Well, my wife and I have been proud owers of xB's since 2005 when I purchased a 2005 RS2. After a few months we loved it so much that we awaited the RS3 and I ordered one for my wife before the sales staff even knew it was available. The only one that dealer got was the one I preordered.

We traded our RS2 with 44,000 trouble free miles in on a 2008 Black Sand xB the end of July. About 2 weeks ago one night we noticed that the engine was making an odd sound. Not a real metal type sound but a sound that was made worse by load and speed. I contacted the dealer the next day and after explaining the problem they asked me to bring it in. I took it in and after about an hour they came back and said they were not 100% sure what the sound was and that they needed to have it longer. They put us in another brand new(actually had zero miles on it...) 2008 xB to use while mine was being fixed.

I called the dealer a couple of days later and they said that Toyota was sending them an entire new engine to put in it. Not a short or long block but the whole engine. The service manager said he was very surprised that they were going to send and entire engine.

I called the dealer today and the engine is just about done. They expect it to be done later today. I will try to get more information about what happened and post an update.
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Got a little xB double vision going on...

2008 xB Black Sand (mine)
2006 xB RS 3.0 (hers...)
2005 xB RS 2.0 (traded in for 200

 

that sucks to hear you had that problem, at how many miles did this occur?

 

We had about 1600 miles on it when it happened.

 

Details please.

 

That sucks!

 

Just got a call from the dealer service manager and they have it all fixed. New engine is in and tested. They said Toyota would not let the tech pull it completely apart so they do not know exactly what happened. The tech feels that it may have been a fiber gear that is part of the balance shaft assembly. Said he had that go on a Camry awhile back. He said Toyota wanted to get the engine back as whole as possible given the problem and the newness of the model. Probably want to make sure whatever problem does not go further. They are doing a detail and filling the gas tank for me for my problems. Seems good to me. I got to put a few hundred miles on the new loaner they had me use so that is fair.

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Got a little xB double vision going on...

2008 xB Black Sand (mine)
2006 xB RS 3.0 (hers...)
2005 xB RS 2.0 (traded in for 200

 

This is very common with Toyota to do. Glad they stepped up and took care of you like they did. Sounds like it might have been rather quickly as well

 

At least Toyota was helpful in taking care of the problem. Makes me wonder if this is just an isolated incident or a problem that will come up mroe often. Isn't the XB engine basically a Camry engine?

 

One thing i learned and this may not be true but sounds good to me. Always check the build date of your car and then find out what day of the week it is. If the car was built on a monday don't buy it because everyone is getting over the weekend still tired maybe hung over and not all there. If the car was built on a friday don't buy it because everyone wants to go home on fridays so things get rushed. And i bought my car without checking now i'm afraid to look at the build date

I doubt this is true but it's humorous to read and think about.

 

The engine is not new though. There are thousands of that basic engine in Camrys, tC's and RAV4's. They definitely would still want to determine exactly what went wrong themselves. I can understand their desire for control.

Glad to hear everything is working out OK for you anyway. As others said, sounds like they handled everything quickly and fairly. May you have better results in the future.

 

I've heard this too but it applies to cars made in America. Japanese have a culture of great pride in what they do. I don't think this urban legend applies.

 

I've heard it applied to cars built everywhere. Nowadays with parts being built and/or chunks of it being built all over the world...
You think our friends south of the border build things well on Mondays? ;) lol
One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, FLOOR!

 

the thought of trusting a dealership to put in a whole new engine sounds kinda scary, I don't even trust them to change the oil. besides the fact that it has to be the very first engine swap they have done on the new xB's. I would try to get them to give you full sticker price for trade in on a brand new one. I just feel like once you have a problem that major with a vehicle you will have more problems in the years to come. there is no possible way to put in that new engine as well as it was installed in a factory. an assembly line is such a controlled environment and a garage isn't.

 

i can attest to the problem of having a dealership putting in a new motor. i paid roughly $6k to have a "new" shortblock put into my toyota matrix. they reused my old head on the new block. the thing is, they sent it to a machine shop 5 times to remill the old cylinder head in order for the valve guides to work properly. took them an extra month past when they said they would give my car back. on top of that, the motor didnt even last any longer than the original motor when i first bought the car. but then again, i ran a turbo kit for half the 1st motors life and only about 7k on the new one..

 

Serves you right for getting rid of the RS2---just kidding. I hope this does not come back to haunt you with VIN numbers. Make sure you keep documentation. Hopefully this is the end of your problems.........

 

Perhaps you should push for them to give you a brand new vehicle just like your original. You don't want nor need headaches just for the sake of ownership. Let them deal with no matching VIN's, etc.

 

Well, the engine has been in for about 1200 more miles and seems to run ok. I have however noticed a persistent odor of coolant when you come up to a stoplight. I do not find any leaks to speak of. I contacted the dealer about the problem. Given that they were having me bring it in when I had 500-1000 miles on it so they could check it out(was to be in next day or two anyway. I took it in at about 950 miles on new engine(took trip to WI). They checked it all out and said all was good and that they found no leaks what so ever. Figured maybe it was just some that was spilled and is slowly evaporating. That was last Saturday. I still can reproduce the odor consistently by just doing in town driving as there are lots of stops and starts. I took a further look around on my own and do not find any leaks or seepage.

One thing I did see tonight is that when the engine is up to operating temp and just sitting in the driveway if I look at the line that goes into the coolant reservoir it is constantly bubbling. Now it does not appear to be adding liquid to the tank but seems to be pushing in air. The way I understand coolant systems this should not be happening. I can understand it pushing some liquid into the tank while warming up as the coolant expands. Then when cooling down it will draw it back into the system. The only time I have ever seen a coolant tank bubble like this without level rising was when a bad head gasket or such was involved.

Does this make any sense? Could any of you that have the same vehicle take a look and see if yours has the same coolant tank behavior as mine?

Thanks,
Don

 

I will have to look into mine. However, I do notice a coolant smell when I drive my vehicle and the engine gets hot. I get no leaks and the temp guage never goes over. I get the same smell with our new corolla also. I assume it is just the air being released and carrying the smell with it ?

 

I also can smell coolant when it's up to temperture and the window is down, don't notice any leaks though

 

id say your head gasket may be failing. if your seeing air bubles then that is usually air from the combustion chamber getting pushed through the head gasket. id take it back