Coolant leak, possible bad/blown head gasket on my V6!

[Blogson]

It's good that Toyota and your dealer are willing to pay for at least the major share of the cost, with the RAV being no longer in warranty. They could have washed their hands of the situation and chosen to hide behind the verbiage of the warranty's provisions. I would count my blessings . .

[drzsmum]

That is tough luck.

From a outside perspective it is good to know this is rare. You have a very good dealer in my opinion. Hopefully the cost will improve for you but honestly if it doesn't it is still pretty fair.

$1000 still sucks and aint cheap and I do feel for you. Vehicle ownership is extremely costly when you actually figure it out.

Another option would be to consider trading it in to the dealer at this point but your still further ahead to fix it and drive on in the long run if the vehicle meets your needs. You hear of more bad toyota dealers than good ones so you are lucky in that regard. I expect the labour alone is $2200.

The ease of service on a 4 cylinder has made me reconsider my future purchases.

Thanks for sharing this with us, it may help someone else out.

[Dr. Dyno]

I'd normally do the work myself but considering the gasket set is $200 at Autozone, if they'd do it all for $750 more, they'd be doing it.

[JTRAV]

Update for you folks.

So after 3 days of work my Rav's engine was removed and both head gaskets replaced.

Parts for this job including the head gasket and all non-reusable seals, washers, gaskets etc were around $450. Toyota Gen parts of course.

The total cost (parts/labour/tax) for this repair inc taxes was ~$4K CAD. Due to this happening outside warranty (10 months out, 14,000 kms out), but due to my loyalty to Toyota over a 17 year period with 4 different models, Toyota Canada agreed to pay 60% of the cost, about $2400. Out of goodwill, my dealer Frontier Toyota in Winnipeg kicked in $600. So kudos to them! I appreciate their contributions very much as my cost was $1K not $4K. Still hurts but still better than paying $4K out of pocket (if this was the case, I probably would have looked at other options).

The invoice only states "both head gaskets weakened", "replaced both head gaskets". Not much detail there sorry...

I tried to get more $$ out of Toyota Canada based on principle that a head gasket should not blow on a well maintained 5 year 10 month old Toyota (what happened to Toyota reliability?). I was denied based on they felt their contribution was enough based on my situation. Fair enough, they could have told me I was SOL.

So the Rav is back and it smells like burnt coolant. This smell can is detected from the outside and inside of the Rav. No evidence of any leaks. I figure this is residual coolant laying around in the engine bay (which I can see here and there) and it is slowly evaporating away. I can imagine how much coolant must have been sprayed around when they disconnected coolant hoses etc. So hopefully this smell will dissipate through evaporation and it burning off from engine heat.

Also, the morning after we got the Rav back the engine, VSC, and 4wd lights came on. However, in the same day they went off. I borrowed a friend's code reader and got P0019 code which has something to do with camshaft/crankshaft position or VVT sensor. In looking into this on this site, nobody seems to have experienced it, but a chart I found states: 1. Mechanical system (Timing chain has jumped tooth or chain stretched) 2. ECM. That's pretty scary stuff! As I mentioned, the lights have since went off but the code is still stored in the ECM. I am taking the Rav in on Monday so they can at least document the code for their records (so this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass). I was told a master tech, the best guy at this dealership did the work. Hopefully my engine was put back together properly and not off a tooth like the chart says!

So I will ask this to others, if the lights go off and stay off, but the code is stored in the ECM. What does this mean? Does the error still exist or does this mean everything is OK?

If any one has questions about this ordeal, ask away!

[Dr. Dyno]

Wow, you came out smelling like a rose!
The smell of the engine will dissipate quickly after a few warmup cycles. There are always various smells after major work.

Take it back for the lights & codes.

I had the VVT hose replaced under warranty just after I bought our RAV4 used. Seemed like a simple & quick fix, but when I started to leave error lights came on. At that point I had no info on what they meant. They took the car back in and it came out about 45 minutes later with no error lights. Don't know what they did but there was no charge so it must have been something they overlooked when changing the hose.

[JTRAV]

Originally Posted by Dr. Dyno

Wow, you came out smelling like a rose!
The smell of the engine will dissipate quickly after a few warmup cycles. There are always various smells after major work.

Take it back for the lights & codes.

I had the VVT hose replaced under warranty just after I bought our RAV4 used. Seemed like a simple & quick fix, but when I started to leave error lights came on. At that point I had no info on what they meant. They took the car back in and it came out about 45 minutes later with no error lights. Don't know what they did but there was no charge so it must have been something they overlooked when changing the hose.

Burnt coolant smells are going away.

Check engine light no longer on when I took it to the dealer, DTC code P0019 still in the ECU when checked by the dealer today. However, the tech drove it for a good 20 mins with the Techstream attached and gives it a clean bill of health. Tech thought perhaps some debris passing through the oil control valve or VVTi gear could have triggered the lights temporarily....said it can happen when the engine is torn down a re-assembled.

That's it for now. Hopefully this ordeal is done.

[bigbird1]

Kudos to Frontier Toyota. I wonder if any of the bigger dealers like Woodhaven or McPhillips would have given you $600 of good will.
I have a 2011 V6 LTD on a 3 year lease. I'm looking forward to getting an early lease return and into a '13 LTD. I won't miss the V6 like most on this forum. If McPhillips won't make me a deal I can't refuse, then I'll wait for lease expiration in early 2014 and it's Ford Escape SE 4WD 2.0L EcoBoost here I come.

[JTRAV]

Originally Posted by bigbird1

Kudos to Frontier Toyota. I wonder if any of the bigger dealers like Woodhaven or McPhillips would have given you $600 of good will.
I have a 2011 V6 LTD on a 3 year lease. I'm looking forward to getting an early lease return and into a '13 LTD. I won't miss the V6 like most on this forum. If McPhillips won't make me a deal I can't refuse, then I'll wait for lease expiration in early 2014 and it's Ford Escape SE 4WD 2.0L EcoBoost here I come.

Yes, I can't say enough good things about Frontier Toyota in Winnipeg. Sure, they do the regular "push" on some service items (like every other service department around!), but when it comes to addressing issues in TSBs/warranty work and stepping up to bat for the customer, they are tops. They addressed my "drone/vibration" issue on TSB by replacing the 4wd ECU, they also replaced my tranny for the whine issue, no questions asked (they didn't even perform step 1, they just proceeded to give me the honed reman tranny), and now stepping up to bat for me with Toyota Canada and the goodwill work. Tops when it comes to service!

McPhillips Toyota will likely take your Rav back early. They do that quite a bit. When I bought my current Rav, we looked there briefly. All their used Ravs were early lease buybacks. When you want to return early and get into something else, they usually work with you to do that. It's a win win for them, they got your original lease money, now they can sell it used to make more money, and they have you into another lease....