 3k-Engine Oil Service:
Faithfully changing your Toyota's engine oil is one of the least glamorous, but most effective steps you can take to insure that your car has a long and happy life. Our recommendation is to replace your engine oil and filter every 3000 miles. When performing this service, we also inspect it for any other needs that may have developed in the interim.
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30k/60k/90k Mileage Based Scheduled Service:
Many things in life aren't urgent--they are simply important. But because they aren't urgent, we have to make deliberate decisions to take action in a timely manner before what was simply important becomes a crisis due to inattention. Your Toyota's long-term health is like that. These mileage-based services involve inspecting your vehicle in order to anticipate whether repairs may soon be needed, and preemptively replacing various fluids and tune related components in order to maintain your vehicle's long-term health, performance, and reliability. The timely maintenance you give to your car can enable it to give you years of pleasant, reliable service.
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Air Filter:
The engine air filter cleans the air that the engine uses for combustion so that the engine won't get worn out prematurely by having gritty, abrasive air introduced into it's internal moving parts. If it gets too dirty, it restricts the airflow into the engine and can cause a loss of power. On older vehicles it can make the engine run significantly richer and with greatly reduced fuel economy.
We prefer the standard disposable filters. When Toyota started using the hot-wire style mass-airflow sensors to measure how much air the engine was using, for the first couple of years, it seemed like every time we saw a mass-airflow sensor fail due to fouling, it was in connection with a K&N air filter-the type that has a light oil dressing. At the same time, we heard that Mazda had decided that using K&N air filters would void the warranty on mass-airflow sensors. Since that time, we've seen plenty of mass-airflow sensor failures in vehicles with conventional air filters as well; evidentially if you drive enough miles eventually the mass-airflow sensor can be fouled with any filter. But it seems telling to me that there was such a delay between the first failures that we observed that were always connected to K&N air filters, and the failures that we eventually began to see with the conventional filters.
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Air Intake Tube:
The air intake tube provides passage of air from the air filter housing to the engine. It gets flexed a little back and forth every time you accelerate, and eventually as the rubber gets old and brittle it cracks and splits open. On older vehicles this can make a vacuum leak that significantly affects the idle and lower rpm running. If your vehicle is an automatic, the poor running can be especially noticeable at stops when you're car is in drive. This is because when the split tube opens up, it allows a large vacuum leak where air is allowed into the engine that hasn't passed through the air flow meter to be measured to be matched with the right amount of fuel. In some vehicles, the type of air-use measuring device (a MAP sensor) doesn't measure the air by the same means, and in these vehicles the split air intake tube makes absolutely no immediate difference in the way the engine runs in the short term. However, it allows unfiltered, dirty air into the engine, which causes your engine to wear out more quickly as tiny abrasive particles grind away at the internal moving parts.
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Alignment/Wheel Alignment:
When properly aligned, all four wheels should be pointing together parallel to the centerline of the car if you're driving down the road straight. And, they should be close to perpendicular to the road. If the wheels are out of alignment, then it causes the tires to wear out more rapidly, it causes the steering to be to be more unstable, and can result in decreased gas mileage. The wheels can get out of alignment by hitting curbs or potholes too hard. They can also get out of alignment due to incremental wear of steering and suspension parts.
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Antifreeze:
Cooling system flush
Good clean antifreeze not only protects your engine from freezing in the winter, but of course also acts as a coolant that keeps the engine from overheating year round. In addition, it has corrosion inhibitors to prevent the metal in the cooling system from being eaten away by the water in the coolant. It also has ingredients that act as lubricants to prolong the life of the water pump seals. As long as it isn't diluted with water, the freeze protection and the ability to cool your engine stays good forever. However, the corrosion inhibitors break down with time and heat. Antifreeze that gets too old will begin to eat away at important internal engine components and plug up internal cooling passages, which can lead to overheating and cause additional damage, expense, and inconvenience.
When flushing the cooling system, we drain the radiator and the block and run fresh water through the system until there's clean water running out of both the radiator and the engine block drains prior to refilling the system with new coolant.
This may be putting a fine point on things, but Toyota specifies the use of deionized water (water that's had the minerals stripped out of it) in its cooling systems. This is a more important concern in areas with a hard water supply. Deionized water (or distilled water) is recommended for both 1st and 2nd generation coolants, as the minerals in the water can precipitate out and restrict coolant passages. This issue is intensified with coolants that have silicates in them, as the silicates combine with the minerals and together they precipitate out of solution and restrict coolant passages. In this instance, it also results in increased corrosion due to a lowered concentration of silicates. We're fortunate to have soft water in Portland, and this is what we use along with antifreeze when we are filling a cooling system. In systems that require Toyota Super Long Life coolant this is a moot point, as it comes premixed with deionized water.
Types of coolant: Red, pink or green? The short answer:
The simplest most straight forward recommendation we can make is to use Toyota's red, Long Life Coolant where specified, and their pink Super Long Life Coolant where specified. On vehicles older than 1998, Toyota's recommendations are very general. We have come to believe that the Toyota Long Life Coolant is preferable for these vehicles as well in order to reduce clogged radiators.
Types of coolant: Red, pink or green? The longer answer:
Regarding generic green coolant versus Toyota's red coolant in the older Toyotas (see section on older Toyotas through 1998 for broader discussion) although I'm willing to use either as per customer preferences, I have come to have a definite preference for Toyota's Long Life red coolant. It was designed with full engineering knowledge of the various materials (seals and alloyed metals) it needs to be compatible with. It was also deliberately designed with zero silicates. While the silicates in other coolants provide excellent corrosion protection, over the long haul they tend to precipitate out and contribute to restricting coolant passages. This can eventually result in overheating and/or having to replace the radiator. The additional cost of Toyota's coolant is minimal if you consider that the cost is amortized over a two to three year period and that the superior coolant may save having to replace your radiator.
I should note a balancing concern: On some engines where the timing belt runs the water pump, a red coolant leak with its build-up of crystals can cause the timing-belt tensioner bearing to seize up at the pivot. This can result in the timing belt going slack and hopping out of time. Usually this happens in cases where the timing belt was past due for replacement anyway. I've never seen that happen with the green coolant. Obviously there's a trade off of concerns at play here.
The older Toyotas and Lexus (through 1998) (for which we recommend Toyota's Long Life red coolant) simply call for ethylene glycol coolant. Ethylene glycol is the main antifreeze and heat-transferring ingredient in all three generations of Toyota coolant. To specify ethylene glycol doesn't say anything about which additives and corrosion inhibitors are best. Although Toyota sold its own red stuff, I'm not aware that they published any specifications that would overtly steer people away from using the common green generic alternative. However, my recent understanding is that even at that time Toyota was using zero silicates in their coolant. (See section on 1999 and newer Toyotas for further discussion on the use of silicates and their tendency to clog coolant passages.)
Toyota called for a coolant change every two years or every 30k miles. We encourage the same, although I'm comfortable with 3 years or 30k. For years I actively preferred the green antifreeze to the red due to my strong impression that the red coolant more actively finds its way past seals and gaskets. I still have no question that I see red crystallized coolant deposits oozing past gaskets and seals more often than I see signs of the green coolant leaking. However, Ryan here recently raised the possibility that the red coolant may not leak any more aggressively, but may simply leave more visible tracks. This may be the case, and in fact seems likely to be so. I know that on older water pumps we always see some staining below the weep-hole on vehicles that use green coolant. This staining may represent a similar amount of seepage that would have shown up as a mass of crystals on a water pump that was using red coolant. I really can't say for sure—in either case it's a slow seepage that dries out as is emerges.
Within the first year after Ryan came on board he mentioned that since he'd left Lexus where they exclusively used Toyota coolant he was seeing a lot more radiators plugged up. He said he'd virtually never seen clogged radiators even on cars that had over 200k on them. The clincher came for me when we encountered a radiator that we had replaced maybe 30k prior that was already showing visible clogging of the passages. On that day I became a believer in using Toyota's Long Life red coolant, and that's what we promote to all our customers now who have vehicles that are 2003 or older.
In 1999 Toyota and Lexus came out with their red long-life coolant, which is definitely what we want to use in these vehicles. They still recommended coolant replacement every two years or every 30k, and this is the recommendation we follow, although I'm comfortable with 3 years and 30k. Toyota calls for coolant with zero-silicate, zero-amine, and zero-borate content. They specify that "use of improper coolants may damage the cooling system" and specify that their coolant is designed so that it "will not clog radiators from silicone gelling" and "will not corrode aluminum surfaces like coolants that contain borate." When I've seen charts displaying the chemical profiles of brand new coolants, the Toyota long-life coolant is clearly different than Prestone's green-colored alternative, with the Prestone coolant clearly having the silicon and borate content that Toyota engineers specifically want to avoid.
In 2004 Toyota and Lexus came out with their pink super-long-life coolant. This is what we use for these vehicles. Their recommendation on this coolant is that it be replaced the first time at ten years or 100k miles. Their recommendation thereafter is that it be replaced every 5 years or 50k miles. This puzzles me, and though I'm not characteristically cynical, I find that a cynical part of me speculating that possibly Toyota has taken this route as part of an effort to keep their advertised cost of ownership lower in order to enhance new car sales. This coolant comes premixed with a 50% of it being deionized water. I haven't seen any chemical profiles comparing this coolant to the previous generation Toyota red long-life coolant, but they aren't incompatible, because Toyota specifies that you can add the Toyota red long-life coolant to top off systems that have the Toyota pink super-long-life coolant. Different dealers have opted for different schedules on flushing this coolant. Some do it exactly by the book with the first being at 100k and the second at 50k. At the time of this writing, the Lexus dealership I'm acquainted with was recommending coolant being flushed every 30k, and observed that they always get some particulate sediment coming out of the system with the coolant.
Toyota's recommendations assume a perfectly maintained coolant system, i.e. proper mixture, proper pressure, and continually full. Obviously if the mixture is off—diluted from adding water—that will decrease the effectiveness of the corrosion inhibitors and shorten the effective life of the coolant. Same with pressures: too low a pressure due to a faulty radiator cap increases the likelihood of internal metal erosion due to cavitation. Even allowing the system to go low increases corrosion, as the mixture of air and steam in the system is much more corrosive than being constantly bathed in coolant. This is apparently more especially so for coolants with organic-acid-technology based corrosion inhibitors, which is the class of inhibitors that Toyota's Super Long Life coolant uses.
Regarding the service interval, I'm increasingly impressed that just to look at it, the coolant typically doesn't look bad even at 100k. If customers prefer to go exactly with Toyota's recommendations, I have no quarrel with that, although I at this point I still have some reservations that it's ultimately for the best to wait 100,000 miles and/or ten years before replacing the coolant for the first time. Time will tell.
There seems to be some rationale for flushing the Super-Long-Life coolant every five years or 50k miles. It's not a hard recommendation, but I think it may make sense in light of the fact that:
- Toyota makes the same recommendation of five years and 50k miles from there on after the first 100k, and also because
- Toyota recommends coolant changes at 30k with their older (not-premixed) coolant that is chemically similar enough to be used as a top-off coolant.
Note: The Super Long Life coolant shouldn't be used in the older Toyotas that came with brass & copper radiators, as it's organic-acid-technology corrosion inhibitors aren't effective for these metals or the soldering used in these radiators.
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Automatic Transmission Flush:
Toyota proper is largely silent on when to change the fluid in automatic transmissions under normal driving conditions. They only say to inspect and advise. We recommend changing your automatic transmission fluid by means of flushing it as preventative maintenance every 30,000 miles, or sooner if the fluid has gone through a significant color change that indicates its condition has begun to deteriorate. The old fluid can't be effectively removed by simply draining. Due to the torque converter not draining, most of the fluid remains in the system even if the pan is removed. The most effective way to accomplish a complete changeover of the transmission fluid is to flush the entire system. This is important for the life and health of your vehicle, and far more economic than having to spend the thousands required replacing or rebuilding your transmission later.
The question is occasionally raised as to whether changing or flushing the transmission can create any problems, particularly in the case of a vehicle that is long overdue for a fluid change. In more than 16 years of performing this service I have never been aware of any negative consequence that could remotely be perceived as a consequence of changing the transmission fluid. I don't recall even any transmission incident that might have been perceived as an unfortunate coincidence after changing the fluid. The way we flush the transmission is really nothing more than a very thorough fluid change. After draining the pan, we use the transmission's own pump to pull in new fluid and push it through the system in its normal direction of flow, pushing out the old fluid ahead of the new. New fluid is pumped through the torque converter and on out through the cooler to where we catch it in a drain pan. What could be a more natural or harmless way to change your transmission fluid?
Some shops use machines in the flushing process that may introduce other variables into the process than what I've described as our process. Some of these variables might include special solvents and higher than normal pressures. Although I hear people talk about back-flushing, I'm not aware of whether any of the standard processes actually involve reversing the fluid flow. I can't say from personal experience whether these alternate processes increase the risk of creating an unintended problem or not.
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Axles (front)/CV Joints and Boots:
The front axles (and some rear axles with independent rear suspension) have flexible joints on the inner and outer ends of the axles to allow your wheels to get power smoothly even while going around corners or when going up and down relative to the vehicle. A rubber boot encases each of the joints. This rubber boot is intended to protect the constant-velocity joint from losing its grease and from being damaged by water or road dust.
Eventually, after flexing through millions of rotations, these boots tend to crack and split open. When this happens, if the axle joint is still good, we routinely replace the boots and repack the joints with fresh grease. As long as the boots are intact, the original Toyota joints tend to hold up so well that I prefer replacing the boots to replacing the entire axle. When the boot cracks and splits open, the grease gets flung out and it exposes the joint to the possibility of being contaminated with water and grit which invites wear. Even in this situation, the joint can often be cleaned, relubed, and rebooted if it hasn't been split open for too long. On original axles—even with 150k to 200k miles—I would routinely expect to get more miles out of rebooting the original axle than replacing it with an aftermarke one as long as the original axle hasn't gone without grease.
If the joint has been damaged, then the entire axle needs to be replaced. When it's the outer joint that is damaged, it tends to variously make a cyclic clicking, or knocking, or grinding, or creaking noise when going through sharp turns. When it's the inner joint that is bad, most often the symptom will be a heavy vibration felt on straight line acceleration. When they're available, we have a strong preference for using Toyota remanufactured axles. The only part that is being reused is the axle shaft. The joints are new and last as long as the original, which is far longer than can be anticipated from the aftermarket axles we've encountered—either new aftermarket or remanufactured. By way of example, we recently had a customer come in with both axles fully symptomatic and badly worn that had been replaced with non-Toyota parts at a major tire chain just a year and a half ago. They only had 26 thousand miles.
As the damage to the axle joint progresses, it can eventually impair your ability to corner safely. Although rare, in extreme cases it can even break. When the axle breaks, at minimum the car abruptly loses power to the wheels and won't drive. Sometimes it can damage other surrounding parts. A friend of mine once had an axle break and it ripped loose his brake lines so that he simultaneously lost the ability either to accelerate or brake. He had just come down out of the Pyrenees Mountains—off a steep, winding road that ran along cliff's edge—and out onto a level, relatively safe place to have it happen. Whew! Close call.
