Now for a tale of woe from a long time reader, first time poster. This is a long post, so bear with me...
We picked up our D4D manual back in early August 2008. It was fantastic - new car smell, diesel engine that just seemed to have infinite tourque, luxury interior (compared to a '91 Hilux!). Dream car.
Except for the nasty rattle when cold. It sounded like a monkey with a jack-hammer was trying to escape. It went away as the engine warmed up but it sounded like you would break something if you gave it any boot when it was cold. And it was pretty much there from day one.
Mon 8th September
Took it into the dealer for the 1000km tighten everything up that's come loose service. Told them about the rattle. They said the usual 'leave it over night with us and we'll let you know'
Thu 11th September
Left it over night and Friday they rang to say that would need injector number 4 replaced. Not a worry.
Wed 17th September
The injector had arrived on Tuesday so I dropped the car off. Work is reasonably close to the dealer so the courtesy bus dropped me off and picked me up. When I got back to the dealer in the afternoon they were still working on the car so I had to sit around for about an hour. They took it for the test drive and rolled it out for me to take home. Beauty! I headed off and literally got around the corner when
1. The rattle came back with a vengeance
2. The revs headed towards red-line all by themselves
3. A huge cloud of smoke erupted from the back of the car.
I was able to switch off and pull over before it hit red-line. I ran back to the dealer (This was about 5.58pm and they close at 6pm). The foreman came for a walk back to the car. Poked his head around under the bonnet for a bit, couldn't see anything wrong so he tried to start it. It cranked over once and then seized. He tried again and nothing, the starter motor was trying to turn against a seized engine.
His theory at the time was one of the cylinders was flooded with fuel and that was preventing the engine from turning over. You could actually hear the diesel escaping past the piston rings and into the sump, there's nowhere else for it to go!
They gave me a loan car (Avalon) and sent me on my way whilst they towed the Prado back to the dealer with a Cruiser.
Thu 18th September
Got a call from the dealer that the car was all good. Turns out that a seal around the injector had given way and let the diesel into the engine. Apparently Toyota said that the seal didn't need to be replaced because the engine was so new. On the ye olde '91 Hilux every time you pull an injector out you have to replace the seal because it a one-time-crush seal. I started the car and the starter motor made a dreadful racket as it was spinning down. Tried a few more times and each time it made the sound. Out comes the foreman again to look at the car and he confirms that auxiliary drive on the starter must have been strained when the motor was seized.. So the hang on to the Prado and leave me with the Avalon
(Weekend passes)
Tue 22nd September
Call from the dealer and the car is ready to go. First things first, try the starter motor a couple of times. Seems good. I picked the car up in the morning and it was a lot quieter than it was before the injector replacement. "Goody" I'm thinking.
I spent the rest of the week driving it around and decided that the rattle was still there and it was now quite pronounced when warm. So...
Tue 30th September
Drop the Prado off with the dealer again. They poke it and then decided they want to keep it over night.
Wed 1st October
I have the car back but they are doing a warranty claim now on injector number 3 this time. The process is they get the data, send it off to Toyota. Toyota looks at the data, decides on the warranty claim and sends out a new injector if the injector is out of tolerance.
Toyota claim that there is something wrong with the Winter Diesel fuel that is sold through to this time of the year and that causes the rattle. The word from the mechanics at the dealer is they are starting to replace more and more injectors on the D4D but "officially" the engine is fine.
That's the story to date. We are now waiting on the 2nd replacement injector and the car has only done 2064km. What a saga.
Cheers,
Tim
PS. The Avalon is not a good Prado replacement
We picked up our D4D manual back in early August 2008. It was fantastic - new car smell, diesel engine that just seemed to have infinite tourque, luxury interior (compared to a '91 Hilux!). Dream car.
Except for the nasty rattle when cold. It sounded like a monkey with a jack-hammer was trying to escape. It went away as the engine warmed up but it sounded like you would break something if you gave it any boot when it was cold. And it was pretty much there from day one.
Mon 8th September
Took it into the dealer for the 1000km tighten everything up that's come loose service. Told them about the rattle. They said the usual 'leave it over night with us and we'll let you know'
Thu 11th September
Left it over night and Friday they rang to say that would need injector number 4 replaced. Not a worry.
Wed 17th September
The injector had arrived on Tuesday so I dropped the car off. Work is reasonably close to the dealer so the courtesy bus dropped me off and picked me up. When I got back to the dealer in the afternoon they were still working on the car so I had to sit around for about an hour. They took it for the test drive and rolled it out for me to take home. Beauty! I headed off and literally got around the corner when
1. The rattle came back with a vengeance
2. The revs headed towards red-line all by themselves
3. A huge cloud of smoke erupted from the back of the car.
I was able to switch off and pull over before it hit red-line. I ran back to the dealer (This was about 5.58pm and they close at 6pm). The foreman came for a walk back to the car. Poked his head around under the bonnet for a bit, couldn't see anything wrong so he tried to start it. It cranked over once and then seized. He tried again and nothing, the starter motor was trying to turn against a seized engine.
His theory at the time was one of the cylinders was flooded with fuel and that was preventing the engine from turning over. You could actually hear the diesel escaping past the piston rings and into the sump, there's nowhere else for it to go!
They gave me a loan car (Avalon) and sent me on my way whilst they towed the Prado back to the dealer with a Cruiser.
Thu 18th September
Got a call from the dealer that the car was all good. Turns out that a seal around the injector had given way and let the diesel into the engine. Apparently Toyota said that the seal didn't need to be replaced because the engine was so new. On the ye olde '91 Hilux every time you pull an injector out you have to replace the seal because it a one-time-crush seal. I started the car and the starter motor made a dreadful racket as it was spinning down. Tried a few more times and each time it made the sound. Out comes the foreman again to look at the car and he confirms that auxiliary drive on the starter must have been strained when the motor was seized.. So the hang on to the Prado and leave me with the Avalon
(Weekend passes)
Tue 22nd September
Call from the dealer and the car is ready to go. First things first, try the starter motor a couple of times. Seems good. I picked the car up in the morning and it was a lot quieter than it was before the injector replacement. "Goody" I'm thinking.
I spent the rest of the week driving it around and decided that the rattle was still there and it was now quite pronounced when warm. So...
Tue 30th September
Drop the Prado off with the dealer again. They poke it and then decided they want to keep it over night.
Wed 1st October
I have the car back but they are doing a warranty claim now on injector number 3 this time. The process is they get the data, send it off to Toyota. Toyota looks at the data, decides on the warranty claim and sends out a new injector if the injector is out of tolerance.
Toyota claim that there is something wrong with the Winter Diesel fuel that is sold through to this time of the year and that causes the rattle. The word from the mechanics at the dealer is they are starting to replace more and more injectors on the D4D but "officially" the engine is fine.
That's the story to date. We are now waiting on the 2nd replacement injector and the car has only done 2064km. What a saga.
Cheers,
Tim
PS. The Avalon is not a good Prado replacement
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