Head Gasket Problem! Please Help

Thats BS...unless there is something wrong with the timing chain tell them to leave it alone.

 

I too had the misfortune of having a cyl6 misfire and a stumble on start up, water sound in my coolant sytem. It took toyota 2 tries to finally diagnose the bad head gasket.They said it was minor but will get worse with time. I was quoted at $3,500 to change both head gaskets by Toyota.

I have a V6 dblcab4x4 with 135k and it has never over heated and has been running mobil 1 with 5k miles changes since the first change. I follow all the maintance and do it myself. I said to the service manager how does this happen on a well maintained 8yr old truck with 135k he said time and miles. So Toyota only makes engines that can go 100k in less than 8yrs?? That's crazy that why I bought a Toyota. They let me down big time!

I then asked the service manager if this happens often on this engine, his answer was no. But I have found a lot of posts with the problem. Has anyone tried Kseal or an equivalant? I am curious if it will work for awhile.

 

Head gaskets fail. Plain and simple. I have seen plenty of them, from all different manufacturers. Just like transmission fail, bearings fail, etc. It is the price paid for mass production. No matter how careful you are, when you produce a million parts for a vehicle, you are bound to have failures. And it is not brand specific either. Toyota, Nissan, Dodge, Ford, GM, Mercedes, BMW....I have seen them all.

 

Well, I may as well chime in here too. My '05 DC with v6 just developed this exact issue. Rough start in morning then would run fine. Then got a CEL code P0306, #6 misfire. In went new plugs, coil pack. Drove about a week then the cell was back on. Same code. Someone on this forum suggested that I check the coolant level and sure enough it was down. Toyota wanted $3013. Called around to shops and got a wide range of labor hour quotes. No one seemed to had ever done one. Has anyone tried the Blue Devil brand sealant? I've heard several good reviews. Not really what I want to do but I'm in the process of building a new shop and if I can buy say 6-9 months I'll have the equipment to do it myself.

 

I just did mine for ~$800, never having done any engine work before. Well worth the savings if you can do it yourself. I didn't mess with any sealant, went straight to the source.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/4runners/238998-wishbone-runners-build-16.html#post9549520

 

I have an '06 Taco dblcab. 127k miles. Been dealing g with prob for a while. Comes and goes. Got tired of chasing the prob, took to toyota.. bad head gasket at cylinder #2. Quoted me $3300. Going check out local shops around town..

Seems like enough of a PROBLEM toyota should be taking care of it. Never had ANY vehicle with head gasket probs under 250k miles.

 

I think when you do a search for a particular problem, you will find lots of posts on that problem.

I too have joined the club at 240k miles.

 

I just brought my son's tacoma DC LB 2005 in and the mechanic has no clue where the coolant is going?? wants to keep it over night to check it in the morning. I see everyone is having the same problem. We have taken care of this truck religiously since day 1 every 5k miles. I will freak out if it is the head gasket and Toyota is aware of this problem on all Tacoma's!!!! Help!!!!! I had to put my son in a rental, they want to keep it overnight. I cannot afford to buy him another $35k tacoma!!!

 

Just a quick way to check for a leaking head gasket. Disconnect the hose going from the fill neck on the radiator to the overflow tank. Remove the radiator cap, fill the radiator until the fluid touches the ring where the cap seals with the top tank. Leave the cap off and run the engine at an idle. If the head gasket(s) are bad there will be pressure in the radiator from the compression in the engine. This pressure will force the coolant out the neck. Depending on the severity of the head gasket damage, the coolant may burp out right away or it may take a while. Note - be sure there is enough coolant to keep the seal in tact. If not, the compression pressure will simply go out and you will not see the "burp". I know this does not help those with leaking head gaskets but saves buying a tester or worse yet, having to get the test in a $hop.

 

I'm having the same problem with cylinder #4 in my 2005 DC

 

This makes me nervous of my '05 I just bought with 125k miles roughly on it. I have owned a lot of vehicles with over 300k on the clock and never had a head gasket issue. I'm starting to question the qdr Toyota always brags about. (Mines in for entire frame replacement)

 

Update ?

 

Just found this site, my .02. I have owned 3 Toyotas, a 1982 4 cyl, a 1993 V6, and a 2005 V6. All were sold when the next one was bought. The 4banger was great and sold me on Toyota, never had any problems with that truck, maintenance only. Moved up to the '93 king cab V6, great truck, same deal, no issues, EXCEPT, around 2000, (have to check) head gaskets went bad, 1200.00, but Toyota paid for it (recall, tsb, whatever you want to call it). Paid it no mind, and bought a double cab in '05. Great truck, low and behold, 135K later, #6 misfire, CEL, and they want 3700.00 to fix it (no tsb's now, apparently they fixed it - my ass). I have been tried and true Toyota all my life, but I am thinking Silverado. I see ALOT of disappointed Toyota owners on the web with head gasket problems from '98 - 2005/2006.

My question to the motorheads, did they finally fix the head gasket problem in the newer Taucomas, what say ye?

 

Toyota updated the part number on the later 2006 on up 4.0l Toyota engine. It seems to be '05 and early build '06 4.0l that have head gasket issues. But I'm hoping not all of them have the issue, which I think is a possibility.

 

2005 Tacoma prerunner.
Yep little bubles in the radiator fluid, losing 6 oz of coolant a week. The dealer mechanic will watch it and makes up excuses! Now missfires in the morning, sometimes in the day. This has been going on for a year. 189,000 miles and Toyota wont admit they have a 3,500 problem! Code PO302 i had to get a code reader to see what keeps coming up. Why wont they diaganose the problem, first the spark plug, then then the coil, now the injector? BS first brand new car i ever owned.never again Toyota!!!

 

It's definitely a piss off. I would put some head gasket stop leak in myself. $3500 on a 12 year old pre runner doesn't make sense to me. I know people will flame away on me, but a small leak can be fixed with some of those treatments.

 

Thanks Northern, thats the only thing i can do. The first month i had it all the mud flapps ripped off due to thin casting. They wouldn't cover that either i paid. Two months ago they did the racall on the rear leaf springs at least that was covered but did not want to address the head problem then again. I just feel like there giving me the middle finger for being a loyal customer and always dealer maintained.

 

I have the same issues... Except no CEL yet.... Does this mean I am good, or it hasnt been bad enough for the CEL to go off? The only reason I think that my head gasket is bad, is that I have alot of oil build up on the passenger side of my engine. Also, my coolant makes a gurgling sound on cold mornings and my overflow reservoir levels are constantly all over the place on a daily basis. I will try some ATP

$19 AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT-205 reseal in the crankcase and see if this solves the issue... If I even have one. I just hate to take it in to the dealership to have them look at it because I know they will pick out all sorts of "problems."

 

My Tacoma has the same issue of #4 AND #6. Now they are saying it possibly is the head gasket. Now they want $3k to repair. I do not have the money!!

 

I got quote

I got quoted $1750 for a timing chain cover re seal. Don’t go to Toyota to get it done. Get it done by a trusted shop. Also got quoted $600 for a wheel bearing replace. It’s something that will cost $175 max to do myself. Don’t trust Toyota quotes