Review of Toyota Highlander - a kind mountain dweller. Review of the car Toyota Highlander V6 Maintenance of V-engines in the official dealership

Octane number
General advice and recommendations from the manufacturer - "What gasoline do we pour into Toyota?"

Engine oil
General tips for choosing engine oil - "What kind of oil do we pour into the engine?"

Spark plug
General notes and catalog of recommended candles - "Spark plug"

Batteries
Some recommendations and a catalog of standard batteries - "Batteries for Toyota"

Power
A little more about the characteristics - "Rated performance characteristics of Toyota engines"

Refueling tanks
Manufacturer's Guide - "Filling volumes and liquids"

The most archaic OHV engines for the most part remained in the 1970s, but some of their representatives were modified and remained in service until the mid-2000s (K series). The lower camshaft was driven by a short chain or gears and moved the rods through hydraulic pushers. Today, OHV is used by Toyota only in the truck diesel segment.

From the second half of the 1960s, SOHC and DOHC engines of various series began to appear - initially with solid double-row chains, with hydraulic compensators or adjusting valve clearances with washers between the camshaft and the pusher (less often with screws).

The first series with a timing belt drive (A) was born only in the late 1970s, but by the mid-1980s such engines - what we call "classics" - became an absolute mainstream. First SOHC, then DOHC with the letter G in the index - "wide Twincam" with the drive of both camshafts from the belt, and then the massive DOHC with the letter F, where one of the shafts connected by a gear was driven by a belt. Clearances in DOHC were adjusted by washers above the pushrod, but some motors with Yamaha-designed heads retained the principle of placing the washers under the pushrod.

When the belt broke on most mass-produced engines, valves and pistons did not occur, with the exception of forced 4A-GE, 3S-GE, some V6s, D-4 engines and, of course, diesel engines. In the latter, due to the design features, the consequences are especially severe - valves bend, guide bushings break, and the camshaft often breaks. For gasoline engines, chance plays a certain role - in a “non-bending” engine, the piston and valve covered with a thick layer of soot sometimes collide, and in a “bending”, on the contrary, valves can successfully hang in a neutral position.

In the second half of the 1990s, fundamentally new engines of the third wave appeared, on which the timing chain drive returned and mono-VVT (variable intake phases) became standard. As a rule, chains drove both camshafts on in-line engines, on V-shaped ones, a gear drive or a short additional chain was between the camshafts of one head. Unlike the old double-row chains, the new long single-row roller chains were no longer durable. Valve clearances are now almost always set by the selection of adjusting pushers different heights, which made the procedure too laborious, time-consuming, costly, and therefore unpopular - for the most part, the owners simply stopped monitoring the gaps.

For engines with a chain drive, cases of breakage are traditionally not considered, however, in practice, when the chain slips or is incorrectly installed, in the vast majority of cases, valves and pistons meet each other.

A peculiar derivation among the engines of this generation was the forced 2ZZ-GE with variable valve lift (VVTL-i), but in this form the concept of distribution and development did not receive.

Already in the mid-2000s, the era of the next generation of engines began. In terms of timing, their main distinguishing features are Dual-VVT (variable phases at the inlet and outlet) and the revived hydraulic compensators in the valve drive. Another experiment was the second option for changing the valve lift - Valvematic on the ZR series.

The practical advantages of a chain drive compared to a belt drive are simple: strength and durability - the chain, relatively speaking, does not break and requires less frequent scheduled replacements. The second gain, layout, is important only for the manufacturer: the drive of four valves per cylinder through two shafts (also with a phase change mechanism), the drive of the high-pressure fuel pump, pump, oil pump - require a sufficiently large belt width. Whereas installing a thin single-row chain instead of it allows you to save a couple of centimeters from the longitudinal size of the engine, and at the same time reduce the transverse size and distance between the camshafts, due to the traditionally smaller diameter of sprockets compared to pulleys in belt drives. Another small plus is less radial load on the shafts due to less preload.

