KABOOM the Stivo is dead....

[Exec6speed]

I havent posted for a while just be layin low and watching the forum evolve a little... I drive my Stivo everyday for work... Its now got about 22k on the clock and was climbing at a steady rate... At around the 10k mark I took it into dealer A with a few complaints... One of those being, I thought, a noiser that average valve train.. Ive owned a few cars iin my life time so I was sure that there was something that was not quite right..

I argued with the service manager that they should pull it apart and check what the story was... They told me I was over reacting and that it was quite normal for these engines to be a lil noisy as that was a characteristic of the of the chain driven timing gear.. Meh I thought ... They probably right.... Id also had some serious issues with the car selecting gears.. Mainly on the 1-2 change... And it constantly grinds the gears going in to Reverse or changing quickly into 4th while in lift... Plus the clutch was low to the floor with very little in or out travel...

Being the fair and just person I am I took it on the chin and vowed never to go back to that dealer...Anyways on three seperate occasions between then and now during some on lift driving the car coughed and spluttered a few times... 1 of those times acutally stalling the engine at a 100kmh....

In steps dealer B.... Dealer is B is owned by a mates Father... I felt I could probably get some decent service there knowing the boss of the place and all..

Well yes I did get fussed over but with the noise now a lil louder and I was getting concerned .. I got the same spiel once again from the workshop foreman... Dude its normal, dont worry etc etc.... So I went away in disgust... This was about the 16k mark btw.....

So over the next coupla weeks had a few more of these splutter episodes.... So Ironically I went back to dealer B and sternly asked them to book the car in and check it out for me... Suffice to say they couldnt get me in for a week .. Which was ok with me cause I have just recently started a new job and didnt want to be without the car to much... It seems the week was a just a lil to much for the old Stivo... Whilst on a lift run on a 2-3 change the Stivo spluttered one last time... Hey whats a man to do ?? They told me it was ok right

Well the sucker went bang... Like Big bang... I lost drive on 1,2,3 gears, I couldnt select any gears !!!!! Whats more the oil light was remaining lit... Plus it was running on about 2 of the 4 cylinders... There was no pools of oil under the car.... Nor any coolant etc.. So that was a start... I killed the ignition and scratched my head for a few miniutes.. Tow home job.... :( Neways it looks like its dead... Really dead... It now will not start.. Not that Ive tried cranking it to much.. Im thinking a lack of oil pressure may have something to do with it... Suffice to say it will be fronting at its appointment at the dealer tommorow morning on the back of a flat bed tow truck...

Im kinda of hoping that I will get some action quickly on it... Hopefully this will be a lesson to Toyota... Listen to what your customers a saying.. Not all of us ave rocks in our heads and dont know what where talking bout !! Got it dealer A !!!

Thats my last 3 months... Will keep yas filled in...

BTW sorry bout the long post....

Cheers,

Matt

[Blade Hunter]

Dude, im really sorry to hear about your issues, good to see you posting again, shame its something so drastic that prompted it. Best of luck with the repairs, I hope you are back up and running again in no time :).

Dan

[dakota]

It's about time we, as a board got really serious about sub-standard dealer service an had the collective balls to name the dealers who dont listen to us.

Let me be the first an start the ball rolling...

I WONT go to Harris Freer Berwick 'cos they'll add 10% to your bill and add worthless Wynns additives whilst they service yr car and not ask U first,

I WILL keep going to Cannon Toyota 'cos they listen to me , an do what I ask, with courtesy and professionalism.

I hear Brighton are every bit as good too...

C'mon now your turn......

[trd_141]

dakota

whats ur service worth at cannon

i go to naudawading toyota they are pretty good there esp. a guy named shane

[ZEEROLLA]

Man, sorry about the Stivo but that sounds bad. I am also having trouble with the 1-2 change up. It seems every time i am in lift in 1st and 2nd gear, the shifter tightens up a lot and you have to use a fair bit of force to shift. It is also hard to engage 2nd gear quickly. I crunched 2nd gear twice already and my car has only got 2500kms. Its just so hard to shift into 2nd quickly :( I owned a new car (Civic) before and also a car with rebuilt gearbox (WRX) and they haven't got this problem at all. I thrashed my Civi'c gearbox from about 1000kms onwards and i did crunch many times but never hard to shift out of gear! The WRX had a bulky gearbox but was smooth to shift and had never crunched it, although i i did break 2nd gear. From day 1 i suspected something was wrong but recently on occassions i managed to shift out smoothly while in lift so i just thought it might loosen up after a while. But during those 1-2 shifts, the clutch bite in 2nd gear was weak and the engine was slow to response. I will be bringing it in to Toyota early Monday morning to get some answers regarding the symptoms. Anyway, hope you get your car fixed soon and please let us know what exactly happened.

