What exactly causes the HG to blow?

Ok..thanks...slow warm ups are pivotal to prevent hg failures in the gen 3 engine!
Would adding a Zerex special chemical reduce the hot spots chance to get high enough to ruin the hg? Autozone has an add for the additive!

 

Tough to say. I have doubts that it would help at all, and especially starting so late. It's like an 75 year old asking if a multivitamin is going to get him to 90.

 

maybe replace the hg proactively

 

Meh, I'll just periodically clean the EGR components and intake manifold proactively, much easier. Time will tell if I'm backing the wrong horse.

Regarding the "head gasket fails cus oil burning clogged the EGR" poster(s) have mentioned: so far our '10 burns zero oil, but the EGR carbons up.

 

if toyota has a tsb in europe for a better water pump, is it available?

 

They don't change the water pump, they flash an update into the ECM that controls when and how fast the water pump runs.

 

why aren't they doing it here?

 

We don't know they aren't. There are later US versions of the ECM firmware than the ones that were flashed at the factory. Some have been mentioned in US TSBs as recommended to flash when changing other things. For example, there's one firmware update that's recommended—the same one—in a TSB about the intake manifold and a TSB about the EGR valve. Clearly, that firmware doesn't depend on having either a specific manifold or a specific EGR valve installed, but instead delivers some collection of changes Toyota also wanted to make.

We generally don't get told much about what's changed in the firmware when they offer an update. That the European TSB was more informative on that score probably has to do with European regulators insisting on that more than US regulators do.

 

All very interesting A few questions:
Can ECM updates (flashing) only be done at Toyota dealers (who are notoriously not really customer-friendly)?
Do Toyota dealers have access to all updates - US and foreign?
Do the updates come with full information provided to the dealer about what the update actually does?
Are there any "mod shops" or "authorized Toyota service" operations who can also get and do these updates?
Seems to me there would be some money to be made if a "mod shop" had access to ECMs and could sell me/you an ECM updated with the latest, or any chosen, version of the firmware.
Anyone have any information on this?

 

Anybody with a laptop, a good reliable dongle, and a paid-up TIS subscription (the $70 two-day Professional Diagnostic subscription is enough) can obtain and install firmware updates.

Toyota - New Subscription

I go to my dealer to have those done, because the dongle I have is not the $500 fully-supported one that they have, and I like the idea of them taking care of it if the car is bricked during the update.

The process usually plays out like this:

Me: I'd like an appointment to have my such-and-such ECU updated to 34715700 please.

Them: how about Wednesday at 3?

Me: ok.

Me: I'm here to have my such-and-such ECU updated to 34715700.

Them: ok, we'll let you know when it's done.

Me: *drinks free coffee, sits in showroom cars*

Them: your car's done. One hour of shop time.

Me: Thanks, use this credit card.

Is that customer-friendly enough? I guess they could remember my birthday and send me a gushing little card, but to be honest, I'd just find that kind of creepy.

The hour of shop time is more than the $70 I would pay on TIS to do it myself. But it's less than I would pay for a better dongle to do it with.

 

Hi Chap, I stand humbly corrected. Toyota dealers, similar to most people, respond in a friendly way when approached in a reasonable, polite way such as you describe. Your point is well taken.

And yes, DIY bricking your car is undesirable.

 

Geez Chap, next week hand puppets?