First Drive - CEL - Cam Sprocket Fix

[_F-R-S_]

i Found that if you have your windshieldwipers on 24/7 and your pants off. there seems to be no issue.

[Hotlava86]

Originally Posted by cnk

We don't have any hard numbers yet so that's purely speculation as well. Even if you were to double that amount to 400 cars impacted you would still be at 6.6% which is still not a full blown major catastrophe. The point you're missing is that there are still more cars out there without issues than there are with issues.

We are in a small group of enthusiasts of which an even smaller group actually participate in this particular forum. Perspective needs to be maintained in order to get an understanding of the true impact of these "issues".

If your RPM's have ever dipped below 400 and you heard your engine rattle for a split second and your RPM's fluctuate then you have a faulty timing actuator. over 60% of the community and 100% of the 25 people i know locally do. by the way i called my service writer today (whom i am personally friends with) he said the reported number has more than tripled now. as of a day ago there were over 900 reported incidents of people having engine lights because of the timing actuator failing. So your percentage is now off. It's a major issue!

[cnk]

Originally Posted by Hotlava86

If your RPM's have ever dipped below 400 and you heard your engine rattle for a split second and your RPM's fluctuate then you have a faulty timing actuator. over 60% of the community and 100% of the 25 people i know locally do. by the way i called my service writer today (whom i am personally friends with) he said the reported number has more than tripled now. as of a day ago there were over 900 reported incidents of people having engine lights because of the timing actuator failing. So your percentage is now off. It's a major issue!

My percentage is based off of an estimated number of affected cars divided by the official sales totals as of July. If you have access to hard numbers and official proof from SOA or Toyota/Scion that correlate with your assertions, then I would agree with you that there is a major issue.

But I don't know you from any other person posting on the forums so I will take everything I read with a grain of salt until something official comes out.

[Hotlava86]

Well you go ahead and do that. and I will continue going by what is true and right in front of me and told to me by Toyota, seeing as i highly doubt someone who works for toyota would be honest to the point to give good numbers of FAILING components and make his company look bad.

[alrashwa]

Well before fists start flyin lets just keep an eye on the new thread that will track all these reports. Maybe it will give all of us some ammo to use for compensation if they resolve this issue for us...

[#87]

hmm, i haven't notice idle dip but I'll have to keep a close eye. I think it's possible to have all vehicles effected considering all of them are effected by the chirping even if some owners say they don't have it even when using ethanol fuel.

[TeamSweet86]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Might anyone be able to point out to me where exactly the cam sprocket replacement part will be installed? Perhaps on a photo of the engine itself? And further how big of a job is the replacement of a cam sprocket? Do they indeed need to take the engine apart to install it?

My dealer called me before he left for the night. He said that the mechanics had left for the day, but that my car was currently mounted and that he didn't know when the work might be finished because it was a big job and they were taking the engine apart. I didn't take his words at face value because he is not a mechanic himself, but this did alarm me. Can anyone advise me of questions/demands/tests I should request when I return to pick it up?

+1 for the replacement part promptly arriving at the dealership to fix my car
-32,000 for the sour feeling in my stomach, what a nightmare

[cnk]

I don't have the exact diagram for the BRZ engine, but here's a link for another Subaru boxer engine that will give you a rough idea where it is: http://drive2.subaru.com/Win05_WhatsInside.htm

[Those Meddling Kids]

Front cover of the engine and all the belts have to come off. Sprocket and chain are behind that. The whole engine does not need to be removed or torn down to do this. It's slightly harder than doing a timing belt in an older subaru.

[White64Goat]

What would really be nice is that Toyota/Scion/Subaru issue a bulletin on this problem, the cars/engines that may suffer from this and what they are doing to correct the problem instead of still shipping cars over here that are destined to fail and there are no parts here to fix them.

My car is due here Sept. 10 and you can bet that when I go to pick it up that I will inform my salesman and the new car sales manager that if my car fails on the way home or in the first few days that I have it, they better be ready to refund my purchase.

When I told the the salesman at the Toyota dealer I stopped at yesterday just to look at the FR-S about the engine problems people were having, he said he hadn't heard about it at all. I gave him this website and told him to check it out. He said he was going to spend the afternoon checking it out. I hope he does.....

[xwd]

Subaru issued an internal TSB on the issue but I don't think it has any details on the range of cars or anything like that.

I'm at 1700 miles and have never had an RPM dip or CEL issue, but I have heard of cars not experiencing the CEL until like 2500+ miles.

[eurospeed]

Originally Posted by dwx

I'm at 1700 miles and have never had an RPM dip or CEL issue, but I have heard of cars not experiencing the CEL until like 2500+ miles.

Several people have been over 2500 miles with their first CEL related to this issue. The highest recorded here is 5700 miles. Toyota claims this may be an issue with debris (metal chips) clogging the VVT cam sprocket oil passages. Considering some of these higher mileage occurrences, I'm not sure the chip theory makes sense.

[TeamSweet86]

I also asked my car salesman a couple weeks before my car was delivered to make sure the front license plate mount was NOT installed. You can see how that worked out for me from my pics. I chose my battles. First step, get my car running.

[White64Goat]

Already purchased the Dimple magnetic oil plug and planned on installing it as soon as the car is in my driveway. (If it gets that far)

Look in the 'Maintenance' thread for the Service Manual PDF's and look in the Engine section and go to pages EM10 through EM25 to see what all has to be removed for the repair. If I counted correctly, the front cover has 30 bolts alone.......