Zee :)

[Exec6speed]

Well now its lunched itself good an proper I really wish I had pushed the issues earlier... :(

[Danthuyer]

Exec - Long time no see mate.

Sooooo sorry to hear about your Big Bang!! Hope it doesnt hit the hip pocket too much :(

[dakota]

Trd..last was $230 incl rotate and balance, just nice people there.. no attitude.

[Exec6speed]

Im kinda thinkin it better not hit the hip pocket to much at all ... The car i still under warranty... Im just feeling I shouldnt be at this point at all.... :(

[<rollin>]

Exec6speed, do you still have the AEM CAI on your stivo? It does not appear in your sig anymore? Man i feel for you. You should be enjoying your car at this point not having these major drama's in it's early life. I hope everything turns out okay for you :)

<michael>

[126]

It's about time we, as a board got really serious about sub-standard dealer service an had the collective balls to name the dealers who dont listen to us.

lane toyota are VERY POOR. old and cramped workshop, poorly trained staff, useless mechanics, tell lies, inaccurate invoices.

[lucio_libre]

;) ;) Thats bad news Exec6speed, i presume you took off the CAI for warranty purposes. Please fill in on the diagnosis and outcome.

[Skitzo]

It's about time we, as a board got really serious about sub-standard dealer service an had the collective balls to name the dealers who dont listen to us.

lane toyota are VERY POOR. old and cramped workshop, poorly trained staff, useless mechanics, tell lies, inaccurate invoices.

There are no decent Toyota dealers in Western Australia... they are all crooks and dont give a damn about you after you have purchased a car. Very poor service from all dealers that I have been to in WA

Also... deepest sympathy for your car man :( Im sure everything will work out though! You had one of the nicest rollas here as well.

[NIKICH]

Mate sorry to hear about the troubles!!!

If they charge you for anything i would tell them to got and get f*****, You did the right thing by them by taking it in and telling them the problem. Instead of what probably was an easy fix for them then has turned into probably them having to replace your motor, which will affect their hip pocket and should hurt yours what so ever!!!!!

I will name wollongong toyota as a place that i will avoid as much as possible. I told them that i had a noisy shock and they said nah mate seems fine!! I went to another mechanic and he said that there was a noise that was evident and they should take another look at it. I havent been back because i have had alot on my plate the week and a bit

Like i said im sorry to hear about ur problems, but stand firm!!!!!!

[lucio_libre]

My car is in for a right front strut/shock abosorber problem at Rick Wolaney, Werribee, they seem to be pretty good, they have a massive workshop, and Rick also owns Whyndam Lexus, and Daewoo dealerships. Can't complain so far.

[126]

this happens a lot. dealers (not just car industry) seem to ignore customers and if they do help typically give quick fixes that only delays the problem from shutting down your item.

exec6speed story reminds me of when my friend who had a problem with his apple computer. it was not until his computer fried did apple listen and take proper action.

exec6speed did you keep a record of the times you went to a toyota dealer for the problem? i hope you have received some things in writing. i always ask for an invoice.

do you have cai? i understand this will void your engine warranty.

[Captain Upsidedown]

dude... its simple.

If you are having a problem with a specific dealer's attitude towards you - their paying customer whom they OWE the honour of good service, then you simply should take things to their immediate superior. If they dont listen, just keep stepping up until someone does.

In your case i would've asked to speak to the dealership proprietor or even sales manager and explain that as a loyal toyota customer who has purchased a brand new toyota, you are owed a level of honesty and service in your warranty book mechanical servicing. The owner of the dealership, if they have any respect for their own business should listen to you and at least do something to quell your agnst.

Myself i would've just got on the phone to Toyota Australia and explained that none of your local dealerships are taking any interest in your concerns for the mechanical issues you were having with your 2ZZ-GE, and as a consequence it is now broken.

This is the bummer about new cars though....

[peekay]

Gotta be careful though espec since execs car has the AEM CAI if I remember correctly. If Toyota Aus was to see that on his car there maybe problems with warranty.

