Topic: My Vehicular History Thread by DKaz

[dkaz]

The numbers on your Highlander look excellent. Hoping to get it near that low although it will likely see 60% city service overall. I'm at 12.6 cents a km so far just on fuel so it might be a stretch. The Corolla is also good considering you bought it brand new.

I like depreciation + maintenance because that's a bit of an apples to apples comparison vs. leasing + maintenance cost. That's $129/mo for your Highlander and $141/mo for your Corolla. I laugh when people say phrases like "when your repair bills starts exceeding new car payments, it's time to get rid of it". I don't see how it's possible, at least not for brands known to be reliable like Toyota.

Even the Odyssey is what I would consider to be on the high end and it still exceeded my expectations..

[dkaz]

Thanks Winklovic!

Man, I thought the previous owner took care of the Sienna. Fram... 



WIX filter going in as I had old stock of 5W30 oil. Next change will be with Amsoil Signature Series oil and filter. The oil change actually ended up being really easy, I didn't even have to lift the van up. But only having to do this once a year would be nice.

[rrocket]

What? No Amsoil filter? How dare you!  [emoji1]

[dkaz]

What? No Amsoil filter? How dare you!  [emoji1]

I bought it from Amsoil. Wix makes good filters and anyway I assume Amsoil won't sell crap.

[rrocket]

What? No Amsoil filter? How dare you!  [emoji1]

I bought it from Amsoil. Wix makes good filters and anyway I assume Amsoil won't sell crap.

Yea, they are quite decent.  Definitely a good second option.

I like Purolator PureOne filters too.

[VKaR]

I purchased a 04 Sienna XLE FWD version couple of weeks ago, your post was useful for me to finalize the vehicle.
205,XXX when I bought, driven about 1000kms since then, holding good.

[johngenx]

^^^ Solid buy.  The 3.3L 5AT combo is very good.  The 2004 is more desirable than the -03 because of that.

[johngenx]

I bought it from Amsoil. Wix makes good filters and anyway I assume Amsoil won't sell crap.

The Forester gets the base AMSOIL synthetic and a WIX filter.  That thing still gets frequent changes so no need for the super-duper stuff.  And I think it's doing fine - 440K now and holding on.

[dkaz]

I purchased a 04 Sienna XLE FWD version couple of weeks ago, your post was useful for me to finalize the vehicle.
205,XXX when I bought, driven about 1000kms since then, holding good.

Awesome! You should have a couple hundred thousand km of joy with it if you choose to keep it that long. My Sienna is at 358k km now. We've been driving it a lot more than expected and why not? It's an excellent road trip vehicle. I wish I had some of the features of your XLE like side air bags, auto climate control, and window shades.

The Forester gets the base AMSOIL synthetic and a WIX filter.  That thing still gets frequent changes so no need for the super-duper stuff.  And I think it's doing fine - 440K now and holding on.

It's the convenience of once a year oil changes that's attractive with the Signature Series, nothing wrong with your approach though.

[VKaR]

Agree, I do feel comfortable to drive it in city, didn't know that it came with side airbags until I bought the vehicle, so it was a surprise for me. Averaging around 12.5l/100km since I bought, most of the driving is short distance office commute within the city.

[johngenx]

It's the convenience of once a year oil changes that's attractive with the Signature Series, nothing wrong with your approach though.

The other cars do that, but the Forester seems to pollute it's oil faster, so I'm changing the oil more frequently.  The old PCV system is crap and I suspect that might be something.  The engine makes good compression and minimal leak down, so that's all I can think of.  No coolant in the oil.  Just seems to get dirty faster.  So I stopped using the Signature and went back to an 8K interval.

[johngenx]

Averaging around 12.5l/100km since I bought, most of the driving is short distance office commute within the city.

That's standard economy for the 3.3L driveline.  I'm at 12 in the Highlander and the various Sienna owners around here seem to be in the 12s in the city.  Not hybrid economy, but not terrible.

[ltruong]

Averaging around 12.5l/100km since I bought, most of the driving is short distance office commute within the city.

That's standard economy for the 3.3L driveline.  I'm at 12 in the Highlander and the various Sienna owners around here seem to be in the 12s in the city.  Not hybrid economy, but not terrible.

My sienna awd is about 13 to 13.5l /100km. Also my meter in the ceilings my is not accurate, it shows 10.1l

[Serniter]

I purchased a 04 Sienna XLE FWD version couple of weeks ago, your post was useful for me to finalize the vehicle.
205,XXX when I bought, driven about 1000kms since then, holding good.

Looks good. Congratulations!

