*** V6 Head Gasket Action Request ***

[tom4416]

I too own an 03 V6, since new and wasn't happy when this thread popped up. However, after reading every single page , the 03 cars suffered the failure at a far, far lower rate than 04/05. Why? No clue and I posted this question to the forum and no one had an answer. Sales numbers were similar to failures should have been as well but they are not so rest a little easier knowing that, statistically anyway, yours isn't going to fail.

 

[Cody01]

Good to know. My wife has an 07 and I wouldnt mind doing a 5 speed transplant if I ever have to do a motor. I would just buy a wrecked rig for both. Has anyone done that swap?

I just looked and seen mine has a build date of May 03 so kind of late build for the year.

 

[Nova_GTS]

I just got my brothers old 2004 which was burning coolant. I've done testing and confirmed I have a HG failure... After doing a lot of reading I've realized its a very common issue, but I had a few questions:

-What replacement Gaskets are people using? Auto parts store? OEM?
-Anything else I should replace/repair while I have the motor apart? Water pump looked common (OEM or aftermarket).
-Any good write up's for the repair?

 

[nghiS4]

Hello every. I recently traveled a good ways from home to buy a 2003 4runner with 130k that has kept up decently. It is a Limited and only problems I can really find are it needs struts(non xreas system), has very minor leak on a seal on left side front diff output shaft, ans brakes work but feel kind of soft. Not sure if thats just how they are but everything else I drive the brakes kick in way earlier in the pedal. Anyway after getting it home and doing some reading I came across all these threads about the head gasket issue with 2003-2005 and I felt like I could taste my a**hole after reading this stuff. Mine doesnt appear to be bad but now I feel like reselling even at loss and getting Tahoe or other pushrod engine. I've always been a Chevy guy bur heard how great Toyotas were so I thought I would give one try and now I have some buyers remorse.

Meh. I bought my well-maintained & documented '04 in 2014 with 130K. Now at 215K with zero engine issues.

 

[YetiX]

I just got my brothers old 2004 which was burning coolant. I've done testing and confirmed I have a HG failure... After doing a lot of reading I've realized its a very common issue, but I had a few questions:

-What replacement Gaskets are people using? Auto parts store? OEM?
-Anything else I should replace/repair while I have the motor apart? Water pump looked common (OEM or aftermarket).
-Any good write up's for the repair?

I used OEM since they changed the design in December of 2005. The new ones seem to be much, much better. When I did mine, we did all of the cooling system stuff too including the water pump and radiator. (A leak in my radiator was what led us to discover my HG leak.)

 

[Nova_GTS]

Thank you, I ordered the Parts off of Amazon, but the way they were packaged (some labeled, some without, and the box not being able to be closed) led me to question if they were OEM or a knockoff vendor.
Please give me your honest feedback:

 

[metramm]

Wow. No way would I would trust that.

This is a big job and I would be buying all the parts right from the local dealer or camelback toyota.

At least if you buy local, you can go back to the parts counter and complain face to face if needed. Not so much with some ghost online vendor.

Good luck!

 

[Nova_GTS]

Wow. No way would I would trust that.

This is a big job and I would be buying all the parts right from the local dealer or camelback toyota.

At least if you buy local, you can go back to the parts counter and complain face to face if needed. Not so much with some ghost online vendor.

Good luck!

So I called Amazon and they said it was sold by Amazon and they listed the vendor as being purchased from Toyota. It still seems sketchy, but I was hoping that someone who had bought them before could chime in on what they remember seeing.

 

[Oneluv13T4R]

So I called Amazon and they said it was sold by Amazon and they listed the vendor as being purchased from Toyota. It still seems sketchy, but I was hoping that someone who had bought them before could chime in on what they remember seeing.

Those are 100% oem gaskets...

The giveaway is the burnt orange intake plenum gasket ....only made that color from Toyota OEM. .
All after market ones are either a blue, black etc etc but none have copied that exact burnt orange color. You ever wonder why they make some gaskets colored like that.... while the rest are black.

 

[bricew25]

2005 V6 4WD 203,000 miles w/ small head gasket leak. No over heating or codes yet, but long trips cause the coolant to boil over into the res.

