My son's 2004 4Runner, V6, 4x4, head gasket is gone. Dealer told us today it needs to be changed, has 155,000 miles on it. He's been out of college for 8 months, got a job, bought a used 4Runner and now his going to be out $2400 that he can't afford. Guess who he will be making head gasket payments to. dear old dad. I am a loyal Toyota customer, right now I have 3 Toyotas and one Lexus in the garages. I'm not so sure I will continue to buy Toyota products. Wife just informed me her 2007 IS350 was 2 quarts low on oil after 3000 miles on the last oil change. What the heck is going on with Toyota?

My son's 2004, 4x4, 4.0 V6, 155,000 miles, head gasket is shot on the #6. $2500 to repair.

did it overheat beforehand?

No overheating at all. He noticed when he started it a couple weeks ago, it was running rough and then the check engine light came on. Pulled the code and it was P0306: Cylinder 6 Misfire Detected. Took it to the shop and was hoping for better news but it's the head gasket. After doing a search, seems like a common issue for a lot of 4Runners and Tacomas. Looks to be a problem with the 2003 - 2006 4.0. What's up with Toyota having head gasket issues? Service manager even said he's seen several come in with the same problem. As far as I know, Toyota is doing nothing about it. You would think they would have a recall on a problem like this. My wife got a recall for a bad dash on her 2007 Lexus IS350, and they won't do a recall for something as serious as a head gasket? You can still drive a car with a sticky dash cover

2005 v6 4wd about 160000 miles went in 2013 cylinder 6

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I wonder why there's not many 2003 models on the list? Mostly 2004 and 2005. I sold my 2003 4.0 last year with 175,000 miles and never had an issue with it.

My wife has a 2007 Lexus IS350 and Lexus has an issue with the dash cover. When the dash sets in the sun, it gets sticky and if you touch it, you can see a fingerprint if you push hard. Guess what? Lexus is doing a recall to replace all the dash covers from 2006 - 2009 or 10, also replacing the inside door handle that's made from the same material. Funny Lexus is doing a recall to replace a cosmetic part and Toyota will not make the head gasket right. I sent Toyota a couple emails today but I doubt anything will come of it.

@10ga Not as many 03's probably because not as many sold compared to 04's and 05's. Our 4Runner's have the same dash issue and Toyota is replacing them as-well, pretty obvious there is a problem when there are no moving parts and they are simply self destructing (mine does the same thing as your wife's Lexus). As far as the HG, a lot more variables to pin point as you can see from the list I have been maintaining. True a lot on cylinder 6 but still the problem has been on others, mileage is very spread out as well and I wanted to try and get an idea if production date and 2 or 4 wheel drive made a difference but as you can see, a lot of missing information to really come to a more factual determination if there is an issue or just coincidence. A ton of these V6 motors are out there so if it was 100% design flaw, I would have to think the list would be at least 10 times longer and almost every one would have HG problems as these trucks are 10yrs old and most pushing 100k miles if not 200k. Over the years my family and I have had 8-10 Toyota/Lexus vehicles and if my HG does go I will still probably buy another in the future, for now after owning my 4Runner for over 11 years the only thing needing replacement is my leaky water pump. Not bad in my opinion.

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This is a great thread and I would like to thank Morphious and NuclearN8 for starting it. As 4Runner owners and conusmers we need to stick together and share information so we can send it to Toyota.

One thing I didnt see from alot of posts are the Plant of Manufacture and Production date. I did notice a few 0-Tahara plants listed and no Hino plants. Could it be that all HG failures came from the Tahara plant?

For me I have had no issues with my 4Runner (knock on wood). Currently I have 151K miles and I just had my 150k service done. I did notice that most of my spark plug well gaskets were leaking oil and it left oil residue on the plug threads. The electrode was not oily and I had no issues with MPG.
Here's a little history on my 4 Runner that I bought used back in 2005
with 16k miles.
> 30k mile service completed at dealership
> 60k mile service skipped (due to unemployment)
> 90K mile service skipped (due to unemployment)
> 120k mile tune up, power break flush, new breaks
> 150k mile service at a local shop ( all fluids changed, tune up, etc)
I did have the oil changed every 5k miles with no issues. I dont tow anything and I have only gone off road a few times.
Production date was June 2003 from the Hino Plant. You can see that I didnt take care of my 4Runner that well and its still runner strong.

Also, I read that the new V6 for the 2016 Tacoma truck will now come with a new 3.5 liter engine. So does that mean the 2016 4Runner will get the same engine?

There isn't enough data to make any sort of correlation or conclusion about the HG issues some owners have expereinced. While it's unfortunate, the failures reported on this site are less than .01% of 4runners sold in 2004 (the most reported year). I wouldn't consider that a problem even if the actual number of failures was 100 times worse at 1%. So while this thread is a good summary it's pretty much pointless for the intended purpose to try to shed some light on correlations or conclusions if those members who have experienced this failure don't share all the requested information. The production date of the vehicle really doesn't matter because the engine could be assembled at a completely different time and not installed sequentially. What I'm really interested to see are the EIN's seeing how this is a potential engine issue, vehicle production date can't technically be correlated since we can't confirm engines were sequentially installed off the production line since they're assembled seperately, shelved, and then pulled for install to the vehicle at a later date.

to answer your other questions. the new 3.5L will likely go in the 6th Gen 4Runner too, yes. It makes no sense to re-engineer a new motor for essentially a Tacoma with a permanent Camper shell... it makes procurement sense from a volume pricing persepctive. It's a cost effective solution to have the identical powertrain in the Tacoma and 4Runner for Toyota.

Model Year = 2008
Mil at failure = 46,713 (before my ownership)
Cylinder = 6
Prod Date = 03/08
11th digit of VIN = Ive counted 10x it my 11th digit is 'K'
EIN = 8K024165

Hope this helps

thanks. I overlooked the possibility of "K" sorry for making you think you were crazy. haha... the EIN is not 1GRFE though.. that's the engine identifier.. the EIN is on the plate of the engine passenger side by cylinder #5. you may need a mirror to see it after wiping it off.

I fixed my post above (EIN). The only digit I am not 100% certain of is the 'K', will try to take a better look at home tonight.

thanks... I believe the EIn should be 7 numbers (no letters) but your 4Runners seems to like "K's" so who knows... haha