not refund a £1600 surcharge if a warranty claim is not submitted. As for software updates there has been one related to poor cold start, this should be carried out along with a replacement engine.

[eddiek]

Cheers for your reply i spoke to cr who said they would ask the tech dept who then told me there was a modification to them after i had mine fitted mine was fitted near the end of 2011 i have just seen on the toyota website that you cant buy an avensis with a manual 2.2 on the build your car section, im going on a bit as i like my car due to its size and the size of me 6ft 6 means quite a few arn't any good to me as i turn them into 3 seaters and i need a 4 seater looks like scrapping mine is the only option as no point putting one back in that may fail due to the miles i do as i'm disabled

[Heidfirst]

"i have just seen on the toyota website that you cant buy an avensis with a manual 2.2 on the build your car section,"

That only came in a few months ago when they jiggled the spec. levels around again. You should be able to find an ex-demo or 1 year old without too much hassle (& at a considerable saving).

The 2.2 auto is also a D-CAT so is a relatively thirsty beast.

[eddiek]

Just out of curiosity do you know what makes them kick the water out is it the headgasket, block, or cylinderhead mine has no oil in the water no water in the oil and was like **** off a shovel from day one and was serviced regularly all of a sudden just like the other one it spat the water out

[eddiek]

It was the gasket, either compression or anti freeze or both caused the problem the gasket bought from toyota was thicker than the one fitted approx £320 quid for parts and cars all done.

[avensisd4d786]

"Neither the cylinder head nor block can be skimmed on an #AD series engine as there is tolerance to do so, if they are warped or damaged they are scrap."

I always thought that they cannot be rebuilt successfully.

was the head skimmed?

If the the original engine could be fixed why where Toyota replacing the engines?

can someone shed some light on this?

[eddiek]

I would assume going by the amount of work needed to change the gasket it was probably more cost effective to send out the engines for a straight swop. Didnt skim the head ive only done 200 miles in it but touch wood it seems ok so far.

[eddiek]

1000 miles and still going strong, i'm not so sure its a head or block problem as long as it doesnt overheat i think the problem is they are fitted with a 2notch gasket which causes the high compression and it damages the layers between then gasket by fitting a 5 notch gasket supplied by toyota it must lower the compression hopefully avoiding the issue

[avensisd4d786]

Thank you for coming back with the update, good to see another avensis saved!

[daveystew]

It was the gasket, either compression or anti freeze or both caused the problem the gasket bought from toyota was thicker than the one fitted approx £320 quid for parts and cars all done.

Hi eddiek, is your car still running? You mention £320 for parts. How much was the total job if you don't mind me asking? My 2008 Avensis 2.0 T3S D-4D has just started losing coolant from the expansion tank. No water in oil or anything else. Car runs fine with no overheating. Had a sniff test done at a local garage and it failed but they couldn't do the job because of special tools needed for the timing chain. So far I've only found one local garage that is able to change the head gasket but they're not willing to do the job as they're really busy and they just don't want it. Called Listers Toyota in Boston who were sympathetic but ultimately don't want to know as it's about two weeks out of the extended warranty period with 95,000 miles on the clock. They want a minimum of £1305 but that could rise to over £3000. I did so much research before I bought this car but the only big job I could find looming was the clutch and DMF. So I figured that as I only do about 5000 miles a year that I'd have it for many years to come. To now find out my car is virtually scrap because of a head gasket issue is sickening to say the least. Anyone else had an independant garage do a successful head gasket change only? Cheers.

Also, I've seen ad's for recon' 1AD-FTV engines with "skimmed and pressure tested" cylinder heads, for around £1500 fitted. Going through the many threads on this issue has given me the impression that skimming wasn't possible on these engines. Anyone gone down that route?