Water sounds behind the dash have been going on for over a year now.
Used a block tester and got a the liquid to turn from Dark blue to light green.

 

[phatcheeks]

I just bought a 04 with 113k miles on it. Most of the maintenance was done at a Toyota dealer.
No overheating. Yesterday was 103 degrees and it drove fine with A/C on too.
I checked the coolant and it looks good. No weird smells. Still pink/red.
Hoping for another 100k worry free miles

 

[Kevin82647]

2010 head gasket blew

2010 SR5 4.0L V6
4WD
135,000 miles

Driving up a pass and suddenly the thermostat dropped to zero. I pulled over immediately and the engine shut itself off on the shoulder. Coolant was everywhere in the engine, looks like it blew out through the valve cover gasket on the passenger side cylinder bank. No coolant in the radiator. I filled up the radiator and started the car, coolant started running out the tailpipe in a constant stream.


First mechanic said I needed a new engine, quoted $12,000. Dealership also advised new engine, also quoted $12,000. I'm taking it to my mechanic and am hoping to get by with milling the cylinder head and replacing the head gasket on the broken bank. I'm hoping the worst case is that I will need a new cylinder head, which I've found remanufactured from 500 bucks.


Also what I've found from the cylinder head interchange is that all 4.0l v6 4runners from 2003-2011, along with a wide range of FJ and tacomas in those years, use the original cylinder head from 2003. Through my ownership of this car I have been hyper diligent in regular maintenance, so I'm guessing this is a result of poor design.


I hope to have an update on the situation soon!

 

[andreylights]

2010 SR5 4.0L V6
4WD
135,000 miles

Driving up a pass and suddenly the thermostat dropped to zero. I pulled over immediately and the engine shut itself off on the shoulder. Coolant was everywhere in the engine, looks like it blew out through the valve cover gasket on the passenger side cylinder bank. No coolant in the radiator. I filled up the radiator and started the car, coolant started running out the tailpipe in a constant stream.


First mechanic said I needed a new engine, quoted $12,000. Dealership also advised new engine, also quoted $12,000. I'm taking it to my mechanic and am hoping to get by with milling the cylinder head and replacing the head gasket on the broken bank. I'm hoping the worst case is that I will need a new cylinder head, which I've found remanufactured from 500 bucks.


Also what I've found from the cylinder head interchange is that all 4.0l v6 4runners from 2003-2011, along with a wide range of FJ and tacomas in those years, use the original cylinder head from 2003. Through my ownership of this car I have been hyper diligent in regular maintenance, so I'm guessing this is a result of poor design.


I hope to have an update on the situation soon!

lol $12k for engine swap is mad, the average price is around half of that.

 

[phatcheeks]

Been reading a lot of this thread. Im just wondering why its mostly 2004 that had this issue. 2003 barely seems to be here, and 05 and 06 is the same.
Ive also read that there are bunch of bots posting here to. You can see guys with only one post and never returning.
Im so paranoid about this HG issue. Wish I read about it before. I thought that toyotas last forever and there are a bunch of t4r selling with 200k+ miles so this shouldn't be an issue. Paid a good chunk of change for my 4runner.
Im thinking about just fixing it now even though im not having issues yet @113k miles. I check my coolant level every day lol.
Anyone know any good mechanics around the bay area that can do this? Im fairly mechanically inclined, but never done a HG before.

I also noticed on the Toyota service tracking site that at 101k miles the Toyota service center used BG 546 Universal Super Cool and BG 540 Universal Cooling System Cleaner. this was mixed with the SLL coolant. They actually used some BG products on other stuff like power steering and intake.

 

[IK13]

Been reading a lot of this thread. Im just wondering why its mostly 2004 that had this issue. 2003 barely seems to be here, and 05 and 06 is the same.

Read further and you'll find about Toyota quietly redesigning the head gasket to address the issue they will never acknowledge.

Ive also read that there are bunch of bots posting here to. You can see guys with only one post and never returning.

People usually start looking around when they have an issue.