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Axle Bearings/Wheel Bearings:
The axle bearings allow the wheels to turn freely while bearing the weight of the car and to maintain proper alignment while going through all the stresses of cornering. When they get worn, they commonly will make a harsh, growly noise while moving.
When you turn to either direction, the weight of the car shifts so that more of it is on the outer wheels and less weight is on the inner wheels. This often causes the tone to change, which can help diagnose whether the noise is in fact an axle bearing or not, and can often (but not always) indicate on which side of the vehicle the bad bearing is. On rear wheel drive cars, sometimes the noise of a bad rear wheel bearing will be dampened while braking.
On rear wheel drive cars with a solid axle housing, a bad axle bearing will eventually allow differential oil to leak past the axle seal and foul the brake shoes, with the result that the brakes will have to be replaced as well. If a rear axle bearing goes bad enough, it can also result in the brake drum making constant contact with the brake shoes and ruining them with excessive heat resulting in brake failure.
Front axle bearings can allow the wheel to lay over a little so that it's constantly rubbing against the brakes and can heat them up so much that it ruins the brake caliper and causes brake failure.
On front-wheel-drive cars, sometimes the rolling portion of the bearings are still good, but where the inner bearing race presses into the wheel hub can get worn and loose, resulting in extra play in the wheel. This extra play can result in the rotors rubbing excessively on the brake pads and cause damage the brakes due to excessive heat. Sometimes this can run quietly. In other circumstances it will make a cyclic harsh squeaking noise.
In order to minimize cost of any of the above repairs, it's best to take care of them sooner rather than later. Left unrepaired, bad axle bearings will eventually damage related components that are critical to your safety. See personal note under General discussion of service and repair issues to keep in mindheading.
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Axle Seals Front:
On front wheel drive cars, the axles plug into the final drive portion of the transaxle assembly. If these seals are leaking, then the final drive portion loses its fluid. On many automatic transmission front-wheel drive cars, the final drive has a separate fluid compartment from the transmission portion of the transaxle. When this is the case, you can't check the fluid level of the final drive except by means of raising the car on the hoist and pulling a drain plug. For some, the final drive and the transmission share the same fluid, which can be checked with the dipstick. For manual transmissions the fluid compartments are shared, but, again, you have to raise it up and pull the fill plug to check it. If you know you have a leak of any consequence, probably a good idea to simply repair it so that you don't run low on fluid between checks.
For the older trucks and Land Cruisers with solid front axle housings, the inner axle seal is intended to keep the gear oil in the differential. When the seal leaks, it allows the gear oil to flow past it and into the steering knuckle area and on out into the wheel bearings. The earliest indication is usually that steering knuckle starts leaking some goopy grease as the gear oil dilutes the grease in the steering knuckle and the wiper seal is no longer able to contain the grease in its area. If left unattended, the oil continues to flood and dilute the grease in the wheel bearings, and eventually leaks past the wheel bearing seals and fouls the front brake pads and rotors.
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Axle Seals Rear:
When the rear axle seals leak in vehicles with solid rear axle housings, it leaks gear oil from the rear differential, which leaks out into the rear brake area and fouls your brake shoes. When the shoes get impregnated with gear oil, they can't be effectively cleaned, so it's best to replace the shoes. When you try to clean them, they look dry for a short while until the oil come seeping to the surface from the within the braking material. In addition to the change in braking characteristics, the braking material that's been soaked in oil is more likely to separate from the brake shoe and cause sudden brake failure.
When the rear axle seal fails, the gear oil flows past and through the rear axle bearing while making its way out to the brake shoes. This bearing is a sealed bearing that starts out packed with grease. The oil finds its way past the seals and tends to wash the grease out as if flows through. Because of this, when you've got a failed rear axle seal, we recommend replacing the rear axle bearing at the same time even though the bearing itself hasn't failed yet in order to avoid having to repeat the labor when the bearing fails for lack of lubrication. In the case of the bearing failing for lack of lubrication, that can result in a failed seal, which can wind up fouling your brake shoes and ruining them all over again. Best to be thorough and just do it right the first time.
In the case of the rear differential with independent rear suspension, leaky axle seals allow the rear differential to lose its gear oil. It's inconvenient to have to continually check and recheck the differential fluid level, as to do so requires putting the car up in the air. Because of this, if it's a leak of any consequence, it's probably a good idea to simply replace the seals in order to avoid damage to the rear end.
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Ball Joints:
Ball joints allow your wheels to turn corners while still staying firmly attached to your car. If your ball joints are worn, you may have noticed it clunking at times as you drive as the wheels encounter bumps and irregularities in the road. Although in the early stages this wear isn't an urgent issue, it can become a safety hazard as the wear becomes more severe. Aside from the safety issue it poses, it also encourages premature tire wear, as the wheels are no longer held in proper alignment and are allowed to wander.
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Battery:
I have quite a strong bias in favor of Interstate batteries, which are made by the same company that makes Toyota's batteries, which is Johnson Controls. I have a strong bias against batteries made by Exide. The Toyota batteries made by Johnson Controls have an excellent track record of longevity. In the early 90's Toyota switched over to Exide for one or two years, and for the first time that I'm aware of they started having to warranty lots of batteries that were failing in less than 12 months. They switched back to batteries made by Johnson Controls, and that I know haven't had trouble with bad batteries since. Throughout the 90's we saw the same results with Exide made batteries sold under other companies' labels as well. During that time period, Les Schwab batteries were made by Exide, and over and over we encountered situations where the customer would have a problem "that couldn't possibly be the battery because it's only 3 months old" that would in fact prove to be another bad battery made by Exide.
Batteries are more susceptible to failure during cold weather, due to a combination of the battery being at a lower level of chemical activity when cold, and the engine simply being more difficult to crank when it's oil is thicker due to being cold. A failing battery can have a number of symptoms. A gradually failing batter will progressively crank the engine over more slowly during startup. Often times the progression is so gradual that the primary driver doesn't notice it because each day it's performance seems essentially the same as it did the day before. A weak battery gets drained of charge much more easily as well, so that perhaps only a few minutes of sitting with accessories on but the engine off will discharge the battery so that you can't start the car.
If the battery is discharged enough that you no longer get a slow crank out of it, oftentimes the starter will give multiple clicks for a single turn of the key. This happens because the battery has just enough power to engage the starter gear with the engine, but at that point it requires much more electrical power than the battery is able to supply, which causes the battery voltage to drop so low that it can't even maintain keeping the starter gear engaged. So, the starter momentarily releases, and then as soon as the higher demand is removed, the battery is able to supply enough power to reactivate the starter. This happens repeatedly back-to-back producing multiple clicks for as long as the key is held to the start position.
An alternate cause of the same symptom of multiple clicks from the starter can be poor connections from the cables to the battery, which, again, allow just enough power through to engage the starter, but not enough to maintain engagement in the face of the higher demands made by trying to crank the engine. Occasionally the battery or the battery connections will fail at just the right amount of failure to allow the starter to give a single click and then hold but not crank. More often the symptom of a single click but no crank indicates a problem with the starter, or with the power supply from the key to the solenoid that activates the starter. Occasionally, though, the battery and/or connections can explain the single click.
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Battery Clamps, Battery Connectors:
Battery connectors tend to get corroded due to the battery venting sulfuric acid vapors. If the corrosion is severe enough, it eats away the metal of the clamp that connects between the battery cable and the battery terminal. When replacing these, we generally use a marine style clamp that comes with an upright stud to bolt the cable ends to. Alternatively we use a connector like the original connectors from Toyota. A kind of clamp that I hate to see is the style with a "clam-shell" portion that clamps onto the naked wire-end of the cable. I hate these, because they seem to be a magnet for hidden corrosion that leads to starting problems where the starter won't crank.
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Battery Service:
The battery tends to give off sulfuric acid vapors as it goes through its charging and discharging cycles. This acid tends to cause the battery terminals and connections to corrode. It can also create a film of acid across the top of the battery which results in the battery tending to discharge across the surface, and which causes the battery to go dead more quickly during times of prolonged sitting.
In addition to the terminals getting the obvious blue and white crystalline build-up that needs to be cleaned off during a battery service, the metal surfaces of the battery terminals and clamps can become oxidized and become ineffective at conducting the large amounts of electricity needed to start the car. This doesn't look that noteworthy-just kind of a dark gray skin that develops on the surface of the lead-but it needs to be scraped off till shiny.
We like to spray liquid grease on the terminals to protect them against further corrosion. I don't like those little felt pads that some shops install around the terminal and under the clamp. They lift the clamp up so that it's not able to seat down all the way, and with the tapered terminals, it's not at all uncommon to see the clamps end up being loose on the terminal and unable to be tightened down properly with the felt in place.
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Belts/Drive Belts (for the engine):
Your belts are important for cooling your engine, charging the battery, and maintaining ease of steering. Even your air-conditioning belt is important, in that if it breaks it can derail one of the other belts that is more immediately critical to your engine's wellbeing. If your belts are old and cracking, it's a good idea to replace them preemptively before they break.
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Brake Hydraulic Fluid Flush:
The standard Dot-4 brake hydraulic fluid that Toyota, Lexus, and Scion and most other manufacturers use is hygroscopic-that is to say, it actively absorbs moisture out of the air, which then becomes a corrosive contaminant. Toyota is silent on service intervals for the brake hydraulics, which is odd, because Lexus-their sister company-recommends that it be flushed every 30,000 miles, which seems to be a common (though not universal) industry standard elsewhere as well. The brake fluid is exposed to atmospheric air through the vents in the reservoir cap. Over time, it absorbs water out of the air, which is then dispersed throughout the system, and which is harmful to the insides of the hydraulic brake lines, master cylinder, wheel cylinders, and calipers.
The presence of water in the brake fluid also lowers the boiling point of your brake fluid. When your brake fluid boils, it creates vapor pockets in the lines and/or cylinders. The hydraulic brake system is dependent on having non-compressible fluid to apply the brakes with, not vapor pockets that will compress and so fail to generate the pressures needed to apply the brakes. Your brakes generate an incredible amount of heat. In cases of prolonged braking-say coming down a long curvy mountain road-that heat applied to the moisture in the fluid can result in the fluid boiling and a nearly complete loss of braking ability when you need it most.
It should be pointed out that flushing your brake hydraulics is strictly an act of long-term preventative maintenance. Under normal circumstances with normal braking, your brakes won't feel any different after flushing them than before.
The brake fluid starts out clear and almost completely without color. It gets darker and transitions to amber and eventually black with age. In the absence of service records, this serves as a casual indicator of age. Just as a casual aside, the clutch hydraulic fluid, which is identical to the brake fluid, turns black much more quickly than the brake fluid does. I speculate that this is perhaps because of two factors: First, the two systems are each exposed to the air through vent caps with the same sized vents in the reservoir caps. The clutch hydraulic system though has a much smaller amount of fluid in it. As a result, the same total amount of moisture absorbed becomes a much higher percentage of the whole, and so has a greater effect. Secondly, the hydraulic fluid in the brake system is routinely exposed to much higher temperatures, and so has a tendency to cook some of the moisture back out of the fluid. This is just my theory, and I haven't ever seen it discussed anywhere else.
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Brake Master Cylinder:
The brake master cylinder provides hydraulic pressure to activate the brakes when you push on the brake pedal. It can fail in a number of ways. If it is losing the ability to generate and hold hydraulic pressure, the brake pedal may either intermittently or consistently go much lower to the floor than is normal while at the same time you experience a significant loss of stopping ability. This can happen even though the brake fluid reservoir is full of brake fluid.
It can also fail by means of leaking the hydraulic fluid out externally. Usually when this happens, the brakes continue to operate normally until enough fluid is lost that the hydraulic system gets air in it, at which time the brake pedal gets soft and spongy feeling, and again, you experience significant loss of stopping ability.
If someone were to misadjust it with insufficient freeplay, the brake master cylinder wouldn't be able to properly release the brakes. In this case, the pedal gets harder and harder, and as the brakes get hot and heat up the brake fluid, it expands and the brakes begin to self-activate even more till the vehicle eventually can't move any further. Incorrect fluid substituted for brake hydraulic fluid can swell the inner seals and result in the same effect.
The brake master cylinder is critical to your safety. If it should fail completely, you would have no brakes whatsoever.
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Brakes:
Brake wear is something you can generally stay aware of and handle as a routine matter. For instance, we routinely do an informal brake inspection every time we do an oil change. If needed, a formal brake inspection can be performed to assess braking performance, brake pad and/or shoe state of wear, and the condition of the rotors, drums, and wheel cylinders. If your brakes are allowed to wear too far, you risk diminished braking ability and increased cost when the brakes get to the point of grinding metal to metal on the drums or rotors. By far, your best course of action is to replace your worn brakes prior to that stage of wear.
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Brakes: Machining Drums and Rotors and Other Concerns:
There are different approaches to performing brake jobs that reflect different agendas and concerns. Some shops will want to replace everything in sight every time they replace the worn brake parts. My assumption is that they do this in part to eliminate as much judgement as possible on the part of the mechanic to reduce liability, and secondly, of course, there's the profit motive to sell all of those parts each time a brake job is done.
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Brake Calipers:
At Integrity Auto, we routinely reuse the brake calipers. If the caliper sliders are binding, we routinely clean and lubricate them, free them up, and reuse them. If the caliper pistons are leaking or frozen we would replace the caliper, but that's a tiny minority of the time.
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Brake Rotors--Machining, Replacing, Etc:
Some shops always insist on either replacing or machining the rotors and drums when replacing brakes. I'm comfortable with a couple of approaches here. I'm comfortable machining them, and believe that the final outcome will be more certain to be the best brake job we can do. We machine the rotors on the car, so the final effect smoothes out any effects that might be there as a result of the hub not being perfectly true.
The two rotors at that point are very flat and have an ideal texture for breaking in the new brakes. Also, when the rotors have been freshly machined, the new brakes are less likely to squeal. If a customer expresses sensitivity to brakes squealing, then I'm heavily biased toward machining them even if there are no other problems with the rotors. My two award-winning master technicians with years of experience both prefer to machine the rotors in order to assure the best brake job with the least possibility of customer dissatisfaction. Having said all that, if the rotors visually look ok—flat, not worn irregularly—and seem to be symptom free without any shuddering or shimmying when braking—I'm comfortable reusing them without machining them as long as the customer isn't concerned with the possibility of some brake squealing.
In this instance, there is the possibility that we will believe the rotors to be symptom free, but be unaware that the rotors do in fact have some symptoms at higher speeds or when going downhill after braking enough to get hot. As far as the best-case braking in the first instance (with rotors machined) versus the good-enough braking in the second instance, I'm not convinced that most people would feel the difference, especially after a couple of days of the brake pads seating in. One further argument in favor of not machining rotors that appear to be in good condition is that it removes metal from the rotors and effectively shortens their lives. There is a legal minimum thickness below which it is illegal to machine them. Every machining moves them a little closer to that legal limit (as does normal wear through normal use).
