[STCorndog]

My wife drives the same car. I have to replace that mount every year or two.She is hard on equiptment,that's why she drives a Toyota.

I drive mine very hard. You might want to check the other mounts too if the top link is failing that quickly.

@Hans471 is correct and my verbiage could have been better. When you pull the battery cables you just turn the “check engine” light off. The ECU stores the code. If the car doesn’t immediately trigger the code again, the check light stays off until the condition is sensed again.

 

[jettawreck]

Good catch and reminder!
Wife's car is 2008 Avalon w/3.5 V6. Only 110k miles, seldom driven. I will have to check if it uses similar top mount.
I need to do some maintenance/repairs. Low beam HID Zexon(?) bulds are out, left front strut spring broken. The front bumper cover needs to come off the get at the low beam bulbs/ballasts.

 

[dmfdmf]

It pains me to say this. It didn’t used to be true. The 2000 to around 2015 cars are the pinnacle.

It pains me to say I learned this the hard way. Back in 2020 I had a 2010 Camry with 130K miles and it needed about $3-$4K of work and deferred maintenance (struts, tires, brakes, etc.) then the AC went out and I didn't feel like dropping all that money on an old car so without much research and trusting Toyota I bought a used 2019 Camry with 30K miles. What I learned is that the new car is a POS with all the electronic doodads and features that are always beeping and bonking at me. I hate it. Lane assist, collision warning, overly complicated cruise control, everything controlled by a touch screen, etc. Some of it can be turned off but some of it resets to the defaults on the next start so I feel like I am fighting my own car for control. I wished I had kept my old car.

Since then the emissions changes have made newer cars problem prone as well as hard as hell to repair.

After purchase I did some research (yeah, my mistake) and the new motors are Indy race car level complexity but I don't have Indy race car level budget. I have no confidence it is going to last without expensive repairs. I think it has electric oil pump which will eventually fail and total the engine. To meet CAFE it uses 0 weight oil to get 0.5% better gas mileage across the fleet but now costs me neary $100 for an oil change so I am paying for Toyota to meet Fed regs (can't really blame Toyota too much for the regulatory environment).

The good news is that I got $5K on my trade-in that need $4K of work and put up most of the difference and once the small loan is paid off I am going to sell it and roll back to a 2016 or 2015 Camry. That will be my last car and I plan on keeping it running somehow.

 

[Mo Mentum]

I have the same concerns as dmfdmf. I just bought a 2023 Tacoma and fear the day that electronics start to fail. I would have definitely bought an older model IF . . . I could have found one AND . . . it did not cost as much as buying a new one. Hopefully the market will settle down a bit, but I had to buy in the market I had to work with. Side note: I have a 1989 Toyota truck (pre-Tacoma era) that I use as a farm truck. It will be kept as my backup, even though driving it on the highway is an unpleasant challenge due to its age.

 

[STCorndog]

@Mo Mentum

My first Toyota was a 1986, Hi Lux 4wd. Toyota is all I have owned since. Four pick up trucks, two 4Runners. My hunting buddy ran his 1987 Yota 4wd truck to 450,000 miles. He replaced it with a 2022 Taco last year.

I have been all over his 2022 checking it out. I agree on all the gizmos, but to me, it looks as durable as any Taco yet. My Google-foo indicates it’s a very solid truck and it looks great.

You did well.

 

[DDTM]

@RCinNC
My fun car is a 2001 4Runner. Bought it new. It has 104,000 miles now and looks like it just rolled off the assembly line. Spotless. No leaks.

I bought my Camry used for a work car. It had 75,000 miles when I bought it and 4 years later it’s sitting at 160,000. I drive it like a Caveman and use it for construction sites. It has had whole deer in the trunk. It’s dirty inside and out. I don’t bother washing it. It’s purely my beater. Runs strong, burns no oil, no leaks and very little maintenance required.

I bought the wife a new Toyota Venza in 2013. AWD. Big V-6 horsepower. Great car. I don’t drive it much.

Wife's 4 Runner was a 2000. Just replaced it with a 2017 4 Runner. The 2000 had 315,000 miles on it. We bought it used with 40,000. Grandson has it now.

 

[RedAnt]

I replace one of those in my 2016 Subaru Legacy. Took it to my local guy and told him to look for a front right suspension clunk. My rough dirt road revealed this clunk during deep pothole probing.

I didn't beleived them when they reported it was an engine mount. But the sound was gone.

 

[XT650Touring]

I learned about those top mount dog bones in 1984, a quick and easy fix! LOL