Talbit

Welshpomie, Thanks for keeping us all up to date. I too have noticed the speedo is way out of whack. I've checked mine with several independent GPS systems and mine is 6klm out. It is actually within the new Australian design rules so Toyota won't do anything about it. I started a forum on this subject - search for "Rav4 Speedometer inaccurate" Also, I don't trust the Rav4 computer. I started checking the litres verses kilometres manually and will start doing so again. Yes your manual vehicle will probably give better efficiency than the autos. At the moment the computer tells me my open road fuel consumption is about 7.5L/ 100klm which is good so any improvement will be a bonus.

Welshpomie, thanks for the update. Looks good so far. Lets keep our fingers crossed. Great news also on the fuel consumption which is a bit of a surprise. Talbit

James, I'd better not name anyone in this forum so I've txt his name to you. But your comment is interesting. I just don't believe that you are the only person in the whole of the northern Canberra region (which includes parts of NSW) to notice this issue. This is an example of dealer incompetence or an attempt to fob you off. Talbit

Jennifer, When I took my new Rav4 in for its first service, they had to replace the main engine management computer and they said it was coming from Japan by sea! I asked why couldn't they fly one in from Japan and they said they didn't do it that way. They gave me a loaner vehicle so it didn't hurt me too much. Fortunately, there was one on a ship which arrived soon after so they had it fixed in about two weeks. So if your parts are coming by sea, who knows how long it will take. When you get your vehicle back we are all very keen to hear the result. Talbit

I haven't contacted Toyota directly but it if I don't get a sensible answer from my dealer soon them I'm going to. It all hinges on the results of welshpomie's rebuild. Talbit

Blacktux, Welcome to the fourum. We are all awaiting the outcome of Welshpomie's engine rebuild. I go to Fyshwick for my services and they haven't mentioned the rebuild option but they are well aware of my concerns. The trick here is to keep this forum alive and round up as many Rav4 diesel owners you can find. Did you check the oil level when they did the service? They overfilled mine and if I'd left it then the oil light wouldn't have come on before the next service. Talbit

Hi Jennifer. Go Girl !!! I want you on my team !!! Talbit

I recon the reason the dealers are not keen to suggest a rebuild is because they wouldn't make money out of it. Their bread and butter comes from sales and general service. When it comes to warranty work, Toyota foot the bill and they probably don't pay the dealers enough. So that is why we need to turn the screws on the dealers. If we don't get a result then it's up to us to pressure Toyota directly. So let's keep this Forum active and gather as many RAV4 owners as we can find.

Robin, Welcome to the Forum! As you can see, those of us who have brought this issue to the attention of our local dealers are getting mixed responses. Some dealers seem to be oblivious to the issue whilst at least one dealer has taken the bull by the horns and is actively trying to do something about it. We are all relying on Welshpomie to report back on the results of his rebuilt engine. So if you go ahead with the rebuild, we'd all be keen to hear the result through this forum. Can you tell us who your dealer is? Regards Talbit

Thanks for the good info Bryan. Pretty drastic Hennie. No doubt you lost big dollars in the buy-back? I met up with a fellow down at the local Bunnings the other day. He's in a diferent situation to the rest of us... He reached his service time limit before he got to the first 10,000klm so he wouldn't have known what his oil level was.

Thanks all for the updates. Welshpomie, the ball is in your court. Let's hope you have a good outcome. And can you please report on if you think they did a good job of the rebuild. I'd hate to think that they might have introduced other problems which will show up a few years down the line. Does the engine perform as it did before the rebuild? How long did they have your vehicle for? Who is your dealer? I wonder where the idea for the rebuild came from? I would hope that Toyota Japan would have come up with a solution by now. It appears as though the dealers are mostly in the dark which might be Toyota Australia's fault. Jennifer tells us the synthetic oil makes no difference so I won't hold my breath. Andrew, I can't imagine they would even consider installing a different engine.