[126]

i think it will be interesting what the computer has recorded.

[dakota]

Orrock, mate, do you mean the cars own diagnostic result, or the dealer service history on the national Toyota database.

I'm just wondering, cos I believe there's a facility in the Toyota national database for the Dealer to record special vehicle notes at the time of each service, and if thats correct, any non factory modifications (eg CAI) that would affect the warranty can be logged as they're noticed by the service dept. We the customers, wouldn't be told, or know, it's been logged though.

I know my dealer prints the service invoice using vehicle info from the Toyota national database...

[126]

dakota when i said computer i was talking about the car's computer. i know it records electronic faults but a few people have thought it could record and store a history of speeds and rev peaks.

i understand there is a national database. i also understand that access to it in the past was fairly easy but now toyota has greatly restricted access by employees.

but who performance modifies their car and has it serviced with the dealer? under warranty or not!

[NIKICH]

I thought that with the CAI u will increase the amount of air that comes into the engine, Wouldnt the computer record an increase in airflow into the motor?

[qkslvr]

My deepest sympathies dude. it's a bummer when you ride dies on you. I hope Toyota don't give you too much grief.

about the computer:

maybe i'm being niave but if toyota vehicles were to impliment a "black box" wouldn't that be invasion of privacy. Toyota sales staff never advised us of any such device being used to monitor our driving. undisclosed logging of customer activity without the express permition from said person would result in a breach of the Privacy Act right?

I know as a web master that I am not really allowed to log user activity of website members without having a discolusure statement or some kind of indication on the site that their activities were being logged.

Same can be said about Windows XP from Microsoft. that is why they ask you to activate windows after you install rather than just sending system information to their servers automatically when you get online.

anyway, that's my input. what do you guys think?

[Exec6speed]

It was very amusing fronting at the dealer this morning with the Stivo on the back of the flat bed.. The service manager just shook his head and said " 1 week to late eh ??"..

So the update is they have had it up on the hoist... The sump has come off and they can see that the oil pump housing is cracked... But they are gonna pull the engine completely outta the car and strip on the bench.. They wanna see if any valves are bent or if there is anything else that is sinister in there...

Suffice to say they have been very good so far... They did give me some spiel about this Celica that they had in once with all this thrash damage to the engine and box etc... Caused by a missed gear or something... Ive been telling them for ages about this crap... I think they wanted me to admit somebody had stuffed up a shift or something... I assured him if I killed it Id probably be copping it on the chin...

Ive been invited to go and have a look at it the parts tommora... If they have to order parts I have been told I may have to wait a number of weeks to get the car back... So it looks like they are coming to the party atm ... Hopefully it will stay that way....

Oh BTW the AEM and Exhaust havent been on the car for ages... Dealer B had no issues with them being fitted.. He just asked if they could remove them while they were trying to find the source of all this valve train noise.. Just never got around to getting them to put them back on... Like I said they have been very good so far... Just wish I coulda been taken seriously from the start..

[dakota]

Exec, congratulations mate you seem to be getting somewhere with the issue.

The main thing here is that the Dealer has conceded to you that the oil pump housing was cracked, that is very definately a manufacturing fault, and consequential damage should be covered by warranty.

That crack would have caused an immediate and dramatic loss of oil pressure, and especially at high revs would have caused oil starvation at all critical points (esp top end, bores and crankshaft) within the engine, and the engine looks like it just seized up.

Having said that, a high rev seize on an engine with extremely fine tolerances, can be a very big deal indeed, scored crank journals, scuffed and scored bores etc, so I hope Toyota give you a completely fresh engine, and dont attempt to repair and rebuild it.

Orrock, I remember reading that the new Toyota modules have been impossible to decode, (Hack) and that for example, Chipping involves an extra module needing to be piggy backed onto the original. Toyotas software security is extremely secure to avoid modification and therefore pollution compliance, and as such I 'm wondering if the modules ARE capable of recording far more than just simple diagnostic data.

I think I recall that there was an issue with Holden (around VT release time) when it was revealed that their modules were recording everything, speed, revs etc for the last five minutes before each engine shutdown. Holden said it was so they could monitor crash impact results, crumple zone performance etc in accidents. There was a huge uproar when it was realised that this data could be downloaded by Insurance companies, and even the Police, to decline claims, or prosecute drivers. Due to Privacy issues, I believe Holden agreed to stop the modules recording this data when the RACV got involved with the issue.