Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Drive that Toyota into the Ground!

Saw an interesting article in today's Highway 1 section of the L.A. Times. Toyota owners are experiencing engine failures due to sludge. I guess that's what you get when you market a car to be practically maintenance free. A Lexus dealer wanted $16,000 to replace an RX-300 engine. The owner haggled it down to $8,000 but even at that price, it makes the Duratec seem like a bargain. So far, Toyota has received reports of 3,000 engine failures and problems related to sludge. Apparently, even though the owner's manual says oil changes at 7500 miles, people are letting them go to 20 or 30,000 miles in some cases. :rolleyes:

Karl

Engine? What's that? You mean I have to change oil in it?

what? other cars having problems! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!

http://www.cartrackers.com/Forums/live/MiniVansEnthusiastDiscussionGroup/173.html

http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=1534

These are "intellegensia" types that expect a car to last forever, because they are a "bother".

Or, they are Consumer Reports zealots that believed the Corolla commercial about "you can virtually seal the hood shut". I bet they think "you have to change oil on Japanese cars?"

Nice to see some mudslinging on the Holy Toyopets.

My mother has an rx-300, shes had it for 2 -2.5 years now and it seems to be running like a champ, i always hound her on getting the oil changed and checking fluids and such so she takes it to the dealership to get everything done every 3000 miles even though the dealership tells her she doesnt need to do it every 3k

what exactly is this sludge problem etc? little more info on what causes these massive f'ups?

Funny this ties into my post on the Synthetic Oil thread...

You know, this comes as no surprise at all to me. 6 years ago, at my old job, I had an oil change to do on a 1991 Toyota Corolla. I brought the car in, and noticed the engine was a little noisy. Checked the mileage, it was at 110000 kms ( 66000 miles) To my surprise, when I raised the car to do the oil change, the oil filter was THE ORIGINAL FACTORY INSTALLED OIL FILTER!!!

I removed the oil plug, and it came out like syrop. Pure black sludge, almost jelly. Lots of particles.
I went and got the customer and questioned him about it, and his reply was:
" I thought you only had to do a tune up every 100000 kms... The oil change is part of the tune up, right?" :rolleyes:

Apparently, he had been adding oil periodically over the last 5 years since he bought the car, and thought that a "tune up" was an oil change.

Needless to say, the motor was a goner.

That is a good one J-lab.

A woman I used to work with not only never changed oil but would add when red oil light came on telling her it needed oil. Don't think it was a toyota though.

A guy I work with, who does have a toyota, is the sort of the opposite. Takes car to dealer according to the schedule dealer gave him. Tells dealer to do whatever it is they do...recently for 30K maintenance the bill was about $400. I ask what the heck can they do to a car w/ 30K that adds up to $400? He does not really know.

Meanwhile, I've had a Windstar for nearly 5 years and just under 60K mi and the total I have spent on repairs and maintenance for that whole time is about $400.

I caught my grandma doing that, but she had only gone 10,000 miles on her new Taurus..

Ironically in this newspaper article they quoted a retired Valvoline engineer named Norm Hudecki, considered one of the best known lubrication experts in the nation as saying that oil will probably last between 12,000 and 15,000 miles, even if the vehicle is driven in the city, like a taxi cab! Later in the article he somewhat redeems himself by saying however that modern engines put a lot more demand on oil so I guess he means that it wouldn't be a very good idea to go that long without an oil/filter change in newer vehicles.

But I liked the quote in the first thread that Shaun G included in his post where the guy thinks an oil change is part of the 100,000 km tuneup. :rolleyes: If all else fails, there's always the owner's manual. Nah!

Karl