Toyota Problems

Fitting an external oil cooler to your auto is a good safety measure when you're doing a lot of towing, and shifting down a gear before you get to a hill is also good driving practice.

You’re on a loser trying to convince Toyota to pay for a new clutch. At the very, very best they might cough up for part of the cost, but I doubt they’ll show any interest at all for the reasons you quote. If the clutch is still operating fine, then take the clutch man’s advice and crank up the radio until the clutch fails and needs replacing.

I'd say you have an engine problem, perhaps a cracked head.  Chemiweld is mostly used for a temporary repair to seal a crack in the cooling system without tearing the engine down and doing a proper fix. It's worked to some degree in that the engine is no longer running roughly and there is less steam coming from the exhaust, but the problem still appears to be there. Pull the engine down and find the real cause of the problem.

It’s hard to say. If the piston was holed or melted because of an issue with the mixture and the piston failure caused the engine to seize it could possibly be blamed on the LPG, but it’s unlikely that the LPG caused the problem.

The timing belt is usually changed at 150,000 km on that model and most dealers are happy to do it on the basis of distance done rather than a time limit. Regular unleaded is being phased out in NSW only in 2011. Your car should be fine on E10, BP guarantees its E10 is suitable for all vehicles regardless of the age of the vehicle, the other oil companies don’t make that guarantee at the moment, but probably will. With that in mind use BP E10 if you have any doubts.

The rotten egg smell was once a sign of a problem with the catalytic converter, but it's hard to believe that two cars would suffer the same problem at the same time. I assume you have tried different brands of fuel, as well as Premium unleaded, and even high-octane fuel. If not I would try all those things to see what affect they might have, and ask the dealer to check the cat converters.

Reading the handbook should be a "must-do" for new car buyers, even though most of us don't even open it at all until there's a problem. Don't take it for granted that the car you want to buy will do what you want. Tell the dealer what you plan to do with your new car, particularly if you're going to tow with it, and ask if there are any precautions you should take to ensure trouble free operation under those conditions. We would be keen to hear VCAT's determination on your claim.

We haven't had any other reports of this sort at Cars Guide, but perhaps readers could tell us about their experience with this model.   Before you do anything else have an auto electrician take a look at it to see if it's possible to repair the screen. Depending on the   advice of the auto elec you have two options as I see it; replace the screen with one from the wrecker, or simply use a portable GPS. If you decide on the latter and you don't fix the GPS in the car its value will be affected and it will be harder to sell the car later on.

LPG converters say the Aurion takes LPG without a drama, and say they have had cars do over 150,000 km on LPG developing any engine problems. It’s best, however, to install a quality system that’s been well developed to ensure the fuelling is adequate at full throttle. If it’s not adequate and the engine runs lean you can have problems with the sorts of issues you refer to. Go for either a vapour-injection system or a liquid-injection one from a quality brand and you shouldn’t have any trouble. If you are concerned you could purchase a warranty that would cover the system, the installation and the engine in the event you did strike trouble.

When you turn the key you should be able to hear the starter solenoid kick in to engage the starter, if it doesn't then it could be a problem with the solenoid. If you can hear it engaging the starter it could be the battery. Even though you say you have fitted a new one, check its condition and make sure it is one with sufficient cold cranking capacity for your car. When it does fire and go don't put your foot on the throttle immediately, the SV21 has   fuel-injection and doing that will confuse the ECU, just let it run for a moment before trying to drive away.