2000 Avensis Oil Burner

[spannerchuck]

Ive just stumbled across this irritating oil burning problem that these cars are prone to while working on my neighbours 2000 avensis VVT-I.

Unfortunately he has no service history and its well out of warranty,approaching toyota uk got him no where, so Im trying to get hold of contact details for the toyota head office in japan.

Anyone happen to know an email address for them.

cheers

[Parts-King]

Sorry but that wont help your cause at all. If you send anything to Japan you will get a nice letter back asking you to contact Toyota GB

Toyota have been changing engines on this model for some time, HOWEVER the repairs were done SUBJECT TO cars having a full service history, the fact your neighbour has no service history means that Toyota have decided to turn down his request for assistance, they are quite within their rights to do this. As he has no history, the car could have been run short on oil for a long time, making the problem even worse, the car is now nine years old so you have very little chance of getting any legal help IMHO

Kingo

[ormi]

at our dealer a few cars have got done with a couple of stamps missing.as above though i think toyota were very good to their customers with replacing their engines(no one else would extend the warranty like this) and for your friend to think toyota will help him after him not bothering to get his car serviced by at least a garage with a stamp or maintained properly ie checking oil/levels weekly is a bit of a joke but as above toyota japan will tell you to go to toyota gb and they will tell your friend the same as they have done....... go away and stop bothering us.

tell him to pic up a second hand engine and take better care of it. or sell it and get one which has had the engine already changed.

[spannerchuck]

Ive never come across any other japanese cars, with a bad oil burning problem like this,roughly 2 litres per 500 miles.

Its something I would never expected from a toyota car at just 60k,so it is a fundamental design flaw that somebody needs a clip round the ear for.

I think toyota should admit their mistake and sort out all the cars regardless of age etc as a gesture of goodwill,for instance volvo would have repaired this problem at the drop of a hat.

[ormi]

Ive never come across any other japanese cars, with a bad oil burning problem like this,roughly 2 litres per 500 miles.

Its something I would never expected from a toyota car at just 60k,so it is a fundamental design flaw that somebody needs a clip round the ear for.

I think toyota should admit their mistake and sort out all the cars regardless of age etc as a gesture of goodwill,for instance volvo would have repaired this problem at the drop of a hat.

i bet they would want all of the cars affected to have service history though(volvo or any dealer)......

[Paul Byham]

For what it's worth, spannerchuck - I agree with you.

This problem is now so well documented to be a DESIGN issue, having BUGGER ALL to do with maintenance (or lack thereof) - as evidenced by the many people with log-books full of service stamps (thus proving that they've fully observed Toyota's own maintenance schedules) who've had short-block changes 'on-the-house'. SO how can an apparently "perfectly maintained" vehicle, "certificated" by it's fully-populated log-book, suffer from a problem that is in any way down to poor maintenance? Sorry - but I completely fail to see the relevance of service history when the issue is very well known to be a design flaw.surely Toyota are being somewhat less than honest about this.

Whilst ormi's point about servicing holds (only NO-ONE gets a stamp for doing their own oil checks....) - I disagree that Toyota have been "good" to people: ultimately they've sold a product that's not fit-for-purpose as it's doomed by design to fail in only a fraction of the lifetime that should be expected. If they were properly honourable, they'd just fix it - no questions asked.

Bottom line, spannerchuck : sadly it's very unlikely the Toyota !Removed! are going to help you. Touch wood, my '52 1.8VVTi estate is still looking ok at 59k; but I'm now keeping a very watchful eye - and will sell it quick at the first sign of increase in oil consumption. A disgrace that this is what Toyota has come to; they used to be legendary in terms of longevity....

[Black Knight]

Every engine ever built burns oil to some level; that's a fact. It may be so negligable you don't notice but it does happen.

As engines get older they burn more oil as valve guides and piston rings wear

If you don't change the oil then contaminants build up in the oil and you get accelerated wear in the engine.

There is a well documented issue on here about the VVTi engines though.

So in this case is the cause of this problem to do with the fact that the engines so shagged because it hasn't had an oil change in however long or is it down to the problems with the engine? Could be one, the other or a combination of both.

To prove it's to do with the documented problem though you have to prove that the engine was maintained properly. Without the service stamps being completed you can't prove this. Ergo the response you're getting. Try never getting a Volvo serviced and then asking for a new engine when the oil turns to treacle. I suspect you'll get a rather nasty (and expensive) shock.

Oh and case in point, there's a design flaw in the ECU of the Volvo 740 I think it is. ECU burns out quickly and you lose a healthy chunk of the dashboard instrumentation. From memory its something like £1000 for a new ECU, a couple of hundred for a repaired one (it's so common that there are a few companies that will do it) or, if you can find one, you can get one from a scrappers but they're like rocking horse cr@p since they blow that often. Volvo have no extended warranty on the problem and no financial assistance from Volvo.