Petition: Toyota/Lexus 3UR-FE V8 Engine Coolant Leakage Issues (Valley Plate) (1 Viewer)

[03max88]

Hey everyone! I'm reaching out to our community because I believe it's time to take action and hold Toyota accountable for a significant design flaw in the 3UR-FE engine. Many of us have experienced costly repairs due to issues with the heat exchanger/valley plate, myself included—I've had to replace two at $1,800 each, and both under 150,000 miles! If you've been affected by this, I urge you to join me in signing this petition. Let's show Toyota that we demand a resolution to this problem. Your voice matters—let's make it heard. Please follow the link below access the petition.

Petition: Toyota/Lexus Valley Plate Survey & Petition

 

[trudd]

Sucks that you've had to deal with it twice.

Since you are asking people to provide their personal information on your form, are you also willing to share more about yourself here?

Who are you? What is your plan with this petition and the information that you're collecting?

 

[03max88]

Sucks that you've had to deal with it twice.

Since you are asking people to provide their personal information on your form, are you also willing to share more about yourself here?

Who are you? What is your plan with this petition and the information that you're collecting?

Sure.

I’m Ricco Smooth, avid Toyota/Lexus fanboy and Series 200 cruiser enthusiast. In the petition, it doesn’t matter what name you use, so long as it’s a signed petition.

Plans with the information: I’m wanting to build a case surrounding this issue that’s compelling enough to get a class action Lawer involved for the submission to Toyota. I’m hoping to bring both restitution and resolve to this issue as all with the 3UR-FE will face this repair and the mileage varies. This is a good engine, but this flaw creates a revolving door in expense for the customer, be it the same vehicle or multiple. So in essence, having the proof that others have experienced it, and with the volume of responses received, it should be enough to get things pressed forward to get the attention of Toyota.

This is of course in the early stages. I can of course change the form to ask first initial.last name if security is of concern. In the end, I just want to see if Toyota is willing to look at this and offer assistance, considering that I’m looking at purchasing another 200 in the future.

 

[linuxgod]

Why did you have to do it the second time? When was the first one done? The first time is due to the wrong FIPG but the right sealant was established years ago, so I'd question the dealer/repair shop on the second time around.

I paid my dealer $1400 out the door for the repair at just under 150k miles.

 

[linuxgod]

Sure.

I’m Ricco Smooth, avid Toyota/Lexus fanboy and Series 200 cruiser enthusiast. In the petition, it doesn’t matter what name you use, so long as it’s a signed petition.

Plans with the information: I’m wanting to build a case surrounding this issue that’s compelling enough to get a class action Lawer involved for the submission to Toyota. I’m hoping to bring both restitution and resolve to this issue as all with the 3UR-FE will face this repair and the mileage varies. This is a good engine, but this flaw creates a revolving door in expense for the customer, be it the same vehicle or multiple. So in essence, having the proof that others have experienced it, and with the volume of responses received, it should be enough to get things pressed forward to get the attention of Toyota.

This is of course in the early stages. I can of course change the form to ask first initial.last name if security is of concern. In the end, I just want to see if Toyota is willing to look at this and offer assistance, considering that I’m looking at purchasing another 200 in the future.

You can have my email address. Every spammer in the world already does.

I don't know what specific info a lawyer would want to make a case but year/make/model is probably a start. date/mileage of repair would probably be helpful.

 

[kcjaz]

Potentially the data collected would be interesting in terms of actually quantifying the incident rate associated with the valley plate leak. You definitely hear about it, and it is well documented on the forums so it doesn't seem rare or a one off type failure, but forums are echo chambers and its hard to tell what the actual statistics are. How many failures does it take to be a design flaw?

 

[TimCFJ40]

The valley plate gasket seems to almost always last WAY past the 6/60 powertrain warranty. Many have lasted WAY WAY beyond that. (Mine's at 16 years and 276k miles).

IMO, some people expect way too much out of these trucks just because they are Land Cruisers. They are well built, and last better than almost anything else built. But they're still a series of parts, seals, bearings, etc that are getting on in age. Nothing mechanical lasts forever, and expecting every gasket and seal on every single Land Cruiser to last nearly forever is very unrealistic, especially since these seals are exposed to heat, oil, coolant, cold, and lots of thermal cycling.

If you keep any vehicle over 100k miles, there will be things that need to be replaced, even on a Land Cruiser.

 

[linuxgod]

Potentially the data collected would be interesting in terms of actually quantifying the incident rate associated with the valley plate leak. You definitely hear about it, and it is well documented on the forums so it doesn't seem rare or a one off type failure, but forums are echo chambers and its hard to tell what the actual statistics are. How many failures does it take to be a design flaw?

I'd actually argue that just because it's a design flaw doesn't mean Toyota needs to pay to fix it. From a legal standpoint, unless they knowingly created the issue or intentionally decided to leave the defect in place I'm not sure there's a case against them. Even if they did decide to leave a defect like this in place, I'm not so sure there's a case against them unless it was specifically done so to ensure dealers had a steady stream of repair work (or something).

I know Toyota has covered head gasket replacements on the 2nd gen 4Runners and I think might have done so on (at least some of) the 80 series I-6, but I don't know why in those cases. I mean the cracking radiators and sticky transfer case actuators are well known problems and Toyota hasn't done anything about them even across generations of models.

Sometimes the NHTSA gets involved and forces manufacturers to repair, but that's typically only for items which are a safety concern. If the leak could cause a fire, for instance.

In any case, I anxiously await my $12 credit towards a future vehicle repair or purchase from this settlement.

 

[j404]

I know you have good intentions, but just to bring you down to earth...

