RAV4 XTR D-WD 2007 - Engine

[Aqualung666]

I noticed the thread on this had been closed, which is fine, but there are still quite a lot of us out there driving around with this dreaded engine!  Mine is now up to 70,000 and despite last summer suddenly losing coolant, I'm not really noticing any problems.  It has excellent power, averages about 37MPG urban, short journeys and no noticable oil or coolant loss.  

For those of us with these engines we are effectively driving around with the sword of damacles hanging over us, and constantly worrying if on the next journey the head gasket will finally give out.  I've been careful in terms of having an oil change every 5000 miles, using fuel additives and occasionally using better quality fuel, but other than that I don't know what else I can do to try and hold off any problems.  

I was doing a bit of reading around, mainly on US sites where there are hundreds of people who have had engine problems with this engine, but one post caught my interest...it was a man whose head gasket had failed and who was, understandably, very angry as he had not had the car long. He had done his own research and managed to track down a list of Engine VIN numbers which he reckons are the ones with the defective gasket.  He was advising people to check there's against these numbers (it was a fairly long list). 

I wondered if those of you who work for Toyota thought that this was likely to be accurate?  It would make sense for Toyoyta to release this list if it is indeed an accurate list as it would allow people to check their engine and then take action, either sell it or keep it.  My VIN number wasn't on the list, but I'm not getting my hopes up as I'm not sure where he got the list from.  

I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.

[FROSTYBALLS]

As you're aware Toyota Owners Club isn't affiliated with Toyota.

The only two members I know who work for Toyota dealerships, not directly for Toyota, are Parts-King and Devon Aygo.

[Aqualung666]

3 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

As you're aware Toyota Owners Club isn't affiliated with Toyota.

The only two members I know who work for Toyota dealerships, not directly for Toyota, are Parts-King and Devon Aygo.

Yes, I am aware of that...do you have any thoughts on this?

[the fox]

We had till recently two Rav4's both had the "dreaded engine".  Both serviced the same and used by me and the wife, both did nearly exactly the same mileage/running/journeys, one had a EGR valve blanked from new one did not, the one without the blanking in the end a new engine. So I believe the head-gasket problem was not a bad batch of gaskets but a build up of carbon on the piston's, causing higher compression etc. I did also read somewhere many moons ago that to solve this problem Toyota had been fitting a slightly shorter piston if this is true then blaming the head-gasket is just not true.... And that's why I believe not all owners have the problem it depends on the type of usage.... Just a thought... 

[Aqualung666]

2 minutes ago, the fox said:

We had till recently two Rav4's both had the "dreadful engine".  Both serviced the same and used by me and the wife, both did nearly exactly the same mileage/running/journeys, one had a EGR valve blanked from new one did not, the one without the blanking in the end a new engine. So I believe the head-gasket problem was not a bad batch of gaskets but a build up of carbon on the piston's, causing higher compression etc. I did also read somewhere many moons ago that to solve this problem Toyota had been fitting a slightly shorted piston's if this is true then blaming the head-gasket is just not true.... And that's why I believe not all owners have the problem it depends on the type of usage.... Just a thought... 

Interesting, I have considered having the EGR blanked if I could find a mechanic to do it, but might not be worth it now, i.e. the damage could be already done, although about three years ago I had the EGR cleaned due to it sooting up, so I may have helped my case.  

 

For those who are interested this is the text from the guy in the US about VINs and affected Ravs...as I say, I can't confirm or otherwise if this information is accurate  but he did say he'd done a lot of research to get the information.

 

' ". Rav 2006 thru 2008 VD #s (Look for these within your VIN #) BD31V, BD32V, BD34V, BD35V, ZD31V, ZD32V, ZD33V, ZD34V, ZD35V '

[the fox]

I also remember reading that the " dreaded engines" had come from a different source/factory so it would come down to a quality issue at the factory not carbon build up or a bad gasket. I did loads of research at the time but  have now binned it. I found out our two Rav's were in the " dreaded engine " category. But I can only give my experience. The Blanking of the EGR is one of the easiest mods to do on this model. It works, you would not believe the difference in the amount of black smoke the vehicle chucks out when hard pressed... What ever the reason you should be able to get Toyota to give you the facts, was it quality/bad gasket or carbon build up.. My last research shown Toyota fitting shorter pistons, if I had time I would look into it, but my time with Toyota is nearing an end, only problem,,, the wife sold her Rav4 to the son-in-law.... He has a new engine????????????? 

[battleaxe]

my xtr had the vindb31v, bought 2nd hand with 16000mile, at 21000 had the remanufactured units fitted, now on 32000 on this replacement, still uses a bit of oil, been blanked egr from it being installed and runs a treat on esso or Shell fuel, BG 224 once a year, 150 mm of t/stroke in with 30lts of fuel with every fill up, used as a tug from time to time, love my RAV but still have a fear of it giong pop.

