icerunner

Hey just a couple of thoughts,
To be fair to toyota, i am not sure engine sludge caused your issue...at all.
However I do have some tips for you.
You should have the engine inspected for sludge buildup by an independant shop. Moreover, then if engine sludge is the case have it towed to a toyota dealership for further documentation.FYI: In the name of great customer service, i have heard of toyota Paying for big repairs...(now listen up) even after the warrenty has long expired.
AND IF IT IS TRUELY ENGINE SLUDGE, then toyota MAY COVER THE FIX UNDER THEIR " SLUDGE acknolgement warrenty" See my post:Engine Sludge...are you a synner (at the end of the article)

A service manager at a local toyota dealership told me once that toyota paid for expensive front end work on a guys 4 runner after a front wheel suddenly "fell off" his truck while he was driving on the highway. FYI, he had 110K miles on his truck)
Because of the uniqueness of your issue, you may have a shot and toyota may pay for the work "in the name of good customer service".


Dude i'd be pissed too....But try to keep an open mind on what really happened. Come on now, IF THIS WAS a "FORD engine" that died at 90K. tell me who would be supprised here.....? But we are not dealing with a "FORD" here, we are dealing with a "Toyota here"... and for an YOTA engine to die at 90K? That my friend, is not common...I'm sorry but at 90K miles, that is far too soon for a toyota engine to go bad....

Tips for success with that
1) Don't guess, Find out FOR SURE if sludge caused the issue. You'll need an independant shop for that, AND DON"T TRUST a TOYOTA DEALER SHIP to "go out of their way" to help you out on a true ENGINE SLUDGE ISSUE
2) "Dot your "I's" and Cross your "T's" with documentation if you changed your own oil youll need to dig up some receipts that shows that you changed the oil AT LEAST 2 TIMES PER YEAR as per toyota's extended "Sludge Warrenty"
3) When you tow the car to the dealer make sure you provide written documentation on evualation of the sludge issue (from the independant shop)
4) it never Hurts to send certified letter to Toyota USA and "cc" multiple big wigs a copy of the letter at toyota....
5) Get the dealer "on board" with the sludge issue by being calm but asertive, Hey they will get paid either way...wheather its your wallet or toyota's...


good luck AND TAKE PICTURES
(i need to know the deal of what is going on here)

mt_goat

I just looked through 8 pages of 99 4 runner reviews on edmunds.com and there is nothing there to support your "rumor".

icerunner

Please, please, please tell me you were not using the "orange can of death" oil filters on your truck....
AKA....for those of you not "in the know"
FRAM! (oil filters)......

naksukow

Can you explain to me again, how oil sludge causes a broken rod? And the rod broke or did the rod bolts go?

mkgarrison5

sounds pretty odd to me.. maybe just a fluke, i havent found anythign to support his statement too.. btw M1 isnt what it used to be. its putting out bad wear #'s more so than other "syns" like penzoil platinum and valv synpower, qstate and others.. if you want to use a syn get one on sale..

OSU4Runner

Haha... Orange can of death! Never heard that one before! Ya fram filters = to your engine....mobile 1 is the only way to go!

icerunner

"Orange can of death" = Fram ........
.....hehe

M1, all the way

mkgarrison5

get some UOA's done on your M1 and let us know how it goes please.. seriously.. bc they are hit or miss now with M1. the other Syns that are out, out perform M1 esp in 5w30-10w30 weights.. plus you can find them on sale.. M1 is way over hyped. do the research.... and you cant say its the bomb bc without a uoa you dont know much about whats in your motor..

mkgarrison5

the best one out now thats over the counter is Penzoil Platinum, i have seen many many many very good uoa's for that oil. as for M1 they again are hit or miss

icerunner

MARCHLORI,
Hey I just thought of something a possibly a answer for your question and you woulden't have to tear apart your engine...yet.
....[B]You can take your oil filter off the truck engine, and cut it open to look for sludge....[/B]If your engine is "sludged", the OIL FILTER will likely have sludge in it.....i.e some of the sludge can temperarily melt under heavy engine temps and get caught in the filter this can be proof of the issue IF sludge caused the issue....Dude ,cut it (the oil filter) open and tell us what you find!!! BETTER yet show us what you find (with pictures)....
EVEN Better yet...... do all this at the independant shop so that they can verify if the oil filter had sludge in it when you took it off the truck... as The dealer may not trust you...
Use a "dremel tool" with a metal cutting blade to cut the base off of the filter.
Carefull now, the filter will be slippery, wear eye protection when cutting metal!!! AND if you slip those small dremel spinning at 35,ooo RPM's diamond blades can take a finger off with one quick slip up.....trust me, I know

steady, steady now.....

pkt1213

iTrader: (1)

You find a new engine yet? I was checking here at AutoZone and it's a little less than 4k but it's a rebuilt w/ a 3 year unlimted miles on it

And if you get one get the Proformance rebuilt, they're done here in town which is nice cause you can drive over and pick it up, but they're probably also the best rebuild that AZ offers and is usually the cheapest.

mkgarrison5

yeah frams suck.. supposedly the tough guard is ok but still a cry short of everyone else

Speedy

There is a filter that's better than M1....it's Purolator PureOne. It has to be the PureOne version. Costs about half of the M1 and filters better. I did a bunch of research on these a while back.

