I recently bought a used 01 Highlander with a 3.0L engine and AWD.  Car was very clean and bought from a dealership.  

I've owned the car 10 days.

2 days after leaving the lot, the check engine light came on, I needed a new charcoal filter for some emissions system.  Even though we bought the car as is, the dealership covered this because the temp plates weren't even off and it was already on their lift, had to have the car stay over night.

Yesterday, I developed a nasty clunk in the rear end.  Took it to an auto shop, needed two new sway bars.  $210.00

Today, I went out to the parking lot to get my car.  Noticed that the car smelled strongly of gas, and I saw a large puddle under the car.  Took it to a shop, where it is right now, and I'm already looking at $150 in labor to get the gas tank out, because apparently the driveshaft and exhaust system needs to be removed just to see where the leak is coming from.  They say there's no noticeable loose lines and the leak is coming from the top of the tank, so they have to pull it to figure out what's going on there. And I'm without my car for another night.

What. The. Fuck.  I read reviews on this car and they were solid.  Now I have zero faith in the car, and don't know what's going to happen with this thing.  I couldn't image the dealership knew about this stuff, because the problems all developed after I left the lot, and weren't problems that could just have been masked.

I need a reliable car for college.  I thought Toyota would be it.  

ETA: I ran a carfax before I bought the car and it came back clean.  So I don't know why so many things have just become a problem in the last few days.


UPDATE:
Gas tank repair cost $380, no car for  3 days/2 nights during the repair.

3 days later, I was driving down the road and something on the underside of the car rattles very loud to the point where it drowned out the radio, and then suddenly stopped.  Brought the car to VIP, had it brought up on a lift and they found a clamp that was, at one point, holding something on the underside of the car on.  Whatever it was is gone now, but they say everything else 'important' seems to be there.

Day after this happens, my check engine light comes on AGAIN.  Have it scanned and it's the PO440 Evaporation code.  Same one I had the dealer fix a mere 2 days after I bought the car.  Now I've been quoted at $150 for the scan and to smoke the car and find any possible problems, never mind parts and labor on another possible repair.  


Update 2

Bought a factory new gas cap from the dealer for 24 bucks.  A few people here, in addition to a few shops have said it's a good starting point for the evap code I'm getting.  

Gonna see what happens from here.

Update 3

Sept 11, Went to walmart to pick up a few snacks for the dorm.  I come back to a huge puddle of gas and something black/sticky leaking from the same spot I had earlier (that I spent $380 to have "fixed")  Call AAA for a tow, because I don't want to drive with this black liquid leaking like it is, plus the gas.  They say to call the fire dept and have them clean the leak, because the tow truck doesn't want to deal with it with gas on the ground.  

FD shows up with a truck and 3 guys, they look at the car, clean the spill, etc.  While they are there, the car just stops leaking.  Went from pouring this stuff, to nothing, but the tank is still plenty full  They also say that it doesn't look like the work the shop claims to have done, has been done.  I look for myself and the bolts still look real rusted and doesn't look like they have seen a wrench in years.  

So, I drove straight to a Toyota dealer and they're looking at it.  Now I'm without my car for a while, again.  

And the place that "fixed" the tank is going to be getting a pretty stern call from me.


UPDATE 4 (FINAL)

Brought the car to the regional Toyota dealer after the gas leak.  They said at it's current point, it won't even pass inspection with the control arm problem and the front pad problem.

Front control arm bushings are "one pothole away from falling apart" $1,435

Front pads aren't retracting back into the caliper. $95 per pad for a cleaning

And the gas leak was caused by a purge valve for the engine?  $215


What I face now is I was sold a car by the dealership who put an inspection sticker on a car that won't actually pass inspection, and is actually unsafe, per another Toyota dealer.

I don't know where to go from here.  But I've been fucked over pretty hard.

Carfax is helpful, but cannot tell you if little 16 year old Jonny abused it, or even if it was a factory defect (which does happen).

I think the charcoal canister and gas leak are related. I'd check the gas cap before I started tearing the ass end off the car. It may not be venting properly, which is pressurizing the tank and not allowing the fuel return line to discharge into the tank.





The sway bar thing is unrelated, and attributable to the shitty driver who owned the car before, and drove using the Braille method.
ETA: No one has ever sold or traded in a car because it was wonderful and absolutely trouble-free. A used car was someone's headache before you got it.



