Hello all. Wanted to get some info as I have been doing some research for my lady friend who lives in New Zealand. I have been doing quite a bit of searching for information on various model vehicles for her. One of the first she came up with and told me about was a Toyota SUV called the "Harrier". This is a vehicle that is imported out of Japan for the Asian Pacific market but we see it here in the states as the Lexus RX300 series. As I have been digging into this particular model, I have been seeing some disturbing news about engine failures particularly with Toyota V6 engines from oil geling. I have not come across too much in relation to GEN 1, 2 and 3 4Runners, but there is quite a bit occurring with Toyota passenger cars and smaller SUV's such as the RAVA4, Corolla and the RX300's. There is the ongoing issue with the V6 in Gen 2 4Runners and just wanted to konw if this might be another issue to be concerned with as these all have V6 motors.

Seems the issue occurs without warning and even if you have been doing regular maintenance such as normal oil changes. Has anyone seen or had anything related to this on their 4Runner? Would be interesting to know what engines and applications this has become a problem with. What about newer Runners and Tacoma's are we looking at another engineering snafu at Toyota?

 

This is the only place I've seen any info on it:
http://www.yotarepair.com/Sludge_Zone.html