What problems have you had?

[BLCKLABEL]

Hi everyone,

I bought my first car a ZR6 Aurion in Sept07. Its a July 07 Build. With the Push Start Button Ignition, has anyone had a rought start sometimes? Sometimes i just get into the car and i put my foot on the brake and push the button to start it.. it kinda struggles to start. However if i push the button twice first.. let it sit for about 15 secs and then Start it with the foot brake it starts fine.. i'm just curious if anyone else has had this?

And.. i don't know if its just me... but wen i first bought my car and i drove it out.. wen its idlying.. it sounded sweet.. now it just sounds like a freaking Camry wen its idlying.. I admit tat i have a heavy foot.. but thats not all the time.. i am a safe driver.. however.. i've had 2 cars lightly back into me while i'm parked.. and i had some random key my front left panel of my car all the way to the primer.. i guess thats what happens wen u park ur car outside burswood in Perth. and i wasn't even there to gamble.. only for dinner..

[AcoustiK]

Push button is fine on mine, but what do you mean the car sounding like a camry, i know my car sounded different to when I drove it out from the dealer, now it gives a light tuk tuk sound on low revs and idle.

Ouch ur cars attracting bad things, yeah if your not parking in a secure car park, you should avoid parking at any area where drunk or unruly people might tread across, sometimes the 6-10 dollars may be worth it in the end...

[julian040859]

Has anyone else had water leak into boot passenger side well near wheel arch? I found a fair bit of water in there suggesting it is coming though the back window? Also my local dealership has got a fix for dash rattles. They tell me that the clips on the firewall were too small and did not have any sound dampeneing. They have pulled out one dash already with a perfect result. They use bigger clips and something to stop squeaks. My built date is Oct 2007.

[bozurolla]

Has anyone else had water leak into boot passenger side well near wheel arch? I found a fair bit of water in there suggesting it is coming though the back window? Also my local dealership has got a fix for dash rattles. They tell me that the clips on the firewall were too small and did not have any sound dampeneing. They have pulled out one dash already with a perfect result. They use bigger clips and something to stop squeaks. My built date is Oct 2007.

Hey mate,

Working for a dealership I saw this on a new Aurion & Camry,apparently its a fine crack/seam weld discrepency & we rectified it with Sikaflex 227.bring it back to the dealership buddy

[bozurolla]

My new Aurion Prodigy has a drive train noise when cold. If you reverse when cold and then go forward, turning the steering wheel at the same time, you hear a soft clunk noise. I do not here it again until the next morning.

I rang the service manager at the local dealership, he said it was a known happening but not to be concerned. When cold the engine is reving higher and the noise is simply take up slack in the drive train at high revs. Especially evident when going from reverse to drive!

Has anyone else had this happen?

Once again I saw this,& there was recent recommendation to readjust the K frame under the gearbox after doing this I didnt hear a peep from the customer as I saw him three times prior.There is a delay from the trans ecu to the gearbox (slight sec or so) so the dealerships do recommend a lil in between shifts.

good luck

[S1LV3R]

lol. this one of the most interesting threads ive come across. i reckon it should deserve a prize hehe

u got a dude in ps thinking their pro, whilst a sorry case of minority - a toyota lemon!

i have been driving & own toyotas all my life (sad i know) and usually i would classify them as a lemon when they are 300,000kms or above. european cars may be more "reliable" and perhaps retain a better residual value, but we're talking about the exy euros like bmw and merc - most of them are thirsty anyway!

dont get me started on vw's. i know 5 owners of golf and passat vehicles just randomly stalling whilst driving (even on autos ), all of whom purchased their cars from 5 different dealers.

re the toyota lemon, blueaurion mate i really dont know what your options are. though i really dont like to watch TT & ACA, i always seem to be up to date with the lemon car stories. that chick with the lemon vw beetle and another with a holden got new cars, but had to pay $5000 more. thats only after going to the media and getting aca to chase them. i think its also harder in your case because everyone knows that toyotas are reliable (or at least retain the lowest external failure ratio)

this problem of random unreliability is not "uncommon" though. i know 2 production blocks of camry sportivo and aletza out of the vic plant that are plagued with problems. unfortunately one of them has claimed another friend of mine. till this day its only those 2 blocks of camry.

