I was so good to my RAV4, changed oil religiously, had all services done on time, drove it gently. Now, with 107,000 miles on it the transmission is gone. I seem not to be alone; Toyota even acknowleged this is a “known issue.” What are my options? Toyota was not helpful.
Well we don’t know if you are a automatic or manual. I don’t know of a known issue with them, but there could well be one.
Have you ever changed the transmission fluid? Yea, it is likely they did not list changing the fluid as maintenance and some people may have told you never to change it because they all fail shortly after changing it.
The fact is they last longer if you change (I did not say flush) the fluid ever 30-50,000 miles. The urban ledgen got started because so many people wait until it is too late and they are already experiencing problems so they change the fluid and it fails because they did the change too late but the blame it on changing the fluid.
I wish you the best of luck
If Toyota says it’s a known issue, then perhaps try getting some good will from the dealership, or calling Toyota’s regional/national office and explaining the problem. IF it’s a known issue, it should be their problem.
And Joesph, I doubt there’s ever been a stick shift Rav4 made here in the US
If its 2001-2005 they had lawsuits and trouble.
Go to the best rav4 site there is.
Go to section for your year and search auto transmission
Before the makeover into a mainstream SUV’s, RAV4 was offered with a manual transmission. My relatives have both the first and second generation. The third generation went lame with only offering an auto. Pretty much similar to Honda CRV.
There is a problem I remember posted a few times about a bad ECU that ends up damaging the automatic transmission. The problem with Honda and Toyota is it seems the mjaor powertrain parts are so overpriced ruining that “idolized” experience of reliability.