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Brake Wheel Cylinders:
When replacing rear brake shoes, we routinely replace the wheel cylinders along with the shoes, even if there's no evidence that the wheel cylinders are failing. We do this because we've seen too much of a pattern of the wheel cylinders (that weren't leaking prior to the brake job) leaking brake fluid after the internal pistons and seals are repositioned due to the new brake shoes putting them back in the center of the wheel cylinder. When this happens, the fluid fouls the shoes and ruins them, and you end up having to do the entire brake job over again.
Of course brake wheel cylinders can leak in other circumstances as well. In the very early stages, a leaking wheel cylinder may often be replaced without requiring new brake shoes. As they continue to leak, however, they foul your brake shoes. This decreases your braking ability and requires new shoes as well. Continued leaking of a single wheel cylinder will eventually deplete the brake fluid supply to half of the brake system, which dramatically decreases your braking ability.
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Camshaft
The camshaft lobes that open the engine's valves operate under some of the most severe loads of all the parts in the engine. A worn camshaft will reduce your engine's performance. More important, once the camshaft begins to wear significantly, its rate of wear accelerates. As a result, metal particles are introduced into the oil, which causes the rest of the engine to wear out more rapidly. If your camshaft is worn, and especially if it's rate of wear is apparent due to the valves rapidly getting out of adjustment due to changing clearances, you should replace the camshaft. At this point, you should also consider whether it might be appropriate to also overhaul the head.
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Carbon Buildup in Combustion Chambers
A small amount of carbon build-up in the combustion chambers is a normal byproduct of burning hydrocarbon fuels. Excessive amounts of carbon in the combustion chambers take up space and can increase the compression pressures to the point that the engine starts pinging under certain conditions-usually conditions involving fully a warm engine, hot weather, and some level of accelerating.
Excessive oil burning can lead to carbon buildup. Chronic low rpm driving can also lead to increased carbon buildup. We had a customer that had a truck that had a chronic pinging problem, despite the fact that his EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) system worked, his timing had been retarded to decrease the tendency to ping, decarboning treatment had been run through the engine, he didn't burn oil, and he used the 92 octane fuel.
This guy pussyfooted around at low rpm's, always upshifting into higher gears early. His girlfriend had an identical truck that she drove aggressively and had no pinging issues. This guy took a trip across the country that required his crossing the Rocky Mountains twice, with a lot of sustained wider throttle opening than was his normal practice. The sustained heavier demands on the engine had apparently burned out the carbon, because when he got back, we were able to put his timing back to full advance, and he was able to use regular 87 octane gas without any pinging. (See also .)
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Carburetor Mixture Adjustment
If your vehicle's is running either a bit "lean" (not enough gas) or a bit "rich" (too much gas) at idle, it can result in a rough or erratic idle. For many people this condition seems predominantly to be simply an aesthetic issue that subtracts a bit of pleasure from their driving. It does decrease fuel efficiency and gas mileage. Either condition also increases the amount your vehicle contributes to pollution. If it's far enough out of adjustment it can make the difference between passing the DEQ emissions test or not.
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Catalytic Converter:
Our experience is that the Toyota catalytic converters are clearly and significantly superior to the aftermarket catalytic converters. They clean up the emissions much more aggressively right out of the box, and they typically last from five to ten times as long. The brand new aftermarket cats we've had occasion to test have passed the emissions test by the thinnest of margins, where a Toyota catalytic converter would have easily passed with room to spare.
The Toyota cats run much cleaner on sudden accelerations as well. We've tested the emissions of Toyotas with brand new Toyota catalytic converters on repeated back-to-back snap accelerations (which lends itself to creating maximum emissions) and the result has been that we see a high of only 50 or 60 parts per million of unburned hydrocarbons (HC). Doing the same test on brand new aftermarket cats has resulted in hydrocarbon readings as high as 1700 to 2000 parts per million.
As for longevity, over and over we've seen people who have replaced their cats with aftermarket cats get stuck in a cycle where from then on they have to replace the catalytic converter every two years just to make it through DEQ. A further problem with aftermarket cats is that in order to install the "universal" cat, the muffler shop will cut a section out of the original piping in order to weld in the non-Toyota cat. At that point, if the owner ever gets frustrated with having to replace the cat over and over and wants to return to a Toyota cat, he has to spend even more than he would have, because he now has to replace the piping on either side of the catalytic converter in order to restore the bolt-up flanges that have been cut off.
We were recently discussing cat costs with a Tundra owner and had occasion to calculate the cost per mile of one of Toyota's most expensive catalytic converters. In this instance, the cost worked out to about 1 ¾ cents per mile. It had lasted 150,000 miles. Models with Toyota's less expensive cats commonly work out to less than half a cent per mile.
If the aftermarket cat this person was considering were to fail within a year-which is not uncommon-then it would cost about 5 cents per mile if it lasted 15,000 miles. That's approaching 3 times the cost per mile. (Okay, okay, it's 2.857 times the cost per mile.)
While going over this with the customer, she mentioned that a muffler shop had told her that they were using an OEM part that would be the same as the Toyota part because supposedly OEM meant that it was made by the original manufacturer for Toyota. What OEM or Original Equipment Manufacturer actually means is that this company at some time has supplied some sort of part for Toyota-could be anything, could be a gasket. What it doesn't mean is that they provided the catalytic converters. If they had provided the cats, they certainly wouldn't be trying to sell generic cats that required cutting the old ones out and welding the new ones in.
As far as Catalytic converter failures go, they can fail in a number of ways and from a number of causes. Most commonly, their ability to clean up emissions eventually simply fades out and they either fail the DEQ emissions test, or, for newer vehicles that monitor the converters, the computer can turn on the check engine light and will set a code that says "catalyst efficiency below threshold." If your engine is chronically burning oil, it tends to leave crusty deposits on the cat and make it effectively inert. If those deposits continue long enough, eventually it plugs up the cat and you experience a severe loss of power, because the exhaust can exit quickly enough to allow the engine to take in the quantities of air it needs for power. Driving the car with a cylinder misfiring causes the cat to overheat as it ignites all the unburned gasoline to burn in the cat itself. In this case, it can run so hot that the catalytic converter material disintegrates. This can lead to chunks of material getting lodged in the exhaust system in a manner that plugs up the exhaust and causes severe loss of power. Another way in which the catalytic material can be broken up is if something strikes the outside of the cat hard enough.
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Clutch Assembly
As a clutch assembly approaches the end of its wear, it will often begin to show it by slipping. When this happens, the engine rpm's tend to flare up faster than what correlates with the speed of the vehicle. With regards to slipping, usually a clutch will give some notice before it goes out.
If you catch it early, you can choose when to perform the repair so that it least interferes with your schedule. If possible, you should avoid waiting till the last possible minute since procrastination increases the likelihood that you will be stranded due to complete clutch failure. We would be happy to test drive your vehicle with you to ascertain the urgency of this repair.
There are other means by which the clutch can fail. Occasionally a piece will break off and get lodged in the pressure plate assembly so that it can't engage properly, and may abruptly begin to slip. Or, more often, a piece will break off and get lodged so that the clutch pressure plate can't disengage properly, and it becomes difficult if not impossible to shift in and out of gear. Sometimes nothing breaks, and nothing is worn out, but the accumulated dust from wear will cause the friction disc to bind on the transmission-input shaft. In this case the disc doesn't disengage properly, and again, it becomes difficult if not impossible to shift in and out of gear while the engine is running.
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Clutch Hydraulic Flush
The standard Dot-4 brake used in the clutch hydraulic system that Toyota, Lexus, and Scion and most other manufacturers use is hygroscopic-that is to say, it actively absorbs moisture out of the air, which then becomes a corrosive contaminant. Toyota is silent on service intervals for the brake and clutch hydraulics, which is odd, because Lexus-their sister company-recommends that the brake hydraulics be flushed every 30,000 miles, which seems to be a common (though not universal) industry standard elsewhere as well. The brake fluid in the clutch hydraulic system is exposed to atmospheric air through the vents in the reservoir cap. Over time, it absorbs water out of the air, which is then dispersed throughout the system, and which is harmful to the insides of the hydraulic lines, master cylinder, and slave cylinder.
It should be pointed out that flushing your clutch hydraulics is strictly an act of long-term- preventative maintenance. Under normal circumstances the clutch pedal won't feel any different after flushing than before.
The hydraulic fluid starts out clear and almost completely without color. It gets darker and transitions to amber and eventually black with age. In the absence of service records, this serves as a casual indicator of age. Just as a casual aside, the clutch hydraulic fluid, which is identical to the brake fluid, turns black much more quickly than the brake fluid does. I speculate that this is perhaps because of two factors: First, the two systems are each exposed to the air through vent caps with the same sized vents in the reservoir caps. The clutch hydraulic system though has a much smaller amount of fluid in it. As a result, the same total amount of moisture absorbed becomes a much higher percentage of the whole, and so has a greater effect. Secondly, the hydraulic fluid in the brake system is routinely exposed to much higher temperatures, and so has a tendency to cook some of the moisture back out of the fluid. This is just my theory, and I haven't ever seen it discussed anywhere else.
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Clutch Pedal Bracket
If the clutch pedal bracket cracks and/or begins to tear away from the firewall area, the clutch pedal movement becomes ineffective and the clutch doesn't disengage properly. In this case, it becomes difficult or impossible to shift in and out of gear when the engine is running.
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Clutch Master Cylinder
Your vehicle's clutch master cylinder provides hydraulic pressure to disengage the clutch when you push the clutch pedal in. It can fail in a number of ways. If it is losing the ability to generate and hold hydraulic pressure, the clutch pedal may either intermittently or consistently go much lower to the floor than is normal while at the same time you experience an inability to disengage the clutch. When this happens it becomes difficult or impossible to get into gear (or out of gear if already in) if the engine is running.
This can happen even though the clutch fluid reservoir is full of clutch fluid. It can also fail by means of leaking the hydraulic fluid out externally. Usually when this happens, the clutch hydraulic system continues to operate normally until enough fluid is lost that the hydraulic system gets air in it. At that point, the clutch pedal gets soft feeling, goes to the floor too easily, and again, it becomes difficult if not impossible to get in and out of gear while the engine is running.
If someone were to misadjust it with insufficient freeplay, the clutch master cylinder can't properly release the hydraulic pressure, and the clutch tends to become more and more disengaged as if you were riding around with the pedal partially depressed. In this case, the clutch will start slipping and behaves as if it is worn out. If left uncorrected, it will in fact greatly accelerate the wear of the clutch's friction disc.
Incorrect fluid substituted for the hydraulic fluid can swell the inner seals and result in the same effect. Should use standard dot-4 brake fluid. When the master cylinder is leaking, usually it is dripping out under the dash. Prolonged leakage will foul your interior carpet or matting with clutch hydraulic fluid. This oily fluid then gets tracked into your house. If it fails entirely it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to shift in and out of gear.
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Clutch Slave Cylinder
The primary way a clutch slave cylinder fails is through leaking. This depletes your clutch's hydraulic fluid. If the hydraulic fluid gets too low, it becomes difficult, if not impossible to shift your car in and out of gear.
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Codes/Check Engine Light/Malfunction Indicator Light/MIL
The check engine light only comes on when the computer believes there's an actual problem. It never comes on based on mileage. The computer will give a trouble code that indicates either the condition that brought about the code (like "Lean condition") or the system that it believes to be functioning incorrectly (like "EGR flow insufficient"). Sometimes the failed system will be electrical in nature that will result in a code like "Open or short circuit in coolant temperature sensor circuit," in which case there's likely a circuit problem either in the temperature sensor itself, or the wiring between it and the computer.
Some failures won't be in any of the above items, but will rather be a result of a poor power or ground supplies to the computer that control it's ability to think properly. In any case, whatever the problem is it needs to be diagnosed. It's not uncommon for people to mistakenly believe that our use of a computer eliminates the need for diagnosis. The computer is a wonderful tool that aids us in diagnosis. It's useful enough that we've spent thousands of dollars buying computers and keeping them updated, but a computer is still just a tool; it's not magic, and it doesn't know everything. We are still heavily reliant on the technician's knowledge, experience, and judgement. Depending on the complexity of the system, we will normally get permission to spend a range of time and money for our initial diagnostic time.
Within that time we will do whatever we think will best further your purposes. Once we engage with it, it can go three ways. Best case scenario, we diagnose your problem and repair it. Next best, but very common, we diagnose your Toyota and then call you up with a quote for the repair. At that point you can say yes or no, however you want us to proceed. Worst case, we get to the end of our allotted time and we still haven't come to a conclusion as to the cause of the problem. This worst case is unusual, but it's a real possibility that should be acknowledged.
People often ask if we charge for diagnostic time. The answer is yes. They also ask if we still charge for diagnostic time if the agree to do the service or repair. The answer to that is that to the extent that the diagnostic efforts and the repair efforts overlap, the customer gets the full benefit of that overlap. To the extent that diagnostic efforts and the repairs are separate, they will be charged for separately. So, for instance: If we have to disassemble something in order to tell you that it's defective, then we may already be half way through the labor required for replacement, and of course you'll get the benefit of that. But, if we diagnose something that doesn't require disassembly, then the repair is a whole new activity on top of the initial diagnostic time, and you'll be charged for each individually.
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Combination Switch
The combination switch is the group of switches that control your turn signals, your headlights, your wipers, and your horn. These are all intended for your safety. Sometimes as they fail they go through an intermittent phase where if you fiddle with them just right you can get them to work. You need to be able to count on their working consistently without your being distracted by having to fiddle with the switches, and if they are failing, I encourage you to replace them.
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Control Arm Bushings
The control arm bushings can fail by tearing loose. This is part of the front suspension system, and is intended to help keep your tires pointed in the right direction. As they wear, your steering becomes slightly more approximate. As these bushings tear loose, your tires also wear out more rapidly due to misalignment.
It also gives your vehicle a squishier feel on bumps, along with groans or clunks. For most of your normal driving circumstances the problems presented are no more urgent than indicated above-the bad bushings aren't going to make your wheels suddenly fall off, and they're not going to make you suddenly dart into a ditch.
However, in an emergency situation that involves braking and turning and dodging others all at the same instant and when your needing all the control you can get-you want all the control you can get to avoid a possible accident. In those situations, it's nice to have the suspension doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing, and the wheels pointing exactly where they're supposed to be pointing. Right?
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Coolant Temperature Gauge
The cooling system temperature gauge should give valid readings across the range of the engine's operating temperatures. Although an inaccurate temp gauge certainly causes no direct damage to your car, it's important that you be able to trust your gauges. How else can they do their job of warning you adequately of an overheating engine before it's too late?
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Cooling System Flush
Good clean antifreeze not only protects your engine from freezing in the winter, but of course also acts as a coolant that keeps the engine from overheating year round. In addition, it has corrosion inhibitors to prevent the metal in the cooling system from being eaten away by the water in the coolant. It also has ingredients that act as lubricants to prolong the life of the water pump seals. As long as it isn't diluted with water, the freeze protection and the ability to cool your engine stays good forever. However, the corrosion inhibitors break down with time and heat. Antifreeze that gets too old will begin to eat away at important internal engine components and plug up internal cooling passages, which can lead to overheating and cause additional damage, expense, and inconvenience.
