Bottled Out Of Rav 4 T180 Purchase

[Plutus]

If you do a search you will see several posts of complaint from T180 owners about what happened when they had a puncture, so there's been more than one. Not only the inconvenience, but the actual cost - over £300 seems to spring to mind.

[bothwell_buyer]

The other thing I would say is how many people replace more than one or two sets of tyres during the time they keep a car?

Guy

Crumbs - well I have 3 sets of wheels and tyres for number 1 and goodness knows how many tyres I've gone through in 15 years of the car........

punctures? More luck here in that I guess I've had about 5.

[vivianM]

The other thing I would say is how many people replace more than one or two sets of tyres during the time they keep a car?

Guy

Crumbs - well I have 3 sets of wheels and tyres for number 1 and goodness knows how many tyres I've gone through in 15 years of the car........

punctures? More luck here in that I guess I've had about 5.

Well Bothy - we all can only wish we had the power output you have so no wonder you use tyres like you do - your local tyre supplier should treat you like a King! I do not think my most powerful 7.2L Jensen was quite a high as your HP.

Best wishes

Guy

[chav4boy]

hi there , i'm a newbie here, i have just bought an rav 4sr180, and have been looking at the rft debate. one thing that i was thinking of doing was to carry a car/van puncture repair kit and a tyre inflater, this is to cover the nail in the tyre type of a puncture when there is no where to limp to.

[vivianM]

The other thing I would say is how many people replace more than one or two sets of tyres during the time they keep a car?

Guy

Crumbs - well I have 3 sets of wheels and tyres for number 1 and goodness knows how many tyres I've gone through in 15 years of the car........

punctures? More luck here in that I guess I've had about 5.

Well Bothy - we all can only wish we had the power output you have so no wonder you use tyres like you do - your local tyre supplier should treat you like a King! I do not think my most powerful 7.2L Jensen was quite a high as your HP.

Best wishes

Guy

Just checked , it was 330 BHP but difficult to put down on the road and even worse to stop!

[Fujisan]

hi there , i'm a newbie here, i have just bought an rav 4sr180, and have been looking at the rft debate. one thing that i was thinking of doing was to carry a car/van puncture repair kit and a tyre inflater, this is to cover the nail in the tyre type of a puncture when there is no where to limp to.

I'm sure that would work ........but would it make a mess of the support ring, leaving you with an even bigger bill when you finally change the tyre?

[bothwell_buyer]

The other thing I would say is how many people replace more than one or two sets of tyres during the time they keep a car?

Guy

Crumbs - well I have 3 sets of wheels and tyres for number 1 and goodness knows how many tyres I've gone through in 15 years of the car........

punctures? More luck here in that I guess I've had about 5.

Well Bothy - we all can only wish we had the power output you have so no wonder you use tyres like you do - your local tyre supplier should treat you like a King! I do not think my most powerful 7.2L Jensen was quite a high as your HP.

Best wishes

Guy

Just checked , it was 330 BHP but difficult to put down on the road and even worse to stop!

well at that level I'm beaten.......

However after yesterdays rolling road run, found that the boost somehow had dropped well down so its back to Crail soon when the boost is back up at 19 (psi?)...and after we do a couple of wee tweaks to it.

[three5]

Thanks for that Vivian. I would be very interested to know how many people have had punctures. I spoke to a very helpful chap in th local Toyota service dept (the only one in the region who can change these) and punctures definitely occur from time to time as the inner supporting ring gets damaged by potholes etc whilst being in runflat mode - he reckons about 1 in 10 need to be replaced. he quoted £166 for a tyre replacement, around double that if the ring needed to be replaced also.

I know that standard tyres would not provide the solution of a spare tyre, but I was thinking that the second generation puncture repair gel (as used with the XT5 etc) is a better alternative.You can at least go to any tyre fitter in the country and they should be able to sort out a repair or a new tyre. If you can't get an exact match you would probab;ly have to buy a pair for that axle but still potentially cheaper than the runflat issue. I may go to France next year, what is the situation over there? It could turn into a nightmare. I wanted the T180, and I am still torn about which way to go, but the fact remains, depending where you are, a puncture would mean cancelled plans for a day or maybe two unless you were really lucky with location, availability etc.

There was a programme on TV last night about Microsoft and their monopolisation of Windows explorer by bundling it in with Microsoft Office, so excluding netscape from competing. Does this concept sound familiar? They received the largest fine any corporation has ever received.

I thought long and hard about buying an XT5 because it had no spare ( 2008 model ). It was a narrow decision between the Freeloader and the RAV, overall design of the RAV v the Freeloader with spare wheel. In the end I bought the RAV and a spare ( for £150 ) from the dealer. I analysed the problem as follows:

a) the likelyhood of a puncture these days is fairly small

B) the consequences of a puncture these days are quite large.

Basically it's a question of risk management - you weigh the likelyhood and the consequences. If either are unacceptably large ( to you ) then the risk is too great.

I've said it on here before but I'll repeat the tale briefly: Travelling back up the M1 on a Friday afternoon in my 2.0td Vitara. Inside lane doing 65ish. Sudden, near Tibshelf Services, change in motion at rear of car. Hard shoulder, quick look round for the problem - puncture in rear nearside. Tyre completely flat. Ascess situation - heavy traffic with HGV's wandering over white line onto hard shoulder. Hasty move of vehicle as far onto the hardshoulder and verge as possible. Full reflective jacket ( not much fun it - was very warm ) and set about changing the wheel. Got away with it but it's bloo*y difficult to change a wheel with one eye on the job and the other on the traffic. Job done, throw everything into the boot and set off with fingers crossed that I wouldn't get another puncture.

My local tyre repairer blew up the tyre and said it was scrap. He took it off the rim and showed the me the damage to the reinforcing which was very obvious on the inside.

From the foreging I decided that the gloop-in-a-tube solution was likely to be unsatisfactory as the area of sidewall could have blown out at any time afterwards if I reinflated it. I also wondered how long the piece of metal had been in the tyre and how long it had been losing pressure . If I had realised earlier, could I have saved the tyre ( £100 ish )?

My solution was the spare wheel and, more latterly, an aftermarket TPMS which has audible and visual warning of decreasing tyre pressures. Hoovie on this forum has the same one I think. No solution with the T180 of course, but acceptable as a risk management strategy on the XT5. Did I buy the right car? Answer has to be yes, the fuel consumption, ride, handling, comfort and layout are very good - but it was a close run thing - the Freeloader spare wheel came very near to swinging it. Wrote to Toyota Chocolate Fireguard Department, sorry, customer services and they couldn't have cared less.

[OldSkoO1]

I hope you find something good.

T180 is a superb engine shame they use RFT's. I had an sr180 rav briefly and didnt even know!

Anyway, if you like the rav i would seriously consider and XTR 2.2 140 and chip it. It will make the power a lot more usable. Not quite sr180 levels but enough to be comfortable overtaking.

If your not in a rush, i'm 90% sure the facelift rav comes out this summer before the next new plate. This will have the new 150bhp diesel engine with more torque too. A chip on that should give it around the t180's power but a lot better economy.