Head gasket blown at ~135k miles and recently at 172k miles (I am guessing this second time.) This time it ain't worth it to fix it. I realized this is an inherent problem from my survey with other owners. Will this affect my perception of Toyota. Yes somewhat. I do know every other parts of the car is rock solid though and never had any other major repairs beside the damn head gasket.
Minor repairs/replacements are:
Normal wear and tear from tires and rotor/brake pad
Brake clutch replaced
Leaking steering fluid started at approx 120k mile...never fixed
AC went out at 110k miles
Starter safety switch
Smog failed ever since the first gasket failure.
This car was pampered till my first head gasket failure. Since then and the subsequent engine rebuilt I have let it go since the idiot mechanic I got never got it running right ever again.
Positives are:
Rock solid transmision unlike my mom's cressida 89 which started to slip at approx 180-200k miles.
Never any electrical problems.
PS: Car overheated again on the freeway on a roadtrip recently at around 172k. Mechanic couldn't figure out what was causing and we tried everything trust me. I gave it away to a nice local guy since I couldn't take it with me. Hopefully he can figure it out but I gave up .
Luxurious car and being heavy it was detrimental to it performance due to the overloaded and pampered interior.
Awesome seating configurations and instrumentations.
I found out why it overheats; the plastic valve on left bay area going to the heater hose melts and will cost $300 to replace it. W/C will empty your water in the engine.
So I just requested the mechanic to bypass the water hose back to the engine instead of to the heater. Sacrificing that I have no heater during winter.
Hope this will save more life of the Supra and the cost.
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