Toyota RAV4 Engine Problems

Try a Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5, Kia Sportage, or Subaru Forester. Any of them would be good choices.

You need to continue to hound the dealership and Toyota's customer service people, and ask for a meeting with the dealer to discuss the problem and to request a plan of action to resolve the problem. Because replacing the pistons and rings didn't solve the problem, the engine may need to be replaced, and I would suggest that you pursue that option with Toyota. While you are seeking a resolution with Toyota also consult the Victorian Consumer Affairs department and ask for their support.

It all depends on what you call the serpentine belt. If you mean the toothed rubber belt that drives the camshafts, then yes, the engine will need to have its valve timing re-set before it will run again with a new belt. If this is what has happened, you’re lucky that the 3S-FE engine in your car is what’s called a non-interference engine. That is, if the belt brakes, the pistons will not crash into the valves, destroying the engine. In an interference design, you’d be looking at a whole new engine.

If, however, the belt you refer to is the one that drives the power-steering pump, water pump and alternator, then you should be able to simply replace the belt and be back in business.

It’s possibly coming in through the rear of the car, so check the rear door seal and any other seals that might be allowing the exhaust fumes in.

The most common cause of this problem is a flat battery. Often, a battery will have just enough charge remaining to switch on the dashboard lights (which don’t need much power to operate) yet be too flat to actually crank the engine (which requires a huge amount of power).

You can have the battery charged and its overall condition checked, as well as the vehicle’s charging system. You may also find you have something as simple as a loose battery terminal that is not allowing the charge to flow a freely as it needs to.

It all sounds a bit counter-intuitive, doesn’t it: That a smaller engine could use more fuel thana larger one? But, in fact, it’s all down to the hybrid driveline in the 2.5-litre version of the RAV4. Because the hybrid version also has an electric motor to help propel the vehicle, the petrol engine has less work to do. So, it uses less fuel, particularly on the official test cycle that determines these numbers.

In fact, in the hybrid RAV4, the petrol engine isn’t even running a lot of the time, especially in stop-start traffic. The electric motor can draw from the batteries on board to get the vehicle rolling, and when it’s slowing down, the electric motor recharges those batteries for the next green light. And when the car is running on electric power, it’s not using any petrol at all.

By contrast, the non-hybrid RAV4 is running its petrol engine the whole time (apart from when it’s at a complete standstill). And that, in a nutshell, is how a bigger engine can use less fuel than a smaller one in the same make and model.

The hybrid is at its best in city type driving where the electric motor does more of the driving. Out of town it will be petrol motor doing most of the work, so it might well be better in your case to go for a straight petrol engine.

Take it to the dealer, sit down, have a coffee, wait a couple of hours, then pay the bill and drive away. If you're not experienced with working on your own car you're best off taking your car to a qualified mechanic or dealership and paying them to do it, as it rarely works out significantly cheaper to change fluids yourself at home despite the risk of scaling yourself with hot oil or having the car fall off the jack and kill you.

It has a timing chain, which doesn’t require changing regularly, as a belt does. The only serious problem the RAV4 suffered related to the ECU controlling the automatic transmission, which could fail resulting in erratic shifting.

Without a doubt, the best thing to do now is the have the car electronically scanned. That’s because there are literally hundreds of things that could cause this sort of problem, ranging from (but hardly limited to) a sick fuel pump, a blocked fuel filter, worn injectors, a fuel leak, poor ignition, a low-voltage battery, dirty air-filter, blocked or damaged exhaust, a stray electrical problem and much, much more. Even something simple like a fuel rail that is not holding pressure when the engine is switched off, can lead to symptoms very much like yours.

Hopefully, the on-board computer has logged these random starting problems and will be able to tell a mechanic what’s wrong. Otherwise you’ll simply continue replacing parts that weren’t the problem in the first place. And that costs time and lots of money.