If all of the class action threads didn't do anything with BMW v8 tensioners, BMW vanos failure, BMW smg transmission failures - all of which are $5k+++++ issues.... I really doubt that this is going to go anywhere. Essentially it's bad PR for toyota, which I think it's good to bring this to light, and it might make them think twice on engineering designs moving forward, but 0% chance there is an actual class action or any recourse whatsoever for existing valley leak problems.

 

[Cruisin911]

Dont see much coming from this. I have a massive paint flaw on my 200 that toyota admits to and repaints some Tundras due to it. Exact same issue on my car, no love. Same thing for air injection system being defective on tundras with a 5.7 and has full coverage through 100k on those systems, but since its in an LC, no love. I think that if everyone who owns an LC in the US complained, it still wouldn't move the needle on the issue or having Toyota cover it.

Now, if it caused the car to burst into flames and people got injured, then you'd see movement.

 

[bloc]

While I hope Toyota steps up on this, literally every radiator that came in a US market 200 built before mid-late 2018 will fail.. if that’s not a class-action case…

 

[trailbreaker9413]

I'd actually argue that just because it's a design flaw doesn't mean Toyota needs to pay to fix it. From a legal standpoint, unless they knowingly created the issue or intentionally decided to leave the defect in place I'm not sure there's a case against them. Even if they did decide to leave a defect like this in place, I'm not so sure there's a case against them unless it was specifically done so to ensure dealers had a steady stream of repair work (or something).

I know Toyota has covered head gasket replacements on the 2nd gen 4Runners and I think might have done so on (at least some of) the 80 series I-6, but I don't know why in those cases. I mean the cracking radiators and sticky transfer case actuators are well known problems and Toyota hasn't done anything about them even across generations of models.

Sometimes the NHTSA gets involved and forces manufacturers to repair, but that's typically only for items which are a safety concern. If the leak could cause a fire, for instance.

In any case, I anxiously await my $12 credit towards a future vehicle repair or purchase from this settlement.

As a previous 2nd gen enthusiast, my understanding is that the early 90’s spelled the end for asbestos in many manufactured products, which is good. However, asbestos has a unique-ish ability to withstand heat, which makes it for a great gasket material. So, when regulations banned its use in head gaskets, the new formula that replaced it was… bad: Many early 90's vehicle suffered from this I believe. This bad formulation was the basis for the official recall on the ol’ 3.slow (3vz-fe) in the early 90's truck/4Runner. Now, the head gasket issue on this engine is also compounded by a horrid exhaust crossover design that burns out the no. 6 cylinder, and getting the warranty work didn’t guarantee protection from head gasket issues (ask me how I know, and I'll tell you about the 200 series in my garage); but, NOT getting the warranty work all but guaranteed head gasket issues.

I’ll edit with the source on this if I can find it: Its been a while since I dug up info on this engine, but I have a hundred bookmarks on it so it’s only a matter of time and perseverance...

 

[bugsnbikes]

Toyota would probably say that given you can get out of a 2016+ Landcruiser for around $50k.....you probably should just step up to LC250 or GX550 vs throwing $5200 at the valley plate/cam tower and all other must-dos. Toyotas new pricing structure on the Landcruiser simply suggests everyone jump to a new 7/70k mile warrantee on a properly sized trail rig vs bandaiding old problems and letting Toyota sort out the new cruiser issues for the next 70k miles thru 2031 on their dime.

 

[Supra Turbo]

...you probably should just step down to LC250...

Fixed. The same Toyota also wants me to trade in my '94 Supra for the new hardtop Zupra abomination, so that's not saying much

That aside, the valley plate leak is not isolated to the 3UR. I had this issue on the LS460 and GX460 with 1UR.

 

[bugsnbikes]

Fixed. The same Toyota also wants me to trade in my '94 Supra for the new hardtop Zupra abomination, so that's not saying much

That aside, the valley plate leak is not isolated to the 3UR. I had this issue on the LS460 and GX460 with 1UR.

Yeah- im pretty sure Toyota wouldnt give you too much for your 200 trade in. Supra values have been increasing for the past 10 years and the 200 is going to be going in the opposite direction especially with Toyotas new pricing structure putting serious downward pressure on the 200's frothy old one. What will be interesting is where they bottom/settle. My gut tells me they will likely settle a good $10-$15k below the LC250/GX550 prices for lower mile 2016+. Im already seeing some 2021 Lx570s sub $68k and even those still have some factory warrantee left. Anything thats fallen out of the 7r/70k mile is dropping like mad as the market is filling up with these sitting.

 

[Supra Turbo]

Yeah- im pretty sure Toyota wouldnt give you too much for your 200 trade in. Supra values have been increasing for the past 10 years and the 200 is going to be going in the opposite direction especially with Toyotas new pricing structure putting serious downward pressure on the 200's frothy old one. What will be interesting is where they bottom/settle. My gut tells me they will likely settle a good $10-$15k below the LC250/GX550 prices for lower mile 2016+. Im already seeing some 2021 Lx570s sub $68k and even those still have some factory warrantee left. Anything thats fallen out of the 7r/70k mile is dropping like mad as the market is filling up with these sitting.

I'm pretty sure Toyota wouldn't have given me $120k for my first MKIV either... IMO, it would be foolish to trade in a specialty vehicle like the 200 series to Toyota.

One could argue that the same pricing structure approach was taken by Toyota with the MKV release. But once the vehicle was actually out, it had an opposite effect.

Obviously not saying that will happen with 200 series Land Cruisers, but they do have certain aspects going for them. Specifically the "frothy old" tech that appeals to some.

It will certainly be interesting where these settle. Personally though, I'd rather have a 10 year old 200 series than a new 250. That said, we might be listing our 2013 for sale soon, probably $50-52k asking.

Aaaaanyways, petition signed.