Toyota kippered

[bigstraight6]

Modern motors are rubbish! my '57 plate company hack Toyota Avensis has been a bastard to cold start in this weather, even after having new glow plugs it's been getting even worse with anywhere between 4-10 attempts to start the thing of a morning. It wouldn't have it one particularly cold morning this week and the RAC had to be called who did get it started and then diagnosed a failing head gasket after I mentioned that I've been topping up the coolant on a weekly basis, and removing the header tank cap produced a large pressure blow and there seemed to be a smell of exhaust gas.

 

It's now booked into the local Toyota dealer for a pressure test next week, and for the festive period 'er indoors 17 year old BMW 325TD will be pressed into service which started first time no bother today after a week standing under about 4 inches of frozen snow. The service reception chap at the dealer said I was doing very well getting to 133,000 miles without head gasket problems, they normally fail before 100,000 miles

[peter9000uk]

Modern motors are rubbish! my '57 plate company hack Toyota Avensis has been a bastard to cold start in this weather, even after having new glow plugs it's been getting even worse with anywhere between 4-10 attempts to start the thing of a morning. It wouldn't have it one particularly cold morning this week and the RAC had to be called who did get it started and then diagnosed a failing head gasket after I mentioned that I've been topping up the coolant on a weekly basis, and removing the header tank cap produced a large pressure blow and there seemed to be a smell of exhaust gas.

 

It's now booked into the local Toyota dealer for a pressure test next week, and for the festive period 'er indoors 17 year old BMW 325TD will be pressed into service which started first time no bother today after a week standing under about 4 inches of frozen snow. The service reception chap at the dealer said I was doing very well getting to 133,000 miles without head gasket problems, they normally fail before 100,000 miles

 

The one we used to have at my old work place threw a rod at just over 60k. Toyota declined a warranty claim because it had missed it's first service! Needless to say Toyota no longer supply cars to this rather large multi international Japanese company.

 

Apparently this is not an isolated incident on the Avensis either.

[ashmicro]

+1 on that! In my street alone (it's not a big street!) we have a 2010 RAV 4 diseasel with a seized oil pump, a 09 CDTi Zafira which is overcooling, an 07 3 Series Coupe with external temperature sensor issues, causing the heated washers to squirt water so hot it bust the windscreen and an 09 Passat diseasel which simply will not go.

 

Contrast those to the ones that start every day and run with no probs: Mark 1 XR2, 1980 Mini 1275GT, 2002 Hyundai Accent 1.3, 2003 Kia Rio with a boot thing, 1998 Escort, 2001 Omega 2.2 pez, and a 1999 diseasel Picnic. There's also an old squareback polo of indeterminate vintage which is always on the go. And my Rover 25.

[jnoiles]

Toyota must have slipped. My mk1 mr2 has been brilliant. It's a race car, it's abused well beyond the normal call of duty. I started it yesterday for the first time in a month of sitting in snow and ice and she fired up right away.

[aled]

my celica started after 6 years in a cold barn, and my 52 plate corolla never fails.

[Cavcraft]

Work's Hilux things seem o.k, though they don't do many miles (our's is 3 years old and has done under 10,000) but it did refuse to start the other day. Certainly seem pretty well nailed together though.

 

I blame stupid bloody sensors for most modern cars failing as it seems to be the biggest issue recently. That said not all modern cars are crap and I'm quite happy to drive them.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

A lot of modern diesels are a pain in the arse to start in cold weather, I've heard of a lot of glow plug and fuel filter failures and people having to wrap the engines in duvets, etc, in the sub -20C temperatures we've had here.

Bring back the Perkins Prima and XUD!

[theorganist]

Failed head gaskets do seem to be more common than they used to be (and not just on Rovers!).

[dieselnutjob]

I've seen a few XUDs with blown head gaskets

if they are thrashed the head seems to start to lift a bit at 100,000 miles

a new set of stretch bolts is the solution.

 

A lot of the early XUD turbos blew head gasket when they were quite new as well.

 

I've not seen it on the more complex HDI engines. Our 806 now has 205,000 of abuse under its belt.

 

In fact the 8 valve HDI seems to be one of the toughest engines around provided you don't put petrol in which destroys the injection system. It's the only diesel I know of that can shrug off a broken cambelt with no more that a few broken rocker arms. You will be replacing crank pulleys and dual mass flywheels of course, but the actual engine is tough.

 

Unfortunately the 16V HDIs are not so tough and seem susceptible to broken cam chains (the one that connects the inlet and exhaust cams) as well as broken belts, and when it happen the car is usually scrap.