Grinding noise on start up

[boleh]

Wife started the car this morning and she said there was a loud grinding noise from the engine area. She then quickly switched off the engine.

I checked that the oil level was ok (still remember that vvti hose recall issue). No oils on garage floor underneath the car.

I tried to start the car and it wouldn't start.. Opened the bonnet.. Some burnt smell.. just very slightly.

Tow truck driver came and had trouble getting the kliger onto his truck. So he tried starting the car and it started!!?.. But by then I had left for work so I don't know if the noise was still there.

Anyway, it got towed to toyota now :((

God please I hope its not this: www.google.com.au/search?q=toyota+kluger+grnding+noise+on+start&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&safe=active

[Taka]

Boleh

Long time no speak!

I had the same noise as per the video in the YouTube before.

Was told by Toyota that the VTEC valve is sticking.

Was there for 2 days and under warranty.

To be honest if I have the smiler trouble now I would have sold the car straight away as I am thinking of changing it to a smaller diesel wagon since my kids now older.

[boleh]

Hey Taka ! how are you mate.

Can you post up the youtube link again pls?

Damn my car is now out of warranty (purchased in '08 and now done 90k) :(

Do you how much it'll cost to get fixed?

[boleh]

Taka,

Did your problem only occur during cold start? Or it doesn't matter?

[11/16Aurion 12Kluger]

Boleh... Why did you post this on WP??

" at least I can then decide if I'd just sell this P.O.S and move on.."

What are all the other problems you have encountered to cause you to call your Kluger a piece of s**t??

Have you ever owned a true lemon?... you would have this happening every 4 days not every 4 years!!

Is this the noise you are referring to??

The engine, especially around the battery, in that flick looks like a damn pig sty... probably indicative of the maintenance or the treatment it has had.

You do realise that motor is fitted to the Aurion as well?? If it was a chronic problem there would be far more said about it.

Anyway if you do sell it you could get a Jeep or even a Holden Captiva?? Then you would have a reliable car... :-)

Edited June 5, 2012 by KX-R & ACV40R

[CROCO]

HI boleh, I havent yet spoken with you on this forum yet mate.

Have you heard what was causing the loud grinding noise yet and is it a common problem my kluger is a 2007 model with nearly 88000kms on it so hopefully mine wont have that problem, so far mine hasnt had any problems with engine, so I would interested what the problem was, anyway mate look forward to chatting with you in the future.

[boleh]

I will try to have the noise recorded the next time it occurs. I've just asked my wife to listen to the youtube link above and according to her the noise that occurred the other day was a little longer. My second attempt.. The engine was turning over and seized up altogether. May be due to it being shut off too quickly at first attempt.

Will keep you updated

[11/16Aurion 12Kluger]

The engine was turning over and seized up altogether.

The engine seized?? Is there oil in the motor??

I had a 3.0 lt toyota camry ... owned it for 8 years, was 2 y/o when i purchased it... total 10 y/o when i sold it. It had never been to a dealer.. i changed the oil & filter every 10,000k. When I sold it the motor was as good as brand new, never missed a beat and still had the factory spark plugs in it.

The Toyota V6 no matter what version is one of the best engines ever put into a motor car ever Boleh. If you have ever owned another vehicle in your life you will know why I say that...

Klugers are also know as... Aurion station wagons.. Same motor and transmission so why not... but anyway, if you are so concerned that you own a "pos" then cruise over to this forum for Aurion cars... it may be of interest ....

Just out of curiosity ... do you press on the accelerator when you turn the igniton key??

[boleh]

If you have ever owned another vehicle in your life you will know why I say that... .

Old mate.. No.. I've never owned another vehicle in my whole life. Prior to this kluger i rode on the back of an orang utan..

Although not a V6, its a muscular 6-pack.. Fed it bananas and grapes sometimes when i had spare cash. Served me great. Climbed up places where no 4WD ever could noe ever will. Died of old age and decided i needed something more boring

[RICE RACING]

If you have ever owned another vehicle in your life you will know why I say that... .

Old mate.. No.. I've never owned another vehicle in my whole life. Prior to this kluger i rode on the back of an orang utan..

Although not a V6, its a muscular 6-pack.. Fed it bananas and grapes sometimes when i had spare cash. Served me great. Climbed up places where no 4WD ever could noe ever will. Died of old age and decided i needed something more boring

Don't worry too much about random comments on the internet mate.