But we must not forget about the standard minuses of the chains.
- Due to the inevitable wear and the appearance of play in the hinges of the links, the chain is stretched during operation.
- To combat chain stretch, either a regular "pulling" procedure is required (as on some archaic motors), or the installation of an automatic tensioner (which is what most modern manufacturers do). The traditional hydraulic tensioner is powered by common system engine lubrication, which negatively affects its durability (therefore, on new generation chain engines, Toyota places it outside, simplifying replacement as much as possible). But sometimes the stretching of the chain exceeds the limit of the adjusting capabilities of the tensioner, and then the consequences for the engine are very sad. And some third-rate automakers manage to install hydraulic tensioners without ratchet, which allows even an unworn chain to “play” with every start.
- The metal chain in the process of work inevitably "saw through" the shoes of the tensioners and dampers, gradually wears out the sprockets of the shafts, and the wear products get into the engine oil. Even worse, many owners do not change sprockets and tensioners when replacing a chain, although they must understand how quickly an old sprocket can ruin a new chain.
- Even a serviceable timing chain drive always works noticeably noisier than a belt drive. Among other things, the speed of the chain is uneven (especially with a small number of sprocket teeth), and when the link enters the engagement, a blow always occurs.
- The cost of the chain is always higher than the timing belt kit (and some manufacturers are simply inadequate).
- Replacing the chain is more laborious (the old "Mercedes" method does not work on Toyotas). And in the process, a fair amount of accuracy is required, since the valves in Toyota chain engines meet pistons.
- Some Daihatsu-derived engines use toothed chains instead of roller chains. By definition, they are quieter in operation, more accurate and more durable, but for inexplicable reasons they can sometimes slip on sprockets.

As a result - have the maintenance costs decreased with the transition to timing chains? A chain drive requires this or that intervention at least as often as a belt drive - hydraulic tensioners are rented out, on average, the chain itself stretches over 150 t.km ... and the costs "per circle" turn out to be higher, especially if you do not cut out the details and replace everything at the same time necessary components drive.

The chain can be good - if it is two-row, in an engine of 6-8 cylinders, and there is a three-beam star on the cover. But on classic Toyota engines, the timing belt was so good that the transition to thin long chains was a clear step back.

In the post-Soviet space carburetor system supply of locally produced cars in terms of maintainability and budget will never have competitors. All deep electronics - EPHH, all vacuum - automatic UOZ and crankcase ventilation, all kinematics - throttle, manual suction and drive of the second chamber (Solex). Everything is relatively simple and understandable. A penny cost allows you to literally carry a second set of power and ignition systems in the trunk, although spare parts and "dokhtura" could always be found somewhere nearby.

Toyota carburetor is a completely different matter. Just look at some 13T-U of the turn of the 70-80s - a real monster with a lot of tentacles of vacuum hoses ... Well, the later "electronic" carburetors generally represented the height of complexity - a catalyst, an oxygen sensor, an air bypass to the exhaust, an exhaust gas bypass (EGR), an electric suction control, two or three stages of idle control by load (electric consumers and power steering), 5-6 pneumatic actuators and two-stage dampers, ventilation of the tank and float chamber, 3-4 electro-pneumatic valves, thermo-pneumatic valves, EPHH, vacuum corrector, air heating system, a full set of sensors (coolant temperature, intake air, speed, detonation, DZ limit switch), catalyst, electronic control unit ... It's amazing why such difficulties were needed at all in the presence of modifications with normal injection, but one way or another, similar systems tied to vacuum, electronics and drive kinematics, worked in a very delicate balance. The balance was broken in an elementary way - not a single carburetor is immune from old age and dirt. Sometimes everything was even more stupid and simpler - an excessively impulsive "master" disconnected all the hoses in a row, but, of course, he did not remember where they were connected. Somehow it is possible to revive this miracle, but it is extremely difficult to establish the correct operation (to simultaneously maintain a normal cold start, normal warm-up, normal idle, normal load correction, normal fuel consumption). As you might guess, a few carburetors with knowledge of Japanese specifics lived only within Primorye, but after two decades, even local residents are unlikely to remember them.

As a result, the Toyota distributed injection initially turned out to be simpler than the later Japanese carburetors - there were not much more electricians and electronics in it, but the vacuum degenerated greatly and there was no mechanical drives with complex kinematics - which gave us such valuable reliability and maintainability.

