I've had quite an ordeal the last week or so with my 4runner and I might as well post it up right away so all can benefit from it.
This was from Aug 3rd:
I was on driving on vacation and about 2 hours into my trip I heard a wierd muffled squeal and then nothing. A vehicle had just passed me on the highway so I assumed it was a bad belt on the other vehicle. Then about 5-6 minutes later I looked down and saw the temp guage completely redlined!!! We lucked out and only 1 mile ahead there was an exit. We took it and lucked out again because not only was there a gas station and restaurant, but also a tow truck company (evidently I wasn't the first or last to break down on that stretch of road). I asked the tow company if they could help me out after the truck cooled down so we went in and ate a nice lunch. We also had CAA (canadian AAA) so it got towed for free to the nearest Toyota dealer. They were very nice and quite frankly being on vacation, I wasn't in the slightest mood to want to try and fix the vehicle myself so I turned it over to them (and privately prayed it wasn't a blown HG). They called me back and said the water pump seized, but I was super lucky because the bearing spun in the housing and prevented the timing belt from breaking. The mechanic said the belt was litterally ready to go. The engine got pretty hot but I think switching to the synthetic engine oil really saved my butt because it was still a nice light honey color when I checked it right after overheating (I bet the old dino oil would have been nothing but sludge). I told them to just fix it well (new WP, timing belt, thermostat, idlers) so I'm not sure what the bill for that will look like (I was guessing around $500-600 at full dealer rates). Anyway, I also found out that Toyota has their own rental car company/fleet and we just went ahead and rented a new 2007 Camry for the week (very nice car and my wife now wants one to replace the Civic.....we'll probably do a few test drives when we return the rental ). So that will add a bit to this weeks bill, but really it ended up one of those situations where we took lemons and got lemonade in the end. I'll pick up the truck at the end of the week when we head back north again.
This was from Aug 11th:
Well, the saga continues.....We dropped off our rental Camry yesterday and paid the $900 they wanted for fixing it. Then on the way back home it with the 4runner the darn thing overheated again on the highway after about 1 hr or so of driving. I think it may be time to step out of the truck and start looking at other options. This really sucks since that is the first time in over ten years that I owned the truck that it has ever broke down but to have it fixed at the dealer and the to go south again was enough to shatter my wife's confidence in the vehicle (ie even if I put a new motor in it I doubt she'd ever drive it again). We'll be vehicle shopping on monday and see what they'll give me for a trade-in on it. With small kids we just can't afford to have this type of thing happen so I'm not going to even attempt to fix it at this point. I'll let you know how I make out when the smoke clears.