When flushing the cooling system, we drain the radiator and the block and run fresh water through the system until there's clean water running out of both the radiator and the engine block drains prior to refilling the system with new coolant.
This may be putting a fine point on things, but Toyota specifies the use of deionized water (water that's had the minerals stripped out of it) in its cooling systems. This is a more important concern in areas with a hard water supply. Deionized water (or distilled water) is recommended for both 1st and 2nd generation coolants, as the minerals in the water can precipitate out and restrict coolant passages. This issue is intensified with coolants that have silicates in them, as the silicates combine with the minerals and together they precipitate out of solution and restrict coolant passages. In this instance, it also results in increased corrosion due to a lowered concentration of silicates. We're fortunate to have soft water in Portland, and this is what we use along with antifreeze when we are filling a cooling system. In systems that require Toyota Super Long Life coolant this is a moot point, as it comes premixed with deionized water.
Types of coolant: Red, pink or green? The short answer:
The simplest most straight forward recommendation we can make is to use Toyota's red, Long Life Coolant where specified, and their pink Super Long Life Coolant where specified. On vehicles older than 1998, Toyota's recommendations are very general. We have come to believe that the Toyota Long Life Coolant is preferable for these vehicles as well in order to reduce clogged radiators.
Types of coolant: Red, pink or green? The longer answer:
Regarding generic green coolant versus Toyota's red coolant in the older Toyotas (see section on older Toyotas through 1998 for broader discussion) although I'm willing to use either as per customer preferences, I have come to have a definite preference for Toyota's Long Life red coolant. It was designed with full engineering knowledge of the various materials (seals and alloyed metals) it needs to be compatible with. It was also deliberately designed with zero silicates. While the silicates in other coolants provide excellent corrosion protection, over the long haul they tend to precipitate out and contribute to restricting coolant passages. This can eventually result in overheating and/or having to replace the radiator. The additional cost of Toyota's coolant is minimal if you consider that the cost is amortized over a two to three year period and that the superior coolant may save having to replace your radiator.
I should note a balancing concern: On some engines where the timing belt runs the water pump, a red coolant leak with its build-up of crystals can cause the timing-belt tensioner bearing to seize up at the pivot. This can result in the timing belt going slack and hopping out of time. Usually this happens in cases where the timing belt was past due for replacement anyway. I've never seen that happen with the green coolant. Obviously there's a trade off of concerns at play here.
The older Toyotas and Lexus (through 1998) (for which we recommend Toyota's Long Life red coolant) simply call for ethylene glycol coolant. Ethylene glycol is the main antifreeze and heat-transferring ingredient in all three generations of Toyota coolant. To specify ethylene glycol doesn't say anything about which additives and corrosion inhibitors are best. Although Toyota sold its own red stuff, I'm not aware that they published any specifications that would overtly steer people away from using the common green generic alternative. However, my recent understanding is that even at that time Toyota was using zero silicates in their coolant. (See section on 1999 and newer Toyotas for further discussion on the use of silicates and their tendency to clog coolant passages.)
Toyota called for a coolant change every two years or every 30k miles. We encourage the same, although I'm comfortable with 3 years or 30k. For years I actively preferred the green antifreeze to the red due to my strong impression that the red coolant more actively finds its way past seals and gaskets. I still have no question that I see red crystallized coolant deposits oozing past gaskets and seals more often than I see signs of the green coolant leaking. However, Ryan here recently raised the possibility that the red coolant may not leak any more aggressively, but may simply leave more visible tracks. This may be the case, and in fact seems likely to be so. I know that on older water pumps we always see some staining below the weep-hole on vehicles that use green coolant. This staining may represent a similar amount of seepage that would have shown up as a mass of crystals on a water pump that was using red coolant. I really can't say for sure—in either case it's a slow seepage that dries out as is emerges.
Within the first year after Ryan came on board he mentioned that since he'd left Lexus where they exclusively used Toyota coolant he was seeing a lot more radiators plugged up. He said he'd virtually never seen clogged radiators even on cars that had over 200k on them. The clincher came for me when we encountered a radiator that we had replaced maybe 30k prior that was already showing visible clogging of the passages. On that day I became a believer in using Toyota's Long Life red coolant, and that's what we promote to all our customers now who have vehicles that are 2003 or older.
In 1999 Toyota and Lexus came out with their red long-life coolant, which is definitely what we want to use in these vehicles. They still recommended coolant replacement every two years or every 30k, and this is the recommendation we follow, although I'm comfortable with 3 years and 30k. Toyota calls for coolant with zero-silicate, zero-amine, and zero-borate content. They specify that "use of improper coolants may damage the cooling system" and specify that their coolant is designed so that it "will not clog radiators from silicone gelling" and "will not corrode aluminum surfaces like coolants that contain borate." When I've seen charts displaying the chemical profiles of brand new coolants, the Toyota long-life coolant is clearly different than Prestone's green-colored alternative, with the Prestone coolant clearly having the silicon and borate content that Toyota engineers specifically want to avoid.
In 2004 Toyota and Lexus came out with their pink super-long-life coolant. This is what we use for these vehicles. Their recommendation on this coolant is that it be replaced the first time at ten years or 100k miles. Their recommendation thereafter is that it be replaced every 5 years or 50k miles. This puzzles me, and though I'm not characteristically cynical, I find that a cynical part of me speculating that possibly Toyota has taken this route as part of an effort to keep their advertised cost of ownership lower in order to enhance new car sales. This coolant comes premixed with a 50% of it being deionized water. I haven't seen any chemical profiles comparing this coolant to the previous generation Toyota red long-life coolant, but they aren't incompatible, because Toyota specifies that you can add the Toyota red long-life coolant to top off systems that have the Toyota pink super-long-life coolant. Different dealers have opted for different schedules on flushing this coolant. Some do it exactly by the book with the first being at 100k and the second at 50k. At the time of this writing, the Lexus dealership I'm acquainted with was recommending coolant being flushed every 30k, and observed that they always get some particulate sediment coming out of the system with the coolant.
Toyota's recommendations assume a perfectly maintained coolant system, i.e. proper mixture, proper pressure, and continually full. Obviously if the mixture is off—diluted from adding water—that will decrease the effectiveness of the corrosion inhibitors and shorten the effective life of the coolant. Same with pressures: too low a pressure due to a faulty radiator cap increases the likelihood of internal metal erosion due to cavitation. Even allowing the system to go low increases corrosion, as the mixture of air and steam in the system is much more corrosive than being constantly bathed in coolant. This is apparently more especially so for coolants with organic-acid-technology based corrosion inhibitors, which is the class of inhibitors that Toyota's Super Long Life coolant uses.
Regarding the service interval, I'm increasingly impressed that just to look at it, the coolant typically doesn't look bad even at 100k. If customers prefer to go exactly with Toyota's recommendations, I have no quarrel with that, although I at this point I still have some reservations that it's ultimately for the best to wait 100,000 miles and/or ten years before replacing the coolant for the first time. Time will tell.
There seems to be some rationale for flushing the Super-Long-Life coolant every five years or 50k miles. It's not a hard recommendation, but I think it may make sense in light of the fact that:
- Toyota makes the same recommendation of five years and 50k miles from there on after the first 100k, and also because
- Toyota recommends coolant changes at 30k with their older (not-premixed) coolant that is chemically similar enough to be used as a top-off coolant.
Note: The Super Long Life coolant shouldn't be used in the older Toyotas that came with brass & copper radiators, as it's organic-acid-technology corrosion inhibitors aren't effective for these metals or the soldering used in these radiators.
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Cooling System Hoses
Toyota's cooling-system hoses seem to hold up amazingly well. Loss of coolant from a leaky or ruptured hose can cause catastrophic engine failure due to overheating. Hoses need to be kept free from oil, as oil contamination will cause the rubber to breakdown and weakens it so that it's prone to rupturing. Bulging hoses are a sign of weakened rubber that's vulnerable to rupturing. Leaking or compromised hoses should be replaced.
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Cooling System Leak
The cooling system is supposed to be a contained system. As various gaskets and seals age, eventually some of them may begin to leak. If it's a significant leak, it needs to be dealt with directly. Sometimes at the early stages when the leak is only at a level of minor seepage, people will monitor the coolant level and live with it till it's progressed to a more significant rate of loss.
However, loss of coolant can cause catastrophic engine failure due to overheating. If you have any known leaks that are beyond bare seepage, then at minimum, you should regularly check your car's coolant level and keep a careful eye on the temperature gauge. Due to the possible serious consequences of any lapse in your vigilance, it's probably best to simply perform the needed repairs.
Note: We have a real aversion to the use of chemicals put into the cooling system for the sake of stopping leaks from the inside out. These chemicals purport to plug up the leak, which sometimes they do for awhile, but they also tend to plug up cooling passages with the result that the engine can overheat and develop worse problems that are far more expensive, like a blown head gasket. Stop-leak additives can also cause the heater core passages to get plugged up, which results in your heater not heating properly.
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CV boots (also called constant velocity joint boots, or axle boots)
The front axles (and some rear axles with independent rear suspension) have flexible joints on the inner and outer ends of the axles to allow your wheels to get power smoothly even while going around corners or when going up and down relative to the vehicle. This rubber boot is intended to protect the constant-velocity joint from losing its grease and from being damaged by water or road dust.
Eventually, after flexing through millions of rotations, these boots tend to crack and split open. When this happens, if the axle joint is still good, we routinely replace the boots and repack the joints with fresh grease. As long as the boots are intact, the original Toyota joints tend to hold up so well that I prefer replacing the boots over replacing the entire axle. If the joint has been damaged, then the entire axle needs to be replaced. As the damage to the axle joint progresses, it can eventually impair your ability to corner safely. Although rare, in extreme cases it can even break.
When the axle breaks, at minimum the car abruptly loses power to the wheels and won't drive. Sometimes it can damage other surrounding parts. A friend of mine once had an axle break and it ripped loose his brake lines so that he simultaneously lost the ability either to accelerate or brake. He had just come down out of the Pyrenees Mountains-off a steep, winding road that ran along cliff's edge-and out onto a level, relatively safe place to have it happen. Whew! Close call.
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Decarboning Treatment
Carbon build-up in the combustion chambers can cause your engine to ping during certain operating conditions. Pinging is a rattle you hear on acceleration. It sometimes is a little erratic sounding; the sound is reminiscent of when you shake a can of spray paint that has the rattle ball in it.
It's also reminiscent of the noise you hear when you lug the engine by trying to accelerate while in too high a gear. Light and intermittent pinging is harmless, and in fact, for years Toyota has specifically mentioned in owner's manuals that light and intermittent pinging is acceptable. Chronic, heavy pinging can lead to severe engine damage. There are a number of factors that can lead to pinging. If the other factors check out ok, then it may be useful to run some decarboning treatment through the engine. It's an inexpensive step that sometimes yields dramatic results. (See also Carbon buildup.)
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DEQ/Department of Environmental Quality/Emission Testing and Repair/Smog Checks:
When DEQ fails a vehicle at their emissions testing facility, it's usually for one of three reasons: High emissions that have actually been measured; failed equipment as indicated by the check engine light (also called malfunction indicator light or MIL); or visible smoke. We have some of the most competent and experienced diagnosticians available to diagnose what your Toyota, Lexus, or Scion needs to pass DEQ.
The following DEQ checklist is a composite description that describes DEQ diagnostic procedures for vehicles with several generations of developments, including:
- Carbureted and fuel injected.
- With air-fuel ratio feedback (by way of O2 sensors and/or air-fuel ratio sensors) and without.
- Vehicles with catalytic converters and older vehicles without.
- Those with vacuum advance and mechanical advance and those that have electronically controlled timing.
- Ignition systems with distributors and distributorless ignition systems with ignition coils directly over the spark plugs.
- Vehicles with no onboard diagnostics built in; vehicles with first-generation onboard diagnostics that are accessed through jumper wires and blinking-light codes; and vehicles with second-generation diagnostics that are accessed through full computer hook-up.
Our DEQ testing procedures include any number of the steps listed below, not necessarily in this exact order:
- Test drive for drivability symptoms.
- Check for stored diagnostic trouble codes on vehicles equipped with onboard diagnostics.
- Check Toyota's online database to see if any bulletins have been published that apply.
- Check actual emissions if appropriate and compare to DEQ test results.
- Check various systems:
- If equipped, check air fuel ratio sensor to verify that it's giving credible signals that reflect changes of mixture that you impose on the system.
- O2 sensor, note whether:
- Active back and forth over mid range.
- If not, is computer responding to O2 sensor signal? Can quickly test by giving artificial signals (positive and negative) by passing battery voltage through your body to the computer through the O2 sensor circuit.
- Able to give full range of signal (nearly 0 volts when made lean, and nearly 1 volt when made rich).
- Can quickly register changes, from very lean to rich and back again.
- Check air/fuel ratio feedback operation.
- Are devices getting computer's switching signals?
- Are devices working?
- Air injection/suction system working?
- Check Vf1 voltage at idle and at higher rpm's. Voltage ranges from 1-5. Low voltage indicates computer compensating to make leaner, and high voltage indicates computer compensating to make richer. Mid range means no compensation needed. For OBII, check fuel trim.
- Check initial ignition timing
- Check advance systems: Mechanical, vacuum, or electronic
- Note whether it pings on test drive. (NOx related)
- Check EGR. (NOx related)
- Has vacuum signal to EGR valve when accelerating?
- If no, does vacuum modulator have pressure signal from EGR tube and a vacuum signal?
- Valve opens and causes engine rpm to drop significantly when given vacuum signal at idle?
- Valve doesn't stick open and cause a miss at idle? (HC related)
- Check Catalytic Converter
- Note emission readings at idle and 2500 rpms.
- Note how much readings flare up on transitions between rpms.
- Note how high HC readings go on a snap, full-throttle acceleration
- Note whether idle readings that improve initially after revving for awhile increase again after a few minutes of idling
- Note cat temp at inlet and at outlet. Should at least maintain temp, and preferably should increase.
- After cat is fully activated, note CO2 readings on a dead crank test. Should be 12% or better.
- Check for visible smoke when revving after prolonged idling as possible indication of oil burning.
- Pull a spark plug & check condition. (Worn or fouling?)
- Check appropriate tune items.
- Exhaust leaks? (Dilution)
- Retest emissions and/or components after work completed.
- Test drive car again after work completed.
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Diagnosis/Diagnostic Charges/Estimates
People sometime ask whether we give free estimates, when what they really mean is whether we will diagnose their Toyota, Lexus, or Scion for free. In answer to the question of estimates, sure, we provide free estimates. If you ask us the cost of a specific routine repair, we won't charge you to tell you. Regarding diagnosis, it depends. Sometimes we can simply step out into the parking lot with you and casually look at your car and tell you accurately what the problem is. In that case we are happy to have provided you with a diagnosis at no charge and without your being obligated to follow through with having us repair your vehicle. Sometimes we can provide a quickie but accurate diagnosis with a quick test drive, and we're often happy to do that at no charge. If, however, we have to have a technician spend time diagnosing it, which often involves his time, the use of special equipment, and access to his knowledge and judgement gained through years of experience, then yes, we charge for diagnosis.