Buri_ZR6, i dont know how old u are, but to me u sound like a stereotypical p plater i come across every freakin day of my life, with cars that cost more than they can ever afford, and drive to prove their "status" on the rd. i throw rotten eggs at them whenever they cut me off. (nxt time if u see a guy in a camry throwing eggs, PM ME )

plz prove me wrong and just do the sensible thing, DRIVE responsibly

hi wixy,

u wouldn't happen to know the exact details of the problem-plagued production block of camry sportivo (i.e. engine, year, vin), would u?

i'm just quite curious...thx mate!

s1lv3r

[julian040859]

Hey boz, can you tell me where the weld split is? Is it in the wheel arch area or around the back window?

Thanks

[bozurolla]

Hey boz, can you tell me where the weld split is? Is it in the wheel arch area or around the back window?

Thanks

hey mate,

Check the wheel arch area,Check the integrity of the sound deadening,Might have to take off the tyre?? PM me if u need help,I can correspond with the technician that did it..

[SilverProdigy]

Hey boz, can you tell me where the weld split is? Is it in the wheel arch area or around the back window?

Thanks

hey mate,

Check the wheel arch area,Check the integrity of the sound deadening,Might have to take off the tyre?? PM me if u need help,I can correspond with the technician that did it..

Bozurolla my Aurion Prodigy has water leaking from underneath the speaker grill, ie. where the speaker grill sticks to the door. This only happens when it's raining heavily and the car has been exposed to it for 20 or so minutes. The leak happens in both the passenger and drivers side door. Has happened about 6x now since November.

I took it to the dealership who tried to reproduce the problem with no success. Mind you they did it on a 40 degree day.

YOu don't happen to have encountered this problem too?

[Tmaster100]

Also my local dealership has got a fix for dash rattles. They tell me that the clips on the firewall were too small and did not have any sound dampeneing. They have pulled out one dash already with a perfect result. They use bigger clips and something to stop squeaks. My built date is Oct 2007.

Interesting and noted. Will have to investigate further.

[riftime]

Hi all,

Sorry to hear about the lemon. I have a Presara mid-Dec-07 build, and I too have found a few problems, but overall I love the car, and look forward to driving it every chance I get. The amount of plastic on the doors and pillars is disappointing (or rather the material/finish is disappointing). Everything I put in the car such as garage/gate remotes, pens, etc. rattles like crazy against these hard plastic surfaces. Also they scuff so easily (at least on black they do).

My problems:

1) Build / Quality issue: rear light console not sitting well, when I fiddled with it it fell out. The rear clips were broken, hence the loose mounting. Reported it at 1,000kms service. Replacement has been ordered from Japan, 4 weeks wait!!! Disappointing that a) Assembly line put in a faulty/broken part and B) no spare parts in Australia ??? Got a call 1-Feb saying that the part has come in, need to book it in for repair.

2) Microphone (for Bluetooth) reception not that great. I have to speak very loudly, facing the centre light console for the other party to hear me clearly. Other party often says that I "break up". That sucks, this should be a safety feature, having to lean and face a certain way when speaking is unacceptable. My friend has a new BMW 5-series, his built-in bluetooth is just as problematic... B) I've since found a fix for this, increased "Voice Send Level" from 0dB to 5dB in the Sat Nav System Settings (need to enter hidden config mode).

3) Design Issue? The passenger side belt buckle bangs against the pillar plastic. I like my cars to be rattle/noise free (so I usually drive myself nuts trying to fix them). This one should have been a no-brainer for the Toyota engineers to prevent. Anyone have any clever ideas for fixing it? At the moment I drive with the passenger seat belt fastened to prevent it clunking away into the pillar post. Now fixed, as suggested by Julian, moving the seat belt adjustment to highest level has removed the problem. This is more of a workaround rather than a fix (still a design issue with the car), but am happy to live with this workaround.

4) Creaky Dash: Very rare, just over rough terrain, one or two creaks. Unfortunately the short street I live on is rough enough to remind me of the creaky dash every day. :(

5) Engine-bay Clunk first time I accelerate after starting car. I've noticed many people in this forum reporting this. I saw this described in the owners manual as "normal behaviour" so I took it as such and somehow managed to not get annoyed by it. It must be a "feature" rather than a problem because it is too consistent (and described in the manual). Maybe they should describe the creaky dash in the manual too as a feature...

