Results of the Valve Spring Recall Work

[ermax]

Originally Posted by tomm.brz

curiosity
how did you tune your car? ecutek or oft/tactrix?

He isn't saying his car was tuned, that is what the dealer is claiming. They are claiming that the ECU was reset and therefore he possibly had a custom tune which he was trying to hide. Replacing your battery could cause the ECU to reset so this whole argument form the dealer is BS.

[MuseChaser]

I should probably start another thread instead of just hijacking this one, but yet another recall thread would probably get me banned..



Anyway, an update on mine.. spoke with the dealership service manager yesterday. Their "master tech" is out this week at a training workshop, but will be back on Monday. They want him to look at the car since he did the recall work, so I'll drop it off Monday.


Just went for a 20 mile-or-so drive just to see if it would still act up; haven't driven it since Saturday. Pretty cold here, but not out of the ordinary.. upper teens F. When I started the car, it was REALLY rough for a few seconds, blew a TON of white smoke during the initial 30 seconds or so of the enriched warmup cycle, then calmed down and smoothed out for the most part. During the drive, no backfires or obvious stumbling or bucking, but still feels like it's hesitating slightly when you step on it, and there's almost no power at all in the bottom of the fifth and sixth gear ranges. I KNOW that's not where power is supposed to be, but climbing hills in 6th was never a problem, and I could always accelerate easily enough without dropping a gear unless I really needed to move. When I floor it doing 50mph in 6th, virtually NOTHING happens. I know.. you don't do that in normal driving, you drop a gear or two... but I was just trying to see if I could get it to recreate the backfires or sputtering it did on Saturday. Anyway, no real drama during the drive other than perceived total lack of low-end power. Still felt strong in second gear. Who knows.. I've been driving my wife's ML500 which is a BEAST of a sport ute and our LX470, which is an almost eerily silent luxo cruise truck. Maybe I just forgot the noise and power limitations of the FR-S? Still seems like it stumbles/hesistates just a bit when throttle is goosed while idling in my driveway.
I've attached a pic of my dipstick re/ the overfilling. The red arrow is where the oil is now. The yellow arrow is where the oil is usually after the dealership does an oil change. This was measured five minutes after shutting off a completely warm engine on level ground in my garage. Soo... should I drain off a quart?
Thanks, all... sorry for the novel. That backfire and stumbling on Saturday, combined with the dry dipstick, has me completely freaked. Car has never, ever hiccuped. Looked around the engine bay with a mirror and flashlight.. can't see any evidence of leakage anywhere. Will check garage floor later.

[msaikhan]

Originally Posted by Magoo

UPDATE:

After going round-and-round, the guy at the dealer says that he spoke to his tech and they found the codes on the ECU were recently cleared before they looked at it. They looked into it and found that it should meet certain criteria with what they have at Toyota and in their database and say that there must have been something going on before the car broke. For example: Running a custom tune then re-flashing the stock tune back before handing the car over.

There's no way for me to prove this didn't happen.

I'm now waiting for Toyota Corp. to call me back (at the advice of the dealer) and see what can be done next, which is going to cost me a lot of money.

This SUCKS. My stomach is doing flips.

Try asking for the technicians certifications.
Toyota says the tech doing the recall is required to have one of the 3 certifications. Engine expert, master tech, master diagnostic tech

I asked for the tech's credentials at my dealer, and the service manager said he's not going to disclose that information. (it was super shady) It's sad that we can't even be sure the technicians are certified in some way. Could be some random a** dude from the street who does only oil changes and brake pad replacement.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

I should probably start another thread instead of just hijacking this one, but yet another recall thread would probably get me banned..



Soo... should I drain off a quart?

.

If it makes you feel better, you may wish to drain off a little oil. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it, unless I was tracking the car.


humfrz

[maslin]

Originally Posted by msaikhan

Try asking for the technicians certifications.
Toyota says the tech doing the recall is required to have one of the 3 certifications. Engine expert, master tech, master diagnostic tech

I asked for the tech's credentials at my dealer, and the service manager said he's not going to disclose that information. (it was super shady) It's sad that we can't even be sure the technicians are certified in some way. Could be some random a** dude from the street who does only oil changes and brake pad replacement.

Doesn’t work that way. The tech punched on the repair order has to have the certifications for the warranty claim to be paid. The dealership won’t be paid for the work if anything is out of line.