It's not uncommon for people to mistakenly believe that our use of a computer eliminates the need for diagnosis. The computer is a wonderful tool that aids us in diagnosis. It's useful enough that we've spent thousands of dollars buying computers and keeping them updated, but a computer is still just a tool; it's not magic, and it doesn't know everything. We are still heavily reliant on the technician's knowledge, experience, and judgement. Depending on the complexity of the system, we will normally get permission to spend a range of time and money for our initial diagnostic time. Within that time we will do whatever we think will best further your purposes. Once we engage with it, it can go three ways. Best case scenario, we diagnose your problem and repair it.
Next best, but very common, we diagnose your Toyota and then call you up with a quote for the repair. At that point you can say yes or no, however you want us to proceed. Worst case, we get to the end of our allotted time and we still haven't come to a conclusion as to the cause of the problem. This worst case is unusual, but it's a real possibility that should be acknowledged. People often ask if we charge for diagnostic time. The answer is yes. They also ask if we still charge for diagnostic time if the agree to do the service or repair. The answer to that is that to the extent that the diagnostic efforts and the repair efforts overlap, the customer gets the full benefit of that overlap.
To the extent that diagnostic efforts and the repairs are separate, they will be charged for separately. So, for instance: If we have to disassemble something in order to tell you that it's defective, then we may already be half way through the labor required for replacement, and of course you'll get the benefit of that. But, if we diagnose something that doesn't require disassembly, then the repair is a whole new activity on top of the initial diagnostic time, and you'll be charged for each individually.
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Differential/Final Drive Service
Toyota doesn't have any recommendations as to whether to ever replace the gear oils for the final drive except in the case of severe use, in which case they say to replace it every 30k. Our belief is that the differential oil should be changed every 30,000 miles in order to avoid premature wear and costly repairs.
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Distributor O-Ring and/or Inner Seal
The distributor o-ring seals between the distributor housing and the engine to prevent engine oil from leaking out. As with other rubber seals, the rubber tends to get hard with age and to loose its resiliency. It becomes compressed as this happens and is no longer able to seal against the oil leaking past it. Since the distributor is at the top of the engine, everything below the distributor ends up getting wet with oil as well. As a result, after you repair the known leak (the distributor o-ring), and after cleaning every thing else below it that was wet, you often have come back and recheck it later to see if there are any further leaks.
The distributor's inner oil seal is to prevent oil from traveling from the engine through the distributor along its center shaft. Usually this can be resealed when it leaks. Some times the seal will have worn a groove into the shaft, in which case the entire distributor housing needs to be replaced. For many vehicles, the ignition coil is located in the distributor. When the inner seal leaks and it soaks a portion of the ignition coil which almost always results in the ignition coil body swelling and cracking wide open.
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Drive Belts (for the engine)
Your belts are important for cooling your engine, charging the battery, and maintaining ease of steering. Even your air-conditioning belt is important, in that if it breaks it can derail one of the other belts that is more immediately critical to your engine's wellbeing. If your belts are old and cracking, it's a good idea to replace them preemptively before they break.
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EGR (Exhaust gas recirculation) System
The EGR system is an emission control subsystem. It reintroduces a small amount of the exhaust gasses back into the intake manifold under certain circumstances in order to reduce the intensity of the combustion and lower peak combustion temperatures. This serves a couple of purposes: It decreases the creation of nitrogen oxides, which are a main ingredient of smog. It also slows the rate of combustion so that it is more likely to result in a controlled burn rather than a violent explosion that results in pinging.
When the EGR system isn't coming on properly (insufficient flow) it results in higher nitrogen oxide emissions and can also cause your engine to ping--that rattle you may have noticed at times on acceleration. Chronic pinging can lead to severe engine damage. When it's coming on too much or at the wrong times it can result in running rough or dying at idle, or sometimes surging at light throttle cruise.
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Emergency Brake/Parking Brake Cable
A binding park-brake cable can stick in the applied position and cause your rear brakes to wear out prematurely. Depending on how far it's driven while on, it may also heat up and ruin your rear brake drums, and even cook the hydraulic wheel cylinders, which can result in loss of brake fluid and decreased brake pedal engagement. On most Toyotas, the park-brake cable activates the automatic-brake adjusters. Consequently, if the cable is broken, the rear brakes get out of adjustment and become less effective. Even if you are mostly parking on level ground, it's a good idea to use the park brake regularly in order to keep the rear brakes in adjustment and to keep the self adjusters from seizing up due to lack of use.
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Engine Mounts
The engine mounts serve a couple of purposes. First of all, they serve to locate the engine in the proper place in the engine compartment and in proper relationship to other components. For front wheel drive vehicles, it keeps the engine and transaxle in proper alignment with the drive axles as you're accelerating and putting power to the wheels. For rear wheel drive vehicles, it they keep the engine from tipping forward and chopping a hole in the radiator with the fan. A second purpose of the engine mounts is to insulate the rest of the car and the passengers from the engine's vibrations. As the engine mounts get old and hard they tend to increasingly transmit vibrations that are felt by the passengers. Engine vibrations are also more likely to be felt if the car is involved in an accident where things get skewed so that the engine isn't quite in proper alignment and the engine mounts are under tension. Some engine mounts have a fluid portion of their core, and if the fluid leaks out and the mount collapses as it ages, then this will result in more vibrations being passed on to the rest of your Toyota, Lexus, or Scion as well.
Every time you accelerate, the engine tries to twist out of position and rotate in the opposite direction that the wheels are rotating (front wheel drive cars) or the opposite direction that the driveline is rotating (rear wheel drive vehicles). Eventually the mounts may tear loose as a result of the cumulative stresses. When they do tear loose (or collapse with the fluid filled mounts) it allows the engine to lift up and shift around quite a bit more than normal. When this starts happening, it's not unusual to feel a clunk every time you're on and off the gas when in first gear. If you open the hood and have someone put it in gear and briefly accelerate while holding their foot on the brake you can see the engine lift up and then settle back down each time they're on and off the gas.
A broken engine mount doesn't result in your engine falling out on the road. It will result in extra movement, which puts other surrounding components under more stress. The remaining engine mounts will be under more strain and will be more apt to tear as a result. Hoses and electrical harnesses-every thing that bridges between the engine and the surrounding engine compartment will be repeatedly flexed more than they were designed to withstand, with the possibility of being fatigued until they break. The axle constant velocity joints will be under greater strain as they are operating out-of-position at greater angles than intended. The bushings that the axles engage with in the final drive portion of the transaxle will experience greater sideways pressure and be more apt to wear. The air intake tube that pipes air from the air filter housing to the throttle body of the engine is far more likely to crack and split open. I've never personally seen this, but in certain cases it can cause unintended acceleration if the engine shifts in such a fashion as holds the throttle open.
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Engine Oil Leaks
Oil from leaking seals and gaskets tends to move down, due to gravity, and toward the back of the engine, due to the airflow past the engine. Because of this it's not unusual that everything beneath a leaking seal will be wet, and although you know that the leak at the top and/or front of the engine is leaking, everything below it or behind it may or may not be leaking. Often the only thing that can be said for sure about the other wet areas is that they are in fact wet. For this reason, we recommend fixing the known leaks, and then cleaning the engine to establish a clean slate. After this, come back in for a future inspection after the car has been driven long enough for a leak to show itself, but not so long that everything could be so broadly wet as to obscure the source of the leak. See Engine oil seals.
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Engine Oil Seals
If you have leaky engine oil seals, the at minimum you should be sure to regularly check your oil level to avoid damage to the engine for lack of oil. However, even with slow leaks there is good reason to repair them. Often, oil leaks are a result of seals that have gotten hard with age. These hardened seals tend to wear a groove into the sealing surface, which increases the likelihood that the metal sealing surface will need to be repaired as well. An additional concern is that adjacent rubber components like coolant hoses and suspension bushings will be damaged and significantly weakened by exposure to the oil.
These weakened coolant hoses tend to bloat and eventually become much more likely to split under pressure from the cooling system and invite damage to the engine from loss of coolant. On a personal note, when I was a kid I had engine that was leaking oil and I ended up having to overhaul it because I didn't stay on top of it closely enough. Later on, I had another oil-leaker that I was "staying on top of" till I lent it out to a friend for an extended period while I was out of the country. This engine ran out of oil and had to be rebuilt as well. Oh well, live and learn.
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Engine Oil Service
Faithfully changing your Toyota's engine oil is one of the least glamorous, but most effective steps you can take to insure that your car has a long and happy life. Our recommendation is to replace your engine oil and filter every 3000 miles. At this time we also inspect it for any other needs that may have developed in the interim.
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Engine Oil Sludge
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Engine Pan Gasket:
The engine pan is where the oil pools when it's not being circulated through the engine. Most of the Toyota engine pans are sealed pretty well so that they don't leak very often. Tercels, Paseos, and older Land Cruisers are an exception to this. Other models pan gaskets can leak as well, but with all of them, the first thing you want to be sure of is that something else isn't leaking from above and catching on the edge of the engine pan and making it look like it might be leaking.
Even "non-leaks" can result in the edge of the engine pan collecting oil and looking like a possible leak. For instance, every time your oil is changed and the oil filter is removed—unless someone is darned thorough in their clean-up—most likely a little bit of the oil that spills from the oil filter dribbles down to the edge of the engine pan. Once there, it tends to migrate around the entire perimeter, making it look for all the world like it could be leaking. Rule of thumb, unless it's so definite that it's obvious, it's not a bad idea to clean wet area and then re-inspect it before jumping in to replace the pan gasket.
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Engines-used
See Used parts/engines/transmissions and Low mileage Japanese engines
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Exhaust Flange Gasket:
This is the gasket that seals between the exhaust manifold and the header pipe. See Exhaust system leaks for further discussion.
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Exhaust Manifold:
The exhaust manifold goes through extreme temperature changes, which can eventually cause it to warp and/or crack. When they warp, sometimes it results in the manifold adding so much pulling force that the studs that secure the manifold to the head strip the threads out of the aluminum head. See Exhaust system leaks for further discussion.
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Exhaust System Leaks
Some people view exhaust system leaks mainly as an aesthetic issue; they simply don't like driving with a noisy exhaust system. It can pose a health risk if the exhaust leak is getting into the car. This is especially likely during periods of prolonged idling in slow traffic. (Incidentally, you are also breathing exhaust from the cars around you if you have your heater/air conditioner intake set to fresh air.) If the exhaust leak is sufficient, it can cause DEQ to fail your car due to their getting a diluted exhaust sample.
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Final Drive/Differential Service
Toyota doesn't have any recommendations as to whether to ever replace the gear oils for the final drive except in the case of severe use, in which case they say to replace it every 30k. Lexus, their sister company, recommends that the gear oils be changed every 30k. Toyota does say to inspect it every 15k. The fluid clearly degrades with use over time, changing from nearly clear or very light amber to black. It's consistency changes over time as well. Our belief is that the differential oil should be changed every 30,000 miles in order to avoid premature wear and costly repairs.
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Flush Brake Hydraulic Fluid
See Brake hydraulic fluid flush.
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Flush Cooling System
Good clean antifreeze not only protects your engine from freezing in the winter, but of course also acts as a coolant that keeps the engine from overheating year round. In addition, it has corrosion inhibitors to prevent the metal in the cooling system from being eaten away by the water in the coolant, and it also has ingredients that act as lubricants to prolong the life of the water pump seals. As long as it isn't diluted with water, the freeze protection and the ability to cool your engine stays good forever. However, the corrosion inhibitors break down with time and heat. Antifreeze that gets too old will begin to eat away at important internal engine components and plug up internal cooling passages, which can lead to overheating and cause additional damage, expense, and inconvenience.
When flushing the cooling system, we drain the radiator and the block and run fresh water through the system until there's clean water running out of both the radiator and the engine block drains prior to refilling the system with new coolant.
This may be putting a fine point on things, but Toyota specifies the use of deionized water (water that's had the minerals stripped out of it) in its cooling systems. This is a more important concern in areas with a hard water supply. Deionized water (or distilled water) is recommended for both 1st and 2nd generation coolants, as the minerals in the water can precipitate out and restrict coolant passages. This issue is intensified with coolants that have silicates in them, as the silicates combine with the minerals and together they precipitate out of solution and restrict coolant passages. In this instance, it also results in increased corrosion due to a lowered concentration of silicates. We're fortunate to have soft water in Portland, and this is what we use along with antifreeze when we are filling a cooling system. In systems that require Toyota Super Long Life coolant this is a moot point, as it comes premixed with deionized water.
Regarding generic green coolant versus Toyota's red coolant in the older Toyotas (see section on older Toyotas through 1998 for broader discussion) I'm willing to use either as per customer preferences, but have come to prefer Toyota's coolant. It was designed with full engineering knowledge of the various materials (seals and alloyed metals) it needs to be compatible with. It was also deliberately designed with zero silicates. While the silicates in other coolants provide excellent corrosion protection, over the long haul they tend to precipitate out and contribute to restricting coolant passages. This can eventually result in overheating and/or having to replace the radiator. The additional cost of Toyota's coolant is minimal if you consider that the cost is amortized over a two to three year period and that the superior coolant may save having to replace your radiator.
I should note a balancing concern: On some engines where the timing belt runs the water pump, a red coolant leak with its build-up of crystals can cause the timing-belt tensioner bearing to seize up at the pivot. This can result in the timing belt going slack and hopping out of time. Usually this happens in cases where the timing belt was past due for replacement anyway. I've never seen that happen with the green coolant. Obviously there's a trade off of concerns at play here. (See section on older Toyotas through 1998 for broader discussion)
The older Toyotas and Lexus (through 1998) simply call for ethylene glycol coolant. Ethylene glycol is the main antifreeze and heat-transferring ingredient in all three generations of Toyota coolant. To specify ethylene glycol doesn't say anything about which additives and corrosion inhibitors are best. Although Toyota sold its own red stuff, I'm not aware that they published any specifications that would overtly steer people away from using the common green generic alternative. However, my recent understanding is that even at that time Toyota was using zero silicates in their coolant. (See section on 1999 and newer Toyotas for further discussion on the use of silicates and their tendency to clog coolant passages.)
Toyota called for a coolant change every two years or every 30k miles. We encourage the same, although I'm comfortable with 3 years or 30k. For years I've actively preferred the green antifreeze to the red due to my strong impression that the red coolant more actively finds its way past seals and gaskets. I still have no question that I see red crystallized coolant deposits oozing past gaskets and seals more often than I see signs of the green coolant leaking. However, Ryan here recently raised the possibility that the red coolant may not leak any more aggressively, but may simply leave more visible tracks. This may in fact be the case. I know that on older water pumps we always see some staining below the weep-hole on vehicles that use green coolant. This staining may represent a similar amount of seepage that would have shown up as a mass of crystals on a water pump that was using red coolant, I really can't say for sure-in either case it's a slow seepage that dries out as is emerges.