Purolator PureOne Efficiency:
30 micron 98%
20 Micron 96%
10 Micron 85%

Mobil1 Efficiency:
30 Micron 97%
20 Micron 85%
No rating for 10

marcnlori

Guys

Fram oil filters ?? Never jeez that's like dollar store tools please.

My oil of choice is 5w-30 Castrol, Full Synthetic I have used Mobil 1 Synthetic too.

I live in the burbs of Chicago (4 seasons here)

My 4 runner is still at the shop that towed it on Saturday, I will be contactingToyota Corporate on this.

I may pull that filter like you say icerunner..but I fear it may be limited to the screen on the oil pump sump and the bottom of the pan.



Hey Mt. Goat better get some glasses and follow these links :

www.4crawler.com/4x4/guestbook.html

You will find :

Our 1999 Toyota 4 runner needed the entire block replaced when a connecting rod broke and blew a hole through the block. The car had perfect maintenance records and at 78,000 miles we neede to replace the entire engine. This was a $6500.00 job plus car rental fees and toyota would assume none of the responsibility. I think that this is totally unfair and poor business practice. We bought the Toyota because they were supposed to stand behind their product. That is obviously not true!!! Has anyone else had this problem is there any group action being taken. We can't be the only ones this has happened to!!
mary ander <E-MAIL>
Minneapolis, mn USA - Thursday, January 20, 2005 at 08:17:15 (PST)

Or How About This : www.edmunds.com/toyota/4runner/1999/review.html

Vehicle
1999 Toyota 4Runner 4 Dr Limited Wagon
Review
I loved this car until yesterday the engine popped. I was amazed that a Toyota brand car's engine would blow at 140,000 miles. Apparently, 4Runner engines made between 1999-2001 (according to our Toyota dealership sources) made very bad engines that blew. Toyota didn't advertise this, so new car buyers had no idea. I now have a great car with no engine. I wish I would have known that their engines were bad during those years.

marcnlori

Just read the sludge builds up under the valve covers and works it way down, I may start There with my camera

mt_goat

Is that it? 2 other cases and you brand like a million motors bad? What else you got? I think you're trying to make as big a stink about this as possible hoping Toyota Corp. will be shamed into paying for your engine, and maybe they should. But I really think its just a very small % of engines.

Here's where I was looking and I still don't see one case in the whole 8 pages of reviews, in fact most people are saying its the best vehicle they have ever had. http://www.edmunds.com/toyota/4runne...eview.1...html

MTL_4runner

X2

Headgaskets were clearly a problem on both the 3.0 and early 3.4L motors, but unless I see some pic of the teardown on that engine of yours, I'm going to have to call the rod failures either flukes (in which case I believe Toyota corp should cover the cost), maintenance or oil breakdown issues.

Speedy

I don't want to diminish someone's problem, especially one as costly as this, but if there were a problem with certain year 3.4L motors I'd think there'd be fairly significant online data of the problem. This motor was used in several model vehicles over a 7.5 year period.

From what I've found in researching the 3.4L motor it's one of the strongest Toyota ever built. So strong in fact that Toyota detuned it when put in the Camry to keep from competing with the Supra. That's part of the reason some have to add fuel pumps, etc, when they supercharge this motor. Had Toyota left it as originally designed it'd have been a real power house.

rearviewmirror

If this was really a problem on the 3.4 I think we'd hear more stories like this on Yotatech. Sure there are some anomalies, but I'm quite certain a well maintained 3.4 will go the distance. It better, mine is a 2000 w/ 54k... Oh well, at the rate I'm going if mine lets go @ 90k miles it won't be until ~2015.

SRB

I had a bad 01 3.4 too. I am the original owner. It developed a knock around 45K miles and got progressively worse until I swapped the motor at 63K miles. Completely temperature Dependant leading me to believe it was a loose wristpin. It had Regular maint. I am a previous auto technician specializing is race engines so I know more than most about what it takes to make an engine perform or last. I often wondered if my truck were a stick and revved higher would it have thrown a rod. I did'nt bother disassembling the engine as I had it sold for a core.

The replacement engine is a 2002 with 37K miles from a known truck. I did take the oil pan off and verify a perfectly clean lower end and good leakdown/compression. The engine runs smoother, has slightly different tone, and a little more power. I found it interesting the difference between the two motors given there were no other changes made during the swap. I even used the same spark plugs and coil packs from the original engine.

Given the nature of manufacturing every maker will produce motors on the plus or minus side of the average one produced. No surprises there. It's just unfortunate when you're the one with the minus engine after the warranty period expires. Still a good truck and now mine is better than it was...