[dkaz]

So I found out this chilly -4C morning that the heat barely works. The air's not cold but it's not warm either. Is tepid applicable to air? Not sure if it needs a coolant flush to clear out the heating core, or the heating core is clogged on the air side, or the electronically actuated mixing box is not completely closing the cold air off.

Agree, I do feel comfortable to drive it in city, didn't know that it came with side airbags until I bought the vehicle, so it was a surprise for me. Averaging around 12.5l/100km since I bought, most of the driving is short distance office commute within the city.

That's standard economy for the 3.3L driveline.  I'm at 12 in the Highlander and the various Sienna owners around here seem to be in the 12s in the city.  Not hybrid economy, but not terrible.

Pretty good. I'm typically in the 13s in the city and in the 9s in the highway. If you're going off the fuel consumption meter on the roof, that thing is about 1-2 L/100km optimistic unfortunately.

My sienna awd is about 13 to 13.5l /100km. Also my meter in the ceilings my is not accurate, it shows 10.1l

That's the average since you last reset it, which you can do so by holding E/M and MODE at the same time for a few seconds. I like to reset before and after road trips. It's not accurate but still gives me a good idea on where I'm at.

The other cars do that, but the Forester seems to pollute it's oil faster, so I'm changing the oil more frequently.  The old PCV system is crap and I suspect that might be something.  The engine makes good compression and minimal leak down, so that's all I can think of.  No coolant in the oil.  Just seems to get dirty faster.  So I stopped using the Signature and went back to an 8K interval.

Makes sense. Your Highlander is ok though?

[johngenx]

Makes sense. Your Highlander is ok though?

I sent off an oil analysis on the Highlander at 20K using Signature and AMSOIL EK filter, and it came back very good - could extend easily.  I think the 25K AMSOIL filter is the real deal.

The Forester has been throwing a CEL for the last two years and it's PCV related and it's seemingly unsolvable.  Runs like a champ, no obvious engine mechanical issues, so I haven't put much energy into solving it.  I had the oil analysis done to see if there's coolant in the oil - and it came back negative, but the oil was getting done for much quicker than in the Highlander, Corolla or even the Miata.  Not breaking down (like from overheating, etc) but from pollutants - which is why I'm pretty sure the PCV is involved.

I could run a 12K interval on the Forester, but I've gone to 8K to keep it safe.  The old gal needs a little babying if she's going to make 500K.

[VKaR]

So I found out this chilly -4C morning that the heat barely works. The air's not cold but it's not warm either. Is tepid applicable to air? Not sure if it needs a coolant flush to clear out the heating core, or the heating core is clogged on the air side, or the electronically actuated mixing box is not completely closing the cold air off.

Agree, I do feel comfortable to drive it in city, didn't know that it came with side airbags until I bought the vehicle, so it was a surprise for me. Averaging around 12.5l/100km since I bought, most of the driving is short distance office commute within the city.

I installed a two way remote starter, since the temperature in Edmonton is about -10 to -15 now, I let the car to warm up before getting in, heating system works good in mine but the heated seat is not much effective.

As for the gas mileage, I normally calculate manually during every fill-up, will know next week how it is with all the idling and slow moving traffic.

Btw, winter tires are already on when I bought the van, one year old GT Champiro Winterpro.
All seasons are Michelin, around three years old. Alloys are in very bad shape with the paint peeling everywhere, might repaint it next summer.

If you don't mind, I can post the updates in this thread rather than opening a new thread.

[Seafoam]

Makes sense. Your Highlander is ok though?

I sent off an oil analysis on the Highlander at 20K using Signature and AMSOIL EK filter, and it came back very good - could extend easily.  I think the 25K AMSOIL filter is the real deal.

The Forester has been throwing a CEL for the last two years and it's PCV related and it's seemingly unsolvable.  Runs like a champ, no obvious engine mechanical issues, so I haven't put much energy into solving it.  I had the oil analysis done to see if there's coolant in the oil - and it came back negative, but the oil was getting done for much quicker than in the Highlander, Corolla or even the Miata.  Not breaking down (like from overheating, etc) but from pollutants - which is why I'm pretty sure the PCV is involved.

I could run a 12K interval on the Forester, but I've gone to 8K to keep it safe.  The old gal needs a little babying if she's going to make 500K.

Do you ever have to add oil to any of your vehicles between changes? Even with the long intervals.

[Fobroader]

I purchased a 04 Sienna XLE FWD version couple of weeks ago, your post was useful for me to finalize the vehicle.
205,XXX when I bought, driven about 1000kms since then, holding good.

Probably the only van I would ever consider

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[tortoise]

And AWD Sienna is the only one I'd consider for my current needs.