i am sick and tired of hearing that
check this out, this comes from the suppose "bullet proof, no worry toyota"

"The Toyota Sienna v-6 engine is known to be prone to develop engine sludge. The engine in the sienna is placed such that it has the highest prevalence among the Toyota/Lexus models with the same engine. However, the Avalon, Camry, solara and Lexus 300 series are also prone to sludge development. Making matters worse, Toyota is denying warranty coverage for engien sludge under the pretense that the only possible cause is no oil changes. This is a serious problem because repairs for engine sludge can range from $2,500 upwards of $8,500, depending on the extent of damage. If you have oil change receipts as proof of owner maintenance, Toyota will not accept these as proof unless the oil changes were done by a Toyota service garage. For more information on this subject, go to www.google.com and do a web search for Toyota engine sludge. Please do your research carefully if you are in the market for a new vehicle."

And no this is not BS, because my mechanic had to change an engine in a 2001 RX300 with 12,000 miles, total parts and labor $7000!

 

whoa.......

 

Nissan service sucks.

If I had to chose inbetween Toyota and Nissan service, I would have to choose Toyota. It's not something I like to have to say, but nevertheless, I do.

 

the service is as good as you kiss the service managers ***...

 

There was a link to an article in http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....&highlight=oil by bill99gxe to http://www.autonews.com/article.cms?articleId=38302 article about a similar issue.

In this article it says "In the scope of Toyota's millions-strong customer base, the approximately 3,100 consumers to date who have complained to the company about sludge - 2,400 Toyota owners and 700 Lexus owners - is microscopic. The group consists of less than .01 percent of Toyota owners in the United States. " So lets not get too carried away here.

It also states that "In a letter sent last week to more than 3.3 million owners of vehicles equipped with the two engines, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. says it will pay repair costs for sludge damage in cases where customers can provide proof of "reasonable efforts" to maintain the vehicle.

The so-called special policy adjustment, requiring proof of only one oil change in a year, is good for one year. At the same time, though, the U.S. sales arm refused to veer from its position that negligent owners, not the product, are the source of the problem. "

Meanwhile, in the April 2001 issue of Consumer Reports, its found that the sales and leasing experiences of those surveyed, Nissan is 2nd from last place! Kinda says something about the dealers now doesnt it? I've had my own fair share of bad experiences with the nissan dealers.

And, what about the differential bearing problem of the 4 gen manual transmission? It seems almost 1 out of every 4 or 3 people on this board have had problems with their bearings. Yet if you go over to the www.camryman.org board, theres almost no mention of the sludge problem. Infact my mom has a 98 Camry v6 and I've been watching. No sludge yet.

 

Uh, Jeff. I think Linda's or Lisa's RX needs to have the oil examined by Blackstone. Plus, we need a Lexus in our spreadsheet.

 

My gf is going to be getting a Toyota Highlander V6 with the 1MZ-FE + VVT-i engine when she graduates. No worries here. As long as you change oil regularly, as per the manual, and keep copies of your maintenance records you should be in good shape.

The 4-banger engines (2S-FE or 5S-FE, I forget) in the Camry is also suspectible to the same exact problem. There are zillions of these cars on the road and only a few thousand have had problems. That's almost nothing. And it's completely preventable by proper maintenance.

What Toyota did was set the engines to run about 20C hotter than normal to help the engine run cleaner and meet the stricter emission levels. But then your oil can sludge up if you don't change it out like you're supposed to. But then if you're like some people and completely neglect your car then you can have problems, and a very expensive repair bill.

Oh well.

I have no fear buying a Toyota.

 

what is this "sludge" thing? can all engines get it, or is it just a toyota thing?

 

Before I bought my max, I shopped the toy camry and the es300 among others. Especially with the Camry, I noticed that there were a bunch of Camry engines that had significant crud buildups, many more than any other kind of car, Toyota or otherwise. I remember that I thought it seemed kind of strange

Yeesh! Some of them were really bad. I attributed it to lack of maintenance by the PO. However, in putting that experience together with this thread, I think I now know why all the crud.

Bought a max anyway, so no problemo.

 

To meet stricter emissions, Toyota set a lot of their "fleet" engines to run at a hotter temperature. The hotter temperature is good for emissions, but bad for oil life. Over time, the oil can "sludge up" and start to block the oil passages within the engine. When oil passages are blocked, parts of the engine can get starved for oil and damage the engine. If it goes on long enough, or it sludges up in the right spot, the engine can seize. There goes your engine...

Now here's the kicker. The "sludge" problem is completely preventable with normal maintenance. Toyota engineers did what they did to meet stricter emissions and took the tradeoff that oil life would be shortened. They assume that people will actually keep up with maintenance and that it should never become an issue.

Wrong. People are idiots. They neglect their cars and suddenly one day realize that they haven't had an oil change in 10,000 miles. Maybe that would be okay on other cars, but because of the "acceptable risk" tradeoff that Toyota took on meeting stricter emissions, now it's "not okay" because an engine gets sludged up and then fails because the owner was negligent and didn't properly maintain the vehicle.

Moral of the story is - keep up on your car's maintenance schedule.

The punchline is - Toyota's are less idiot-proof than before