Avensis 2008 2.2 More Faults

[jimtaxi]

I use the 2.2 as a private hire taxi, it has covered 35000 miles in 11 months parts replaced to date are one CV joint and more recently the Battery. This does not give me confidence in the car at all, as other members report my clutch pedal creaks

despite the dealer attempts to solve it. My break pads wear out at an alarming rate only 26000 miles for the front.I am very concerned about the reports on cylinder head damage does anyone know if my model is affected. Any info much appreciated. As I do approx 40000 mls a year watch this space for other problems as they show up.

[reece]

Brake pads are wearing out as I would expect most of your 26,000 miles of driving as a taxi is stop/start, emphasis on the stop. If you car spent most of its life going up and down a motorway when the brakes aren’t being used, obviously they would last longer than 26,000 miles.

35,000 miles equals 7 years motoring for me by which time I would expect to replace brakes/tyres and other consumables. As you do as many miles in 11 months that I do in 7 years it would be reasonable to expect a quicker turn around in wear and tear! Horses for courses mate

[Red diesel]

I don't know anything about the cylinder head issues - but although the faults youve described are annoying - they are not in my mind at least a disaster - especially considering that a lot of manufacturing faults crop up in the first 12 months of the cars life - i was told that in the electronics industry a lot of the reliability and durability testing is done on the basis of simulating 12 months work - because they have appearently found that if somethings going to go wrong - it will do so in the first 12 months.

I do think though that modern Toyotas aren't as good as the older ones reliability wise - however normally cylinder heads crack or warp because the cars overheated - good maintenance should reduce the chances of a car overheating - check water levels every day (yes i know it should not be neccessary - but at 3 to 4 grand at least for a replacement engine - id say its worth the hassle) and ensure that only the proper coolant is used and get the coolant changed according to manufacturers recomendations. Oh and get the water pump changed every 60 or 70 000 miles - im not sure if the 2.2s have a timeing belt or a chain - but if you have a belt then you will normally get the water pump done at the same time as the timing belt is changed (don't normally need to change a chain - unless its noisy).

Best of luck anyway

Red diesel

[Hati]

The reason why brakes are so *****ty at these newer Avensis models is easy. Bosch brakes... Denso/Aisin brakes are much better, but for some reason Toyota chose to use Bosch for these newer ones.