A short time ago I was advising owners of Hondas, Toyotas and Subarus made between 2008 and 2012 of manufacturer extended warranties on their engines. These extended warranties were put in place because these engines were consuming/burning excessive amounts of oil, often to the tune of one litre per 1,000 kilometres or worse. Repaired years ago, for free, these same cars are again experiencing similar oil consumption problems as they near the end of their life. With no freebie repairs being offered any longer, owners have been constantly adding oil, until of course, the engine fails. Then owners are scrambling, trying to find a way to fix it on the cheap and squeeze a bit more life out of their vehicle. Ultimately, they call me for a price on a used engine. My immediate question is whether the vehicle is worth fixing, as most of them also have a laundry list of other required repairs on top of needing an engine.

Purchasing a used engine from a local auto wrecker is always the first option to explore. However, finding something better than you already have is a challenge. Here in Southern Ontario, the typical commuter travels about 20,000 kilometres per year. Assuming the vehicle is approaching 300,000 kilometres, I don’t see the point in replacing a blown engine with another similar high-mileage unit. When a local auto wrecker does get their hands on a low-mileage engine, they rarely give them away and are only offered at a premium price.

That leaves a used market for engines sourced from Japan. USDM is an un-official moniker for United States Domestic Market and JDM is Japanese Domestic Market. Generally speaking, vehicles in Canada are also referred to as USDM as emission standards throughout North America have minimal differences. The same cannot be said of Japan. Many vehicles are taken off the road in Japan at what we in North America would consider early in life, often around the 100,000-kilometre mark. Approximately 20 years ago, used parts and engine retailers in North America recognized an opportunity to source engines from Japan and began shipping them over and selling them less than what local wreckers were offering.

If you are the owner of one of these vehicles, whether you should consider a Japan-sourced engine depends on if the JDM engine is a direct drop-in replacement. Sometimes the JDM engine is identical to its USDM counterpart and sometimes it is not and requires minor modifications. The word modification scares me. Often at my repair business we get recent JDM swapped vehicles with engine malfunction warning lights on the dash that no one - not even the installer of the JDM engine - can rectify. This is because the modifications required aren’t as minor as the customer was led to believe. Engine wiring may have been modified and also key engine management sensors may be missing.

I’m not suggesting all our aging cars need to go straight the scrap heap, but you need to first be honest with yourself and make sure your car is a realistic candidate. A thorough examination of all the other work that is required needs to be completed first. If you still are interested in proceeding, do your research on any available JDM engines. I usually get the JDM engine retailer to supply me with the engine code from their product and I conduct an investigation to see what kind of modifications are required, you should do the same.

I wonder if you would consider doing a feature on all-weather tires. They seem to have come a long way since inception. I am running Nokian all weather on a vehicle now in Alberta and they are amazing. There are a few others that are as equally proficient from what I have read Nokian/Nordman are made in U.S./Finland and Russia.

I have expressed repeatedly in the past that I am not a fan of all-weather tires. I still feel the same way for my personal vehicles; however, like you mentioned, I do also understand that they have come a long way. And yes, all-weather tires are right for a lot more drivers than they use to be. Different vehicles obviously have different requirements when it comes to rubber choices. I still wouldn’t be putting an all-weather tire on a luxury sport sedan or on any vehicle where performance is a primary focus, but for the rest of the vehicles they are fair game. As far as doing a feature goes, I’ll see what I can come up with in the future.

The power lift gate on my 2018 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Limited malfunctions occasionally. When the push button in the car or under the lift gate or on the remote key is activated, the lock will release, but the lift gate will not rise. I can manually open and lower it, (not easy) and it will rise and lower normally when activated for the rest of the day. I have checked the on/off in the settings display and it is set to on. I have also held the under-gate button until there are several beeps. This resets the maximum open height. None of these fix the problem. The power lifters have been greased so this does not seem to be the problem either. What could be the problem?

If nothing is blocking, preventing or causing excessive resistance when opening the gate, then I would suggest that one of the rear power back door units is failing. There are two of them, right and left. A technician must first look to see if any trouble codes are recorded relating to a lift gate module failure. I believe there was a Toyota Technical bulletin relating to the lift gate module on models a couple of years older than yours, but I believe your 2018 should not have that same issue. I have never seen greasing the power lifters actually help, but it was worth a try. I assume one of them may be failing, especially apparent in colder weather and first thing in the morning. Your dealer should be able to isolate the weak unit and replace it.

Lou Trottier is owner-operator of All About Imports in Mississauga. Have a question about maintenance and repair? E-mail globedrive@globeandmail.com, placing “Lou’s Garage” in the subject line.

Shopping for a new car? Check out the new Globe Drive Build and Price Tool to see the latest discounts, rebates and rates on new cars, trucks and SUVs. Click here to get your price.

Follow us on Twitter: @globedriveOpens in a new window

Build your personal news feed