In 1999 Toyota and Lexus came out with their red long-life coolant, which is definitely what we want to use in these vehicles. They still recommended coolant replacement every two years or every 30k, and this is the recommendation we follow, although I'm comfortable with 3 years and 30k. Toyota calls for coolant with zero-silicate, zero-amine, and zero-borate content. They specify that "use of improper coolants may damage the cooling system" and specify that their coolant is designed so that it "will not clog radiators from silicone gelling" and "will not corrode aluminum surfaces like coolants that contain borate." When I've seen charts displaying the chemical profiles of brand new coolants, the Toyota long-life coolant is clearly different than Prestone's green-colored alternative, with the Prestone coolant clearly having the silicon and borate content that Toyota engineers specifically want to avoid.
In 2004 Toyota and Lexus came out with their pink super-long-life coolant. This is what we use for these vehicles. Their recommendation on this coolant is that it be replaced the first time at ten years or 100k miles. Their recommendation thereafter is that it be replaced every 5 years or 50k miles. This puzzles me, and though I'm not characteristically cynical, I find that a cynical part of me speculating that possibly Toyota has taken this route as part of an effort to keep their advertised cost of ownership lower in order to enhance new car sales. This coolant comes premixed with a 50% of it being deionized water. I haven't seen any chemical profiles comparing this coolant to the previous generation Toyota red long-life coolant, but they aren't incompatible, because Toyota specifies that you can add the Toyota red long-life coolant to top off systems that have the Toyota pink super-long-life coolant. Different dealers have opted for different schedules on flushing this coolant. Some do it exactly by the book with the first being at 100k and the second at 50k. At the time of this writing, the Lexus dealership I'm acquainted with was recommending coolant being flushed every 30k, and observed that they always get some particulate sediment coming out of the system with the coolant.
Toyota's recommendations assume a perfectly maintained coolant system, i.e. proper mixture, proper pressure, and continually full. Obviously if the mixture is off-diluted from adding water-that will decrease the effectiveness of the corrosion inhibitors and shorten the effective life of the coolant. Same with pressures: too low a pressure due to a faulty radiator cap increases the likelihood of internal metal erosion due to cavitation. Even allowing the system to go low increases corrosion, as the mixture of air and steam in the system is much more corrosive than being constantly bathed in coolant. This is apparently more especially so for coolants with organic-acid-technology based corrosion inhibitors, which is the class of inhibitors that Toyota's Super Long Life coolant uses.
Our soft recommendation is to flush the super-long-life coolant every five years or 50k miles. It's not a hard recommendation, but I think it makes sense in light of the fact that:
- Toyota makes the same recommendation of five years and 50k miles from there on after the first 100k, and also because
- Toyota recommends coolant changes at 30k with their older (not-premixed) coolant that is chemically similar enough to be used as a top-off coolant.
If customers prefer to go exactly with Toyota's recommendations on this, I have no quarrel with that of course, although I remain skeptical that it's ultimately for the best to wait 100,000 miles and/or ten years before replacing the coolant for the first time.
Note: The Super Long Life coolant shouldn't be used in the older Toyotas that came with brass & copper radiators, as it's organic-acid-technology corrosion inhibitors aren't effective for these metals or the soldering used in these radiators.
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Fuel Filter
Toyota, Lexus, and Scion don't have any written recommendations on when your fuel filter out to be replaced as an act of preventative maintenance. A fairly common industry practice is to replace them every 30k. The Toyota dealerships that I'm familiar with used to go by this practice as well.
Sometime in the 90's Toyota had a problem with their manufacturing plants over tightening the fuel lines to the fuel filters. The result was that when replacing the fuel filters, some of the fuel lines had threads that were damaged to the point that the entire fuel line had to be replaced. For a couple of years Toyota Motor Corporation covered these fuel lines under warranty, and then one day they said "Hey, we never told you to change those filters in the first place-they're lifetime fuel filters." At that point, the dealers that I'm familiar with stopped replacing the filters as an act of routine maintenance. While it's true that the fuel filters are in fact long-lived, it still stands to reason that anytime you have something that is constantly acting as a filter, eventually the filter will get clogged up.
Even if gas is always completely free of any contaminants that might need to be filtered out before they reach the injectors, even in this case the filter can become clogged. This is true because the same chemicals that come out of solution and eventually restrict the injectors can also come out of solution and eventually plug up the fuel filter. When that happens, you still end up having to pay to replace the fuel filter, but now you also have the added expense of diagnosing the problem, plus the added inconvenience of an unplanned for visit to the shop for the repair.
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Fuel Pump
The fuel pump needs to be able to provide fuel at sufficient pressure and volume to run the engine over a wide range of rpm's and loads. A check valve in the fuel pump should be able to maintain some line pressure after the engine is shut off. This reduces cranking time on restarts. It also reduces the likelihood of rough running on initial hot start-up after having sat with a hot engine for awhile. Keeping it under some pressure raises the temperature at which the gasoline boils.
In Oregon, the gasoline all has at least 10% ethanol alcohol, which lowers the boiling point. When it boils, it creates vapor pockets, which tend to make the engine start harder and then run rougher when restarted after sitting hot. Even with everything in order, sometimes cars will have some rough running on initial hot restart for perhaps 10 to 20 seconds, especially since the gas has ethanol in it year round now. This is made worse, of course, if the fuel pump isn't maintaining pressure to suppress the boiling.
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Gear Oil Service
Toyota doesn't have any recommendations as to whether to ever replace the gear oils for the various gear boxes (manual transmission, transfer case, and differentials) except in the case of severe use, in which case they say to replace it every 30k. Lexus, their sister company, recommends that the gear oils be changed every 30k. Toyota does say to inspect it every 15k. The fluid clearly degrades with use over time, changing from nearly clear or very light amber to black. It's consistency changes over time as well. Our belief is that the gear oil should be changed every 30,000 miles in order to avoid premature wear and costly repairs.
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General Inspection, Prepurchase Inspection, Pre-Trip Inspection:
I strongly encourage people to have a general inspection done prior to buying a used vehicle. Doing so doesn't tell us infallibly whether the vehicle is going to be trouble-free or not, but it gives us a good broad picture of the vehicle on which to base a reasonable decision regarding it. People have us do this same sort of inspection prior to going on major trips. They also have us do this inspection to determine the state of their existing vehicles in order to establish a game plan for maintenance and repairs. Sometimes this inspection reveals that it might be good to disconnect entirely from a vehicle you already own.
When buying a used vehicle, here's a little trick that you can perform yourself before paying us to do a full-on inspection. A lot of engines that burn oil will show smoke only during certain conditions. One of the conditions is when being accelerated after prolonged idling. Warm the vehicle up, and run it for maybe ten minutes at idle after it's warm. At that point, give the engine a good aggressive acceleration and look to see it there is any significant amounts of blue smoke coming out the exhaust. If there is, the engine burns oil, and you probably don't want to buy it.
And, you've just saved yourself the expense and trouble of a full inspection. Note: If someone has put extra heavy oil in the engine, then this test may not reveal what you want. I once did a prepurchase inspection on a car that checked out good, including the test for smoke after prolonged idling. The customer bought the car and had us do an oil change directly. Apparently the seller had installed thicker than standard oil, because the engine began smoking as soon as we put in the standard 10w30 oil. Rats. So here's my admonishments to you: First of all, don't you be evil in your dealings with others. And, while my impression is that lots of people are wonderfully honest in how they sell their cars, some aren't, and even those that are honest may be ignorant of the true condition of the car they're selling. So, secondly, do due diligence to protect your interests before you buy the vehicle.
We don't routinely perform a compression check during the above inspection. We will perform a compression check if the customer simply wants us to in order to cover all the bases. Or, if something about the vehicle causes us to think that a compression check would be useful, then we'll suggest we do it. In either of these instances the compression check is an additional cost over the basic general inspection.
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Head Gasket
The head gasket serves to seal off the combustion chambers and the cooling system from each other and also from the rest of the world. An early sign of internal failure is an invisible loss of coolant that doesn't appear to be a result of any external leaks. In this case the coolant enters into the combustion chamber and passes out the exhaust.
As it gets worse, it will be accompanied by excessive white steam out the exhaust, and you may also notice that the engine seems to run rough with a misfire on initial startup after sitting. If enough coolant accumulates in the cylinder while sitting it can even result in a "hydrostatic lock" where the engine can't crank due to the fact that the coolant can't be compressed. A blown head gasket can be detected at a shop by using an exhaust analyzer to sniff the cooling system for HC's (unburned hydrocarbons) that are there as a result of exhaust from the combustion forcing it's way past the head gasket and into the cooling system.
A blown head gasket can result in overheating, both from loss of coolant and from the cooling system being made less efficient due to the exhaust gasses interrupting the flow of coolant through the engine. Alternatively, a good head gasket can be blown in relatively short order due to excessively overheating the engine as a result of some other cause, such as loss of coolant from some other leak, a bad thermostat, a restricted radiator, a bad water pump, or a broken water pump drive belt.
When the head gasket is blown as a result of overheating, the cylinder head is quite commonly warped at the same time. In addition to head gasket failure resulting in damage to the engine through overheating, it also risks scoring and damaging the cylinder walls as the mix of antifreeze and water strip the lubrication from the cylinder walls. This can result in the engine burning oil, as the rings are no longer able to keep the oil from slipping between the rings and the cylinder walls. If you suspect that you may be experiencing a head gasket failure, I encourage you to have it checked and repaired directly, as delayed action may eventually result in catastrophic engine failure.
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Idler Arm
The idler arm is part of the steering linkage in vehicles with parallelogram-steering linkage. Vehicles with rack and pinion steering don't have idler arms. When all of the steering linkage components are in good order, it allows the driver to have relatively precise control of the steering over a wide variety of speeds and conditions.
As the idler arm wears, it allows extra play, so that the wheels can wag back and forth-pointing in or out-independently of the driver's intent. This causes the car to wander more, and results in the driver to having to more actively manage the steering. In instances of advanced wear, sometimes the steering will start shaking violently after encountering a sharp jolt (as when going over rail road tracks quickly) and will continue to shake until the vehicle is slowed down significantly.
Although in the early stages this wear isn't an urgent issue, it can become a safety hazard as the wear becomes more severe. Aside from the safety issue it poses, it also encourages premature tire wear, as the wheels are no longer held in proper alignment when they are allowed to wander uncontrolled like this.
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Inspection
See General Inspection
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Low mileage Japanese engines
I can't know what the actual reality is regarding these supposedly low-mileage engines that get imported year after year, but I'm skeptical as to how they're represented.
- First of all, it has never struck me as credible that the Japanese government's regulations are such that it requires their citizens to sell us their engines at a low price when they hit approximately 30,000 miles.
- Secondly, the engines I've seen with their hard seals and such didn't have the appearance of being low-mileage engines.
- And finally, there's the issue of being unable to control the final outcome to be a good outcome. The last engine I installed (years ago) ran on about two and a half cylinders out of four. Who's ever heard of a Toyota engine doing that with 30k on it? We called up the suppliers, and they said, "Oh, no problem. Just send the engine back to us and we'll send you another one." It may have been no problem for them, but it was a particularly labor intensive installation in and older Van and a significant setback for us. I decided that they couldn't control whether they were sending us good engines. This was further confirmed in that they weren't confident enough in their product that they would warranty our labor if they sent us a bad engine. That being the case, I'm not willing to take part in the gamble with them when the risk is entirely on our customers and us.
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Maintenance-Required Light
This light comes on to remind you to change your oil. It comes on 5,000 miles after the last time it was reset. It comes on strictly as a function of those miles-it has no way of knowing whether your oil has or hasn't been changed in the interim-and it never, ever is an indication of something being wrong. Sometimes shops neglect to reset the maintenance-required meter if the light doesn't happen to be on yet when they are changing the oil. Many quick-lube shops simply don't know how to reset it.
The maintenance-required light is easy to reset. On most Toyotas you simply:
- Turn the key to the on position.
- Determine that the odometer reading is displayed. (For some models, it's the trip-meter "A" that you want to be displaying.)
- Turn the key back off.
- Push and hold the reset button for the trip meters. (Same button as used to navigate between the odometer and the two trip meters.)
- While continuing to depress the reset button, turn the key back to the "on" position, but not so far as the "start" position. The odometer display should come up with a series of dashes that disappear one by one. When they've all disappeared, a series of zeros will display. Continue holding the reset button until all of the zeros clear and the odometer (or trip meter "A") reading returns.
The maintenance-required light should be off, and the vehicle will now be counting toward the next 5,000 interval, at which time it will turn on again.
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Manuel Transmission Service
See Gear Oil Service
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Muffler
Some people view exhaust system leaks mainly as an aesthetic issue; they simply don't like driving with a noisy exhaust system. It can pose a health risk if the exhaust leak is getting into the car. This is especially likely during periods of prolonged idling in slow traffic. (Incidentally, you are also breathing exhaust from the cars around you if you have your heater/air conditioner intake set to fresh air.) If the exhaust leak is sufficient, it can cause DEQ to fail your car due to their getting a diluted exhaust sample.
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O2 Sensor/Oxygen Sensor
See Oxygen Sensor
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Oil Cooler Seals
See (Engine Oil Seals and Engine Oil Leaks)
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Oil Filter (Toyota Vs. Non- Toyota)
Years ago I worked for an independent shop that specialized exclusively in Toyota repairs. At one point the owner wanted us to consider using non-Toyota oil filter because he could buy them for less money. We cut open the non-Toyota filter that he was considering, and compared it side-by-side to a Toyota filter that we also cut open. In this instance, there was no question in our mind that the Toyota filter was superior in two very visible counts.
First, it had an anti-bleed-back check valve, which meant that the oil filter was less likely to drain down between uses, and meant that the engine would achieve full oil pressure more immediately on initial start-up. Delayed oil pressure leads to more rapid wear of expensive engine parts. Secondly, the Toyota filtering element was folded in such a fashion that it had far greater surface area in the same sized filter canister than the non-Toyota one had.
This doesn't mean that no one in the world is making a filter that is equal to or even perhaps superior to the Toyota filter. But clearly the Toyota was a high quality oil filter-on the one hand, far superior to some of the aftermarket alternatives, and on the other hand, reflective enough of Toyota's high standards for quality that we weren't particularly motivated to do a search for something that might in some fashion surpass it for some supposed gain that would likely be minimal at best.
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Oil Pressure-Sending Unit
The oil pressure sending unit was triggers the warning light when the oil pressure gets dangerously low, or, it activates the oil pressure gauge if you have one. If it's leaking oil, it's a good idea to replace it in order to protect your engine against damage from loss of oil. (See Engine oil seals and Engine oil leaks for additional comments.)
If it's not giving you a valid oil pressure warning signal, then it's important to replace it so that you can trust it to adequately warn you in time to avoid engine damage from loss of oil pressure. In the case of the warning light, you can verify that it's even able to give you a warning signal by checking to see that the light comes on when you turn the key to the "on" position without actually starting the engine. At this point, there's no oil pressure, but the key's on, so the warning light should turn on. If you start the car, it should turn off almost immediately.
See Engine oil seals and Engine oil leaks for additional comments.)