For your problem, I'm sure my old Kluger did the same thing! When cold first starting it "sometimes" would make a grinding noise for a fraction of a seconds or sometimes a second, to me it sounded like the started motor was engaging lol..... I sold the car!

Ironically you can hear a similar thing on the FJ Cruiser engine too, it happens very rarely and only after the motor has sat for a while before you attempt to start it and only from cold.

It must be a characteristic of the VVTi system I say.

Might go see if I can buy another Ape and train him to carry me around :)

[boleh]

RiceRacing,

Haha.

Well, the noise did not occur this morning. I have a feeling now that it might happen if I let it sit for 2 days or more. That's what happened last weekend as we didn't use the Kluger and got the noise on monday.

[11/16Aurion 12Kluger]

I was not trying to offend Boleh. You had one instance of an odd noise and you label the car a piece of sh*t? That sort of indicated you had never had much experience with motor cars before. Sorry if I assumed wrong but when you give as little information as possible people are just left to assume.

Thinking back now to my 3 litre Camry V6 I do recall that a couple of times it did make a rattle sound when starting from a long spell. I put it down to the oil draining away from the top end workings and they were dry until some oil got pumped up into them?? I certainly did not rush out and call a tow truck.

At the couple of times it did happen I was using a cheap shell oil. Out current 4 cyl 07 camry makes a loud rattle for a second or two when started from cold. But back when we had two of them they both did it so thought it was the nature of the dog and nothing to worry about... which it is.

If you want to see what a real piece of sh*t motor car is do some reading here and be very grateful that you never bought one of these... (there are plenty of other enlightening stories in there on other cars as well. BTW.. you will not find one entry regarding Kluger... odd that?)

http://www.google.co...tiva&gsc.page=1

More here...

http://www.notgoodenough.org/viewforum.php?f=19

Edited June 6, 2012 by KX-R & ACV40R

[RICE RACING]

I was not trying to offend Boleh. You had one instance of an odd noise and you label the car a piece of sh*t? That sort of indicated you had never had much experience with motor cars before. Sorry if I assumed wrong but when you give as little information as possible people are just left to assume.

Thinking back now to my 3 litre Camry V6 I do recall that a couple of times it did make a rattle sound when starting from a long spell. I put it down to the oil draining away from the top end workings and they were dry until some oil got pumped up into them?? I certainly did not rush out and call a tow truck.

At the couple of times it did happen I was using a cheap shell oil. Out current 4 cyl 07 camry makes a loud rattle for a second or two when started from cold. But back when we had two of them they both did it so thought it was the nature of the dog and nothing to worry about... which it is.

If you want to see what a real piece of sh*t motor car is do some reading here and be very grateful that you never bought one of these... (there are plenty of other enlightening stories in there on other cars as well. BTW.. you will not find one entry regarding Kluger... odd that?)

http://www.google.co...tiva&gsc.page=1

More here...

http://www.notgooden...wforum.php?f=19

Its all good we are all friends here, I remember Boleh, when I signed up in 2008, I'm sure he is not offended as its just another internet forum at the end of the day :)

I think this rattle is common......... probably hahaha.

Either way totally agree with you if you want a piece of **** you should buy a Falcon or a Commonwhore LOL.................. now they are more Lemon than Lemon itself :) Head gasket anyone LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CROCO]

If you want a lemen buy a commodore, we had one it was the biggest piece of s^it I ever owned, blown head gaskets, auto transmission failure, fuel pump dying in the middle of summer in the middle of no wear, computer and electrical failing and the list goes on, I wouldnt buy another holden if they were selling them for $2, thats probadly or there worth and thats when there new, as for ford so far so good touch wood, our territory has been a good car, but not as good as the kluger though.

At the end of the day you go wrong with toyota.

Edited June 6, 2012 by CROCO

[boleh]

What series is your territory? Is yours plagued by the transmission coolant leak issue?

I had at one point thought about buying the XR6 when time comes to replace my accord euro.. Some people on ford forums mentioned they got the current FG MkII XR6 for 31,500. Haven't read abt serious problems with the latest series. But now toyota fights back with the 86.. LOL..

