Just to give an update and provide information to all those CHR owners who are experiencing issues with the Carbon build up issue that the CHR cars have- after a long and lengthy battle with Toyota I finally won on warranty terms and received a full refund for my car. Fortunately, I have a BP card which I use for all my fuel purchases so I was able to provide evidence of only using good quality fuels and all my servicing records were up to date.
As per the advice I received from consumer affairs this is a design fault. Carbon buildup in a motor in such short period of time is not a normal or expected condition for a car and therefore is deemed to be a design fault. Under warranty laws unless the provider of the product can provide a long term fix- at NO COST to the consumer, then the consumer is entitled to either a replacement product or a refund. As consumer affairs explained to me- if you bought a TV and due to a wiring issue it shut down on occasion then you would be entitled to a replacement or a refund- no different just because the dollar value of the item shutting down is higher than a TV dollar value.
In addition to this is the fact that the carbon build up causes the car to shut down which is deemed to be a safety issue and this should be a safety recall. Toyota did a recall for faulty towbars for safety- but they don't see an issue that causes a car to shut down mid traffic as a safety issue.....??
At present Toyota's fix to the problem is to issue an internal bulletin to all Toyota dealerships servicing departments stating that all CHR's need to have a full engine clean conducted as part of the car's servicing. Carbon build up in a car is NOT NORMAL and should not fall under general servicing. This is a fault and a problem with the motor design. The cost of this additional engine clean will be at the car owners expense and as per warranty laws this is not satisfactory. Also if any other CHR owners are travelling high kms such as myself, a clean at the time of servicing may not be satisfactory timeframe for removing the carbon build up. At the 80,000km + mark my car was requiring an engine clean before i had travelled 10,000kms to remove the carbon build up.
Toyota provided me with the attached Guest Information notice - this is a joke. My car was not simply mis-firing it was stalling and shutting down. The carbon build up is also not temporary - it is continual due to the engine design. And apparently a CHR needs to be warmed up like an old car and not accelerated hard ? What are they selling an old FJ Holden !( No offense to the old FJ Holden intended here)
All CHR owners should be made aware of this.
GUEST INFORMATION NOTICE.pdf
