I am helping my nurse daughter to maintain her rav4. Whats the deal with toyota using a coolant bypass valve for the heater and why the heck did they make it from plastic. I am reading that corolla, camry and rav4 has this valve. In as low as 30,000 miles, it cracks and leaks into the electrical socket and causes a “engine maintenance required” light to come on. Is this the end of Toyota’s QC.
Whats the deal with toyota using a coolant bypass valve
it helps the engine warm up faster
why the heck did they make it from plastic.
to save money.
Is this the end of Toyota’s QC.
not yet.
Anything else we can help you with?
In theory, what would happen we just bypassed the valve.
Would the car be irreparably damaged?
Or will it run fine. Just not as efficient?
@kaizen
bypass how? They said the housing is cracked and leaking into the electronics,
Instead of plugging the hoses in to the valve, just connect the hoses together.
Rough example. Think of it like a straight pipe. Instead of connecting the exhaust manifold to a cat which connects to the muffler, you straight pipe it.
I'm not sure about this car, but often the bypass valve is part of the thermostat. Mine is. Even if it were possible I wouldn't advise it. In the winter the engine will take forever or may never warm up properly and it could even start throwing codes.
Is this the end of Toyota’s QC.
If you think that’s bad, wait till you see the issues all the other manufacturers have compared to Toyota. Would you rather trade for a GM product or a Hyundai Motor Group product or how about a German endless money pit product? Grading on a curve, Toyota still fairs better than all the others.
All manufacturers are taking steps to save money and also newer cars in my opinion aren't built to last 10 or more years. Not saying that none of them would, but still they are more of a buy it use it for a few years then buy another one compared to the past.
But Toyota and Honda too are still the very good ones out there. They still make reliable trouble free cars which last a good amount of time with regular maintenance. Take a look at the list of recalls Hyundai/Kia have; the newest one they recalled 281,000 of their 2020 through 2022 SUVs because they were catching on fire because of a short in the towing hitch wiring and worst part is they don't even have any idea for a fix other than park them outside. Be happy you have a Rav4 and don't need to be worried about such issues.
