One problem related to engine failure has been reported for the 2008 Toyota RAV4. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2008 Toyota RAV4 based on all problems reported for the 2008 RAV4.
Toyota Rav4 2008. Excessive oil use. Engine is using excessive oil, about a quart every 1,200 miles and use may be increasing in use. Thus vehicle can use up oil without warning causing an engine failure while traveling the highway/interstate. While vehicle may be well maintained this can happen without warning and strand passengers and be a safety concern should the engine blow while traveling at interstate speeds. Toyota issued a warranty extension to 150,000 miles or 10 years which this falls under but dealer examination indicated it was not using enough oil according to them but in my test I showed using 1 quart in 1,200 miles. Even a little under this amount of oil use is excessive as it indicates this engine has a problem as Toyota has identified. So far they have not been willing to repair. This should be covered under Toyota t-sb-0158-14. Dealer would not tell me how much oil was used in their test. Again anything in the range of 1 quart of oil in about 1,200 miles is a indicator that the engine is experiencing Toyota's identified defect and they should repair it.