It was a dark and stormy night. Metaphorically speaking, that is.

It was a glorious autumn night in the wilds of North Carolina, and my husband and I had just left a friend's Oktoberfest celebration. We had spent the evening staring at the stars, eating brats, and then hit the highway to head back to our sleepy NC college town.

Unbeknownst to us, there was also a small deer leaving a fete of its own that night. Unlike us, he perhaps had a few too many drinks. (We don't drink and drive, people!) The deer stepped in front of our RAV-4 on I-40. We were able to slow down some but not miss it completely, and with a sickening thud, we pulled our Toyota to the side of the road and called the highway patrol in. The animal was dead, and so, alas, was our RAV-4. Or so we thought.

A day later and a long tow ride into East Durham, we got the good news: our car's damage was mainly cosmetic, and it would be back to us in a few weeks. I got a new right fender and new cooling fans among other minor things. Though it sucked to have to bum rides off of my colleagues for most of the fall semester, I was thrilled to know the car wasn't lost. Or so we thought.

After receiving it back from the body shop, the car drove fine for about a mile. And that's when the real horror show began. The oil light began to flicker and it felt like the car was shuddering. It was very cold out, but I immediately pulled over, turned the car off and called the body shop. They told me to drive it back to them and that it was probably just resetting itself after being put back together again in the cold. I remember doubting this, but I did as told, though that flickering oil light gave me the willies the whole way.

Three days later, I receive a call that goes something like this: "You need a new engine because you didn't take care of the car. It's going to cost about four grand to get it running again."

It was perhaps at this point in time that I had what we in the South call a "conniption."

Folks, I purchased this car from a dealer with 40k on the odometer. I performed every major required mechanical service on it and religiously had the oil changed. The 1996 Honda Accord I owned before the RAV-4 had 189k on the odometer when I sold it, and it was still running strong until the high school kid who bought it literally ran it into a ditch. Heck, I even kept a 1991 Ford Explorer alive to 120k. In short, I know how to properly take care of cars to ensure they last: I pay professional mechanics a lot of money to do all of that stuff it says to do in the owner's manual.

A quick search online for the 2002-03 RAV-4 models will show you all you need to know. Despite meticulous maintenance, a lot of owners have had their "infallible" Toyota engines fail at relatively low mileage. I got lucky: I got 90k on that bad boy before the engine went kaput. Others found themselves in the hole around the 45k mileage mark. Of course, Toyota claims no problems exist for this, and since my car was beyond the powertrain warranty it was "my problem to deal with."

I could live with that if Toyota had not recalled Camry engines from the same time period. "Hey," some folks will say, "you got 90k on it before it failed. Try driving a Pontiac beyond 50k with the same results." Touche, my dears, touché. The problem is I initially plunked down a heck of a lot more cash for a Consumer Reports all-star. Had I bought a Pontiac, I'd likely have expected the engine problems. Heck, I might have even thrown the car a party to celebrate the death of its original engine. But alas, the Pontiac is not what is in the garage right now.

I ended up spending $3,500 on a new engine for this thing. It came from Japan. It had 20k on it when I bought it. It's still going strong, and the RAV-4 has 210k on its body and transmission. But Toyota has designated my earlier problems as failure to care for my car. As if, jokers!

Will we ever know what truly caused the engine failure? Was it Spotty the Deer or did the Toyota gods simply frown on me? Perhaps this will be a mystery for the ages. Whatever the cause, this was an expensive problem on a car that was supposed to make it for the long haul. I'm driving it out of spite these days, taunting it to fail on me with each mile that passes so that this chapter can finally be closed.

