Rav4 Head Gasket Failure

[Bsquad]

Hi,

I've been told my rav4 2.2 d4d xtr has a head gasket failure by a local garage, the coolant is pressuring up and spraying out the relief port, the coolant is not dropping a lot and there is no sign of oil. When I've looked into it I found out that I've missed the extended warranty by 3 weeks and toyota will not recall it even though it's only done half the mileage.

The local garage has quoted me around £300 to change the head gasket and possible skimming which seems cheap, but reading further into it is it essential to have the 3/4 engine replacement done or will just the head gasket change be ok?

[Heidfirst]

Toyota say that you can't skim these heads.

When was your car registered & what mileage is on it? Does it have a full service history?

You say that you are outside Toyota's goodwill warranty (7 years/112k miles) for this but if it is that close it's worth a try as it won't have occurred in 3 weeks.

There is no recall as only a small % actually seem to develop the issue..

[Bsquad]

Thanks for the reply.

I have emailed toyota customer care and they are unwilling to cover it. The car was registered in Jan 2008 and has done 54k miles.

[Conrod]

Has the garage done a head gasket test or just observing coolant coming out the overflow ? Maybe at this point a new radiator cap should be done first, just in case it's faulty .

[Mike169]

Hi.

Has the expansion cooling tank had the head gasket 'sniff' test to see if the head gasket is allowing exhaust gases into the cooling system?

Mike.

[Bsquad]

I'm pretty sure he hasn't done the test so I'll get that done first, thanks. He revved the engine for about 5 seconds and showed me the amount of pressure that had built up, but I'm not sure what is normal or too much.

[Conrod]

I'm pretty sure he hasn't done the test so I'll get that done first, thanks. He revved the engine for about 5 seconds and showed me the amount of pressure that had built up, but I'm not sure what is normal or too much.

Would suggest a second opinion, need to be checked with a "block tester" fluid.

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[yossarian247]

I would say pressurising the cooling system in 5 seconds is a pretty good indication of a head gasket leak on a diesel engine. They should not build up any noticeable pressure at all in that time. Pressure should only build up in the system slowly as the coolant warms up from cold. If you can rev it a couple of times and it pressurizes the coolant then that's a classic sign of exhaust gasses getting into the coolant I'm afraid.

[Bsquad]

Thanks for the replies. After taking it to the local garage who quoted £250, said he couldn't do it because of timing chain. So rang elsewhere and cheapest quote I got was £720 after getting quotes of £1500. I'm now going the route of trading standards as only had the car 4 months from local dealer.