Andrew162

Welcome. Personally, if you're looking at upgrading to a newer model then I'd be straying away from the diesels. Stick with petrol, and if you really need diesel then a RAV4 shouldn't be the #1 choice IMO. Look for something bigger if you need towing capacity.

I think I've mentioned this before, but to be honest, Toyota should never have sold the diesel option in Australia. It was only good for the European countries where they've had various iterations of diesel engines from 2001. As an engine choice, it's certainly something I'd never go for; the reliability factor being the primary concern. It's Toyota's hallmark and they're doing themselves no favours by continuing to sell and service it here. Either they know what the issue is with the engine (major mechanical flaw) and patch it up with replacement rings, which has proved to be hit and miss, or they genuinely don't have a clue why some eat oil and others don't. If there's enough complaints then the logical thing to do would be to gather info from VIN's of the affected vehicles to see if there's a pattern of why this issue keeps happening. Personally I think it's a design flaw and Toyota is trying their hardest to minimise the losses from the affected vehicles. If it were me, I'd remove the turbo diesel from the engine line-up and reinstate the 2GR-FE (3.5L V6).

You might want to raise the point of the TNF (Toyota News Flash) to the service guys, see what they can dig up on their knowledgebase about it. It's a known issue, but a lot will play dumb towards it or just not even know what the problem is. The TNF knowledgebase was created for this purpose.

I'm starting to think the piston rings on these engines are made of cheese.

Here's the issue - they know they've got a very troublesome engine in production and on sale and cannot afford to remove it from their line. All the while they're hoping that the rowdy masses (small masses) will disappear off quietly into the distance. It's exactly their best case scenario; a bad experience that perhaps Toyota in Japan can learn from, while dealerships aren't too much out of pocket for the issue to get 'fixed'. I know what I'd be doing. If it were me in your position I'd be fighting them tooth and nail. You didn't pay all this money for a lemon and Toyota have no right to sell it to you in the condition it's in, straight out of the showroom. For me it's a clear-cut case of taking it up with the ACCC and making Toyota incur the cost of their mistakes.

You may have to add it to an external site like photobucket or something, then link that photo with [.img] [/.img] tags around it (minus the dots).

Got a pic of this bullbar?

No of course not - it was more said in jest.

Well that's what I meant with the interior. To be quite honest, even the 2006 RAV4 had the facility for 7 seats, even though none were introduced with them (they were a US market feature). There's still the 2 pull tabs in the rear of the cargo bay (if someone knows what to look for) which would release the seats in all the Aussie models, and power-to-weight wise, it's still the RAV4 I'd choose. Now if only they had a 2-door model, which they canned in 2001...

IMO the Kluger shouldn't have been introduced into the Aussie market, it's trying to plug a hole that isn't really there. The RAV4, the Prado and the LandCruiser covered virtually all bases in the 4WD local lineup. It's almost the same size as the RAV4, used to use a 3.3L 3MZ engine but now upped to the 3.5L so RAV's had it's legs chopped a bit there. The only place the Kluger outshines the RAV4 would be in interior space which would be comparable to a Prado. I was scratching my head as to why they thought it was a good idea to bring the Kluger over here (US call it a Highlander), when our 4WD market looked to have a reasonably full bucket.

If they can't fix it, even with imported pistons, suggest to them that you want a 2GR-FE engine put in instead (3.5L V6 like they had on the 2006 model as an option). :) Bye-bye oil consumption, hello power (and moderate increase in fuel consumption). That engine is still used largely in the '350' versions of Lexus models (ie. IS350) and it goes damn well. A real shame that they dropped it off the options list for the RAV4. Bringing a diesel model in on an already established RAV4 line up was unprecedented for Toyota Australia, and something I thought they'd never do. As such, it's brought over a few problems as well.

I'd be rather interested to see why they replace the pistons and NOT the rings, as it's the ring's job to keep the oil from getting into the combustion chamber. Most times, this is the source of engine oil being chewed up in the first place. I'm not sure how many of these rings there are per cylinder on a diesel but on any petrol it's 3-4 usually. Usually, any decent engine rebuiler will want to go ahead with the job with pistons and rings, you don't half-***** it when it comes to moving parts; you replace the lot (pistons & rings) or don't touch it. Other parts inside the engine (main & big end bearings, gudgeons, etc.) probably won't need a swap because they're not at fault and would have hardly worn. The issue with pistons and rings concerns me greatly, as you'd think they'd know at assembly whether or not they were using the correct parts.

_____________________________________ I don't normally like to quote myself, but this is more an update on this post. I did some reading up on the European engines used in previous versions of the RAV4's (2000-onwards) and found out that the 1CD-FTV engine was most common (RAV4 / Corolla Avensis Verso were the vehicles it was made for). To my knowledge these engines never made it out here to Australia, so there's no effective way to compare oil consumption between the 'CD' engines and the 'AD' engines that replaced them. Wish I could help more - I don't like to see RAV4 drivers suffer (being one myself a while back).

This is Toyota's first foray into diesel-engined RAV4's. I'd expect there would be a few hiccups with introducing a new engine into the Aussie market, but perhaps this is a few too many of the one common symptom. Yes, they've done diesel engines before, but never one this small. Perhaps they should have taken the lead of the European guys and borrowed the diesel engine from the 2001- RAV4 commonly used in the more Northern latitudes. At least this was more reliable. I remember a few accounts of people saying that the diesels were better suited to the cooler climates, but maybe not so with the Australian conditions. Either way, Toyota looks like they need to get their act together with this one.

It's a commonly known fact that just about all cars (even new ones) will suffer some form of oil consumption - it just depends on how well the engines are built at the factory and how good the components are. If yours has had a good life and the oil consumption is unexplained, then I suggest if your local Toyota manager won't hear of your complaint, that you should take it up with the Head Office of Toyota Australia in Caringbah. This should be enough to provoke some action.