John Hollis

Here is a reposting of a report I posted in 2021 on 2.4 litre engine failures. The engine was over-developed and has a very high compression ratio, so when downhill engine braking is used, it sucks up ALL the oil with the high vacuum created and burns it off on the piston rings! Leads to engine failure and blown gaskets. I now go carefully down hills using the brake, not putting the car into a lower gear!. The relevant info is in the last third of the report on yellowish pages. 1206360494_ToyotaAZseriesengine.pdf

While we are on the subject of side doors, does anyone know how to solve a powered nearside sliding door that will not open with the remote? The offside door works perfectly, but of course the fridge blocks its use. It took several days including a trip to the fishing tackle shop to buy a giant forceps for taking the hook out of monster fish to take out and put back the fuse and find it was OK. These forceps are abut 9 inches long and very thin. They have a little lock device so you can grasp the fuse with them and using a keyhole camera in my laptop, it only took 2 hours to replace the fuse. I have tried a new motor (about £2.50 from Japan + postage and reversed the polarity as suggested from somewhere I have forgotten), I have replaced the door control box - once with a part number said to be equivalent and once with a newer version of the same part number. With the original door control box, although it wouldn't power open, after manual opening, during the manual closing , a motor made the final pull into the side of the car. With the latest door control box, I have lost this and now need to give the door an extra shove to close it. Although this isn't in itself a serious issue, I park the car on a slope and the door is quite heavy and very difficult for my wife to open and shut. Add to this the fact that this door has to have the engine switched off, no key in the ignition and a press on the unlock fob to open in the first place. By the time she gets to the side door, she is already frustrated by the palaver of getting out of the front passenger door. Usually it takes three pulls of the door opening lever before she realises/remembers that there is a red safety catch to move first. Not like on her Honda. Well, anyone any ideas on re-powering the door? I should perhaps mention that working offside door has a different part number.

In my case that is so, because JAL use lightweight wood conversions, but I think other companies might use heavier materials. Extra LPG tanks are very heavy to withstand the pressure.

Not sure about how much luggage to assume. Not much room left when all 8 seats are taken up. Payload seems to be typically 440 kg which is likely 8 Japanese at 55kg each. That's more like 1000 lb. But there will be certainly be design provision for more than that weight. 8 Sumo wrestlers would pack 1200 kg, but wouldn't physically fit in......... UK vehicles used to be designed with 75 kg/person in mind. A good guide as to whether a vehicle is overloaded or not is how it sits in relation to the wheel arch/tyres. If it looks overloaded, then it probably is.

Jazza, If I were you, I would go back to the weighbridge and stand on it yourself to see what it gives your weight as. My Hybrid conversion was way less. I shall reweigh and do the stand test too.

The engine cost is similar to the prices mentioned in the report I sent you. Do you have any idea why the head blew. Any very high speeds runs? Going down a hill using the engine braking?

Found this view of the next generation of alphard (2015). It might help..... or not.....

Here is a copy of the report I found on engine failures. It gives some clues as to how avoid problems as well as how to solve some of them. Especially never use the engine as a brake, it sucks up all the oil with the high vacuum created and burns it off on the piston rings! Looks like you should regularly clean out the soot in the pistons with special cleanser before refilling the oil. And maybe use a lighter oil with more viscosity, 0/W30 although that isn't totally clear to me. Anyway, you can form your own opinions. Perhaps MonsterS you can give me a steer as to whether this report should be more widely distributed. Or whether it might just frighten all the readers to death! 1206360494_ToyotaAZseriesengine.pdf

Hi, I'm new on the scene, and haven't even got my Alphard yet, but I have been doing a lot of research. I came across a document which explained a number of possible engine problems. I don't know whether you have the 2AZ-FE engine. If the bolts on the engine block fail the answer proposed by Toyota was to drill them out and put in inserts. They don't due that now given the age, but I saw the other day that quite expensive kits (£276 + 50 postage) were available on ebay (oversize drill for the hole, tapping a new hole and putting inserts in). If you put this idea in front of your garage, they might decide to try it. One is called Time Sert Toyota 2AZ-FE. The idea is to drill out the existing thread wider and deeper and then tap a bigger thread, then insert a cylindrical tube threaded on the inside and outside. So it sits in the thread just made and receives on its inside a replacement thread, similar to the original, but longer and hence stronger. If you only have one bolt sheared maybe the garage can buy a cheaper version for the right sized bolt. They just need the right dimension for the drill to suit the hole to be tapped. As well as having the right -sizes tap, but that is easy enough. Prices start around £40 for generic e-bay Time Sert equipment - inserts, drills, taps. Hope this helps.

