Toyota Quality

Wife and I are proud owners of a 2014 Prius model 5 which we purchased new. Currently at 150k miles and the head gasket blows. This is a well known issue another one of those pesky surprises you find out after the fact. Sleuthing around the Internet, Prius chat it seems this is common and is a design problem caused by thermal cycling and clogged EGR but you won’t find out till it happens, then what? You can patch it up maybe just replacing the gasket or install a later model JDM engine. Where’s that Toyota quality? Be careful buying something like this used with 150k and up miles, it’s a ticking time bomb or could be something patched up with stop leak. Buyers beware.

 

Head gaskets fix this no issue, don’t use stop leak.

It’s literally the only major thing that goes wrong on Prius models. They rarely need any repairs.

I associate the leak to corrosive coolant that typically has never been changed.

Toyotas are the king of reliability, you must not have owned other vehicles.

 

I did the short course on why and spending hours reading and talking to Toyota Lexus mechanics that have had this condition. Our autos are maintained by the book. I’ve owned many cars since the early 70s and I’m a licensed aircraft mechanic. The fact remains 150k miles is not acceptable

 

OP-
In your ideal world, a modern automobile should travel how many miles before potentially requiring a significant repair? How many years? How much should it cost to purchase?

 

Toyota coolant is acidic and needs to be flushed every 5 years or 50k miles otherwise it can eat away at gaskets. People with blown head gaskets on Tacomas either and never changed their coolant or drove the piss out of their engines and abused it like crazy

that being said not all Toyota engines are built equal especially the Prius, I know some Toyota engines including the Prius and Scion had the hole in the oil return too small so it would get clogged and the engine would burn oil like crazy Toyota even had a campaign but yes anytime you buy a used car unless they did maintenance you can end up with a real doozy, Dave Ramsey isn’t always right

that being said Tacoma engines are pretty solid including the 2gr (the most controversial Tacoma engine not including the new 2.4 4th gen engine I would never get that one )

 

The exact same headgasket failure occurs on the 2ZR corolla engine, which is identical mechanically.

Differences otherwise. Corolla is otto, prius is Atkinson. Corolla has no EGR. Corolla doesn't cycle. Leaving your research flawed ultimately.

You can speculate all you want, but its just a gasket failure and it happened to you.

 

Reliability is all about statistics. It really sucks when your own personal vehicle falls out of the bell curve. It’s almost worse when it happens to vehicles known for reliability, because that’s usually why you bought it in the first place.

Toyota is still at the top of the heap. My Daughter’s 2010 Prius has only needed routine maintenance for 200k Our ‘02 Camry was at something like 270k when it was totaled. Most of our cars are bought new and cycled through the family until there isn’t much left for the next owner. (15 years and 250-300k seems to be average, with a few successive and unexpected repairs signaling that it’s time to move on soon.)

My only real gripe with Toyota is their truck/suv frames. I can’t believe that problem isn’t solvable.

If a new head gasket gets you to 300k, I’d still be pretty happy with my purchase, even though it sucks at the time.

 

Just because Toyota is, on average, more reliable than their competitors doesn't mean it's impossible for a Toyota to have a problem. As an example, the 10th gen Corolla is known to have water pumps that fail early. We replaced the one in our car at about 55k miles. But if that's the only issue the car has, I'm happy to spend a couple hundred bucks on a water pump every 10 years rather than whatever it would take to keep a domestic running.

 

Thanks for the reply's gives me more to think about. In my perfect automotive world I reckon a modern engine should last 200k easy. I’ve several Toyota’s with well over 200k and a 2007 Prius ex Hertz rental with over 300k. 93 Del Sol with over 300k. I’ve owned Ford straight 6 300s, Dodge slant 6s. Numerous small block GM products, 50s through 70s. I’ve been around cars all my life seen good engineering and weaknesses too. So I blew a head gasket, what a bunch of crap I’ll get over it. I ended up taking the slightly more expensive repair route going with a JDM engine W/ 55k miles transplant

 

True with any vehicle.

OTOH we have these running around.

 

Toyota is always reviewed around the world as a very reliable vehicle. They are not infallible however. Repair it and move on. Buyer beware ,as you keep stating is true, but less relevant to Toyota.

 

If the headgasket issue is as common as you say then it's on you for not doing due diligence. If it's rare and happened to you then that's a different story and unfortunate. We don't get to have it both ways. Everyone would like their vehicle to be perfect mechanically, buy a Dodge and you'll see some flaws first hand, no vehicle is immune to them. I own an '06 tacoma 4.0, HG will probably blow in the next 20-30K, when it happens I won't be on here moaning about it. And to be clear it wasn't a widely known issue when I purchased the vehicle.

 

I have a 96 Land cruiser and their issue is the head gasket also. I'm the 2nd owner and the previous owner never maintained it and I knew this going in. The HG went and now the timing chain guides from lack of oil changes. I will still get it fixed and is worth every penny to do so.

 

So when Toyota discovers a HG issue they typically redesign the head gasket. You are putting an engine in with possibly the same HG flaw as the engine you're replacing when you could have repaired it with an improved design gasket.

 

Manufactured items are not all the same. Most are within spec and smaller numbers are better than spec and some are worse. A balance of cost and quantity control.
I've owned a lot of vehicles and a fair number of Toyotas. The Toyotas have been the most reliable. The most reliable, economical vehicle I have owned was the 1990 pickup with the 22RE 4 speed. It would still be on the road today if not destroyed buy a 40 ton semi doing 50 miles an hour. With me in it.

 

It's illogical to use a product that has a known potential to ruin components it comes in contact with.

So do you have legit documentation of this? Not YT fluff from a self proclaimed expert.

While both of those can certainly occur, that's also a might tight brush you're painting with. Only 2 reasons for HG failure isn't reasonable.

 

So when I got my Land Cruiser head milled at the machine shop the guy who has 35 years of head milling experience said that it's irrelevant the type of coolant to use just put in what they originally put in and in his nearly 4 decades of doing heads he said every 2 to no more than 3 years coolant should remain in the system.

 

Land Cruiser head gaskets are time bombs anyway. It’s almost smart to do the i6 gasket every 10 years as precaution.

I love straight 6s but man do they flex.