Not my cruiser.. my other Toyota...

[Bob]

We bought a 2016 Rav4 Diesel back in July from a main dealer, Full service history at that garage, bought there new, and owned in house by a family member of their lead tech.. 12 month Toyota Plus warranty came with the deal. Fast forward 3 months, and a couple of warning lights on the dash, one for oil pressure and a slight sluggish feeling to the car. Main dealer replaces a sensor, but wants the car back after 3000km for an oil consumption test. Level was alarmingly low, but yet the car is nowhere near its service interval.

Brought the car back in the day they opened after Christmas and it had used 3 litres of oil in just under 3000km. You don't need a degree in engineering to know that is really not good. I said to myself this will go higher than the dealer, and it surely did. Toyota Ireland wanted the engine, very alarmed by the whole thing. A couple of weeks of to and fro, and a few questions about driving style, type of use etc.. and today we get a call to say they have decided to put a brand new engine into the car. Messge was "major internal malfunction"... Result. Should have it back in a couple of weeks ,as they don't have an engine sitting ready in Ireland, but due to have it late next week.

Hats off to Toyota for stepping up and sorting it, on a 5 year old car with 140,000km up, and very good service from the main dealer too who kept good contact with us and have had a car with us for the duration too.

 

[karl2000]

Do you think you'll get any more information as to what the failure was, or will it be a trade secret? Any other similar known problems with these or do you think you were just unlucky? How many miles on the thing?

Thanks for the information and glad its getting sorted. Nice to hear a company doing the right thing for a change!

 

[Bob]

Its about 85,000 miles Karl, so not a very low mile car, which is what impressed me about Toyota's action. I've looked about and can't find any record of oil consumption issues with that car. Don't think they'll tell me much, but its got to be something significant, Bore linings, rings or something, but it wasn't smokey, so I'm a bit stumped as to what it could be

 

[karl2000]

Thanks for the info Bob, much appreciated!

 

[hamba]

Nice to hear of the good support from a dealer, I have one not 10 minutes from me that hasn't been helpful at all to the point that I now go 40 min out of my way to a dealer that has been brilliant and very supportive.
A good dealer makes a big difference.
Also good to hear Toyota was on the case and sorted there and then.

 

[Grimbo]

Nice to hear of the good support from a dealer, I have one not 10 minutes from me that hasn't been helpful at all to the point that I now go 40 min out of my way to a dealer that has been brilliant and very supportive.
A good dealer makes a big difference.
Also good to hear Toyota was on the case and sorted there and then.

Same here...local dealer was brilliant ...fantastic staff in the parts dept until they were then taken over by a bigger motor group and now have a useless parts and service dept but a flash showroom and a couple of "meters and greeters" who welcome you as you walk through the door and get you a coffee before you spend ages trying to get the right parts .

I now use another dealer miles away who delivers parts to my door , and not only that , they are the correct parts and with a discount....

Yeomans Toyota in Eastbourne ..... and Barry and Vicky in the parts dept ..... you are brilliant ;-)

 

[BobMurphy]

We have two RAV-4s in the family - both identical 2.2 litre D-4D XT5 2007 models.

They don't use much oil but at 212,000 and 180,000 miles the oil gets black very quickly !

We've had the odd failure - Crankshaft Position Sensor on one, head gasket and a rotten diesel tank on the other. The lower-mileage one is sitting in my yard awaiting a top-end overhaul as the EGR valve chokes them with carbon and they can't breath. I did the higher-mileage one a couple of years ago (when I changed the head gasket) and it still has loads of 'GO'.

They rattle a lot now and I'll have to replace the suspension bushes and so on soon if we keep them (they're not worth much now) but I bought them is 2010 and they have been brilliant 'go anywhere' family cars. One has a tow bar (2-ton towing limit) which is handy (four tow-cars here ).

I've been really pleased with them (cost of parts excepted ).

I'll be very interested to hear what the problem was with yours, Bob (which motor has it got?).

Bob.

 

[Bob]

Hi Bob, the 2 Litre unit in ours is a BMW short block, and Toyota modified a lot of stuff like flywheel, top end, intake, fuel system and ancillaries. There's a lot of them on the road, and there doesn't seem to be a known fault at all. Ill push them to give me a better answer when I'm collecting the car. Either way, we have a zero mile engine now, with Toyota paperwork, so a good result. Considering the mileage I have on the 90, they knew I wasn't the problem!

 

[Gary820]

I think it'll be a modified N47 engine (that's the BMW engine code) and on the whole its a good engine, usually timing chains break on higher mileage cars.
Don't tend to suffer oil consumption issues from the actual engine, turbo failure is normally the cause.

Would be interesting to know what the cause was as I've worked with that engine since it came out.

 

[Jacob100]

Must be an Irish thing, Bob. I normally steer clear of dealerships but when I was forced to call at Toyota in Cork last year the service and hospitality were exemplary.

 

[Bob]

We have bad dealers too, but the Toyota ones I have come across have been well above average. Can't say the same of other marques, mostly VAG who are only interested in selling new cars with no trade in. Whereas we got as much time from the sales dept for a 17 grand deal as the other chap in there that day who was laying out over 80 grand on a new 150 cruiser with all the bells and whistles.

 

[Bob]

I think it'll be a modified N47 engine (that's the BMW engine code) and on the whole its a good engine, usually timing chains break on higher mileage cars.
Don't tend to suffer oil consumption issues from the actual engine, turbo failure is normally the cause.

Would be interesting to know what the cause was as I've worked with that engine since it came out.

Its a strange one, as the turbo was my initial thought, what with the sluggish feeling to the car, and oil use. However I would have thought then that a replacement turbo unit would have been the remedy, instead of a whole new powerplant.. unless the design necessitated it??? I don't know that engine layout really

 

[Juddian]

Sure i've read that N47 engine has the timing chain at thge back of the engine.

Toyota have to be the best maker for standing by their customers and their product by far, on many vehicles when problems have proved to be regular they've upped the warranty on the issue to 100k and 7 years.
Quite why T started using BMW 4 pot Diesels i don't understand, overall reputation of said maker's 4 pot engines isn't high from what i read, Mercs 4 pot 2.2 on the other hand enjoys a far better rep for durability, private hire outfit i know usually runs them to 400k miles with usually only good servicing and has no trouble selling them on.

 

[Bob]

Just an update on the case for anyone who is interested.

Picked up the Rav4 this afternoon. Its like a different car. Buckets of power and noticeably smoother than it was before. The explanation was suitably cryptic. Major internal mechanical failure. It got everything from the short block, DPF, turbo, manifolds, EGR.. whole new powerplant. Dealers had to push the case with Toyota but got there in the end, everything covered under warranty. Massive result really and cherry on top was 2 new tyres as the service man thought they'd need 'changing in a few months anyway'

The dealer did tell me he had a few sleepless nights over it, being the biggest warranty claim they ever handled, and that if Toyota refused to cover it, he would have bought the Rav back off me at the price we paid. Top class service

 

[TonyP]

Great story and advert for the dealer Bob, defo worth naming in a positive way. If I was in Ireland and looking for a Toyota, I go to them

 

[Bob]

No problem naming the dealer Tony.
Hugh Boggan Motors, Gorey, Co.Wexford

They have a real family vibe about the place, and an excellent reputation. They haven't gone for the big flashy dealership with all the lights, but I don't think that's a Toyota thing, thats more VAG style