The most unreasonable argument in favor of the D-4 is as follows - "direct injection will soon replace traditional engines." Even if this were true, it would in no way indicate that there is no alternative to LV engines already Now. For a long time, D-4 was understood, as a rule, in general, one specific engine - 3S-FSE, which was installed on relatively affordable mass-produced cars. But they were completed only three Toyota models from 1996-2001 (for the domestic market), and in each case the direct alternative was at least the version with the classic 3S-FE. And then the choice between D-4 and normal injection was usually preserved. And since the second half of the 2000s, Toyota generally abandoned the use of direct injection on engines in the mass segment (see. "Toyota D4 - prospects?" ) and began to return to this idea only ten years later.

"The engine is excellent, we just have bad gasoline (nature, people ...)" - this is again from the field of scholasticism. Let this engine be good for the Japanese, but what is the use of this in the Russian Federation? - a country of not the best gasoline, a harsh climate and imperfect people. And where instead of the mythical advantages of the D-4, only its shortcomings come out.

It is extremely dishonest to appeal to foreign experience - "but in Japan, but in Europe" ... The Japanese are deeply concerned about the far-fetched problem of CO2, the Europeans combine blinkers on reducing emissions and efficiency (it's not for nothing that more than half of the market there is occupied by diesel engines). For the most part, the population of the Russian Federation cannot compare with them in terms of income, and the quality of local fuel is inferior even to states where direct injection was not considered until a certain time - mainly because of unsuitable fuel (besides, the manufacturer of a frankly bad engine can be punished there with a dollar).

Stories that "the D-4 engine consumes three liters less" are just plain misinformation. Even according to the passport, the maximum economy of the new 3S-FSE compared to the new 3S-FE on one model was 1.7 l / 100 km - and this is in a Japanese test cycle with very quiet modes (therefore real savings has always been smaller). With dynamic city driving, the D-4, operating in power mode, does not in principle reduce consumption. The same happens when fast driving on the highway - the area of ​​\u200b\u200btangible efficiency D-4 in terms of speed and speed is small. And in general, it is incorrect to talk about the "regulated" consumption for a car that is by no means new - it depends to a much greater extent on the technical condition of a particular car and driving style. Practice has shown that some of the 3S-FSE, on the contrary, consume significantly more than 3S-FE.

One could often hear "yes, you will change the cheap pump quickly and there are no problems." Don’t say anything, but the obligation to regularly replace the main assembly of the engine’s fuel system with relatively fresh Japanese car(especially Toyotas) is just nonsense. And even with a regularity of 30-50 t.km, even "penny" $ 300 became not the most pleasant waste (and this price concerned only 3S-FSE). And little was said about the fact that the nozzles, which also often required replacement, cost money comparable to high-pressure fuel pumps. Of course, the standard and, moreover, already fatal problems of the 3S-FSE in terms of the mechanical part were carefully hushed up.

Perhaps not everyone thought about the fact that if the engine has already "caught the second level in oil pan", then most likely all the rubbing parts of the engine suffered from working on a benzo-oil emulsion (you should not compare the grams of gasoline that sometimes get into the oil during a cold start and evaporate when the engine warms up, with liters of fuel constantly flowing into the crankcase).

No one warned that on this engine you should not try to "clean the throttle" - that's all correct adjusting the elements of the engine control system required the use of scanners. Not everyone knew about how the EGR system poisons the engine and coke the intake elements, requiring regular disassembly and cleaning (conditionally - every 30 t.km). Not everyone knew that trying to replace the timing belt with the "similarity method with 3S-FE" leads to a meeting of pistons and valves. Not everyone could imagine whether there is at least one car service in their city, successfully problem solver D-4.

Why is Toyota valued in the Russian Federation in general (if there are Japanese brands cheaper-faster-sportier-more comfortable-..)? For "unpretentiousness", in the broadest sense of the word. Unpretentiousness in work, unpretentiousness to fuel, to consumables, to the choice of spare parts, to repairs ... You can, of course, buy high-tech squeezes for the price of a normal car. You can carefully choose gasoline and pour a variety of chemicals inside. You can recalculate every cent saved on gasoline - whether the costs of the upcoming repairs will be covered or not (excluding nerve cells). It is possible to train local servicemen in the basics of repairing direct injection systems. You can remember the classic "something has not broken for a long time, when will it finally fall down" ... There is only one question - "Why?"

