toyotas with sludge problem

[Silver_2000]

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070108/SUB/70106011&SearchID=73268758050757


Toyota deal: Here comes the sludge judge

queryvar="toyota,deal:,here,comes,the,sludge,judge"; Mark Rechtin (http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/personalia?ID=1000046&category=contact) | | Automotive News / January 8, 2007 - 1:00 am




http://www.autonews.com/graphics/an_spacer.gif Advertisement
document.write (''); http://a248.e.akamai.net/7/800/1129/0/oascentral-s.realmedia.com/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/default/empty.gif (http://oascentral.autonews.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.autonews.com/news/tc2006//9351161101/806370250/Middle1/default/empty.gif/34386665396561643435613661373030?toyota,deal:,here ,comes,the,sludge,judge)
LOS ANGELES -- Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. has quietly settled a class-action lawsuit that covers about 3.5 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles that may have been damaged by engine oil sludge.

Details of the settlement, which allows for third-party mediation of sludge claims rejected by Toyota, have been mailed to 7.5 million current and previous owners.

Critics contend Toyota has told customers and dealers too little about sludge issues. They say some customers took vehicles with dead engines to dealers who had little or no knowledge of the problem and often assumed it was the owners' fault.

Unhappy customers had no remedy other than hiring a lawyer to go after Toyota. more at link

[Tex Arcana]

This applies to Lexus' as well.

It's a known issue among Toyota and Lexus dealers, and it involves the heads not draining back properly, eventually building up sludge up there and causing major problems. Most people with the problem are getting new engines at no cost.

Someone over on another forum I frequent just bought a used Lexus that locked up on him right after he bought it from a used car lot, and he managed to get the dealer/Lexus to cover replacing the engine at no charge, even tho it was way out of warranty and didn't have a complete service record.

[dboat]

Wonder if this happened in cars where the owner was running synthetic oil?

I thought I remembered something about needing to run 20 weight oil in a Tieyota..

Dana

[Mika]

It doesn't matter what kind of oil you use. The way the heads/valve covers were designed, they'd sludge up if you used 5W-30 or gear oil(you know what I mean). It's a known problem that the 1MZ-FE's (3.0 liter) V6's sludged up. The 3.3's and 3.5's were much less prone to sludging.



Mika