Head gasket failure on 4.0 Toyota engines

That sucks. So many entitled freeloaders.

 

I definitely think there's a higher rate of head gasket failures in the 05's. It's probably unrealistic to get Toyota to cover the total cost of repair, since it seems to occur around 140k. It would be nice if they'd cover the updated head gasket. I thought there was a revision to address this issue.

 

that's not considered freeloading anymore, its entitlement

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cylinder-4-misfire.330298/#post-8728953

 

Thanks for trying to be helpfuLL
I appreciate it

 

I MUST SAY I'M SURPRISED AT THE NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON THIS THREAD.
I THOUGHT AS TACOMA OWNERS WE WERE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM HERE. TRYING TO BE HELPFUL. BUT I SEE IN THIS AGE OF THE INTERNET MORE PEOPLE ARE TROLLING IN ATTEMPTS TO BRING ABOUT DISCORD RATHER THAN AN AIM AT BEING HELPFUL

 

No need to split pubes here.

 

Then why after 1 year or so did Toyota Engineers decide the 2005-early 2006 head gasket was faulty and redesign it? Mine started failing probably at 60,000 miles! Lets face it, Toyota trucks are great! But Toyota has by far hands down the WORST warranty of any manufacturer on the planet! I just didnt know why all the sudden I started getting water out of my exhaust .The warranty was out, so dealership charged me to test, no probs found! Then gurgle started, I didnt know why? Paid to have they dealership pressure test... no probs found! Bubbles in jug started, AGAIN, PAID DEALERSHIP TO DIAG! NO PROBS FOUND! I WENT PICKUP A FRIEND WHO HAS BEEN A MECHANIC FOR 40 YEARS FOR LUNCH ONE DAY, STARTED MY TRUCK, HE HEARD THE GURGLE AND ASKED HOW LONG HAS MY HEAD GASKET BEEN BLOWN??? I kinda laughed it off telling him I had dealershio tests done, etc... he laughed at me and said "it's blown man". Started getting over heating at low speeds. BACK TO DEALERSHIP, NO PROBS FOUND! So my friend let me I spent about a week, every night, at his shop ruling EVERY OTHER possible problem. Thermostat, plugged AC line, changed hoses, flushed radiator, you name it! He helped me, do everything, but, lol, kept saying, "man its the head gasket!" (no charge for help and use of shop after hours, plus he's old friend and really wanted to get a kick out of being right about head gasket ) Again, back to dealership, no probs found! I took his advice... rest... see first post.. HEAD GASKETS ON THESE PRODUCTION UNITS ARE DEFECTIVE! Its only like maybe what, 30,000-50,000 or so, and all of them are failing! just recall those! NOT ALL 2005+ Tacomas!

 

The problem is, head gasket fails early, REALLY EARLY, just not bad enough to be detected by the bull**** so say tests Toyota dealerships rely on. Technically, mine failed at 60,000 miles or so? How many miles on yours right now? If yours didnt have the non defective head gasket would you still have the same opinion? What if yours failed at 60,000 miles and was out of warranty? You discovered it was a manufacturer known defect and they made you pay almost $4,000 to replace the FAULTY HEAD GASKET WITH THE NEW NOT DEFECTIVE HEAD GASKEY!?

 

I use Cometic head gaskets.

 

My first Toyota was a '94 with the 3.0L V6 and started to notice a lot of white smoke at about 80,000 miles. This was within the first three years (can't recall exactly when, this was a while ago!). Took it into the dealer, they diagnosed the head gasket failure, and covered it all under the service campaign that was open at that time. I was fortunate as I was young and there's no way I could have come up with the cash to cover the repair.

Across my many well-maintained vehicles and brands, I've experienced a handful of different major mechanical failures on vehicles 8+ years old with 100,000+ miles. Some were related to design flaws which were fixed the very next model year after mine. While I wasn't happy with the manufacturer's design I didn't consider that grounds to pin the financial responsibility on the manufacturer.