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Oil Pump Seals
If your oil pump seals are leaking, then at minimum, you should be sure to regularly check your oil level to avoid catastrophic damage to the engine for lack of oil. However, even with slow leaks there is good reason to repair them. Often, oil leaks are a result of seals that have gotten hard with age. These hardened seals tend to wear a groove into the sealing surface, which increases the likelihood that the metal sealing surface will need to be repaired as well. This is a fairly common problem with oil pumps on engines with higher miles. (See Engine oil seals and Engine oil leaks for additional comments.)
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Oxygen Sensor/O2 Sensor
The oxygen sensor is constantly sniffing the exhaust and sending the computer a fluctuating signal where it says in effect "a little more gas" and then "a little less gas." If it gets sluggish so that it's slow to update it's report, then it might get stuck saying "more, more, more-oops-less, less, less." A sluggish O2 sensor can cause your idle to hunt where the rpm's wander up and down a bit. It can also cause some surging feel when driving at lower speeds with light-throttle acceleration or light-throttle cruise. A properly working O2 sensor is needed for fuel economy, for clean emissions, and your basic engine performance.
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Pinging
Pinging is a rattle you hear on acceleration. It sometimes is a little erratic sounding-the sound is reminiscent of when you shake a can of spray paint that has the rattle ball in it. It's also reminiscent of the noise you hear when you lug the engine by trying to accelerate while in too high a gear.
Light and intermittent pinging is harmless, and in fact, for years Toyota has specifically mentioned in owner's manuals that light and intermittent pinging is acceptable. Chronic, heavy pinging can lead to severe engine damage. There are a number of factors that can lead to pinging: Lean-running conditions, a malfunctioning EGR system, over-advanced ignition timing, carbon buildup in the combustion chambers, and gasoline with an octane that's too low for your particular engine.
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Pinion Seal/Differential Pinion Seal
The differential takes the power from the drive shaft and sends it to the axles to power the wheels. The pinion seal is an oil seal at the point where the power enters the differential. Obviously, if it's leaking significantly, you run the risk of ruining your differential gears and bearings if it runs low on oil. However, even with slow leaks there is good reason to repair it. Often, oil leaks are a result of seals that have gotten hard with age. These hardened seals tend to wear a groove into the sealing surface, which increases the likelihood that the metal sealing surface will need to be repaired or replaced as well.
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Pitman Arm
The pitman arm is part of the steering linkage in vehicles with parallelogram-steering linkage. It's the active member at the opposite end of the linkages from the idler arm. Vehicles with rack and pinion steering don't have pitman arms. When all of the steering linkage components are in good order, it allows the driver to have relatively precise control of the steering over a wide variety of speeds and conditions. As the pitman arm wears, it allows extra play, so that the wheels can wag back and forth-pointing in or out-independently of the driver's intent.
This causes the car to wander more, and results in the driver to having to more actively manage the steering. In instances of advanced wear, sometimes the steering will start shaking violently after encountering a sharp jolt (as when going over rail road tracks quickly) and will continue to shake until the vehicle is slowed down significantly. Although in the early stages this wear isn't an urgent issue, it can become a safety hazard as the wear becomes more severe. Aside from the safety issue it poses, it also encourages premature tire wear, as the wheels are no longer held in proper alignment when they are allowed to wander uncontrolled like this.
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Power Steering Hoses
Power steering hoses can eventually leak. The high-pressure hoses have to be able to hold up to 2000 pounds per square inch. We don't routinely replace these by any mileage, but only replace them on an as-needed basis. They usually less labor if done at the same time the power steering pump is being removed to reseal. Some of the Toyota hoses are phenomenally expensive. Some years ago we took some leaky high-psi hoses and sent them out to be reconstructed. That only lasted maybe a year and a half-or perhaps two at the very most-and things didn't line up quite right for reassembly. We ended up deciding against that route for the future. So, we continue to use the hoses from Toyota, because we get the best, most reliable results that way.
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Power Steering Pump
Far and away most often we repair the power steering pumps rather than replace them, and usually that's a matter of resealing them. When they do need replacing, we insist on using Toyota power steering pumps. I've just seen too many poor quality alternatives. As a side note, it's not an uncommon strategy for some aftermarket suppliers to offer a lifetime warranty on their products. This is strictly a marketing tool and has no relationship to the quality of their product. Over and over I've met people who have gotten stuck with poor quality parts that repeatedly fail prematurely, and eventually they get worn out with doing repeat repairs and decide that the better quality Toyota part is the better deal after all.
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Power Steering Pump Reseal
When the power steering pump gets low on fluid it makes a droning/groaning noise, especially when steering. When the power steering pump is leaking, in most instances a cost-effective solution is to reseal your existing pump. Given that the pump is performing correctly and quietly when it's full of fluid, we feel completely comfortable disassembling it and installing a complete set of new seals-both inner and outer. We prefer resealing your original Toyota power steering pump rather than replacing it with an aftermarket rebuild. Years ago I worked for a shop tried aftermarket rebuilds for awhile, and after we replaced the pump on one car 3 times in about 2 weeks. And, of course resealing your existing pump saves quite a bit of money over buying a new pump from Toyota. When your pump and/or power steering hoses are leaking, at minimum you want to keep the level full. The more often it runs low, the more likely you are to damage either the pump or other components like the power steering rack or the power steering gear. Again, most pumps can be resealed, and we feel completely comfortable doing so.
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Power Steering Rack
Toyota's power steering racks tend to hold up pretty well. The commonest reason for failure is that eventually the seals start leaking fluid. In this case (with an external leak) the power steering still works, but you're losing your power steering fluid to the ground. Occasionally the valving will fail in such a way that power steering is lost in either one or both directions. When they do fail, I strongly prefer to replace them either with one provided by Toyota, Lexus, or Scion, or from the suppliers that provide for Toyota, Lexus, and Scion. New or remanufactured—either way's fine by me—but I've seen to many short lived aftermarket power steering racks to want to go the aftermarket route.
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Prepurchase Inspection, Pre-trip Inspection
See General Inspection
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Radiator
The radiator is part of the cooling system, which is supposed to be a contained system. As the radiator ages it can may fatigue and begin to leak through cracks that develop, or, it may rot from the inside out and develop pinholes. If it's a significant leak, it needs to be dealt with directly. Sometimes at the early stages when the leak is only at a level of minor seepage, people will monitor the coolant level and live with it till it's progressed to a more significant rate of loss.
However, loss of coolant can cause catastrophic engine failure due to overheating. If you have any known leaks in the radiator, then at minimum, you should regularly check your car's coolant level and keep a careful eye on the temperature gauge. Due to the possible serious consequences of any lapse in your vigilance, it's probably best to simply perform the needed repairs. Radiators can also fail due to clogged, restricted passages. When this happens, the coolant isn't able to flow through the radiator at a sufficient rate to cool the engine. This results in the greatly increased likelihood that your engine will overheat on hot days or when going up hills. If you know that your radiator is plugged up, you should treat this a s high priority repair.
When checking your coolant level, check both the plastic overflow reservoir and the radiator itself. As the coolant heats and expands, some of it goes into the overflow reservoir. As it cools and contracts, it is supposed to be sucked back into the radiator. It's no good just checking the overflow, because if the cooling system isn't sucking the coolant back into the radiator properly, it's possible to have a full overflow and an empty radiator. You want both levels to check out right, but of the two, the coolant in the radiator is the coolant that's actively involved in cooling the engine; this is the coolant level that's most critical to be full. Check coolant levels when engine is cool to avoid risk of being burned by hot coolant coming out of the radiator under pressure.
Note: We have a real aversion to the use of chemicals put into the cooling system for the sake of stopping leaks from the inside out. These chemicals purport to plug up the leak, which sometimes they do for awhile, but they also tend to plug up cooling passages with the result that the engine can overheat and develop worse problems that are far more expensive, like a blown head gasket. Stop-leak additives can also cause the heater core passages to get plugged up, which results in your heater not heating properly.
Radiator Stop-leak
See note at bottom of Radiator or Cooling system leak sections.
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Radiator Stop Leak
See Note at bottom of Radiator Section
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Shock Absorbers & Struts
See Struts & Shock Absorbers
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Sludge
See Engine Oil Sludge
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Spark Plugs & Ignition System
When I first started working as a mechanic I kept hearing older technicians say that it was important to use factory ignition parts in general, and factory spark plugs included in that. My first take on this was that it was probably just a case of mechanic superstition-I thought surely any manufacturer in the industry could make good spark plugs.
Over the years, however, I've seen too many instances where people have gone from shop to shop spending hundreds of dollars trying to fix a drivability problem "that couldn't be due to the spark plugs or the rest the ignition system because all of that was new," and yet the problem would trace exactly to those aftermarket parts and be resolved with the installation of factory, original Toyota supplier parts.
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Spark Plug Tube Leaks
Many of the Toyotas have semi-hemispherical shaped combustion chambers that result in the spark plug being placed straight down through the top of the head. In these instances, the spark plug enters the combustion chamber at the bottom of a spark plug tube that passes through the valve cover and valve area. If this tube begins to leak, it usually results in very little measurable loss of oil, however, as this small amount of oil floods the spark-plug tubes, it will eventually ruin your ignition wires and cause an engine misfire as they start shorting out.
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Struts & Shock Absorbers
A properly functioning suspension system allows your car to drive comfortably and safely at relatively high speeds even when going over bumps and irregularities while simultaneously cornering on a wet road. The struts and shock absorbers are important both for comfort, safety, and maintaining the integrity of the surrounding components. At relatively slow speeds bad struts and shocks seem mostly an aesthetic/comfort issue. Most people don't enjoy the jouncey ride with the vehicle swaying and bobbing every time you change lanes or corner, accelerate, brake, or go over a bump. At higher speeds though, it increasingly becomes a safety issue. Struts and shock absorbers control the springs so that the springs aren't allowed to go into uncontrolled oscillations and bouncing. When the spring action isn't being controlled through the shock absorption system, the tires are trying to hop and they don't maintain continuous and effective engagement with the road. This can be particularly dangerous in an emergency situation when you need all the traction you can get and where you are trying to turn and brake at the same time on a road with an irregular surface.
In addition to the comfort and safety concerns, when the struts and shocks get weak, the vehicle's suspension is much more likely to be bottoming out so that components hit the end of their range of travel with damaging force. We've seen instances where the shocks or struts rip loose from their attaching points (creating extra damage and cost) due to prolonged hammering experienced from driving after they were weak and ineffective.
Weak and ineffective struts and shock absorbers also contribute to premature tire wear.
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Thermostat
The thermostat helps regulate your engine's temperature. Thermostat failure can cause your engine to run either too cold or too hot. Too cold will cause a loss of gas mileage, reduced heater performance, and increased engine wear. Too hot can cause sudden engine failure, such as a blown head gasket.
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Tie-Rod Ends (inner and outer)
The tie-rod ends are part of the steering linkage. As they wear, you may notice a clunking at times as you drive and encounter various irregularities in the road. When all of the steering linkage components are in good order, it allows the driver to have relatively precise control of the steering over a wide variety of speeds and conditions.
As the tie-rod ends wear, it allows extra play, so that the wheels can wag back and forth-pointing in or out-independently of the driver's intent. This causes the car to wander more, and results in the driver to having to more actively manage the steering as it becomes more approximate. This also encourages premature tire wear, as the wheels are no longer held in proper alignment and are allowed to wander.
For most of your normal driving circumstances the problems presented are no more urgent than indicated above-although it results in increased tire wear, moderately worn tie-rod ends aren't going to make your wheels suddenly fall off, and they're not going to make you suddenly dart into a ditch. However, in an emergency situation that involves braking and turning and dodging others all at the same instant and when your needing all the control you can get-you want all the control you can get to avoid a possible accident. In those situations, it's nice to have the steering system doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing, and the wheels pointing exactly where they're supposed to be pointing. Right?
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Timing Belt
Timing belts are rubber, and age based on time and mileage. They can also be damaged by oil fouling due to oil leaks, or by the failure of other parts as in the case of when water pumps or timing belt bearings seize up. Timing belts usually give very little warning before they fail, although some of the 4-cylinder engines that don't have a dynamic tensioner will give a characteristic rattle as they get loose with age. Typically, this timing-belt rattle can be heard best at idle and just off idle when the car is first started up cold.
If your timing belt breaks, your car's engine will stop running. Although most Toyota engines are unharmed by timing belt failure, it's impossible to predict whether you will be put in harm's way, or what level of inconvenience you will experience due to timing belt failure while driving.
This type of repair is best handled as a matter of routine preventative maintenance. If your timing belt is due to be replaced, I encourage you to call us today for an appointment and avoid the risk of unnecessary inconvenience or expense. See also Timing belt contingencies.
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Timing Belt Contingencies
When quoting a timing belt replacement, there are a number of contingencies that will be unknown until we're well into the job. For instance, the timing belt bearings may still be functional and essentially symptom free. However, once the timing belt has been removed, we can spin the bearings while feeling them and listening to them. If a timing belt bearing is beginning to sound worn-or even just dry, as if it's lost its lubrication-then that's the time to replace it while it's so accessible that there's no labor required. On the other hand, if the timing belt bearings feel and sound good, we feel completely comfortable reusing them.
We also check the drive belts. Of course these can typically be assessed before any work has begun. The drive belts tend to last longer than the timing belt, but not nearly as long as two timing belt lives. If the drive belts are the same age as the timing belt, it's probably not a bad idea to just go ahead and replace them preemptively while they're off even if they're in decent enough condition that you wouldn't otherwise need to replace them.
As far as the water pump goes, some of our recommendations are contingent on the vehicle. For instance, the 3 liter and 3.4 liter V6 engines in the trucks and 4Runners have such a history of leaking that it seems like a good idea to replace them preemptively even if they don't show any signs of leaking. On the other hand, the water pumps on the 1MZFE V6 engines in Camrys and Siennas have such a good record of longevity that I don't feel at all uncomfortable if a customer is inclined to reuse one of these for another timing belt life cycle. Of course anytime a water pump is actually showing signs of failure, if its eventual replacement is dependent on removing the timing belt, then by all means replace it while the timing belt is off.
The front engine oil seals-for the crankshaft, the camshafts, and the oil pump-are all accessible while the timing belt is off. If any of these are leaking, then I most often advise that they all be replaced at the same time since the rubber seals have all had the same number of miles and years to age. I used to never suggest these seals be replaced preemptively, but I have a growing bias toward replacing them. Although sometimes they make it through a second timing belt life cycle, too often they won't successfully make it through the duration without leaking oil and you'll end up having to pay to remove the timing belt again to access to the seals.
Sometimes the seals have gotten hard and will have cut a groove into the sealing surface. In this case, we need to install a seal-surface repair sleeve in order to assure that the new seal is able to engage and seal properly. This grooving can happen to any of seal surfaces that involve a shaft rotating past a seal. It happens more frequently to the crankshafts than to the camshafts, because the crankshaft turns at twice the speed of and twice as many rotations as the camshafts. When the grooving happens to the oil pump gear shaft, then the oil pump gears need to be replaced, which typically isn't a very expensive part.