 

"Oh What A Feeling". What you felt was your wallet being lifted. Did you get ANY kind of warranty at all? You can usually buy a 30-90 day one for less then a $100.00 which, quite  honestly, is probably the ONLY warranty I'd actually pay for.

Unpossible!  Toyotas are made from Fairy wings and Unicorn dicks... SO SAYETH ARFCOM!!!

I sold my 98 Honda CRV with 165k, because the little 4 cylinder had trouble getting up to speed on the highway when I made the 3 hour treck to college and was loaded with gear.

That car was rock solid.

Check for a plugged or leaking fuel tank vent line.  If someone topped the tank off excessively, there could be gas backed up in the vapor recovery system, preventing proper venting of the tank.

Sounds like the Dealership hid some stuff or knew major repairs were coming.

Toyotas are very good vehicles, darn near bullet proof.

Curious how many miles were on it when purchased?  

It's at about 130k.

It obviously wasn't if it had problems getting to speed.



Sorry for your luck though, man.  That sucks.



 

Only Tacomas/4runners.

Any used vehicle is a crap shoot. I have a 2004 Tacoma Double Cab Prerunner with a 3.4L and 118k miles. I expect to have to do some suspension maintenance at some point since I live off a mediocre clay road and drive around in the woods a bunch during hunting season, it would be in much better shape if they were all highway miles.

A 10 year old vehicle from the salt belt?  no thanks, I don't care who made it.  

 

Huh, all of my "rust belt" vehicles are 10 years old or older and I don't have any issues like what he's having. And they are all GASP, made by US manufacturers. [bought used]

My Highlander was the best car we ever had until some asshole totaled it.  140K miles and zero issues.  Everybody makes a bad one now and then.

its a 9 year old car. Of course its a money pit.

Sway bar links go bad with age.  I just replaced all four on my 2001 Honda, had around 82k miles at the time.  Aftermarket links ran me around $120 total, installed them myself.

Say it ain't so Joe say it ain't so.......

I thought Toyota's ran forever on love, kindness and charity.

well more power to ya!  I guess you take care of your stuff, but I'm not going to pick a random car off a lot and roll the dice.  

 

Eating a sway bar on a Highlander meant the car has seen some rough offroad use typically.

The only manufacturer with the majority of the parts made in the US is Toyota, so unless you own Toyota you own a majority foreign made auto.

There's zero chance that the CA mandated charcoal emissions filter is throwing a CEL. Find a new dealer/shop.

So there was a loud rattle under the car and you kept driving?

You sold a perfectly good car because it was slow when loaded down?

If it developes another fuel leak...burn it.

Dealer is going to suck you dry before that vehicle is near 100%

Not when they are 10-12 years old.

Just depends on how many miles one drives. Me and the wife average 50,000 miles a year combined. An Accord or Camry will do better than a Taurus or Impala, a Civic or Corolla will do better than an Escort or Cavalier, a Tacoma or Frontier will do better than a Ranger or S-10/Colorado. Plus the resale is higher on the "foreign" jobs.

 

Goddamn non-UAW workers.

Actually you have to go older than that.  Look it up.

Worst car I ever owned was an Acura Integra, best was a Ford F-150. And I'm a high mileage driver. Honda and Toyota reliability are both way overblown.



 

The mid to late 90s to early 2K year Buicks were just as reliable as any Japanese manufacturers vehicle you can name from that era in the same price range. Maint. costs are usually considerably less to boot. I see a goodly amount of Buicks [Regals, Century's and the like] with a couple hundred K on the clock and they still run very well.

When we finally sold our Ranger, it had 240K miles on the clock and it still ran like a clock, it went thru the usual exhaust work, had a radiator replaced, several sets of brakes, one set of U joints for the rear drive shaft, replaced the crappy front "auto" hubs with warns early on [$80 or so] one fuel pump [line rusted out, pump itself was fine but after dropping the tank, no way was I going to not replace it] and one PS pump and one fuel pump relay. A 91 Toyota from that era in Mich would have been totally ate up with rust and falling apart. Now, contrary to what you might think, I've owned Honda's, Nissans, and Toyotas in the past. Toss in the few VWs and Audis, and after many years of owning almost every common make, I can say that the foreign ones always cost a WHOLE lot more to replace parts on and didn't cost any less or were that much more reliable then the American makes. Now I will absolutely acknowledge that US manufacturers made some uber turds in that time but those were usually known after a year or two and I always steered clear of those models.

