Well, I will start by saying that yes, I do love my '93 Toyota 4-Runner. This is my second 4-Runner, my first was a '90. After reading all of the rave reviews about the 4-Runner, I was surprised that I did not hear a mention of the infamous head gasket problem with the year models 90-93.

I must have been lucky with my '90 4-Runner, as I traded it in in '93 for a newer model. Well, at about 75,000 miles, I took my truck in for the reasons described below and was very surprised to find out that I needed a new engine or maybe they said they would rebuild my engine.. and even more surprised when the service manager said that Toyota would cover it. That was great. All was well and good, although it took a long time for the repair and I was stuck with a $600.00 rental car bill. The time delay was, I think, due to the fact that this was happening for this model at about the same time all over the country and it was a parts issue. I later found out that had I pressed the issue, I might have been reimbursed for the rental car.

So, life goes on after 75k with a new engine and then I get to 145K and guess what. I am out of town on business only to find the same issue, but this time, the bill was $1400.00. After reading the below quoted article from http://www.the-summit-group.com/rec/4x4/toyota.html , I found that there was a "better" head gasket and the "problem" head gasket. I only wish that when my first one was replaced, it had been replace with the "better" head gasket. From what I have read, Toyota was trying to keep this issue "hush hush". But I will give them credit for replacing the first at no cost, (other than my $600.00 rental... still mad about that).

For all you prospects of the 90-93 year model.. that's my Epinion...... But, guess what... I am in the market for a new SUV, and what will it be...... probably a 4-Runner.......

Quoted from the web site mentioned above:::

Begin Quote:

As many owners of Toyota pickups and 4-Runners from the '90-'91 or so model years know, there is a major flaw in
the head gaskets on the 3.0 litre V-6 engines in these trucks. Toyota is also well aware of the problem, and at
some point redesigned the head gasket to fix it.

Up until recently, they have been unwilling to pay for repairs to the affected vehicles, or to admit publicly that
there is a "problem" with them as produced. Basically, the head gasket will "blow" at somewhere between 50,000
and 100,000 miles; you'll experience a loss of power and "stumbling" not unlike with a vacuum leak; and you'll
probably pay your local Toyota dealership between $1000 to$2000 or more to repair it. If you're unlucky, your
engine block will be damaged and you'll incur a much larger expense.

Thanks to the efforts of many people, like Pete Castro, who started the project of documenting this problem on the
internet, and Gen Kanai, who pushed our case through at Toyota of America, a solution is now available. Steve
Silbiger, in Toyota's Customer Relations is our point of contact for resolving our individual cases. Steve told me
Toyota still has no official position on this, but they will review each occurrence on a case-by-case basis, as they
will with any out-of-warranty repair (I’ve had good results with this process before, on a warped exhaust manifold
discovered 1,000 miles out of warranty). Steve reviewed my case in response to Gen's efforts, and they reimbursed
my repair costs.

He was going to review any additional cases you wanted to contact him with individually, but once he saw the
length of the list of victims compiled via the internet, he said to have you call the Customer Assistance
Center at (800) 331-4331 (if you have problems there, you can reach him at 310-781-2810). In any case, if
you want to fax in copies of your repair invoices, you can mark them for his attention—the FAX number is (310)
618-7814. If you pursue this route, please let me know, and then let me know the results, so that I can document
our rate of success at getting reimbursed via this approach. So far, everyone who has reported back has received at
least some reimbursement.

End Quote:


David