The dealership gains absolutely nothing by screwing up or cutting corners on this. It needs to be done in a reasonable time and done correctly. The first time. The lube kid isn’t getting that done.

[tomm.brz]

Originally Posted by ermax

He isn't saying his car was tuned, that is what the dealer is claiming. They are claiming that the ECU was reset and therefore he possibly had a custom tune which he was trying to hide. Replacing your battery could cause the ECU to reset so this whole argument form the dealer is BS.

Well from his entire write, It s pretty obvious he tuned his car, and trying to hide it
From what i Understood the dealer is not actually saying that the ecu was reset and therefore denying the warranty, but dealer is saying they found proof that somebody did really somethimg in his ecu

Like, when you flash with ecutek, it changes the CVN of the ecu, and if you flash back to stock with ecutek license is still there and CVN is still different from origin

that's why i m asking what did he use to tune his car
if it's ecutek and he didn t force-removed the license, dealer is right and the guy is f*cked
if it was tactrix or oft, going back to stock should have fixed things

[ermax]

Originally Posted by tomm.brz

Well from his entire write, It s pretty obvious he tuned his car, and trying to hide it

From what i Understood the dealer is not actually saying that the ecu was reset and therefore denying the warranty, but dealer is saying they found proof that somebody did really somethimg in his ecu



Like, when you flash with ecutek, it changes the CVN of the ecu, and if you flash back to stock with ecutek license is still there and CVN is still different from origin



that's why i m asking what did he use to tune his car

if it's ecutek and he didn t force-removed the license, dealer is right and the guy is f*cked

if it was tactrix or oft, going back to stock should have fixed things

Where did he say anything like that? Are you sure you aren’t confusing the OP with the other poster who says he did in fact flash back to stock before the recall? All I read from the OP is the dealer said the ECU was reset which for EXAMPLE could mean running a tune. The other reason I think this is BS is they would have needed to check the miles since last rest BEFORE pulling the battery. So if they were concerned about that they would have thrown that out there up front before starting the work. Instead they gave him the run around for days before coming up with this pathetic excuse.

[tomm.brz]

Yes sorry, probably i'm confusing
best way to check: @Magoo were you tuned in the past or always have been stock ?

[msaikhan]

Originally Posted by maslin

Doesn’t work that way. The tech punched on the repair order has to have the certifications for the warranty claim to be paid. The dealership won’t be paid for the work if anything is out of line.

The dealership gains absolutely nothing by screwing up or cutting corners on this. It needs to be done in a reasonable time and done correctly. The first time. The lube kid isn’t getting that done.

I think that how it's supposed to work, but these dealers are cutting corners for sure. The guy did mine couldn't even tell the exhaust gasket was hanging out of the pipe. I had to point it out to him while my car was on the lift. And i was looking at the recall manual, certain places are not supposed to have sealant mine did. ALSO, i went to a private shop, they said dealers just give the recall work to the least paid guy, so they can make profit from the recall claim.

[WNDSRFR]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

I should probably start another thread instead of just hijacking this one, but yet another recall thread would probably get me banned..



Anyway, an update on mine.. spoke with the dealership service manager yesterday. Their "master tech" is out this week at a training workshop, but will be back on Monday. They want him to look at the car since he did the recall work, so I'll drop it off Monday.


Just went for a 20 mile-or-so drive just to see if it would still act up; haven't driven it since Saturday. Pretty cold here, but not out of the ordinary.. upper teens F. When I started the car, it was REALLY rough for a few seconds, blew a TON of white smoke during the initial 30 seconds or so of the enriched warmup cycle, then calmed down and smoothed out for the most part. During the drive, no backfires or obvious stumbling or bucking, but still feels like it's hesitating slightly when you step on it, and there's almost no power at all in the bottom of the fifth and sixth gear ranges. I KNOW that's not where power is supposed to be, but climbing hills in 6th was never a problem, and I could always accelerate easily enough without dropping a gear unless I really needed to move. When I floor it doing 50mph in 6th, virtually NOTHING happens. I know.. you don't do that in normal driving, you drop a gear or two... but I was just trying to see if I could get it to recreate the backfires or sputtering it did on Saturday. Anyway, no real drama during the drive other than perceived total lack of low-end power. Still felt strong in second gear. Who knows.. I've been driving my wife's ML500 which is a BEAST of a sport ute and our LX470, which is an almost eerily silent luxo cruise truck. Maybe I just forgot the noise and power limitations of the FR-S? Still seems like it stumbles/hesistates just a bit when throttle is goosed while idling in my driveway.
I've attached a pic of my dipstick re/ the overfilling. The red arrow is where the oil is now. The yellow arrow is where the oil is usually after the dealership does an oil change. This was measured five minutes after shutting off a completely warm engine on level ground in my garage. Soo... should I drain off a quart?
Thanks, all... sorry for the novel. That backfire and stumbling on Saturday, combined with the dry dipstick, has me completely freaked. Car has never, ever hiccuped. Looked around the engine bay with a mirror and flashlight.. can't see any evidence of leakage anywhere. Will check garage floor later.