If your case is strong enough, you can try going the route of small claims court or a class action suit. That would give you an opportunity to get an outsider's perspective on whether Toyota is responsible for covering the cost of your repairs.

 

I'll take an old school mechanic over a dealers B.S. any day. My Taco was built in July 2006. So far so good. I don't know if it has 'updated' head gaskets or not.

 

You can get a low mile engine out of a newer Tacoma for 2500 or so, so anyone that would pay 4000 to fix their head gasket on an old higher mile truck is crazy imo

 

That shit happens. Dealerships and Toyota are two separate businesses. Ball joint designs on early 2000s Rams sucked, dodge didn't fix them for free. Ford didn't fix their terrible early to mid 2000s power strokes for free, and that was 10x worse than these head gaskets.

There are examples of bad designs on every vehicle ever produced, but once the warranty is out unless it is a safety issue or under rare circumstances they are the owners responsibility. I understand it is frustrating but that is the territory with a 10+ year old vehicle.

 

Hey so after reading this I'm worried my 2012 with the 4.0l may have a head gasket beginning, I can see the symptoms but Im telling myself no it can't be, anyhow engine has 109km on the clock, I don't have serious symptoms like some of you may have had, but I'll name off a few that are beginning foe mine.

First was coolant overflowing out from the reservoir cap(mid summer, hot out on a typical Vancouver day didn't think much of it, wasn't overheating) then a bit of water out the exhaust but I havent noticed to much white, came and went and then months went by, next oil service was due, oil looks great as always(royal purple), went to fill Er up and noticed a super foamy milky residue on the fill cap.. so now I'm a bit worried, I don't have a long drive into work for the engine to warm up 100% so I assumed it's from short drives, and due to living in a more moisturized climate, minor symptoms.. I am prepared to face the fact it's leading to it, just gunna have to test it now.. I have no problem doing it myself as I am a heavy duty mechanic, but now my question is, has anyone else had the same issue as me with their newer models and Hg? Did Toyota warranty those?

 

HERE IS WHAT A BLOWN HEAD GASKET OR FAILED DEALERSHIP REPLACEMENT LOOKS LIKE! ALSO WHAT HAS JUST CREATED THE MOST PISSED OFF PERSON IN THE WORLD!

Northshore Toyota in Covington Louisiana replaced my head gaskets for the minimal fee of $3,450.04 about 3100 miles ago! GUESS WHAT!

 

MORE...

 

You will not see coolant in the oil when the factory head gasket fails. Since the day I saw mine unloaded off the truck at the dealership, I changed oil ever 3,000-3,500 miles! Mobil1 synthetic! I use Bosch Premium filters. NEVER ONCE saw water in the oil until now! BTW, I SPECIFICALLY TOLD THE TECH TO USE MOBIL1 0W30 AND BOSCH FILTER WHEN I BROUGHT IT IN TO HAVE HEAD GASKET CHANGED! You can see from pics they did neither!

My original symptoms were disappearing coolant, swishing water sound from under the dash sometimes when I started it, water from tail pipe, coolant backing up into overflow, then bubbles in overflow, then coolant being totally pushed out and overheated. Literally, the second I saw the temp needle start rising, I killed the engine, put in neutral and coasted within about 100 yards of a Chevron station and pushed it the rest of the way...

BTW, we have like 90% humidity here, until first head gasket started to fail... ZERO water from tail pipe! After replacement... ZERO water from tail pipe until now! IF YOU GUYS ARE STILL UNDER WARRANTY AND HAVE WATER FROM TAIL PIPE OR OTHER SYMPTOMS DEMAND HEAD GASKET BE CHANGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

BTW! Started failing at like 3-4 years old, that when water started coming from tail pipe, I just did not know it meant bad head gasket, since had no other symptoms! A vehicle should last longer than that!

 

I'm not sure what prices are like in Louisiana, but a hemi up here wi 30k miles on it (auto salvage) goes for under 3 grand. I can only assume a Tacoma v6 would be cheaper. Why are people paying a dealer so much to replace a gasket on an engine with 5 times the mileage?