Hey Scotty, I just bought a 2021 Rav 4 LE FWD about 4 months ago. I love the vehicle to date, but have noticed that the 2.5 liter engine as a lot of new tech on it, not to mention plastic. It has an electric water pump, plastic valve pan cover and plastic coolant tubes etc. What are your thoughts on the durability of this new engine considering they have been used in Camry since 2018 I believe.
Thanks for your input!
I just hope Toyota did their research and used a resilient plastic. All automakers seem to be moving this direction of plastic parts. BMW did the same thing 15 years ago. And some of those parts didn’t age well.
Yep, exactly my concern with all the plastic parts!
Time will tell, no one really knows how long they will last, but so far there’s been no major issues with these Dynamic Force engines. At least yours is not turbo charged and has port and direct injection (so don’t have to worry about carbon buildup on back of intake valves). One thing to keep in mind, it appears these engines don’t really like to go 10,000 miles between oil changes (that Toyota states). I would keep the engine oil intervals at 5,000 miles or once a year, whichever comes first.
