QuestionI had the gasket replaced under the recall at about 89,000 miles. On the way to the dealer to get this fixed....the gasket blew. Do you know if they would have resurfaced the heads under the recall? Now at 134,000 miles it has blown again. It ran rough, started getting white smoke, then died on the road and unable to start again. I understand Toyota is not covering the second repair. Can you provide any insight into the problem? What gasket do you recommend and is there a special application that is working better? Also, I am considering just replacing the entire engine, however, I am concerned about the same "gasket" problem with a rebuild engine. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!
AnswerToyota's limited service campaign VO-6 only covers the headgasket replacement, these are updated gaskets and normally take care of the problem.
If at the time of the headgasket replacement any additional work such as head resurfacing or valve work is needed the customer is notified with the necessary recommendations and the customer is responsible for the cost of any additional repairs, you can check your copy of the repair order if there were any recommendations or if any other additional work was done.
If you decide to get a rebuilt engine from an aftermarket source the gaskets will be non OEM.
It's hard to say why the gaskets only lasted about 40,000 miles, the engine may have been overheated at some time or the cylinder head surfaces were not perfectly flat or had some corrosion or etching from the blown headgaskets, I have no way of knowing, in any case the heads will have to be removed and the block and head surfaces carefully inspected for any damage and the heads should be checked for cracks, it is not uncommon for these heads to develop cracks.