When I finally got my car back after three weeks, my oil level was the same as this. Do you think they deliberately overfill the oil? I drained the oil and strained it looking for any sign of sealant. It was clean. So now I'm not quite as nervous every time I start the car. I only need half a xanax now.
It's amazing. For 145,000 miles I had total confidence in the car and after the recall I expect it to blow up every time I start it up. Having the recall done was one of the stupidest things I have ever done.
IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT.

[ermax]

Originally Posted by msaikhan

I think that how it's supposed to work, but these dealers are cutting corners for sure. The guy did mine couldn't even tell the exhaust gasket was hanging out of the pipe. I had to point it out to him while my car was on the lift. And i was looking at the recall manual, certain places are not supposed to have sealant mine did. ALSO, i went to a private shop, they said dealers just give the recall work to the least paid guy, so they can make profit from the recall claim.

Just curious, what places were wrong?

[maslin]

Originally Posted by msaikhan

I think that how it's supposed to work, but these dealers are cutting corners for sure. The guy did mine couldn't even tell the exhaust gasket was hanging out of the pipe. I had to point it out to him while my car was on the lift. And i was looking at the recall manual, certain places are not supposed to have sealant mine did. ALSO, i went to a private shop, they said dealers just give the recall work to the least paid guy, so they can make profit from the recall claim.

The techs are cutting corners. No one walked over and told that guy to put the sealant on wrong. The GM isn’t forgetting to torque bolts. That’s on the tech.

Maybe my experience is different, working with a “premium brand”. Guys don’t last that can’t get it done. Blow up an engine or two and you’ll be washing cars or out the door.

Having en engine come apart after being worked on doesn’t save anyone money. Getting things done correctly and down the road makes money, that’s it.

I’ve never worked in a Toyota shop, maybe it’s all flat biller 19 year olds with kobalt tools. The industry has been getting much older and much younger over the years, not a lot of guys down the middle. Easier ways to make money for intelligent people these days.

[ermax]

Originally Posted by maslin

The techs are cutting corners. No one walked over and told that guy to put the sealant on wrong. The GM isn’t forgetting to torque bolts. That’s on the tech.



Maybe my experience is different, working with a “premium brand”. Guys don’t last that can’t get it done. Blow up an engine or two and you’ll be washing cars or out the door.



Having en engine come apart after being worked on doesn’t save anyone money. Getting things done correctly and down the road makes money, that’s it.



I’ve never worked in a Toyota shop, maybe it’s all flat biller 19 year olds with kobalt tools. The industry has been getting much older and much younger over the years, not a lot of guys down the middle. Easier ways to make money for intelligent people these days.

I doubt they have young inexperienced techs working on this project. It’s just a delicate engine and they are fucking it up and then pointing fingers so they don’t get demoted to oil changes.

[msaikhan]

Originally Posted by ermax

Just curious, what places were wrong?

I haven't torn the engine apart yet. I was looking from under the car, where headers are connected. And i could see bunch of sealant sticking out from the bottom of the valve covers. But from my understanding on the manual it says don't put sealant on the bottom area of the covers. (I'm not familiar with the insides of the FA20, maybe you can confirm that i'm looking at the right part/location)

https://imgur.com/a/MFEmSu3

Manual is also very specific on where to put sealant and how much to put, and i have a feeling they were not followed. Also, exhaust gaskets are supposed to be replaced, but i can see the rust on the gasket, so i think they weren't replaced. Basically, seems to me that tech didn't follow the manual closely.