In the end, the choice of buyers is their own business. And the more people contact HB and other dubious technologies, the more customers the services will have. But elementary decency still requires to say - buying a car with a D-4 engine in the presence of other alternatives is contrary to common sense.

Retrospective experience allows us to state - the necessary and sufficient level of emission reduction harmful substances already provided by the classic engines of the Japanese market models in the 1990s or by the Euro II standard in the European market. All that was required for this was distributed injection, one oxygen sensor and a catalyst under the bottom. Such cars worked for many years in a standard configuration, despite the disgusting quality of gasoline at that time, their own considerable age and mileage (sometimes completely exhausted oxygen tanks required replacement), and it was easy to get rid of the catalyst on them - but usually there was no such need.

Problems started with the Euro III stage and correlating norms for other markets, and then they only expanded - a second oxygen sensor, moving the catalyst closer to the outlet, switching to "cat collectors", switching to broadband sensors mixture composition, electronic control throttle valve(more precisely, algorithms that deliberately worsen the response of the engine to the accelerator), increasing temperature conditions, fragments of catalysts in cylinders ...

Today, with the normal quality of gasoline and much more recent cars, the removal of catalysts with a flashing of an ECU of the Euro V> II type is massive. And if for older cars, in the end, it is possible to use an inexpensive universal catalyst instead of an obsolete one, then for the freshest and "intelligent" cars there is simply no alternative to breaking through the collector and software disabling emission control.

A few words on individual purely "environmental" excesses (gasoline engines):
- The exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system is an absolute evil, as soon as possible it should be turned off (taking into account the specific design and the presence of feedback), stopping the poisoning and contamination of the engine with its own waste products.
- The evaporative emission system (EVAP) - works fine on Japanese and European cars, problems arise only on North American market models due to its extreme complexity and "sensitivity".
- Exhaust air supply (SAI) - an unnecessary but relatively harmless system for North American models.

In fact, the abstract recipe for the best engine is simple - gasoline, R6 or V8, aspirated, cast-iron block, maximum safety margin, maximum working volume, distributed injection, minimum boost ... but alas, in Japan this can only be found on cars of a clearly "anti-people" class.

In the lower segments available to the mass consumer, it is no longer possible to do without compromises, so the engines here may not be the best, but at least “good”. The next task is to evaluate the motors taking into account their real application - whether they provide an acceptable thrust-to-weight ratio and in what configurations they are installed (ideal for compact models the engine will be clearly insufficient in the middle class, a structurally more successful engine may not be aggregated with all-wheel drive, etc.). And, finally, the time factor - all our regrets about the excellent engines that were discontinued 15-20 years ago do not mean at all that today we need to buy ancient worn-out cars with these engines. So it only makes sense to talk about the best engine in its class and in its time period.

1990s Among classic engines, it is easier to find a few unsuccessful ones than to choose the best from a mass of good ones. However, the two absolute leaders are well known - 4A-FE STD type "90" in the small class and 3S-FE type "90 in the middle class. In a large class, 1JZ-GE and 1G-FE type "90 are equally worthy of approval.

2000s As for the engines of the third wave, there are only good words for the 1NZ-FE type "99 for the small class, while the rest of the series can only compete for the title of an outsider with varying degrees of success, even "good" engines are absent in the middle class. In the large class, we should pay tribute to 1MZ-FE, which turned out to be not bad at all against the background of young competitors.

2010s. In general, the picture has changed a little - at least the engines of the 4th wave still look better than their predecessors. In the junior class, there is still 1NZ-FE (unfortunately, in most cases it is the "modernized" type "03" for the worse). In the older segment of the middle class, 2AR-FE performs well. As for the large class, for a number of well-known economic and political reasons, it no longer exists for the average consumer.