B-A

 

[Devon Aygo]

There is no chance that issues suffered on US Rav4 have any relation to the known Head gasket/oil consumption issues on European D4d engines as they did not have a D4d engine only petrol engines in 2.5 & 3.5 guises of which we didn't get in the UK

Yes there is a vin range given to dealers in order to determine what level of modifications an affected engine had in order for them to determine what level of cover under the 7year/111k warranty has and what level of repairs could be completed but as this car is a 2007 model it is outside of the extension cover.

These dates are rough and only apply to Rav4

Head gasket issues where fixed from September 2007 production

Oil consumption issues where fixed from March 2009 Production

[Heidfirst]

9 hours ago, Aqualung666 said:

I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.

Yes, it's a sword of Damocles but on the other hand it appears that only a very small % of engines actually develop the problem & of course Toyota have/had their extended goodwill program for the issue if it did. However, that program will be coming to an end shortly as all the potentially affected engines pass the 7 year cut off.

[Aqualung666]

Thanks for clarifying that Devon...so if I can find out when my engine was made in 2007, I can get a good idea of if I'm likely to have a blown head gasket at some point in the future?  Is that possible from the VIN? 

 

Scott - I'm not sure if any figures were issued by Toyota on how many engines were faulty...unless you know different, in which case I'd be keen to see what it is!  It might be that it isn't many and because it's mainly the people affected who tend to go online to complain or seek information, it skews feedback.  There does seem to be a lot though!

[Heidfirst]

Toyota have never publicly issued any figures as far as I am aware (you would not expect them to) but based on production figures, somebody who claimed to have access to internal figures, etc. etc. my best guesstimate is that it is (probably well) under 5% of AD series engines from the supposedly affected production. Of course probably more 1ADs were made than 2ADs & it seems that they are less prone to failure (as similarly the 150bhp 2AD may be less prone than the 180bhp 2AD) but even 2% of several hundred thousand engines would still be  thousands of engines & I don't think that we see the level of complaint/knowledge of the issue that you would expect if there were e.g. tens of thousands of failures .

You will always get more people complaining about a fault than praising something that works as expected! 

[the fox]

I know this topic as been done to near death, but after all this chat is anyone out there going to tell us Rav4 owners,,, was it a bad batch of gasket's, bad engine quality from one engine plant, build up of carbon on the piston head or are the pistons too long...

[Heidfirst]

if you look at Devon Aygos post there are/were 2 different issues that could lead to the same end. Afaik all AD engines were originally built in the 1 plant in Poland.

[the fox]

Thanks for the reply, I was told when Toyota finally decided to replace one of our RAV4's engine, the engines had been built in different factory's and this was the reason why the head gasket had blown..My research at the time did show this.  But I'm sure some 2.2 engines where built in Japan. Maybe it's correct that some engines had build quality problems.... I still believe with my experience it's carbon build up. But my current RAV states on the windscreen built in Japan. I would be concerned I have paid a premium for a Japanese quality product when the heart of the vehicle was built cheaply in Poland... Going off topic slightly, when Toyota re-called vehicles for the throttle sticking problem due to incorrect shimming. I was told our two RAV4's would not be included in the re-call because our throttle bodies had been made in Japan and not Poland. But the Toyota's with the problem had throttle bodies made in Poland.... 

[TomdeGuerre]

re all the affected engines coming from Poland this post 

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/141612-cylinder-head-issue-why-do-you-need-a-new-short-motor/ has a statement by Parts King that it wasn't attributable to the Poland factory, it was the fault of (1) the head gasket being affected by the type of coolant used and/or (2) carbon stamping of the gasket caused by excessive carbon build up as a result of excessive oil consumption (piston and ring design problems} 

 

 

[Heidfirst]

2 hours ago, the fox said:

Thanks for the reply, I was told when Toyota finally decided to replace one of our RAV4's engine, the engines had been built in different factory's and this was the reason why the head gasket had blown..My research at the time did show this.  But I'm sure some 2.2 engines where built in Japan. Maybe it's correct that some engines had build quality problems.... I still believe with my experience it's carbon build up. But my current RAV states on the windscreen built in Japan. I would be concerned I have paid a premium for a Japanese quality product when the heart of the vehicle was built cheaply in Poland... Going off topic slightly, when Toyota re-called vehicles for the throttle sticking problem due to incorrect shimming. I was told our two RAV4's would not be included in the re-call because our throttle bodies had been made in Japan and not Poland. But the Toyota's with the problem had throttle bodies made in Poland.... 

afaik all production AD series engines were made in Poland. I also believe that some AD engines for the exchange programme were refurbed/remanufactured outwith Poland & possibly some of those were done in Japan/elsewhere.

These days parts are made globally & exported around the world to be assembled into complete vehicles. It's rare these days for the engine & body assembly plant to be in the same place. As an example Toyota Deeside in Wales  currently exports engines and machine components to South Africa, Turkey, Brazil and Japan.