Mechanic has car; replace EGR Cooler along with EGR Valve?

Toyota fueled because the European tsb directly addressed hg failures in gen3 engines.

The European tsb does mention long engine idles and stop and go traffic which is common in their cities and can be demonstrated to cause large engine temperature swings of 40-50f. I call it thermal cycling.

We can observe the electric water pump stops when the engine stops while in Ready mode. Clearly continuing to run the pump would cool the engine even faster.

I would speculate Toyota USA’s silence on hg issues might be related to our propensity to file class action suits.

 

In the European TSB where they talked about it, it didn't seem as if that kind of thermal cycling was exactly what they were talking about. The key language seemed to be "engine coolant temperature can rise above a specific value, in certain areas of the engine block."

Those might be areas other than the cylinder head outlet where the coolant temperature sensor is, so the effect would not have to show up in the ECM's coolant temperature reading.

They seem to be talking about an inadequate cooling flow failing to even out the temperatures throughout the engine. A too-steep thermal gradient, that is, between different points in the engine—whereas 'thermal cycling' would be about a thermal gradient between different points in time.

 

That is a very fair price. I'm an ex-Toyota dealership master tech in Memphis TN. If you'd inquired with me about doing this service, I charge $700 to do a complete EGR system clean / service. Without part replacement. So I'd say their price is more than fair.

At the earliest possible opportunity, I highly encourage you to change the engine's water pump and thermostat. The electric engine water pump weakens over time or completely loses it's ability to pump coolant if the impeller comes loose from the shaft. There's no coolant temp gauge or fluid leak to warn you the water pump is failing, like you have in most cars. Combined with a clogged EGR system the engine's temps just climb higher and higher until the head gasket fails. By the time the red coolant temp idiot light is illuminated, it's usually too late for the head gasket.

This combination of water pump / cooling system / EGR clogging usually results in a head gasket failure in a 2010-2014 around 160,000-250,000 miles. In my experience, people online put too much emphasis on the EGR system's part in this, and not enough on the water pump.

 

You can pressure wash the inside of the EGR cooler after a soak in easy off oven cleaner, then sell it for an easy $100ish on eBay. That will take some of the sting out the price of the repair.

(You will take a shower in water mixed with carbon during the cleaning. Plan accordingly.)

Anytime I list a clean used cooler for a few bucks less than the other guys who have a lot of them on eBay, it sells very quickly.

 

He said it was over $2k total. Yours would be $1350 with a new EGR valve and cooler and it'd be quite a bit of an easier job without having to clean anything. A $650 upcharge is a lot to me. Would you charge less than $700 for just a remove and replace (no cleaning)?

 

AFAIK the only revision in 2015 is “higher-tension” piston rings.

 

For $550 I'd replace the EGR components, and remove the intake & clean it. You absolutely have to clean the intake's EGR ports to do the repair correctly.

The benefit of buying a home hidden back on 5 acres with a detached workshop? Low overhead. I try to keep prices far. For reference, I've done two 4th gen engine swaps for $3,800 in the past year. That included the price of the engine.

 

Correct. The change was to the pistons and rings; When installing the updated ring package, Toyota specifies a superceeding piston part number.

To the best of my knowledge the update occurred sometime in the late 2014 model year. I'm basing that purely on their history, much like the oil pressure feed pipe in the 2GR-FE found in the Camry / Avalon / Highlander. We saw two major revisions to the rubber line in the middle of the production year before vehicles simply started appearing at dealerships with steel lines, which was the proper fix. They did similar updates partway through the year on the 5.7L V8 in the Tundra when it had smog pump issues, and dozens of other instances.

My point being, if Toyota were to wait and make a change to the rings in the 2ZR-FXE between model year 14, and 15, that would be the only time they would ever have done such a thing that I can recall. Characteristically, they would have begun using them partway through the 2014 model year as soon as sufficient quantities became trusted and available.

 

Production change was mid 2014 based on vin and factory. Each factory had their own sequence numbers.

 

Thanks again @rjparker. Here's a PDF of the above image, maybe easier to salt away:

 

Well that's what I'm saying. ~$1100 (for a complete job) seems fair for both parties, over $2000 (for most the job) is a bit of a rip-off.