Copied From Automotive NewsLOS ANGELES -- Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. has quietly settled a class-action lawsuit that covers about 3.5 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles that may have been damaged by engine oil sludge.
Details of the settlement, which allows for third-party mediation of sludge claims rejected by Toyota, have been mailed to 7.5 million current and previous owners.
Critics contend Toyota has told customers and dealers too little about sludge issues. They say some customers took vehicles with dead engines to dealers who had little or no knowledge of the problem and often assumed it was the owners' fault.
Unhappy customers had no remedy other than hiring a lawyer to go after Toyota.
Under the agreement, owners whose claims have been denied by Toyota may submit them to a third-party mediator at no cost for binding arbitration.
"This settlement breathes life into claims that have been dead for years," said Gary Gambel, a lawyer for plaintiffs who sued Toyota. "This is not a settlement that gives a few dollars to everyone. The relief is exactly tied to the problems and damages that someone might have."
The lawsuit, filed in a Louisiana district court, is expected to be approved by the court in early February.
Toyotas at risk
About 3.3 million Toyota vehicles are susceptible to oil sludge, which can cause thousands of dollars in damage and require replacement of the engine. Here are the vehicles included in the settlement.
VEHICLE MODEL YEARS
Camry 4 cyl. 1997-2001
Camry 6 cyl. 1997-2002
Camry Solara 4 cyl. 1999-2001
Camry Solara 6 cyl. 1999-2002
Sienna 6 cyl. 1998-2002
Avalon 6 cyl. 1997-2002
Celica 4 cyl. 1997-1999
Highlander 6 cyl. 2001-2002
Lexus ES 300 1997-2002
Lexus RX 300 1999-2002
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So Toyo finally is forced to admit the sludging problem...after a CA lawsuit? They stonewalled this well known problem
long enough.
It's Finally OVER!!
However......Let us not forget that Class Action Litigation is more often legalized extortion. 
I could be off-base here, but my understanding was that it was mainly the 3.0 V-6 engine, and the problem occured most often in the Sienna minivan.
It was speculated but never proven this was because of the way the engine was packaged in the minivan, which made it run a bit hotter, and if you didn't keep up on oil changes, it was prone to sludging.
I think ANY 3.0 V-6 from the late 90's/early 00's could be succeptible to it, but it had the highest frequency in the Sienna. However, the Camry seemed to get implicated a lot, most likely because of the vast numbers sold, compared to the Sienna.
FWIW, the only people I can think of that had cars succumb to death by sludge were people who didn't take care of their cars. One was a high school/college buddy who got his parents' '86 Tercel in 1994, after his '85 Cavalier died due to electrical problems. The Tercel wasn't very high-mileage, but was neglected. One day I saw my buddy driving a new '95 Trans Am, and I asked him about the Tercel and he said sludge killed it.
The Mopar 2.7 is prone to sludging as well.Mine has about 127,000 miles on it though, and I have to confess I haven't been the most religious about changing its oil, or keeping it topped off. If it ever does succumb to sludge though, at this point I have nobody to blame but myself...er, I mean Chrysler! yeah, that's the ticket. It's Chrysler's fault.
Seems that most of the people complaining did NOT have their oil changes done by Toyota dealers, but rather by the "iffy lubes." Some people were stretching the time or mileage intervals. In a few cases, it wasn't clear if the oil was changed AT ALL, with engine failures occurring before 20K miles.
I've heard that some subsequent modifications were made by Toyota to
make the engine more tolerant to neglect.
Apparently these worked because afterwards the issue pretty much died.
It isn't clear to this day how much of the problem was due to faulty engineering vs. poor maintenance.
Probably never will be.
