Not sure if this should be in Technical, but as it affects a lot of models thought I'd post here... HJ has updated the car review section in brief, but thought I'd expand on it here for the benefit of all.
In short, all Toyota VVT-I 1.4, 1.6 & 1.8L engines (1zz 1.8, 3zz 1.6 & 4zz 1.4) made from 2000 to mid 2005 may suffer from excessive oil consumption of 1L/600miles. As far as I can tell, neither the smaller 1.0 & 1.3 engines, not the 2.0 & larger VVTI engines had this problem.
The cause was insufficient oil capacity, poor piston and piston ring design. This led to the oil-ways sludging up, eventually causing hardened oil around the rings to misshape the bores.
The fix was re-designed pistons, rings and short block.
For older Toyota’s made before about July 2005, Toyota could retrofit these to the existing engine, having extended the warranty on these engines to 6 years.
After about July 2005 this fix was applied to new build Toyota’s, so these should not suffer this issue.
So, what does this mean if, like me, you were looking at a used petrol Toyota?
1. Purchase a VVT-I engined Toyota made after July 2005, apart from some Corolla’s which were fixed from Sept 2005. So get the VIN, and check with Toyota UK.
2. If getting an older model - check with Toyota UK if the fix has been applied already AS THAT WARRANTY WILL NO LONGER APPLY!
Cheers.
Edited by arnold2 on 08/08/2013 at 18:25
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