I posted this in the sticky but have the feeling that isn't visited much anymore. When I look through that long thread, the last update to the chart of failures seems to be in 2016 at which time there were only three 2003 V6 cars that had suffered the failure. It was mostly 04 vehicles with a scattering of 05's. Following that thread from the last update, I found only two additional 03 models, all the rest were 04's and 05's. So out of over a 100 reported failures on here, only 5% were 03's.

The sales numbers in 03 were actually higher than, or equal to, subsequent production years when the V8 was still an option and maybe in 03, they sold a ton more V8's than V6's but I don't think so. I believe 2003 was the first year for the 4.0L V-6 so did they make a running change that actually created a problem rather than solved one?

I care because I'm the original owner of my 03 and plan on keeping it another 15 years and do as much preventative maintenance as humanly possible but the head gasket failure doesn't seem to rely much on maintenance, how it's run, etc. - seems to be more of a defect in manufacturing although Toyota won't ever acknowledge that fact. I know overheating is the curse of death but my temp gauge has never varied one iota. When I do compression and leak down tests, everything is solid across the board.

So, any thoughts or reasoning on why the 03 is "safer" than 04's & 05's? I did try and search for a similar topic without any luck.

I have a 2003 v8 sport edition runner and am actually looking at what the life span on a head gasket is because I'm due for the timing belt as it is sitting at 189,xxx right now and I'm the fourth owner and have no record if its ever been done. If i don't need to worry about doing the head gasket right now that'd be great because i don't really have the money for all of it. Toyota wants $2,000 for the head gasket timing belt and water pump, if i can skip the head gasket that'd be great. No local shops will do my timing belt so it looks like i have to do the dealer. any input on live span of the head gasket would be great

$2000... parts and labor? For all three? That's insanely cheap. If you have a quote that actually breaks that down I would love to see it.

Never heard of a V8 with head gasket problems.
Mighty pricey to change it before it fails.

@tom4416 I've been thinking the same thing.

Bought my 2003 in 05 with 15k miles on it. Currently I have over 219k miles with no HG issues. Build date is 06/03

Why would you get a quote on a head gasket if it isn't bad? It isn't a preventative maintenance item like the timing belt/water pump. Having a hard time comprehending your post.

This ^


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