Thanks for the update. I'm a bit worried about letting them mess around with rebuilds! My dealer has acknowledged there is an issue but hasn't offered any solutions yet. He just said Toyota want to log all incidents. Talbit

Okay, so I had the 20,000klm service last Tuesday and they put in all synthentic oil. We'll see what difference it makes. Talbit

Is it possible there might be a Facebook page on this subject. I hate Facebook but it might be worth looking into. Talbit

Jennifer, In your posts you use the term "ran out of oil". By this do you mean the oil light comes on or that it gets down to the bottom mark? Talbit.

Jennifer, I was hoping for a while there with your new manager, you were going to get some sensible answers. They're definitely trying to fob you off. I'm wondering if you are losing oil at a greater rate than the rest of us is because you're doing long drives? I'm just motoring around town but when I drove to Brisbane the oil consumption increased. I've got about 800klm to go before my 20,000klm service. My oil is almost down to the bottom marker (it was filled at the around the 15,000klm mark) so it will be interesting what they say about the issue. I'm just not sure if I want them to pull the engine down to do a dodgy fix. I think they're guessing and no one is really serious about fixing the problem. They're just hoping we'll go away. Talbit

Can we all please check our engine type? Have a look at the central door pillar down at the bottom. Thanks Talbit

Andrew, I think you are right... I'd be surprized if the "new modified pistons" didn't come with a new set of rings. But we'll have to wait until Hennie gets his car back on the road and see if it's been fixed. My guess is that because there is more than one diesel showing this problem, that it's a major design fault in this engine or series of engines. Hopefully the Toyota guys in Japan have their heads screwed on the right way and have done enough research to sort it out. I just hope they aren't replacing the pistons with the same that is already there. We'll have to wait and see. As for the actual job, I think it's possible to remove the sump and remove and replace the pistons from below. It shouldn't require the removal and complete stripping down of the engine. But I'm not an experienced mechanic so I can't be sure. Again we all need to keep on top of this and don't let it rest or we could all be up with major expenses in the years to come. BTW, my June 2013 RAV4 model is ALA49R-ANTGYW and the engine is a 2AD-FTV, 2231mL. Talbit

Hennie, Interesting outcome and great to see that your dealer at least has gone ahead and actually done something about it. And interesting that they don't want to replace the rings as well. What I'd like to know is how come your dealer is doing this when the other dealers still say they are not aware of any solution to the problem. Any chance of you telling us who your dealer is so that we can contact him directly? I don't think Toyota is informing their dealers of what's going on. My guess is that it's a reasonably straight forward job to replace the pistons. They probably won't need to remove the engine from the vehicle and they would do it from below. Mind you, if you had to pay for it then they'd charge you heaps!!! I've got a mechanic mate who might be able to tell me what's required. I and others will be very keen to see - 1: How long it will take for the pistons to arrive. My experience with Toyota is that parts are shipped by sea, not by air. So if they haven't arrived yet they could take quite a while. 2: How long they want the car for. I think two weeks is excessive. You do realise that you are now the guinea pig and we are all going to await the outcome of the experiment before we allow our dealers to pull our engines apart!!! There is no doubt that the dealers won't offer this solution to people who don't report it to them. I have no Idea how many of these vehicles were sold in Australia but it's going to be an expensive exercise for Toyota anyway. Thanks for letting us all know. There you go Jennifer - Now you've got some decent ammunition !!! Regards Talbit

Sagewood, That's an interesting response from the service manager! How come he doesn't know what the parts are? Very odd! From reading these forums, it appears the problem is to do with the incorrect piston rings. To replace them would be a major undertaking from Toyota, especially if all of them have the same problem. Can I suggest we all keep an eye out at the local shopping centres or wherever and approach any new RAV4 owners and ask if they are aware of this problem? Most owners would be oblivious until the oil light comes on and they would certainly be fobbed off by Toyota so they might not be all that concerned. And Jennifer, you also seem to be pretty well on top of the issue. We'd all like to keep track of your battle so keep the info coming. My 20,000klm service is due in about 1,500klm. I don't think my oil will get to the bottom mark before then so after the service I'll have to start again with the monitoring. But at the moment it is about halfway between the two matks. Talbit

