Toyota HiLux dusting problem addressed

The ‘dusting’ issue that Toyota Australia says is not a reliability problem for the 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine in the Toyota HiLux, Prado and Fortuner has been addressed.

But not in the way you might think.

Dusting is when micronic particles of dust leak past the air-filter into the engine.

As carsales has been reporting since 2018, it corrupts the mass air-flow sensor (MAFS) in the 1GD-FTV engine and can cause it to drop into limp-home mode.

The car’s acceleration and top speed are cut dramatically and safety features such as traction and stability control are turned off.

Toyota has acknowledged the issue as a design fault in the past, but defended it as being only triggered in very dusty conditions.

It had suggested a design change to the induction system could be performed at a logical break point such as a model year change.

But at this week’s virtual media launch for the midlife update to the eighth-generation Toyota HiLux, Toyota Australia marketing and sales chief Sean Hanley said no changes had been made because the dusting did not cause engine problems.

Hanley was being entirely accurate in his response, because Toyota actually made previously unpublicised changes to the GD engine last year.

They comprised software running changes to reduce the occurrence of limp-home mode. In other words, there will still be dust leakage but the vehicle’s ECU won’t react to it as quickly.

Toyota Australia revealed the change in an email to carsales after the HiLux media conference.

A request to ask a follow-up question about dusting and the troublesome HiLux diesel particulate filter (DPF) had been ignored and the conference closed.

A Toyota Australian representative immediately made contact with carsales to explain an error had been made and requested questions by email.

Asked in that email why Toyota had not disabled limp-home mode in the 1GD-FTV engine if dusting did not damage the engine, Toyota Australia responded:

“Toyota Australia has not disabled the limp home mode.

“Some minor software running changes were made late last year.

“These updates have enhanced the criteria for limp home mode to reduce its occurrence.”

Separately, on the DPF, which is currently the subject of a class action law suit open to Hilux, Prado and Fortuner owners with GD engines, Hanley did confirm software and hardware changes during the press conference.

In its follow-up email carsales asked for detail of the hardware and software changes and the changes to DPF performance they produced.

In its response Toyota specified changes primarily centring on the fifth injector that injects diesel into the DPF to enable a regeneration burn.

The email response reads: “A number of changes have been made to the new HiLux and Fortuner, with GD family engines, including the following hardware and software updates:

“Redesign of additional fifth injector housing for better cooling of the injector to improve its performance.

“Engine ECU tuning to optimise functionality of fifth injector, based on the latest design.

“Changes to the Diesel Oxidisation Catalyst (DOC) component of the DPF Assembly.

“New visual indication on the Multi Information Display (MID) of the DPF level indicator, with additional prompts for a manual burn if required, prompting users to the owner’s manual for further details. It will also display when an automatic regeneration is in progress.

On the performance improvements of these changes, Toyota added:

“One of the cornerstones of Toyota’s philosophy is ‘continuous improvement’. The above changes are part of these ongoing improvements to the operation of the DPF.”