6) Rattle. This one has me stumped. Sounds like a wire rattling against metal (or the like). Coming from general direction of dash (within or behind) mostly on driver side. At times it sounds like in the engine bay, lower rather than higher. Only happens over rough road (again on my street every time I leave home or return . Couldn't reproduce it when I took the car in, and they didn't find it either. I'll try to see if it's related to the leaf-like sound others have reported with the fan at full speed. When I start the engine and turn it off, I can hear it rattle just once in unison with the engine starting or stopping, but it's difficult to describe it to the service dept. as "the last 100ms of sound when switching the engine off sounds like a single oscillation of the vibration heard when driving over rough roads". I've since been able to trigger the noise by having the fan on setting 1 or 2 and disabling and enabling the A/C. Seems to be related to the A/C unit engaging. Perhaps something under the bonnet.

7) Squeaky center console. When resting on it, a slight squeak occasionally, hardly noticeable.

8) Minor (low volume) rattle from sunroof when open in the "up" position and driving over rough road.

Dealer couldn't reproduce rattles 4) and 6) that I reported so they obviously couldn't fix them. They told me that when they get the part in from item 1) to leave the car for the day for them to have a better look and have time to take dash out if needed. Looks like I'll have a few more items to report by then.

Incidentally, I was disappointed to find that taking my car in for the first 1,000kms service didn't actually result in a "service". It's more of a checkup that all is well with the car. They did NOT change the oil. They told me to bring it back for a service at 7,500 or 15,000 kms. I was confused by the "or" and they pointed me to the manual saying that depending on my driving style to do one or the other...

Like I said, I'm very happy with the Presara, and glad that I didn't buy the Holden Calais which was my original intention before doing the right thing and comparing a few different cars. The problems above are numerous, but I'm so anal about the car being perfect that other than the Bluetooth microphone reception/transmission issue and the creaky dash nobody else noticed any of the items above.

I bought my car from Peter Davey Toyota in Werribee (VIC). Sales person was Alan Lam. I found him (and the way he represented the dealership) very professional, polite (not pushy), and from my personal experience would recommend him for Car Salesman of the Year award (if there is such a thing)... :) ... and I got an excellent competitive price, with tow-bar, mats, and full tank of petrol, 3+3 year extended warranty, and on-rad costs, all coming to significantly less than RRP alone. Furthermore, he kept me updated throughout the delivery process, offered his mobile number for questions/queries and contact 7-days a week AFTER taking receipt of the car, etc. I have a low opinion of car salespeople in general, but I must say that Alan has made me realise that I shouldn't generalise. Hard not to though, especially with the way some dealers treated me. The jury's still out with their service department on the other hand... I look young for my 35 years of age, and some other dealers' salespeople didn't take me seriously when I wanted to buy a $50k car without finance or trade-in. Some weren't even all that keen to let me test drive any!!! Mantello Holden in Roxburgh Park was good with the test drives (gave me new cars to take away for 30mins lots by myself). Unfortunately for them, the Holden quality (or lack of) became evident within a few minutes. My older car (that I'm in the process of selling privately) is a Holden Calais VSII, and I've had no problems with it in the 11 years I've had it. The build quality of that car was excellent for a Holden which is why I initially wanted to buy another Calais.

that's all... just thought I'd share my experience with the car and the salesperson in light of the absolute disappointment the person with the lemon aurion has endured.

Edited February 1, 2008 by riftime

[jonbays]

Hi my Presara April 07 build has been good so far only 8,500k! but these two problems we share and I wouldn't mind knowing if anyone can suggest a fix?

2) Microphone (for Bluetooth) reception not that great. I have to speak very loudly, facing the centre light console for the other party to hear me clearly. Other party often says that I "break up". That sucks, this should be a safety feature, having to lean and face a certain way when speaking is unacceptable. I'll see if there are any settings in the System Setup of the Nav system to increase microphone reception level. If, not will report at next service. My friend has a new BMW 5-series, his built-in bluetooth is just as problematic... B)

3) Design Issue? The passenger side belt buckle bangs against the pillar plastic. I like my cars to be rattle/noise free (so I usually drive myself nuts trying to fix them). This one should have been a no-brainer for the Toyota engineers to prevent. Anyone have any clever ideas for fixing it? At the moment I drive with the passenger seat belt fastened to prevent it clunking away into the pillar post. I'm tempted to put a small piece of velcro on it and the pillar to stay put - one bang away from fastening itself fixed. :)

[BanHien]

....