You might be interested in this link which looks to be a copy of beautiful original Toyota 40 page japanese brochure on Alphards. http://www.toyota.co.jp/jpn/company/history/75years/vehicle_lineage/catalog/60000198/mobile/index.html Ignore the floating page and use arrows or screen swipe to get to the brochure pages. On a computer, enlarging the page just gets a blurry enlargement, but somehow on an iPhone or even better an iPad, finger enlargement re-contacts the source and a progressively finer details results. One page file identifies the main specification for 2002-2008 Alphards. I have translated this page with Google Translate. This translation service is pathetic on the web page but the App on iPhone is out of this world. You just choose the input and output language and point the phone camera at text and it reiterates various possibilities until something makes sense. (Using the mike version allows you to speak in one language and hear a translation into another-I discovered this in Moscow during a high speed taxi ride. The driver didn't speak English and suddenly started concentrating on and fiddling with his phone which scared me to death. He then shouted at me in Russian and his phone said 'Don't worry, don't worry....). I was particularly interested in max allowable weight and have made a few early comments under the "weight" topic. It is clear from this chart that Toyota simply weighed the vehicle variant (vehicle weight) and then added 7 x 55kg or 8 x 55 kg (7 or 8 persons) to arrive at the Gross Vehicle Weight (sometimes making a slight adjustment for theatre sound or twin sky roofs). (and sometimes calling this "kerb weight"). This is pretty ridiculous, because the base vehicle is the same and what I wanted was the Maximum Design Allowable Weight for my Alphard Hybrid to know how much gear I can carry. The maximum weights on the chart are for a 3 L MZ 8-seater 1950 kg Vehicle Weight, 2390 kg gross vehicle. No info on hybrid weight unfortunately. However, separately I have found https://specs.cars-directory.net/toyota/alphard_hybrid/2.4_4WD_45436.html which identifies an 8 seater hybrid as having a vehicle weight of 2000 kg. And guess what the Gross vehicle weight is? Yes, 8 x 55 kg more at 2440 kg. My car arrives from japan in early February. So the first thing I will do is to weigh it as it stands - and then add 440kg to arrive at the Maximum Permissible Weight. LOL.

Managed to find some authentic -looking Alphard kerb weights on https://www.goo-net-exchange.com/catalog/TOYOTA__ALPHARD_V/ The 1960 kg identified by MonsterS corresponds to a 2994cc CBA-MNH15W MS model. The same source on https://www.goo-net-exchange.com/catalog/TOYOTA__ALPHARD_HYBRID/ gives 2050 kg for a ATH10 G Edition hybrid for 2006. I suppose my early 2008 model will be the same. Still no data on the Gross Vehicle Mass, which id what Toyota calls the Maximum Permissible loading. Although I saw a review which said the payload was 400kg and I found an article which had a kerb weight of 1790 kg and a GVM of 2245 kg, a payload of 465 kg. The source mentioned above has a 2003 UA-ANH10W AS Premium model at 1790 kg.This is only 20 kg higher than the bottom of the range at 1770 kg.The top of the range that year had a weight of 2000 KG. But if the GVW were only 2390 kg it wouldn't be able to take 7 passengers. Now 7 people in this MPV at the Japanese average male weight of 62.5 kg gives 437.5 kg. I am beginning to think that the Alphard Gross Vehicle Mass is defined by adding 437.5 Kg to whatever the vehicle kerb weight happens to be rather than what the actual components have been designed to withstand. On this basis my 2050 kg Alphard has a GVM of 2480 kg. LOL. I have put in a couple of emails asking Toyota GB and AU if they have the 'design' GVM of my Alphard ATH10.

Thanks for your response! I was hoping for a bigger gross. Your info gives a 430 kg payload. I saw a Gross figure of 2520 for the current generation Alphard. A common UK/USA design weight is 75kg per person. So a 7 seater would need 525 kg payload (plus a full tank). I suppose Japanese design weight per person might be lower. Dividing 430 by 7 gives just over 60 kg per person so it does look reasonable. I happen to have a manual for the 3rd generation with a single figure for kerb weight, but it is not really credible as all models show the same kerb weight of 1900 kg (both for 2WD and 4WD). SO your 1960 looks about right. NO INFO in there on Gross Weights!!! or axle loading in the whole 303 pages. The issue is, If I convert to lpg, 60kg, put an electric pop up roof 70 kg, a big bed 80 kg, fridge 17 kg, kitchen and cupboards 45 kg, air/water heater 10 kg, bedding 10 kg, clothes 30 kg, food 30 kg, 2 adults @ 75 150 kg I am up to 502 kg, less 4 seats maybe 60 kg, less a tyre 10 kg is 432 kg. So it becomes a 2 person vehicle and nothing left for on-board water. Looks like no lpg then. What about stronger springs/suspension? Have you come across those?

I am about to buy a 2.4 hybrid 2002-2008. ATH 10. I am trying to check whether all the gear I want to put in it is within the manufacturer's total weight. Can't find a reliable source for the Kerb weight (haven't got the car yet, so I can't weigh it). But more importantly, I can't find the Toyota statement about the maximum allowable payload. I would expect front and rear maximum load data. I am sure this topic must have been discussed on this forum, if only to make sure none of us have illegal vehicles on the road. But I can't find any reference.