[Mad Monkey]

Toyota’s reputation for reliability and suitability to Australian roads is being called into question following successive 4X4 Australia tests that uncovered a fault with the air intake system of the Hilux Fortuner and Prado.

Toyota has confirmed the design fault also affects the Prado, in total affecting about 170,000 cars fitted with the latest generation 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel engine.

Read the whole article at whichcar.com.au

More information at drive.com and motoring.com.au



Anyone facing similar problems with the Indian Fortuner ?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Mad Monkey

Toyota has confirmed the design fault also affects the Prado, in total affecting about 170,000 cars fitted with the latest generation 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel engine.

Thanks for sharing, Mad Monkey! Moving your post to a new thread as it might affect Indian Fortuner & Innova owners too.

[mercedised]

Admitting the fault in the design is a positive move specially in today's scenario where manufacturers just refuse to accept any design fault (if it's their's).

[Ford5]

The Koreans are doing a lot better than the Japs these days with all their petrol and diesel engines. Sounds and truly feels like Kaizen- continuous improvement by the Koreans while simultaneously beating the rapidly devaluing yen.

[karan561]

The Fault;

The design flaw allows dust to leak past the air-filter and corrupt the readings the mass air-flow sensor (MAF), which measures the rate of air entering the direct-injection engine. The engine control unit (ECU) uses the reading to determine the correct air/fuel ratio.

^ This prompts the engine to go into limp-home mode.

Toyota's reply;

“The dust that makes its way through the filter is very fine and typically less than five microns in size. What can occur is that these very fine particles attach themselves to the sensor electrostatically,” the Toyota spokesperson

“The dust particle size that passes through the air intake system can become statically charged and adhere to the MAF sensor,” said Toyota.

“The size of these particles is around two microns. In general this type of very fine dust is not known to cause engine damage.”

Solution;

“It’s important that the air-filter is checked more regularly in extremely dusty conditions … it’s an easy fix to have dust blown out [to clean the sensor].”

Owners are also being made aware of the issue and being advised to clean the air-filter more often.

Fortuners in India ?

Do note the service interval in Australia is 10,000 km or every 6 months.

Indian conditions are dusty for sure but Fortuners in India the service interval is 5000 km where the air filter is cleaned anyways so i dont really think this issue will affect Indian Fortuners.

However the Long Term Fix already taken up by Toyota officials is;

But the real fix is a redesign of the air inlet system and that is happening in Japan.

“We have provided details of the experiences in the field in Australia to our head office in Japan and they will be making design changes to improve the performance of the air intake in extremely dusty conditions at the earliest possible opportunity,” the spokesman confirmed.

It still is a BIG THUMBS UP for Toyota to acknowledge the issue, create awareness with the customer & to issue service bulletins to the dealers.

[Mad Monkey]

However, Toyota has no plans to fix the fault in existing cars, instead working on a new air-intake to be introduced to a future update to the Hilux, Fortuner and Prado.

“There are no plans to replace the air filters. Standard maintenance and replacement of filters will continue to occur, and in severely dusty operating conditions Toyota dealers have been advised of the additional maintenance requirements that need to be followed.”

They are not planning to fix the fault on existing vehicles ...

So basically if you are visiting an official workshop your vehicle will be get the extra maintenance but not if you are going to an independent or are into DIY...

Frankly they should fix the problem for all customers FOC
or at the least be open about the extra maintenance required so that customers still have the choice to chose their service point .

In the end the correct maintenance procedure will filter down to the independent workshops and enthusiasts anyway ...


On one hand we have Ford (India) Sitting quiet about the missing chassis components
and on the other we have Toyota which seems to admit there is a fault but is not interested in fixing it for existing customers ...

Both Attitude's are unacceptable !

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by Mad Monkey

They are not planning to fix the fault on existing vehicles ...

So basically if you are visiting an official workshop your vehicle will be get the extra maintenance but not if you are going to an independent or are into DIY...

Most or all of the new Generation Fortuners will still be under warranty so I don't think anyone will be doing oil changes on their own or outside the dealership. I think it will be unfair to blame them for not fixing something for which they don't have a solution yet. Let's see what all components are being changed and whether it's possible to retrofit in the existing ones which I am sure will still be a priority for Toyota given the way they work.

Let's keep the technical things aside rather than comparing who did what or what not

[R2D2]

“The dust that makes its way through the filter is very fine and typically less than five microns in size. What can occur is that these very fine particles attach themselves to the sensor electrostatically,” the Toyota spokesperson

“The dust particle size that passes through the air intake system can become statically charged and adhere to the MAF sensor,” said Toyota.

“The size of these particles is around two microns. In general this type of very fine dust is not known to cause engine damage.”

To put this in perspective, air quality mainly focuses on particulate matter of 2.5 & 10 microns in size that we have plenty of in Asia especially India & China. Cars in India seem to do just fine even in our hot & dry climes.

A redesign of the snorkel and port and/or the MAF sensor would help I guess. A static charge buildup on the dust particles or MASS could be drained through a connection to the vehicle's chassis/earth.

It's easier for the owner to clean the air filter at say 2x intervals than depend on Toyota's service centres that could be 100s of kms from the Oz outback.

[Aroy]

It is nice of Toyota to admit design fault.

In very dusty conditions, users are any way advised to check the air filters and clean/change if required at shorter intervals. Parts for cars are designed for normal (what ever that may be) service conditions, and any major deviation - running a vehicle in extremely dusty conditions, or through water courses, requires both caution and extra maintenance on the part of the user.

If I am not wrong, Maruti user manual advises more frequent inspection and change of air filters if used in dusty conditions.

[karan561]

Originally Posted by Mad Monkey

They are not planning to fix the fault on existing vehicles ...

Yuvraj (Madmonkey),

Where have they said they wont ?

In fact in one of the links/sources you provided in the opening post itself they have said the following;

“We have requested that any changes to the air intake or other related systems be made available also to vehicles already in the field.

“However, as the design is not yet complete, it is too early to say whether this will be possible.”