Transmission problems, oil leaks and detonation problems..
 

Sorry in advance for this ramble, but wanted to get all this information out on here so other owners can hear about MY experience with this car.. :bonk:

Keep in mind this is my DD commuter car, I have an a shifter kart that I autocross regularly. This car gets driven fairly hard, but no where near what most of the track guys do to there machines.

My issues with the car:
Difficult to get into 1st & 2nd mostly, occasional grinds at higher RPM shifts (at any temperature)
Rattles in the right rear
*new problem* Oil leaks from passenger cylinder head in 2 places
Passenger side window won't roll down on auto when activated at the same time as the drivers window
Loud pinging/detonation on fast shifts

Odometer: 23K

I've been dealing on and off with a dealer to fix my 1st & 2nd gear grinds & difficult to get into gear for about 4 months now, first time I took the car in they had the car for about a month and kept calling me saying that they couldn't duplicate the problem. Every time they would call me saying that the car was fine and that it was "normal", which is just dealer talk for they don't feel like attempting to duplicate or fix the problem. Keep in mind I'm a shop owner as well as a well respected mechanic in the S2000 world so I know what is "normal" and what is dealer BS. I got finally got fed up with attempting to get the service manager to do something about it (after the car being there for almost 3 months), I placed a call to Scion corporate and involved them in the issue.

Within the next few days the SM of the dealer emailed me informing me that he would personally drive the car to attempt to duplicate my complaint, after a few emails of him claiming he couldn't duplicated it he finally acknowledged it. Promptly after that they inform me that there sure the transmission fluid that I had in it was causing all the problems (Amsoil) and that they must fill it with OEM fluid. I authorized the work and they proceeded.

A few days later the SM calls me to inform me the car was ready for pickup. Upon getting to the dealer that weekend they had no RO for the car on the fluid, all of my complaints were documented with no resolution on the RO for any of them except for my rattle (which they didn't touch up the metal in the trunk after "fixing" - smashing it with a hammer from the looks of it). I pushed and pushed for the RO for my fluid being replaced and the transmissions issues, they finally said there wasn't one but they assured me they filled it with the correct fluid. When I asked the Service Advisor what fluid that was, he assured me it was Toyota WS fluid - My car is a 6speed. Upon him saying that I assumed he was kidding, he wasn't.

The dealer had to EMAIL me a RO the following monday after they figured out what fluid they filled it with. After that I didn't really trust them so I took the car back to my shop to double check the fluid and found they had re-used my crush washers and clearly over tightened both drain and fill bolts. I lost my shit :mad0260: and called the SM, he basically acted like I was being overly picky but "they shouldn't have done that" - he offered no resolution, didn't offer to re-do it and put new washers on or anything.

I had a nice long phone call with him while discussing the crush washers and how I didn't really trust them about what fluid they put in, and insisted that there was a problem inside of the transmission. I went into a long speech to him about how I've built a number of high performance multi-cone synchronized transmissions at my shop for customers (S2000 & NSX gearboxes, many K, B, F and D series transmissions as well as a few Toyota truck and a supra or 2), and that I know how synchronizers feel when there working correctly. He told me that even if they did replace the transmission due to synchronizer a defect under warranty, he assured me if I was so concerned about my crush washers being re used. He informed me that the car wouldn't get a new transmission and that they would install a Remanufactured one, so I was basically better of with however mine is right now than a replacement one. Which as you could imagine made me pretty upset at ever buying this car in the first place if this is what a "warranty" is.

While the car was up on the lift I went ahead and put my eyes all over the car to check everything out myself and found 2 oil leaks from the passenger cylinder head, one from the usual rear cover leaking on the exhaust and another starting at the front of the head where the timing chain cover meets the cam cap. (Fairly common leak on the older timing chain 6 and 4 cyl subaru motors but not on a car with only 20K!!)

Needless to say I'm hoping Scion corporate can help me get this car fixed the way it should be and not jerking me around.. I love this car but with the leaks now and this transmission issue I'm getting pretty upset a the quality control of there Engine & Transmission..

Now I realize this is a cheap sports car and there will be quirks and I accept that, but on a low HP car that is a "drivers car" this transmission should be the best thing on the car as its such a direct and important control over the cars movement..

/end rant :thanks:

Here are some pictures to go along with my little story...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...pse0fe5a1f.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps4d53b5e7.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps9c891caa.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps1a300641.jpg

Amazing how a shitty dealer can turn a car with minor problems into a lemon.

Do you have any detail on the oil leak and pinging? Those two are the most worrying.

The pinging is from leaky injectors.
Amzoil doesn't work with all transmissions. Other cars have problem with it.
There a few complaints about the tranny without Amzoil.


The hammer is not a fix. Common knowledge says to fill the gap with clear silicone. If you want to hammer it after words to make it tighter, that's ok.


I re-use crush washers all the time. Never had a problem except with motorcycles.
Not all applications are sensitive to crush washers, even though they are part of the application.

there are TSB's for I believe all of those.

That last picture appears to be the timing cover and the exhaust where the oil leaks onto?