Anyone have experience with getting Toyota to warranty due to oil sludge?

[stephen4785]

My mother in laws 2001 Avalon is smoking and needs the heads rebuilt. Iv been told Toyota will warranty it but no one at the dealers I call have any clue what Im talking about. Anyone have any experience wit it?

[JFurst]

No clue what you are talking about- sorry

[SSMAN]

Toyota will try to get out of anything at any time. Never got the run around with chevy or ford like I do with the jap truck.

[CJ-95GT]

^^^^
That's quite the opposite of what I've heard. In any case, oil sludge is a result of maintenace which is probably not covered.

[fordracing19]

^^^^
That's quite the opposite of what I've heard. In any case, oil sludge is a result of maintenace which is probably not covered.

Or a result of a poorly designed pvc system.

Sent from my iPhone killer!

[JETFAST]

I'm positive that is covered under the 30/30 warranty.

[71chevellejohn]

Toyota had a recall for sludge motors. I don't remember the exact details, but I'm sure an 01 Avalon should be included. However the deadline may have passed. My brother was a Toyota mechanic a few years ago(3-5 yrs) and worked on several engines that were sludged pretty badly.

It''s not necessarily a lack of maintenance that causes the problem - the problem normally stems from people short-tripping the cars where the engine/oil never gets to operating temperature. The detergents in the oil never get a chance to circulate and then they build up and start blocking oil passages. The oil passages, timng gears, etc end up having a jelly-like sludge coating parts.

It normally looks something like this:


Any Toyota dealer should be well aware of the recall and be willing to take a look at it. Hell, If you have autofill turned on when you google "Toyota sl..." it fills in Toyota sludge problems.

It's a well known problem.

[BP]

They did quietly extend a goodwill warranty on those engines for 8 years total, assuming you had some reasonable proof of maintenance. Sorry but that policy dried up a couple of years ago as far as I know. Be glad it's not an Altima!

[Baron Von Crowder]

Toyota was sued for sludge issues. They settled out of court, with the agreement that they would cover the damage done if customers could provide at least one oil change receipt per year. They then changed the oil change interval to a lower mile rate.

I'm pretty sure they won't touch a ten year old car for sludge, and odds are there is over 100k on it as well.

[Captain Crawfish]

damn change the oil

[JimD]

Damned if i see any recall/ tsb in alldata for engine sludge

[stephen4785]

damn change the oil

The oil changes have been done religously every 3000 miles. Iv done them for the past 7 years and before then they took it to the Toyota dealer for oil changes.

[71chevellejohn]

I asked my brother and he said that the program should have expired by now - It was something like 8 years, 150k miles would have been covered.

Any dealership should still be aware of the program enough to tell you that it has expired.