Dealerships are there to sell new cars, the old ones just get in the way of selling more new cars.

 

call the next dealership. also, never underestimate the effect of a strongly worded letter. toyota america banks on thier reputation for reliability. i don't care what the techs think of my beast, they took it in and did a good job on the recall. their main selling point is that it is a lifetime investment (and that's how they justify paying so much more than any other comparable vehicle of another make when you shell out for a new one) so if you have 6 neibors saying they are unwilling to honor recalls, there goes half the sales in your area....... dealerships are there to sell you a new car, service department is there to sell you make specific service.... however, recalls are super easy money for them, strait from the manufacturer, so i fail to see why they would not want to do a recall......

 

I dont think the 89s had the same problems as the 90-94s. 89s still had asbestos head gaskets. if this is not not true please correct me. there were some other design issues that still led to blown head gaskets but not as many. my 89 v6 has 270+ kms and running like a top. bulletproof. bought it from some hillbilly insulation installers that almost ran it dry of oil.

 

Threads like this still pop up? I had my '89 pickup '09-'13 and the head gaskets were replaced around 100k by a factory recall. They used wrong material in the oem gaskets. They were fine otherwise the whole time I had the truck. Just take care of the car and you'll be fine.

The best thing you can do for your headgaskets and tons of other stuff is maintain your oil, cooling system, and battery. Change the oil every 5k if using synthetic. Coolant every two years. Change the battery at the first sign of corrosion. All these things can deteriorate and eat away at the seals in your motor if left unattended. The battery can cause electrolysis which introduces a slight charge to the coolant and messes with the way the chemicals in the coolant system work together and can break down various seals like your head gaskets. So just maintain your motor and you'll be okay

 

I just took my 1991 3.0L Yotabago to Denny Meinholt (sp?) in Rapid City, SD and they honored the head gasket issue. They had to call Corporate, but recalls expire, these special service bulletins or what-have-you are good forever.

It is VIN dependent, however. Mine had no record with Toyota whatsoever, so they honored the repair. Took them just over 2 days. I found a discussion about it at http://toyotamotorhome.org .

I should include that mine is a Canadian model, also. Toyota fixed it anyways. Shop around, or use it as an excuse to visit the Black Hills of South Dakota.

 

That is awesome and surprising. I battled Toyota over little things on both my Sequoia and Corolla. Good for you!