Im so paranoid about this HG issue. Wish I read about it before. I thought that toyotas last forever and there are a bunch of t4r selling with 200k+ miles so this shouldn't be an issue.

Even with the issue you might be able to drive it past 200+. It's not always catastrophic right away. Mine made the gargling noise and burned coolant, but at a such small rate that 2 experienced mechanics just told me to keep an eye on it and drive it the way it is until it gets worse or something else dies. My mpg was actually great too :jump:

Paid a good chunk of change for my 4runner.
Im thinking about just fixing it now even though im not having issues yet @113k miles. I check my coolant level every day lol.

I know the feeling, but that's just not a smart move.

Anyone know any good mechanics around the bay area that can do this? Im fairly mechanically inclined, but never done a HG before.

I also noticed on the Toyota service tracking site that at 101k miles the Toyota service center used BG 546 Universal Super Cool and BG 540 Universal Cooling System Cleaner. this was mixed with the SLL coolant. They actually used some BG products on other stuff like power steering and intake.

 

[phatcheeks]

Read further and you'll find about Toyota quietly redesigning the head gasket to address the issue they will never acknowledge.

People usually start looking around when they have an issue.

Even with the issue you might be able to drive it past 200+. It's not always catastrophic right away. Mine made the gargling noise and burned coolant, but at a such small rate that 2 experienced mechanics just told me to keep an eye on it and drive it the way it is until it gets worse or something else dies. My mpg was actually great too :jump:

I know the feeling, but that's just not a smart move.

Yeah I know about the redesign. But what about 2003? they dont seem to have such a high failure rate compared to 04.

I would like to get it fixed before something else dies to avoid paying more. Maybe once i actually notice a HG issue I will repair it. I would like for this t4r to last me a long time. I plan on doing some offroading and overlanding as well so im sure it will put more stress on the engine and I dont want to get stranded out it the middle of nowhere.

 

[IK13]

I would like to get it fixed before something else dies to avoid paying more.

But you will pay more this way. A lot of things have to get out of the way when replacing the head gaskets. If any of these things need replacement, it will be much cheaper to do it right there and then, instead of separately.

 

[2003-4x4runner]

2010 SR5 4.0L V6
4WD
135,000 miles

Driving up a pass and suddenly the thermostat dropped to zero. I pulled over immediately and the engine shut itself off on the shoulder. Coolant was everywhere in the engine, looks like it blew out through the valve cover gasket on the passenger side cylinder bank. No coolant in the radiator. I filled up the radiator and started the car, coolant started running out the tailpipe in a constant stream.


First mechanic said I needed a new engine, quoted $12,000. Dealership also advised new engine, also quoted $12,000. I'm taking it to my mechanic and am hoping to get by with milling the cylinder head and replacing the head gasket on the broken bank. I'm hoping the worst case is that I will need a new cylinder head, which I've found remanufactured from 500 bucks.


Also what I've found from the cylinder head interchange is that all 4.0l v6 4runners from 2003-2011, along with a wide range of FJ and tacomas in those years, use the original cylinder head from 2003. Through my ownership of this car I have been hyper diligent in regular maintenance, so I'm guessing this is a result of poor design.


I hope to have an update on the situation soon!

So you have a 5th Gen with a Bad HG? Could you be the 1st 5th Gen owner with a bad HG?

Your information seems a bit off. You noted in another thread that a new engine was quoted at $6k and here your saying it will cost $12K? That's a big difference in price. Im guessing that their was more issues with the truck before that caused the HG to fail.

 

[mabrywes]

I have a 2004 4Runner with a HG issue. I have 260k on the car now, 165k that I have put on the car. Car is now running hot and I have survived the shakes of a bad head gasket as well. I have put one bottle of blue devil in and it has helped me get another 30k on my car. I am to the point of letting it go and buying a low mileage Subaru from a friend of mine, I dont want to get stranded on the side of the road and Ill probably cry. This is my baby and my first car I ever drove. To fix or use as my around town car...

 

[gaber6]

Fixing a head gasket is still cheaper than buying a used Subaru that probably needs shocks/struts/timing chain service as any old car does.