3) Design Issue? The passenger side belt buckle bangs against the pillar plastic. I like my cars to be rattle/noise free (so I usually drive myself nuts trying to fix them). This one should have been a no-brainer for the Toyota engineers to prevent. Anyone have any clever ideas for fixing it? At the moment I drive with the passenger seat belt fastened to prevent it clunking away into the pillar post. I'm tempted to put a small piece of velcro on it and the pillar to stay put - one bang away from fastening itself fixed. :)

Yes, I did tell the dealer but two of their staff drove the car and could not find it (they used both belts)- I've found this by chance and just move the buckle away. I also have a rattle noise recently when the air-cond ON, could be something inside the air flow.

BH

[saintly]

Yes, I did tell the dealer but two of their staff drove the car and could not find it (they used both belts)- I've found this by chance and just move the buckle away. I also have a rattle noise recently when the air-cond ON, could be something inside the air flow.

BH

I only noticed the noise rattle from the AC when it is on full blast. Any solutions?

[AcoustiK]

Just to add there is an article on the latest RACV mag on the lemon rule legistlation thats apparently being passed, obviously there are some exceptions, one is that the defects stacking up on the car has to be one that affects drivability and safety and not just plain nuisances....

[julian040859]

The air con noise know as the "leaf" sound is actually the vent fins rattling at a certain fan speed and vent direction, turn the vent fins a tad or reduce the fan speed and it goes away. I am getting mine replaced under warranty when they pull out my dash and fit new bigger dash clips and sound dampening against firewall.

My seat belt makes a noise too if it is not carefully put back in place, make sure the buckle faces outward, there should be plenty of clearance between the trim, the buckle and the seat if carfefully put back in place.

[insi]

My new Aurion Touring has a drive train noise when cold. If you reverse when cold and then go forward, turning the steering wheel at the same time, you hear a soft clunk noise. I do not here it again until the next morning.

The air con noise know as the "leaf" sound is actually the vent fins rattling at a certain fan speed and vent direction, turn the vent fins a tad or reduce the fan speed and it goes away.

I also experiencing the above two, should I get the dealer to fix it in 1000km service?

Feels empty on the roof when you push around the front light area, so you can see a bit of gap between the roof carpet and the grey square front light is this normal?

When you push from gear 1 to 2 is slow going up the rev, is this normal?

Please let me know. Thanks

[julian040859]

My new Aurion Touring has a drive train noise when cold. If you reverse when cold and then go forward, turning the steering wheel at the same time, you hear a soft clunk noise. I do not here it again until the next morning.

The air con noise know as the "leaf" sound is actually the vent fins rattling at a certain fan speed and vent direction, turn the vent fins a tad or reduce the fan speed and it goes away.

I also experiencing the above two, should I get the dealer to fix it in 1000km service?

Feels empty on the roof when you push around the front light area, so you can see a bit of gap between the roof carpet and the grey square front light is this normal?

When you push from gear 1 to 2 is slow going up the rev, is this normal?

Please let me know. Thanks

The clunk noise is normal, the fins rattling is a known issue just as dash rattles and water leaking into boot side well. Talk to your service manager, I would say that they may suggest you drive it a bit more and give them a list of all warranty items and have them fix it all at one time.

[riftime]

I think I found a fix for the microphone issue (2) below, read on...

PROBLEM:

2) Microphone (for Bluetooth) reception not that great. I have to speak very loudly, facing the centre light console for the other party to hear me clearly. Other party often says that I "break up". That sucks, this should be a safety feature, having to lean and face a certain way when speaking is unacceptable. I'll see if there are any settings in the System Setup of the Nav system to increase microphone reception level. If, not will report at next service. My friend has a new BMW 5-series, his built-in bluetooth is just as problematic... B)

FIX?