As far as resale goes, I never cared because I run my cars til they are almost dead and then sell them off for Hoopty prices, it's still super cheap driving over owning new or several year old cars. A rusted out Japanese car selling for more money is a joke and the joke is on the buyer.

So you're the exception, congratulations. A Toyota, Honda or Nissan will still run circles around the equivalent domestic offerings as a whole.





 

Take it back to the dealership and have them check it out. They may want you to approve the check out on the front end but if it is related to the repair they just did they may cover it.

The problem may be with the fuel leak you paid some other shop to do though. Now, 2 different places have been in the same area doing work, so who is at fault. Neither one of them may have caused it, but you don't know now.

This is why it is not good to take your car from one shop to another.


Think of it like this, you have surgery at one place with one doctor and then a couple weeks later you have another surgery done at another place with another doctor in the same area as the last.

2 weeks later you find out that one of them left something in you.

Who done it, the first or the second?

Take it back to one place or the other and stop taking it to different shops. Pick one of them.

Possibilities:

A sensor is bad
the purge valve is bad
clogged/pinched line
loose line
hole in a line
gas cap is bad

Search the internets for a factory service manual. You can probably find a free download if you look around enough. Here's one for $11. http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/87841684-toyota-highlander-repair-manual-2001-2002

Then you'll probably need to buy one of these: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/MTV0/MV8000.oap?mn=Mityvac&mc=MTV&pt=N0678&ppt=C0067

The service manual will tell you how to check the system with that tool or one similar to it.

True, at least until they yank the floor mat out from under the brake pedal.

OP, I agree with the post above where you need to stick with one shop, bouncing between two is going to end up costing you more. Pick the one you believe is the best.

You keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. But it's bullshit.



 

Depends on what "loaded with gear" means.

Does ME have a lemon law?  It might be something to look at.  I am not sure if it applies to used cars though.

I didn't have a choice.  I go to school 3 hours from home.  Bought the car over the summer and driving 3 hours one way wouldn't make much sense.  

Also, as to driving after the rattle.  I pulled over immediately after it started, but within 10-15 seconds, it was gone, and I couldn't reproduce the sound.  Haven't heard anything since.

i just bought a 99 Sub Outback for 3500 with 187k on the clock. Would not have bought it if it were not for all the maintainance  papers. The prev owner has spent close to 2500 the last 6 months to fix it.  I'm a pretty good wrench, but if its been done by someone else paying for it,thats better.

If you don't know how to fix cars,its best to get something with a warranty. Or else be at the mercy of the wrench man.

sounds like you're going to be paying for more repaires or doing it yourself in the near future.

Not for a while. All the known bad stuff that Subs are afflicted with ,has been done.

Highlander.



There can only be one.



It's obviously not yours.

Update 3 added to OP.

I'm running out of ideas, arfcom.

Sounds to me like the tank is pressurizing and the fuel is being pushed through one of the evap system lines....and by the description, it's the one that goes to the canister.

id take it back to the dealer and bitch and complain and raise hell until they fix EVERYTHING

A lot of people are taken for rides in exactly that fashion.



 

Probably would have better luck obtaining a lawyer.





 

I have a Highlander.  Emissions problems are the gas cap seal 95% of the time.......period.  Take the cap off, play with the seal, put it back on - light will go off.  PM me, I can help if needed.

Sounds frustrating.  Sorry.





Used cars over some magic mileage number just have things that go unexpectedly and unpredictably.  It's part of owning a used car.





Problem is, it could have been the dealer screwing you and it could have been just one of those things.  I won't buy a car unless the seller agrees I can take it to my mechanic for a check FIRST.  My mechanic knows I 'm looking to buy it and it gets the once-over.  I'm willing to pay that, and I have walked away from deals that looked good to me, because a practiced eye can tell whether or not there are big repair bills on the horizon.  





The only time I broke that rule, I was under pressure from my wife to buy a car THAT DAY.  It was also the only time I got screwed:  the seller got that car to run like a top, and two days later it was running poorly, leaking, overheating, etc.  I got the shaft, yes indeed, and I learned my lesson.





I hope you can get this sorted out with a minimum of trouble.