Comments: 1-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-60, 61-75, 76-90, 91-105, 106-120, 121-135, 136-150, 151-165, 166-180, 181-183
Another one bites the dust. '94 Toyota pick-up, had the head gasket done in '98 under recall, but same thing happened 40,000 later... I'm guessing it'll happen again. What ever happened to the "Everlasting Toyota Truck"...???
I am a very unhappy 95 4runner owner right now. It is very obvious that Toyota has made a major design flaw. Here's my history:
1st engine
Head gasket repaired under recall at ~60,000 miles.
Head gasket goes and overheats engine at ~135,000 miles. Engine needs replacing.
2nd engine (used)
new head gasket when engine installed. Engine has about 80,000 miles on it.
Head gasket blows at about 110,000 miles. This time I don't overheat the engine.
Hopefully this will be a cheap fix since my Dad and I are going to do the work. I'm still pissed though.
This is my 4th Toyota truck. Had no problems with the first three, just decided to trade up. I bought my 95 Toyota 4 Runner in 2000 and have had no problems with it until this past summer. At approximately 95,000 miles I also had a blown head gasket. We took it to a shop who charged us over $800 to 'fix' the problem. I got a re-built radiator and new fuel pump and not only a week later I was overheating again. It seems the water comes out at the exhaust. This has been very frustrating. Since then I have had several different mechanics look at it and not one knew about the recall! I just found out about the recall on this problem today. We have a friend of the family who told us about it. I will call my nearest Toyota Dealership and report my problem. I hope I have better luck than the folks who wrote before me! I will post a report back on this website after I take my case to Toyota!
Wow...I didn't realize there were so many that experienced blown head gaskets.
Add my 1995 4Runner to the list. I had heard the V6 3.0 engines like to do this every 100,000 miles. Mine went at about 100,000. I am at 145,000 now...
...atleast I have about 55,000 left before the next replacement.
95 4Runner with 135k miles, guess what? Blown head gasket and other damage. Absolutely wonderful. Yay Toyota.
If you buy Toyota be prepared for major work between 75k-135k miles, planned obsolescence I think they call it. This is my second Toyota which requires major repairs like this ($2800). Time to move to another car manufacturer.
I too own a 95' 4runner with 122,000 miles on it and yes I am told by the Toyota dealership that my head gaskets are blown $1700 to start and possibly up to $2600 for valves and other things that they think are wrong with it.
I have contacted several lawyers in regards to this situation, I'm not sure where this will go, I'm still waiting to hear back. If I got some names and email addresses, so I can show them how many of us are out there, it might help my case.
Please contact me: Janeen123@hotmail.com
This is a huge problem, I am so disappointed in Toyota for not standing by their customers. I owned a 95' Celica before this and thought I'd never own anything, but Toyota's, now, due to this experience, I will never buy another Toyota again. Neither will my family or friends. 4 out of 6 of my immediate family own Toyota's. We're all selling our vehicles and exploring other options.
Chalk up another one! Toyota is really scoring big on the 95 4Runner.My 95 Limited had a blown head gasket at about 160k, about two days after I had bought it. It cost me about 2k to get fixed. Now, I am having transmission problems, on top of that! I am going to have to spend at least 2-3k to get that fixed. I have to fix it because I could never get close to what I have in it, with a broke transmission. Also, front end needs work!
I have a 1995 Toyota with 105,000 miles
no problems except transmisson replaced 20,000 miles
ago drove accross country no problems, start the truck yesterday and steam. I was part of the recall
didn't help.
R1burden@hotmail.com.
I bought a 95 4Runner with 85,000 miles which had already been rebuilt when I got it. Performance steadily deteriorated until I blew a head gasket at 105,000. Now I need a new engine. This engine sucks.
Add me to the long list of soon to be blown head gasket victims. I have owned my 1995 since it was new and love the car, but when I took it in for service my mechanic informed me my head gasket is leaking into the #6 cylinder and could blow any time. Nice guy even gave me the spark plug with the flaky white deposits on it from burning up coolant.
Kinda sad to read all of these. I have a '95 4Runner SR5 and I too have blown a head gasket which also resulted in a messed up radiator. Wish I had done the research before I bought. I love the truck, but I am afraid the same thing is starting to happen again, getting the same warning signs(i.e. loss in power, rough idling, etc.) and don't want to spent another $2000 to fix. If a class action gets started on this, count me in.
Base84@aol.com
Add another dissatisfied 1995 4 Runner owner to the list! My 4 Runner has 145,000 on it, maintained by an ASE certified mechanic, but still blew the head gaskets. The first problem that was noticed was a tendency to push the water into the overflow bottle. Replaced thermostat and radiator cap, but the problem persisted. Next problem was with water coming out of exhaust and also around the rear of the block. I had owned an 1987 Supra with the 7MGE engine, and should have learned a lesson with this car, as they also have head gasket problems, with Toyota denying that there was a problem also. I will join any class action suit that anyone wants to start. My email is micmech@msn.com.
I also own a 1995 Toyota 4runner. Going down the highway one day and it was overheating. Checked the fluid everything was OK. Got up the next morning and started the 4runner and white smoke and radiator fluid were poring out my tailpipe. Most mechanics were saying it would cost $1000 before they could even find out what was wrong. Radiator was changed, fuel pump, both heads replaced. Ran well for one day then then felt like it lost power. Got a pressure test and #6 cylinder had very little pressure. I got used heads so now I am looking for a short block unless Toyota will determine this is a too common event. Even though it has 189,000 miles, Toyota is supposed to be the "never die" vehicle. I will definitely call Toyota after reading the previous emails.
95 4Runner lmtd 120,000 miles and have been adding fluid for several months. White smoke recently coming out on start up. I guess I'm in the same boat. Dang.
April 13th 1996
Well, just like so many people like you, I just purchased a 1995 4runner with 143k miles and few day later "check engine" light came on, after having a diagnosis code "25" my mechanic said... guess what? low pressure on #6 piston, now what?
I saved all this money to buy this truck, for nothing I read about all you having problems with this type of engine V-6 I'm totally disappointed.