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Timing Chain
The timing chain connects between the crankshaft-at the bottom of the engine-and the camshaft-at the top-to keep the two operating in synch with each other. As your timing chain wears, it gets loose and begins to slap against the guides. Eventually the one of the guides breaks, and then the chain starts slapping against the inside of the timing cover. This produces a characteristic rattle. If it continues, the chain eventually cuts through the timing cover and into the back of the water pump area, which causes a major exchange of oil and water that often results in damaged engine bearings.
Alternatively, sometimes the chain will break and fall off the gear that it turns to operate the valves, and the valves will be ruined when they are hit by the pistons. In either case, the cost of the repair goes up significantly. By far, your best course of action is to replace your timing chain prior to that stage of wear. In my early experiences with timing chains, usually when pieces of the guides broke off they fell harmlessly into the engine oil pan and didn't create any problem. As a result, if the owner was of a mind to, I felt pretty relaxed about watching the wear progress even to the point of the guide breaking entirely off.
However, in the years since I've seen that the pieces of guide don't always fall harmlessly into the engine pan. Sometimes they fall between the crank gear and the timing chain, at which point with each revolution the chain gets hiked over another tooth, and in a very brief moment you've got multiple bent valves. In this event, the head has to be overhauled in addition to replacing the timing chain assembly. As a result of seeing this, plus the odd instance when the chain simply breaks, I now feel that it's far more prudent to take the earliest indications of a worn chain and simply act on that basis to replace it. Otherwise, the longer you wait, the more you increase the odds that the final repair will be as much as two and a half times as much as what it would have been if you'd acted on it more promptly.
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Tires
I don't have a lot of detail to offer on various tire decisions, but I'll share my preferences here. I want all season tires with rubber that has maximum ability to grip the road. This is more important to me than maximum tire life, and it's more important to me than maximum fuel economy.
Slightly harder tires tend to wear longer and provide better fuel economy. Slightly softer tires tend to grip the road better. I know that most of the time I won't be in those near emergency situations that require the very best traction available, but when I'm in those situations, I want to come out alive and hopefully unharmed, and for me, that's worth sacrificing a little fuel economy and tire longevity. I always ask for tires with the best friction rating.
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Transmission Pan Gasket
Because of the manner in which we flush automatic transmissions, we don't routinely have the pan off nor need to replace the pan gasket as part of the transmission service. There is, however, a small amount of labor overlap between the two. If your transmission pan gasket is leaking, it's a little more economic to combine the flush and transmission pan gasket into one repair than it would be to do both items but separately on different occasions.
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Transfer Case Service
See Gear Oil Service
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Transmission Service (manual transmission)
See Gear Oil Service
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Transmissions-used
See Used parts/engine/transmissions
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Toyota parts versus aftermarket parts
Toyota makes good parts, and that's what we want to use. Our biggest supplier of parts is a Toyota dealership. Our next biggest supplier is a company that sells us the same parts that were made by the original Toyota parts suppliers. The result is that the vast majority of the parts we use either come from Toyota direct (through a dealership) or from the original suppliers of the Toyota parts. To give you an example, Nippon makes Toyota's fuel filters. The Nippon fuel filters look identical to the Toyota filters, and in fact, if we care to peel off the strip of black tape that Nippon has applied to the filters they sell us, underneath the tape is the original Toyota parts sticker with it's Toyota part number. It's the exact same part whether we buy it from Toyota or from Nippon. Same way with clutches. A company with the name Aisin/Asco makes clutches and water pumps for Toyota. They used to sell those same parts to us new, in a Toyota box, at a price competitive with the same thing remanufactured from Toyota. There wasn't any question in my mind-I preferred the new to the remanufactured. Since then, Toyota has prevented them from selling those parts in Toyota packaging, but the parts still have all of the same casting marks and look identical, except the water pumps have had the word "Toyota" ground off and replaced with other company markings.
Again, I have a strong preference for Toyota parts. I've just seen too many poor quality alternatives. As a side note, it's not an uncommon strategy for some aftermarket suppliers to offer a lifetime warranty on their products. This is strictly a marketing tool and usually seems to have no relationship to the quality of their product. Over and over I've met people who have gotten stuck with poor quality parts that repeatedly fail prematurely, and eventually they would get worn out with doing repeat repairs and decide that the better quality Toyota part was the better deal after all. Other times the life-time warranty was handled in such a slippery fashion and it was so difficult to manage their way through the hurdles set before them that the life-time warranty was effectively a lie.
See also Air Filters, Catalytic Converter, Oil filter (Toyota versus non-Toyota) and Spark plugs & ignition system for discussion as applied to specific parts.
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Tune & Tune Checks
People have an incredibly wide range of perceptions as to what a tune-up entails. Both among consumers and shops, this range includes everything from the most minimal possible of simply replacing the spark plugs, on out to include spark plugs and filters and a full major 60k or 90k service with all the fluids being changed and the timing belt replaced also. The following tune description is a composite description that describes tune procedures for vehicles with several generations of developments, including:
- Carbureted and fuel injected.
- Those with vacuum advance and mechanical advance and those that have electronically controlled timing.
- Ignition systems with distributors and distributorless ignition systems with ignition coils directly over the spark plugs.
- Vehicles with no onboard diagnostics built in; vehicles with first-generation onboard diagnostics that are accessed through jumper wires and blinking-light codes; and vehicles with second-generation diagnostics that are accessed through full computer hook-up.
Our composite working definition is below:
Test drive before beginning
Scan test if OBII (onboard diagnostics 2nd generation)
Scope check those that allow standard inductive hook-up to secondary ignition
Replace spark plugs
Replace air filter if dirty, and the fuel filter for carbureted models
Full voltage test of rotor (those that allow standard inductive hook-up)
Wet test cap & wires for voltage leaks. Check insulators for leakage where they pass through spark plug tubes.
Manually check high-tension connections at coil and cap for corrosion
Note whether cap, rotor & wires are factory or aftermarket
Clean top surface of coil (coil-in-cap models)
Check and adjust timing when applicable
- Does jumper connection cause timing to change?
- Verify that TPS contacts are engaging. If necessary, bypass to set timing. (Bottom two terminals on most) Mechanical advance free?
Vacuum advancer:
- Diaphragms not ruptured?
- Able to move breaker plate?
- Gets proper vacuum signal?
Check EGR system.
- Does EGR valve get vacuum signal?
- Does EGR kill engine or cause a significant rpm drop at idle
O2 sensor
- Cycles back and forth quickly?
- Operates over full range when made lean and rich?
EFI: Check whether throttle valve sticks in throttle body.
Adjust idle speed when appropriate. Emphasize smooth idle & not dieseling over exact rpm specs.
Carbureted: Clean and lubricate choke
Some carbureted: Drill & adjust mixture (only on accessible carbs) when exhibiting lean idle condition.
Cleaner and penetrating oil through auxiliary air regulator
Compression check if engine running suggests problem
Quick check emissions if:
- Car approaching license renewal date
- Symptoms suggest emission reading could give useful diagnostic information
Check fluids in engine compartment
Test drive again after work completed
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U-Joints
U-joints in the driveline (or driveshaft) allow the engine to put power to the differential in order to power the wheels even when the angle of the driveline is changing relative to the transmission and differential due to the vehicle jouncing and the wheels going up and down. Some u-joints can be greased through zerk fittings, and others are sealed. Some can be replaced by pressing out the old and pressing in the new, while others require being cut out at a driveline specialty shop.
As the u-joints wear, symptoms may include a rapidly cycling, high pitched squeaking heard especially at low speeds and that varies with the speed of the vehicle. Another symptom is a rapid vibration felt on acceleration and/or perhaps on deceleration against the engine's coasting compression. As they get worn enough, another symptom is a clunking that is heard as slack gets taken up between the worn parts when you're on and off the gas while driving along, or when you first engage the driveline to take off from a stop either moving forward or in reverse.
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Used parts/engines/transmissions/etc
Sometimes used parts can provide extraordinary savings over new parts. That's the good news. The bad news is that there is almost no ability to reliably control for quality. Here are some thoughts to keep in mind:
You know the problem that you have with your current engine or transmission or whatever? And how perhaps just a short while ago it didn't have that problem? If your car had been totaled during that time before engine had failed, the engine would have been sold as a good part—then, a short time later after being installed in another car it would have failed in the same manner as it has in your car.
Also, since most used parts come out of vehicles that have been involved in an accident, when you buy a larger component (like an engine) it's not uncommon to discover that there are related/attached parts that are broken or cracked. Sometimes these aren't discovered until you've already installed the engine along with it's vital fluids; it's at that point that a leak tells you that something is cracked.
If problems with the newly installed used part aren't discovered until it's been installed, most suppliers will only warranty the part. In that case, you end up having to pay the labor again in order to pull the part you just had installed, and then pay to install another used part that has its unknowns as well. This can be partially dodged by purchasing a labor warranty policy from them up front, but even in that case they don't pay the full labor costs.
We will very occasionally get involved in using used parts. However, because of the above problems, we generally have a strong bias toward repairing your existing engine or transmission, and when we do, we prefer to use new parts.
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Valve Adjust
The engine's valves allow the engine to breathe in fresh air mixed with gasoline, and breathe out exhaust gasses after combustion. The camshaft opens the valves. When the valves are closed, the engine requires a certain amount of clearance between camshaft and the next item in the valve train—be it a rocker arm that engages with the valve, or a shim in a bucket that engages directly with the top of the valve. While the valve is closed, it dissipates heat into the head and on out into the coolant.
As the valve train wears, it can wear in a manner that causes the valve to sink into the head, in which case the valve train loses it's clearance and is said to be getting tighter. As a result of this, the valves have less opportunity each cycle to dissipate heat, which causes them to run hotter and accelerates their wear and the tendency to sink further into the head. If left unadjusted, eventually tight valves burn, which results in a severe loss of compression and power in that cylinder. There is no increase of noise or tapping as the valves are getting tighter. As they get tighter, but are at the last stages just prior to burning, there can be some loss of compression detected accompanied by a somewhat rougher idle.
The valve train can also wear in the opposite direction, where small amounts of metal are worn away from the surface of the camshaft, from the end of the valve stem, and either the rocker arm or the valve adjusting shim and bucket. When this is the case, clearances are getting larger, and the valve is said to be loose. If they get loose enough, it shows itself by noisy valves that tap louder than usual. As the valve train wears in this manner, the cam lobe tends to first engage with the rest of the valve train further and further up the ramp, which results in an increasingly harsh engagement and accelerates the valve train wear.
Both of these conditions are best addressed by routine valve adjusts scheduled on the basis of miles driven.
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Valve Cover Gasket
The valve covers are at the top of the engine. When the valve cover gaskets leak, they leak engine oil that tends to drip down onto everything below them, including the exhaust manifolds. I've never seen a fire start as a result of oil dripping on the exhaust manifold, but I'm supposing it's possible if a vehicle were being driven hard enough and if the leak was bad enough.
Because a leaky valve cover gasket drips on everything below, sometimes it's difficult to know for sure whether those other items are also leaking or not until you've fixed the known leak, cleaned everything up, and then re-inspected the engine at some future time. See also Engine oil leaks and Engine oil seals.
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Vechicle Inspection
See General Inspection
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Water Pump
A properly working water pump is critical to your engine's wellbeing. It circulates coolant throughout the engine to prevent damage from overheating. It also circulates coolant through your heater to provide heat and to clear the windows of fog or ice. Loss of coolant from leaky water pump seals can cause overheating and can result in serious damage to your engine.
In some models a bad water pump bearing can damage the timing belt and cause it to break or derail. In other models, a worn bearing can allow the radiator fan to tilt forward and chop a hole in the radiator. Any of the above developments result in extra cost and inconvenience to you. Due to the potential for catastrophic damage to the engine as a result of failure, failing water should be given high priority for repair.
Wheel alignment:
See Alignment.
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Wheel Bearings/Axle Bearings
The axle bearings allow the wheels to turn freely while bearing the weight of the car and to maintain proper alignment while going through all the stresses of cornering. When they get worn, they commonly will make a harsh, growly noise while moving.
When you turn to either direction, the weight of the car shifts so that more of it is on the outer wheels and less weight is on the inner wheels. This often causes the tone to change, which can help diagnose whether the noise is in fact an axle bearing or not, and can often (but not always) indicate on which side of the vehicle the bad bearing is. On rear wheel drive cars, sometimes the noise of a bad rear wheel bearing will be dampened while braking.
On rear wheel drive cars with a solid axle housing, a bad axle bearing will eventually allow differential oil to leak past the axle seal and foul the brake shoes, with the result that the brakes will have to be replaced as well. If a rear axle bearing goes bad enough, it can also result in the brake drum making constant contact with the brake shoes and ruining them with excessive heat resulting in brake failure.
Front axle bearings can allow the wheel to lay over a little so that it's constantly rubbing against the brakes and can heat them up so much that it ruins the brake caliper and causes brake failure.
On front-wheel-drive cars, sometimes the rolling portion of the bearings are still good, but where the inner bearing race presses into the wheel hub can get worn and loose, resulting in extra play in the wheel. This extra play can result in the rotors rubbing excessively on the brake pads and cause damage the brakes due to excessive heat. Sometimes this can run quietly. In other circumstances it will make a cyclic harsh squeaking noise.
In order to minimize cost of any of the above repairs, it's best to take care of them sooner rather than later. Left unrepaired, bad axle bearings will eventually damage related components that are critical to your safety.
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Wheel Bearing Pack
The wheel bearings collectively support the entire weight of the vehicle while simultaneously enabling the wheels to rotate freely and with minimum friction. Packing the wheel bearings refers to replenishing the grease in the wheel bearings.
The grease tends to be displaced from the wheel bearings during normal use, so that often-especially with the smaller bearings used in cars-by the time we are repacking them with grease, they're so empty of grease that we can see daylight through the wheel bearings. Most vehicles come with sealed, non-serviceable wheel bearings now, but for the vehicles that came with serviceable bearings, the normal service interval is 30,000 miles.
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Wheel Cylinders/Brakes
When replacing rear brake shoes, we routinely replace the wheel cylinders along with the shoes, even if there's no evidence that the wheel cylinders are failing. We do this because we've seen too much of a pattern of the wheel cylinders (that weren't leaking prior to the brake job) leaking brake fluid after the internal pistons and seals are repositioned due to the new brake shoes putting them back in the center of the wheel cylinder. When this happens, the fluid fouls the shoes and ruins them, and you end up having to do the entire brake job over again.
Of course brake wheel cylinders can leak in other circumstances as well. In the very early stages, a leaking wheel cylinder may often be replaced without requiring new brake shoes. As they continue to leak, however, they foul your brake shoes. This decreases your braking ability and requires new shoes as well. Continued leaking of a single wheel cylinder will eventually deplete the brake fluid supply to half of the brake system, which dramatically decreases your braking ability.
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ASE Certified Independent Toyota, Lexus & Scion automotive service and repair specialists serving PDX, Portland, Gresham, Beaverton, Clackamas, Oregon City, Fairview, Gladstone, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Troutdale.
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