Went to go look at a 2011 rav4 with 85k miles on it today at a local dealership- link to car here.
The car itself hadn’t been through the full inspection and check off by the team at the dealership (still had a NOT FOR SALE UNTIL APPROVED BY OWNER) sticker on the windshield, but they let us test drive it anyway with the expectation that it wasn’t ready.
When test driving,I discovered that when the car is at around 40mph and 1500 or so rpm, the car would make a churning sound. It wasn’t 100% of the time, and It was more likely if you were going uphill. I also got it to happen once at 25MPH. All the other speeds and shifting was smooth. Video of the sound about halfway through this video here
We went back into the dealership after the test drive and let them know what was going on and requested to get a tech to take a look at the vehicle.
The tech went out with us and listened to the noise, and then took a look at some of the bulletins on the car in the Toyota system - he found one in particular that stated that betweenn 25-40MPH the car can make this noise, and that its due to an improper transmition ratio programmed into the system - basically he’s saying they can fix it with a software update.
Two questions:
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Do I believe him? Haven’t been able to find anything about this bulletin in particular, but I suppose I could get him to send me more info.
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Could this have caused long term damage to the transmission during its first 85k miles?
I’d pass on that mainly due to your second question. It’s not a rare vehicle either, I’m sure you can find another example in tip top shape, without this issue.
Why buy another man’s problem? What if the software update doesn’t fix it?
Save yourself the hassle & find another good option.
As with any used car, get an honest mechanic to inspect the vehicle before you buy it. I wouldn’t fully trust the dealer to do the PPI honestly.
@inthrustwetrust
Thanks - good point. I've found the service bulletin, and it looks like its been a known issue since 2011, meaning the driver didn't get the new hard drive flashed in the 9 years it was owned... probably some other issues here too.
DO NOT BUY THIS NON-SENSE: all the issues related to transmission will be solved by software update.
plenty of other cars out there to look at. id pass