Merging into heavy traffic, I noticed NO power. I looked at my dash, and all of my lights were on. VERY luckily coasted to breakdown lane, and stopped....went to restart the car, and it sounded HORRIBLE! Stopped at once, called AAA. They got me to my mechanic, and he informed me that I had no compression, and that he would give me 1 hr. labor to inspect why. he removed head, and informed me that my entire engine was totally sludged up. He couldn't understand why, because I had changed and inspected my oil religiously! This engine only had 56,000 YES 56,000 miles on it. He has found me a HIGH mileage engine (148,000 miles) and can replace it. at 3,500.00. BUT he and I are concerned that this 'new' engine MAY fail also, after reading all the horror stories. ANY advice, leads would be so very helpful. Thank you all!

Driving to work at 7:30am..hardly drove & oil sign came, than right away the engine sign and started to make knocking sound...had just merged on busy hwy where cars were driving by 70mph and didn't know what to do....my engine was about die and luckily I could pulled on the shoulder lane . It was very very scary feeling, thought I was going to crash...awful.

Called AAA and got car towed to nearby car mechanic...and it is still there. It can cost me to put a new engine...I don't know what to do at this point as my husband doesn't have a job and I am the only one person earning. This car was maintained with regular oil change, service tuneups and all.

Called Toyota people and they said there is nothing they can do because it is a normal wear and tear and no warranty...but any one can tell me if the engine fails it just happens without any signs? Engine sign just came up and it died in seconds...1st oil sign and right away engine sign and knocking sound and died....I could have been killed...this is the second time this car almost killed me....4 months back it was faulty transmission went on major hwy while driving....they replaced it and now this...it is not normal. I spoke to friends, family and lot of people and they all said that never happened to anyone. It didn't give me any prior notice of any problems and just died on me...Last few years I took my car for oil change to my local car mechanic for oil change and maintenance because Toyota dealers are so expensive...my mechanic is ready to give me all the receipts when my work was done...I need help.

In 2003 we bought a brand new 2002 Toyota Rav4. In 2007, the engine seized up at 56,000 miles. we took it to Toyota and they told us it would cost $7,000 because they needed to replace the engine. After gathering all our maintanence history and much dileberation Toyota agreed to replace the engine but we had to pay for the labor ($2500); We agreed. After they did the work, we heard a soft constant beating sound coming from the engine. When we took it back, we were told that sound was normal when a new engine is installed and it will go away -- It didn't. 18 months and 10,000 miles later, the engine died again. Baffled at how two seperate engines can die we took it to our personal mechanic. He explained to us that the engine was never replaced, but rebuilt. We took it back to the dealership and they refused to help us. So did Toyota Corp.

They have a settlement for defective engines for the same generation engines (1997-2002) for almost every model. Except the Rav4.

What makes it worse was I was told I was getting a new engine. At the same time my personal mechanic had found me a used engine (12,000 mi) for 2300 including installation. Had I knew they were going to rebuild it, I would have went with that option. so they screwed me out of 2500, a car, and a chance at actually fixing the car. if you divide the mileage by how much the car costed me, it would have been more cost effective for me to by a 600 class Mercedez!

iv had the oil sludge problem as well, when i dismantled the oil tank and examined the oil pump the pick up filter in the sump was totally clogged with sediment. the pick up filter is the size 50mm in diameter there for resulting in quicker clogging. recommend even more regular oil changes up to every 5000km at the most and check the the oil pick up as often as possible. the damage was so extensive from the loss of oil pressure it snapped the pistons; result replacement of the entire engine. replacement oil pumps with greater pick up filter circumferences should be made available and affordable to prevent this event from re-occurring.

My oil light came on, then 2 miles later the engine light came on. Immediately I started losing power and heard a knocking sound. I pulled over right away and later had it towed. The Toyota dealership said I had sludge in my engine and the only thing that can be done is to replace the entire engine at a cost of $7000. I've read so much about Toyota sludge problems and now I see that this isn't an isolated incident. I don't understand why on earth the Rav4 was not included in this class action lawsuit when apparently it's a problem with all makes of Toyota. They are quick to say you didn't maintain your car and, of course, not mention that this is a widespread problem with Toyota engines. I guess I should talk with my attorney to see if maybe the Rav4 should get it's day in court.