1995 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 3.0 from North America

Faults:

My head gasket blew at 157,000 miles. Reason: faulty design. This is a known defect, but the recall is limited to models produced prior to 10/94. Go figure! Toyota should stand behind its product and correct this problem.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 19th July, 2008

21st Jul 2008, 06:12

It's hard to call it poor design when it ran for 157000 miles before the head gasket blew, I'd call it wear and tear.

James.

2nd Aug 2008, 13:41

Perhaps you have not researched this issue. The faulty design is documented.

16th Apr 2015, 19:34

My 1991 4X4 Ranger XLT 4.0 is stock. The original engine is pushing at 400k on factory head gaskets... of course I may be unique, though I have talked with other Ranger lovers who have had the same luck with the 4.0. I am currently looking for a 95 to 2000 V6 4Runner, & I'm checking the reviews. Thanks for your comments.

1995 Toyota 4Runner from North America

Faults:

My head gasket blew at 170,000 miles. It sounds like this isn't an isolated incident. Is it worth getting repaired?

I smelled coolant when I was inside the truck, but there was no leak on the ground....then I got the white smoke out of the exhaust.... I hope that they don't take too much of my money......

Can a guy fix this himself?

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 23rd May, 2008

1995 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4x4 3.0 V6 from North America

Summary:

Best vehicle I have ever owned

Faults:

Uh... nothing?

General Comments:

Extremely dependable.

Takes a beating like a champ.

3.0 is a pretty good engine with a high flow intake and exhaust (not too expensive)

Lots of space to haul.

Easy to drive and use.

Unbelievable 4x4!!!

Great automatic transmission.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 7th May, 2008

1995 Toyota 4Runner 3.0 V6 from North America

Summary:

Not very durable, or dependable like I thought

Faults:

Well... I also have a blown head gasket. Surprise!

Engine replaced with a used Toyota engine. Picking it up today at 4:00; wish me luck.

General Comments:

Great car or so I thought.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 10th March, 2008

1995 Toyota 4Runner SR5 3.0 from North America

Faults:

I, m in the same boat with my 1995 Toyota 4 Runner again, I bought my Toyota back In 1998, drove it for 2 years and had a head gasket problem around 80,000 miles, Called Toyota to let them that I have a head gasket problem and heard that this year might be a recall on the head gasket, No not for that year, Well I like my Toyota I had them replace the head gasket costing me an arm and a leg, I still have my Toyota In 2008 It's February and just blew a head gasket again, It now has 154,000 miles, It seems to happen around the 60,000 to 80,000 mile mark, I'm in for the class action law suit with the 1995 Toyota 4 Runner, I hate to spend another 2,000 to 3,000 to fix it, Don't get me wrong my Toyota is an awesome car, But the head gasket problem needs to be solved.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 16th February, 2008

1995 Toyota 4Runner Limited V6 3 liter from North America

Faults:

Blown head gaskets after 100,000 miles. After repair, engine now needs to be replaced.

General Comments:

Love the car, but the engine obviously has many faults.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 2nd January, 2008

1995 Toyota 4Runner from North America

Summary:

I love Toyota's despite their few problems

Faults:

By now, I've read about 15 or 20 of these comments posted about '89 - '95 Toyota 4Runners and how their head gaskets blow out and how so many people are upset and disapointed. Now I too am a victim of this happening, but what I wanted to say is that people!! You need to do your RESEARCH! All cars have their problems. and '89 - '91 4 runners, because of the design of their engine, their gaskets WILL BLOW. There is no getting around it! I recently purchased a beautiful '95 4 runner with a V6 3.0 liter engine with a blown head gasket. My father and I bought this vehicle knowing it needed to be fixed, and we continued to replace the head gaskets in the engine.

Now, for those of you who know that they need to do a little research before buying a car.. I hope this comment serves you well!!

In simple terms, when the V6 engine model for this truck was manufactured, they Japanese had a brilliant idea!! "Lets make the engine lighter by putting aluminum heads on the engine instead of steel, so that it in turn will be lighter, and run faster." Yes it was a good idea, but every idea has a pitfall. And the pitfall to putting aluminum heads on a steel engine block, is that they are two very different types of metals. The problem comes in when you get around 100k miles, the heat from starting, running, stopping, cooling, heating, cooling, heating, cooling (etc) of those aluminum heads, the heads expand and detract with the various levels of heat. And since the engine block is steel, there is no expanding and detracting of the metal. SO! When you get that one metal moving around, it affects the gasket that is sealed between the block and the heads. And after so much heat and tension (typically around 100k -150k miles) those gaskets crack. In turn, water and antifreeze is able to leak into the oil and which causes... WHITE SMOKE!

White smoke and poor running quality of the engine is the effect of this blown head gasket, which is the effect of the poor motor design.

But hey, no one and certainly nothing (especially cars) are perfect. So please people, do your research so you don't have to cry and moan later when you figure out what certain cars' problems are. It just might save you a lot of heartache, and wallet pain too.

General Comments:

Toyotas are great cars. You can't put them down just because they have one malfunction. All cars have their lows. Do the homework.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 3rd December, 2007

20th Jan 2011, 07:01

Great post!

I'm currently looking into buying a '95 4Runner V6 3.0, 5 speed, lifted. I like the available room and "off road-ability", and always heard with Toyotas you could practically flip them, drown them, and bury them and they'll keep going.

Though I'm not too sure if I'm interested in replacing a head gasket on one; this is a pricey fix if you can't do it yourself.

Also, the gas mileage and lack of highway driving one experiences with owning one of these '95 4Runners doesn't sound too pleasant...

Kinda disappointed in my research of choices. Off to the web again to find something better!

21st Jan 2011, 03:38

The head gasket is a major issue with these, and the gas mileage is horrible. If you are OK with that, it's a decent SUV.