Back to my issue.. in hindsight, i shouldve probably given it a few more go before calling the tow truck. But the fact it didn't start at all when I tried and the grinding noise all added to my paranoia that further attempts will cause permanent damage. I am not much of a car person.. More of a poser who read stuffs from the net and then go on try impressing others with my theoretical knowledge

[CROCO]

Hi boleh, my territory is a 2007 sy awd, its fitted with a zf 6 speed auto, its absolute ripper of a gearbox, the shift quality is outstanding, it kicks down better and shifts better than the auto in the kluger, not that the gearbox in the kluger isnt a good one, but I think the one in territory is a bit better, as for transmission coolant leak, I have been lucky with mine, my territory has a 120000kms on it and no problems, people I know with territories havent had any trouble either, but there has been a number of territories and falcon with the coolant leak, and then the coolant gets in the transmission and ruins the oil, so it has no lubrication properties and eventually destroys the transmission.

Mate I wouldnt really have a problem with buying a xr6, there great cars for the money, the 4 litre six is a good old engine and the shift quality of the auto is great, the quality wouldnt be as good as your honda though.

Boleh you did the right thing calling the tow truck,you wasnt to know what the problem was and you might of done damage to engine, hopefully everything good with your car mate :)

[K_wow]

Hi guys,

That noise your hearing on your cars are what we refer to as " vvti rattle".

It doesn't happen to all 2GR motors. With the ones that has that problem we simply drop the motor and replace both intake vvti controllers with a revised unit.

I've only ever replaced them under warranty but I'd imagine it would be quite costly to do as a retail job since the motor has to come out.

Hope that helps guys

[CROCO]

Cheers khearent, I dont know mate if your allowed to tell us or not , but im just curious how many of these engines would you have repaired and how many kms on them when the problem occuring , my kluger has 870000kms on it and touch wood Its running like a champion.

[boleh]

So this characteristic obviously isn't normal operation of the engine hmm..

Ever since the first occurrance it hasn't re-occurred on mine. Hopefully it doesn't ever return.

Can you perhaps tell us how much it'll cost to fix?

How widespead is the problem?

What happens if left unfixed?

Edited June 20, 2012 by boleh

[RICE RACING]

Hi guys,

That noise your hearing on your cars are what we refer to as " vvti rattle".

It doesn't happen to all 2GR motors. With the ones that has that problem we simply drop the motor and replace both intake vvti controllers with a revised unit.

I've only ever replaced them under warranty but I'd imagine it would be quite costly to do as a retail job since the motor has to come out.

Hope that helps guys

This is why I was never totally happy with the Kluger, the motor is just in the plain wrong orientation ! the FJ is worth it just for the North South engine "proper" configuration :) You can do allot to the donk with it still in the car :)

[K_wow]

Hi guys

I myself have done over 10 or more of them. There's about 12 of us all together that takes care of them when they come in.

We've all done around the same amount, I'm not too sure how many the other shops do but when you look at the big picture its not that many.

I know it's also common with the Lexus rx350 and IS250s.

I can't give you an approximate price. I know the kit is at least around the $500 mark. The kit consists of two intake vvti controllers, rocker cover gaskets and a complete set of washers, oil seals and o rings to cover the whole job. I would say around 2-3k mark for the entire job.

If left unattended the controllers will fail which means non working vvti which will make the engine run really rough and poor performance and the noise will be permanent.

The new revised units have two extra oil holes as well. We've never had any of the cars come back after they've been repaired.

As for the km's it's all random. I've seen cars come in with the problem with only 50xxx km to 100xxx km.

[CROCO]

Thanks khearent for the heads up, so with the revised vvti unit thats replaced has extra two holes, I probadly quessing that the original vvti unit doesnt have the two holes, so the problom could be not enough oil passing through the vvti unit, I not a mechanic so I not really know what im talking about , as said im only guessing.

[boleh]

$2-3k.. ok.. I think I can live with that. Just count myself unlucky.

Maybe that's what Toyota calls a "Waku Doki" feeling.

[11/16Aurion 12Kluger]

Some more info on the "noise at startup".

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/122-2nd-generation-2008/375214-weird-noise-after-start-up.html

The US Toyota forums for the Highlander is a good place for info... some interesting reading in there.

[boleh]

See today's Carsguide (Herald Sun), pg 22 I think.

Someone wrote abt a "VVTI hub" problem on an 07 Aurion that has only done 75,000km. Dealer quoted $3000 for repairs but they negotiated with Toyota to arrive at a discounted price of $900.