However, it is better to see with examples how the new versions of the engines turned out to be worse than the old ones. About 1G-FE type "90 and type" 98 has already been said above, but what is the difference between the legendary 3S-FE type "90" and type "96"? All deteriorations are caused by the same "good intentions", such as reducing mechanical losses, reducing fuel consumption, reducing CO2 emissions. The third point refers to the completely insane (but beneficial for some) idea of ​​a mythical fight against mythical global warming, and the positive effect of the first two turned out to be disproportionately less than the resource drop...

Deteriorations in the mechanical part refer to the cylinder-piston group. It would seem that the installation of new pistons with trimmed (T-shaped in projection) skirts to reduce friction losses could be welcomed? But in practice, it turned out that such pistons begin to knock when shifting to TDC at much shorter runs than in the classic type "90. And this knock does not mean noise in itself, but increased wear. It is worth mentioning the phenomenal stupidity of replacing fully floating piston pins with press-fit ones.

Replacing the distributor ignition with DIS-2 in theory is characterized only positively - there are no rotating mechanical elements, longer coil life, higher ignition stability ... But in practice? It is clear that it is impossible to manually adjust the basic ignition timing. The resource of new ignition coils, in comparison with classic remote ones, even fell. The resource of high-voltage wires has expectedly decreased (now each candle sparked twice as often) - instead of 8-10 years, they served 4-6. It's good that at least the candles remained simple two-pin, and not platinum.

The catalyst has moved from under the bottom directly to the exhaust manifold in order to warm up faster and get to work. The result is a general overheating of the engine compartment, a decrease in the efficiency of the cooling system. It is unnecessary to mention the notorious consequences of the possible ingress of crushed catalyst elements into the cylinders.

Fuel injection instead of pairwise or synchronous has become purely sequential on many types of type 96 (into each cylinder once per cycle) - more accurate dosage, reduced losses, "ecology" ... In fact, gasoline was now given much less time to evaporate before entering the cylinder, so starting characteristics automatically deteriorated at low temperatures.

More or less reliably, we can only talk about the "resource before the bulkhead", when the engine of the mass series required the first serious intervention in the mechanical part (not counting the replacement of the timing belt). For most classic engines, the bulkhead fell on the third hundred run (about 200-250 t.km). As a rule, the intervention consisted in replacing worn or stuck piston rings and replacement of valve stem seals - that is, it was just a bulkhead, and not a major overhaul (the geometry of the cylinders and hone on the walls were usually preserved).

Next generation engines often require attention already in the second hundred thousand kilometers of run, and in the best case, it costs to replace the piston group (in this case, it is advisable to change the parts to those modified in accordance with the latest service bulletins). With a noticeable waste of oil and the noise of piston shifting on runs over 200 t.km, you should prepare for big renovation- strong wear of the sleeves leaves no other options. Toyota does not provide for the overhaul of aluminum cylinder blocks, but in practice, of course, the blocks are re-sleeved and bored. Unfortunately, reputable companies that really do high quality and professionally overhaul modern "disposable" engines throughout the country can really be counted on the fingers. But peppy reports of successful re-engineering today come from mobile collective farm workshops and garage cooperatives - what can be said about the quality of work and the resource of such engines is probably understandable.

This question is posed incorrectly, as in the case of "absolutely the best engine." Yes, modern motors cannot be compared with classic ones in terms of reliability, durability and survivability (at least with the leaders of past years). They are much less maintainable mechanically, they become too advanced for unskilled service...

But the fact is that there is no alternative to them anymore. The emergence of new generations of motors must be taken for granted and each time re-learn how to work with them.

Of course, car owners should in every possible way avoid individual unsuccessful engines and especially unsuccessful series. Avoid engines of the earliest releases, when the traditional "running on the buyer" is still underway. If there are several modifications of a particular model, you should always choose a more reliable one - even if you sacrifice either finances or technical characteristics.

P.S. In conclusion, one cannot help but thank Toyot for the fact that it once created engines “for people”, with simple and reliable solutions, without the frills inherent in many other Japanese and Europeans. And let the owners of cars from “advanced and advanced” manufacturers disparagingly call them condos - so much the better!