Highlander Hijinks (and a related question)

My wife drives a 2004 Highlander with a V6. We bought this vehicle brand new in March 2004 (bye bye warranty, btw) and it's been...interesting. She's driven a 1998 Corolla, a 2001 Camry and now the Highlander. As for me, I had a 1987 Camry that I got new. That car was great...I drove it 70,000 miles and all I did was tune it up and change the tires and brakes until I compacted it on a bridge when I rearended some guy going 30mph, but that's a different story entirely.

Anyway, here's what she's had:

1987 Camry:0 problems for 5 years, 70,000 miles (owned) 1998 Corolla:0 problems for 3 years, 25,000 miles (leased) 2001 Camry:0 problems for 3 years, 30,000 miles (leased)

2004 Highlander with a V6, currently at 24,000 miles (owned):

The dealer gave us a number of free oil changes, so I'd never been under the car before this happened last year.

One morning, my wife left for work, and I saw oil on the garage floor. Off to the dealer the next day. Dealer decides the oil pan seal is leaking, so they reseal the oil pan. When my wife picked it up, the service manager told her that the tech noticed a problem with the a/c and fixed it. This all struck me as odd since I had noticed no problem with the air conditioning prior to this visit, and neither did my wife. We live in Las Vegas, and this happened last summer. We would have noticed immediately....anyway, whatever, they fixed the oil problem and some mystery a/c problem, sign here, free car wash, smiles, etc.

Two days later, the a/c started blowing hot. I called the dealer that morning (it was a Friday) and asked to bring it in. They offered me an appointment a week out. I got the manager and he told me bring it in. So it turns out that whatever the guy replaced yesterday was bad, so they replaced that and recharged it and it's been fine since. Lots of apologies, smiles, a free car wash and wax...I understand things happen and stuff, so no big deal.

About a week later, there's oil on the garage floor again. This is a Saturday morning. I call the dealer, talk to the service manager. He says bring it on in. We go in, they look at it. Then he tells my wife that there was a "big dent with a hole" in the oil pan, which is why it's leaking now. This second leak was in the same spot on the floor as the first leak, btw, and roughly the same amount, nothing huge, just a drip or two. He quotes her a price of $750 for a new oil pan. We didn't hit anything while driving or parking, and the thing had only been driven probably 25 miles that week. My asked to see the oil pan and they told her insurance regulations prohibit her from going in there. Then they called someone and spoke to them and after that decided to repair it "as a courtesy." Fine, whatever you want to call it, just fix the damn thing already. So they have to order oil pan, it'll be in Tuesday. Ok, it's not leaking *that* bad so we go home and park it and just use my truck for the weekend. Tuesday, they put new oil pan on, done, apologies, thank you, free car wash, bye now.

It hasn't leaked since.

Subsequently, I decided not to return to this dealership despite their free oil changes. Saturday morning, I go buy oil and an oil filter, and an air filter. Regrettably, he air filter does not play a part in our story. I drive the car up on ramps, and look at pretty new oil pan. It has a sticker with my wife's name and a bunch of numbers and when it was manufactured and it looks right out of the box and shiny...

...and between it and the bottom of the engine is about 1/8" inch of that gasket-in-a-tube stuff. I finally found the oil filter after removing a plastic shroud thing then spilled oil all over myself trying not to. The Toyota engineers outdid themselves with not only placement but also angle on the oil filter. Bravo on that.

Here's my question, and what I think happened:

Is it common to use that stuff in a dealer service shop?

I think the factory uses a regular gasket, but that failed the first time due to the bottom of the engine being out of true, and caused the initial oil leak. The tech though the seal was bad, and replaced the gasket the first trip in.Then second time, he figured maybe the pan was out so they ordered a new one, then installed it, it leaked, so they went to Plan B, gasket-in-a-tube.

I'm not sure where the "dent with a hole" part fits in, though. Anyway, that's it, the thing is fixed, the warranty is up, and that's that.

Overall I'm happy with the vehicle, but I'm not so sure about the service department at the dealer.

Whatcha think?

Dave

Reply to
Dave B
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I can't think of the last Toyota I had with an oil pan gasket. They generally do not use them.

What you're seeing is FIPG (Form-in-place-gasket) which once it sets is better than any gasket they could have put on. I don't think there are any neoprene gaskets, and cork disintegrates over time. They did the best thing for it.

Reply to
Hachiroku

There is no preformed gasket for that oil pan. The manual specifies the use of FIPG (form in place gasket).

Reply to
qslim

Thanks.

So much for my theory. Still seems weird that the same leak would occur twice.

*shrug*
Reply to
Dave B

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