My Van

[lsac]

The first Toyota I drove was a 84 Cargo Van(5spd) for shoe delivery in Tri-state area. My boss had 1 Dodge Ram, Chevy 250 and 2 Toyota Vans, cargo van and Van LE. Van LE was well loaded. I bought out cargo van in 88. Engine was very good. In 91, on a trip to Boston, 5spd suddenly became 1spd. 1,2,3, 5 and reverse were gone. With only 4th gear, I managed to get around town and to return, but on my way back, alternator belt was broken in midnight on I95. The next morning, I drove to a seven11 parking lot and rented a Grand Am to drive back home. I then bought a new alternator belt. In the evening, I put the belt on and drove home.

Within a week, broken Van was stolen in midnight in front of my house in Elmhust Queens. It must be towed away.

[lsac]

In 1997, I decided to get a minivan after having second child. 95 Maxima sedan space was too tight to change diaper. In 3/98, I took delivery of a white Sienna LE with 4 bucket seats and running board. Sienna has served us well since day 1.
In 2002, due job relocation to China, I made a decision to bring along Sienna after having 42k miles. Camry was popular in China and Sienna sat on stretched Camry chassis. Most drive-train parts were interchangeable.

[lsac]

After selling 2000 GS400 and 1991 318is, Sienna was put in shipping container for one month voyage on pacific. Air quality is bad in China. One month old air filter looked like 2-year old air filter in the states. IAC has to be cleaned with carb. clearner every 2 month. OEM battery lasted into 7/05 with 71k mi. What a longlast battery record. I replaced it with a Delco battery made locally. 2 OEM Dunlop SP40 were replaced by Kumho Powermax($55/ea) in 4/04. The other 2 OEM tires were replaced with Goodyear Eagle GA Plus($65) in 10/04. Goodyear tires are much quieter than Kumho tires.

[lsac]

I got that 100k mi transaxle warranty letter from Toyota. In 2/05, in the middle of a 1800-mi trip to Shenzhen. Differential started making noise. ATF change did not help. Noise level went up with speed. After visiting 6 Toyota dealers and TASS(Toyota Approved Service Station), 5 concluded broken gear teeth and only one said worn-out bearing. Worn-out bearing was acceptable to me since Sienna kept driving for 2k mi with that noise. If it were broken gear teeth, differential would have been locked up in few minutes.

Toyota China denied warranty cover. So I had to pay from my own pocket. Although Sienna used A540E transmission like other camry and avalon, but number of gear teeth was different, i.e. 57 vs 62. Local AutoTran shop swapped out 2 worn-out bearings. Even to this date, I still do not know what had caused such premature wearing. Local Toyota technicians had never seen broke-down Toyotas with worn out bearing or broken gear teeth.

Cause of such wearing is usually water, dirty in gear oil. A540E shares ATF with differential. I do simple ATF change every 10k mi with Delco DIII. Delco DIII is a little thinner than Castrol DIII.