Today I contacted my local dealer but the service manager was unavailable. The fellow I spoke to was helpful and found the TNF on their system. He confirmed that it said 200ml per 1,000klm is "normal". This equates to 1Ltr every 5,000klm. My consumption is just over that. But on my 10,000klm service receipt it states in reference to my query and I quote... "Normal oil consumption is 1ltr every 10,000km. (top to bottom of dip stick. No leaks detected." So it seems to me that these figure a being bandied around willy-nilly! The fellow said to bring in the vehicle so they can look at the dipstick. I won't bother until it gets lower. I can actually see it dropping! He said that Toyota is suggesting they will replace the oil with a fully synthetic type at the next service. I think it's been mentioned elsewhere in this forum and that it made no difference. An interesting point here... The fellow said he was not aware of this problem but acknowledged that others in the service section might be. It's just that it hadn't come across his desk. Surely an issue like this would be noted by all of the personnel in their service section. After all, they sit next to each other in the same room! An interesting point he did make, and it's mentioned in the handbook. You should run the engine a little, switch off and wait a couple of minutes, then check the level. Don't check the level with a cold engine. It's an odd thing but it appears to be valid. I checked my cold engine the other day and it showed a drop on the tip of the stick. After a short run and a wait it looked okay. BTW, is there some way we can get this topic to appear at the top of the Google search if people come searching. It is in our interests to keep it as active as possible. The Toyota fellow said they don't take any notice of these forums. Talbit.

Gents, Well it certainly looks like things are hotting up with this forum. Good to see that others have come on board. SAGEWOOD: What "spare parts" are they talking about. There's not much chance of getting a new car or your money back. They will do everything to fob you off so be prepared for a fight! UPSETWITHTOYOTA: That's large consumption of oil in your RAV4. I too could smell something odd. Actually my wife noticed it at first. I'm not sure yet if it was my RAV4 or a passing car. I'll keep an eye (nose) out for it. ANDREW162: I'm not sure if climate should effect the oil consumption but maybe a mechanic who has one of these RAV4's might be able to help out if we can get one on board this forum. WILSON77: So what you are saying is that your oil light came on after only 4,500klm. We can only assume that the oil was topped up to the top mark by your dealer. Your consumption is the worst of all and certainly not acceptable. I'm not a lawyer either so how would this class action be tackled? I'm going to see my dealer tomorrow and ask for the service manager. It will be interesting to see what he says about the latest news from Toyota. As I've said before, if 1L per 10,000klm is what is required then so be it. I could live with that. But mine is using double that amount. And if major problems are going to appear later down the track then I would like to cover my backside against that possibility. Anyway for now lets all keep this going. Regards Talbit

Actually, I've noticed that on my last service invoice they too have noted that the expected oil consumption was 1L per 10,000klm. They didn't explain where this figure came from. They might have just typed it in without basing it on anything Toyota have published. It's too hard to tell. But I used 1.2L in 5,150klm so it's almost double what they say is okay. I'll try and call them tomorrow. re the news flash. Talbit

Wilson77, Can you please review your klms in your post. I'm a little confused as to when your oil light came on. You said 14,500klm. Is there a zero missing because you mentioned 10,000klm later. Talbit

Hi again, I don't want to be a nuisance but did you contact your dealer re the alert. And where did they get the 200ml "normal" consumption from? It does say in the handbook that all cars should consume some oil. But I think that is a blanket statement to cover all circumstances so I'm keen to know where the "normal consumption of 200ml per 1,000klm" comes from. My dealer certainly didn't mention it when I first bought it to their attention. Indeed they told me I was the first person to mention the problem to them. I have a petrol V6 Camry that is approaching 14 years in service and it doesn't use one drop. Beautiful car. Still drives like new. I also had a Hyundai Excel and it was 15 years old and it too used no oil at all. Quite remarkable for a high revving zippy little machine. Fantastic little car by the way! Sorry I gave it away now! Talbit