Likelihood of 1KD failure?

[Oosti_1 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Oosti_1]

Hello!
I’ve recently seen on forums and Facebook posts that catastrophic piston failure is common for the 1KD 150 prado.

How prevalent is this issue? Should I sell my 2012 prado with 160,000km before this happens? If so, what other 4x4 should I replace it with (~30k AUD Price range)

I only bought it 10,000km ago - it’s had a pretty good service history, previous owners missed a couple. Has original injectors, no tune. I’m scared of spending 3-4K replacing injectors and still getting a cracked piston.

[ptommo59 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ptommo59]

Hi Oosti_1,

I had a 2012 SR5 Hilux from new with 195K on clock and original injectors before I upgraded to the 2021 Prado and same as you was concerned after seeing all the comments about injectors and piston cracking but it seems to be a bit of a lottery and more common when you work the engine hard. However there are things you can do to at least minimise the chance of failure due to the oil starvation and heavy right foot failure modes.

My take was there are still tens of thousands of 1KDs on the road today that have 200K+ on clock and had no piston crack issues so the risk must be manageable. I only upgraded as I needed more than the 2500kg towing capacity of the Hilux to legally tow our caravan.

The best info I saw online was from Peter at Engine Care who do lots of D4D engine rebuilds and have videos explaining why the 1KD pistons fail, things you need to be aware of and their cost to supply replacement engines if things do go bad . Link to their Youtube Channel if you want to have a look just need to search through to find the 1KD related videos engine care - YouTube

This link also has some good info on the 1KD engine and related issues/fixes 1KD-FTV Toyota engine (australiancar.reviews)

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

Owning a 2010 Prado, having had a cracked piston, being a mechanical engineer and having carefully looked into the problem, it's actually fairly simple. Cracked pistons occur due to sustained overload of the pistons, combined with a design flaw in the first-generation pistons which were changed around 2012. If you don't do long sustained and regular heavy towing, and/or haven't added a chip to increase power, then you have nothing to worry about. Even sustained towing is not always a problem, my mate with the same Prado hammered it for over 300k and never had a problem. Chips are a problem, I had one for a while.

There's heaps of info on this forum. Beware the BS about injectors, I changed mine just before the failure, it's completely unrelated. You should monitor them for wear but not because of cracked pistons. Peter at Engine Care provides sound technically based advice.

The missed services are not good, 10k oil change is fine but it is important to use top quality oil and change it regularly. Relax and enjoy.

[ptommo59 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ptommo59]

HI Krypto,

Bit of a side track, but are the people that fit EGR defeat devices/blanking plates/restrictors to a 1KD also increasing their risk of a piston failure?

Reason I ask is one of the functions of a working EGR is to reduce peak combustion temps so this will not be effective with the block/restriction and Peter from Engine Care indicated that high temp cycling was one of the root causes for the piston cracking.

Your thoughts?

[Daniel150 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Daniel150]

It’s a total lottery.
I drove a 2009 d4d Hilux for 7 yrs. 300000 no problems.
Second one in the fleet, same thing. Both did manual gearboxes at 275k almost on the dot.
4 friends have prados or hilux’s both modded and standard, towing and not towing, all fine into the high 200’s.
5 other friends have had cracked pistons, some towing, some not, some modded, some standard. All happened around that 200-250k mark.
All of the above range from early to late models.
I’ve met plenty of other people who have had it happen, don’t personally know them, but the vehicles seemed a good mix of standard and not.
When I bought my 120, I got a v6. Personally I think the motor has a tendency to eat the pistons do I didn’t want the risk.
Obviously being perhaps the most popular suv in Australia the likely hood of hearing bad stories is high, but I seemed to hear too many for my liking.

[Toyotatuff Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Toyotatuff]

Very disappointing read and articles on 1KD.
Toyotas were once very reliable.
i own a 2012 VX prado, 134000kms, no issues yet, no rattles or smoke, i never tow, and don't 4wd it, were pistons updated in this year, i think injectors were, i did own a 2007 petrol gxl prior, it had 285000kms on it and was faultless.
I starting to regret not getting V6 Petrol engine in the 150 series, but i could easily sell and get Petrol VX or Kakadu 2nd hand.

[Skexis Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Skexis]

Cracked pistons occur due to sustained overload of the pistons, combined with a design flaw in the first-generation pistons which were changed around 2012.

So are you saying vehicles from 2013 onward do not have cracked piston issues?

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

So are you saying vehicles from 2013 onward do not have cracked piston issues?

My understanding is that it occurred a lot less. The person to ask would be someone who repairs them.

I noticed that my replacement engine had a different piston part number

[ptommo59 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ptommo59]

Hope this is helpful

From the Toyota Technical Service Bulletin EG0008T-0112 dated 18 Sep 14:

• The old design pistons were marked with Piston ID Code 080 on the crown and the new more robust design is marked 110.
• The new ones were fitted from factory on the:
  • Prado 150 from Jan 14 starting at engine serial no 2361817; and
  • Hilux from Jul 14 starting at engine serial no A477120.
• The improved Gen 3 Piezo Injectors were fitted on the:
  • Prado 150 from Oct 10; and
  • Hilux from Jul 11.

[Toyotatuff Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Toyotatuff]

Is that January 2014 or 14th January what year?

[ptommo59 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ptommo59]

January 2014

I did also find reference to a further updated revision of the 1kd-ftv pistons released in 2017 here 1KD-FTV - piston crack (toyota-club.net)

The final (for now) revision of "increase strength" pistons (instead junk 30090..30150 and better 30200) introduced in 2017:
13101-30250 / 2017.06-
ID-code at piston top changed from 110 to 130.

[Crossfire119 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Crossfire119]

I have a 2011 Prado 150 with 1KD engine. Did 280,000KM before one of the pistons failed in March this year. Was totally unaware about the fault. We do 4WD and tow a camper trailer as well; it failed whilst towing on the motorway. Mechanic suggested it was a failed injector but only today did I find out about the known issue and Service Bulletin. A fitted reconditioned engine cost me $17K.

Also, understand there is a class action underway. Aside to the class action, is there any recourse to approach Toyota given the fault? One thing I will be doing is going back to the reconditioned engine provider to find out what piston they fitted.