You need to enter your Nav system's setup/config mode. You do this as follows:

1. Turn ignition ON (engine can be running)

2. Hold down INFO button and while holding down repeat step 3 below three times.

3. Turn parking lamps ON and back OFF.

Your nav system should now be in the setup mode. To exit, hold down the DISPLAY botton for a few seconds.

4. Select MENU (top right on touch screen)

5. Select BLUETOOTH TEL CHECK (bottom on touch screen)

6. Select HANDSFREE VOICE QUALITY SET

7. Change SEND VOICE LEVEL from "0" to higher. I set mine at 5 which I think is max.

8. Press the SET button/icon on the touch screen to confirm your new setting.

9. Exit setup mode by holding down DISPLAY button on the console for a few seconds.

The above change has made a big difference to my car's handsfree coms. I've done back-to-back tests to same ph. number and same person to compare the difference. With settting of "0" it was poor. Setting of "5" was reported as very good. Although an improvement, jury's still out on whether it's 100% good, I've only just done this and need to make a few more calls before I can totally cross off this problem. If it persists, I might try fiddling with the VOICE QUALITY TYPE setting as well (just below the SEND VOICE LEVEL setting), but to me that wasn't as intuitive so it might be a trial'n'error approach.

I must award credit here to member "Aurion ZR6" who provided me with the reference info on how to enter the Sat Nav's system menu. Refer to thread Presara GPS Unit Mods / Options ??? for more info and external link to reference material used (complete with pictures).

[riftime]

My seat belt makes a noise too if it is not carefully put back in place, make sure the buckle faces outward, there should be plenty of clearance between the trim, the buckle and the seat if carfefully put back in place.

I know what you mean, but mine (even when arranged properly) still bangs into the pillar when I turn right sharply.

I'm tempted to use velcro to hold it in place. Small enough piece to have negligible resistance when someone pulls the belt down, big enough to hold the buckle and possibly self-attach at first right turn... :)

[julian040859]

In regard to seat belt rattle, it may be a tension problem, I find if I have my seat belt shoulder strap adjuster on the highest position the buckle is further away from the pillar as there is more tension in the belt. Try that first and if still bangs see if they can crank up the tension in the belt to stop it banging when you do sharp turns. Check out my clearance in pics attached.

[riftime]

In regard to seat belt rattle, it may be a tension problem, I find if I have my seat belt shoulder strap adjuster on the highest position the buckle is further away from the pillar as there is more tension in the belt. Try that first and if still bangs see if they can crank up the tension in the belt to stop it banging when you do sharp turns. Check out my clearance in pics attached.

Will try, thank you. Other than moving the adjuster to the highest position, how do you "increase tension" in the belt? I see your clearance, interesting that when you make a sharp right turn the tension is high enough to not allow the 1" movement of the buckle.

Thanks.

[julian040859]

In regard to seat belt rattle, it may be a tension problem, I find if I have my seat belt shoulder strap adjuster on the highest position the buckle is further away from the pillar as there is more tension in the belt. Try that first and if still bangs see if they can crank up the tension in the belt to stop it banging when you do sharp turns. Check out my clearance in pics attached.

Will try, thank you. Other than moving the adjuster to the highest position, how do you "increase tension" in the belt? I see your clearance, interesting that when you make a sharp right turn the tension is high enough to not allow the 1" movement of the buckle.

Thanks.

Take it back to dealer and see if they can wind the spring in the seat belt drum.

[black turkey]

so i wonder whats going on with this guys aurion (the topic starter)

[BlackZR6Aurion]

riftime,

I have also had a good experience with the dealership I bought my car from (Melton Toyota) as you did from Werribee. Although it wasn't just the salesperson, who also wasn't pushy at all, but even the Service department. This is my second car I have bought from them and I would highly recommend them to anyone for both sales and service. I recently had the creaky dash problem fixed by them and they seemed to know of this problem prior. I can't even tell they removed the dash. Apparently they have an 'Experienced Dash remover' Wayne I think his name was. The Service Manager made sure he did the job. Might be worth taking your car there and see what they can do for you.

Next time I'm looking at a new Toyota I might have to check out Werribee aswell, but I would be supprised if I got a better deal there than Melton.

Cheers