Dealership has to call California?
 

I had my 2015 steel Frs since July. Has about 10,200 miles on it (I drive an insane amount one). I installed an avo inlet in it and I put in a catback exhaust that I ordered from depo racing. Its been about a month or so with both mods put in. Had no problems what so ever, car was driving smoothly and it was awesome. Its an AT btw. So today I was on my way to school today and its a 20 mile ride to get there and there was a insane amount of traffic, sat in it for about an hour or so. Get off the highway and the car starts shaking violently. Check engine light comes on along with an orange cruise control and the traction control light. Get into a parking lot and shut the car off immediately and get out to check the gas cap cause I recently got gas. Everything was fine in the part, went to check the engine oil and everything was fine there. Decided to just take it in to the dealership and sat there for an hour and a half while they try to find what the hell was going on. The hour passes by and the service manager come out and tells me " we have a serious problem. We need to call california and toyota." He tells me that they never seen this before. No codes showed up and the cel went away when I turned the car on. We hooked it up to the computer and it threw codes that no one has ever seen." My thought was why do they have to call cali? Or even toyota? Is it that serious? Should I be worried about my brand new car? Has anyone else seen this or had this happen to them?

Subaru has TechLine, which is a sort of help desk for the technicians at Subaru dealers. If there's an issue they haven't seen before, they'll call them for assistance. I'd imagine Toyota has something similar.

Violent shaking followed by a CEL could mean a lot of things, but until they come back with a diagnosis it's impossible to say. Calling their support by itself doesn't mean much, they call for little things too.

Did they say what codes were in the DTC? Any dealership worth their salt will tell you if you ask so you can look the codes up online, but since they'll be the ones fixing it it's pretty much in their hands.

Scion corporate head quarters is in California, I am not sure if that is who they are calling. You should be worried because it is your car. You shouldn't be worried because of warranty.

First, take a deep breath and remember your warranty. They'll figure it out.

All you've told us is the car shakes badly. What are the codes?

They didnt tell me the codes. I didnt get a chance to ask the service manager because I was asking them what t is that they have to do to fix my car. Shouldve asked. However Before I took it into the dealership I took it to my bud thats a mechanic to see what codes it was shooting (just incase it was the avo inlet or the exhaust I put in that shot the code) and he said that its something wrong with the timing and to take the car to the dealer asap.

It's nothing to do with your avo inlet or exhaust.
even you didnt install these, it eventually happened if it was going to.
some people have issue with timing problem in this engine.

i know it's very nervous and i would too if this happened to me.
all the bad news did not happen yet so dont worry now and worry later if that happens.
I am positive that warranty will cover it since it's very difficult to say Inlet or exhaust caused this issue. or they'll say you abuse the car driving til REDline blah blah nonsense.

keep us updated how it goes.
BTW, which dealership did you go?

Don't beat yourself up. It's a high-stress situation and I imagine this is your first time.

I hate dealerships so I get defensive and my brain turns to mush whenever I have to talk to any of the service people. The parts guys are cool, though.

In for the codes

i went to toyota universe in little falls where i got the car. Its just upsetting that its a 8 month old car and its having these issues. Will keep everyone posted. I take it into the dealer tomorrow at 9 am so i'll see how things go. Im just worried their gonna pull my leg cause i got aftermarket stuff put on.

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Don't let em try to boss you around because of the silicon inlet or the catback exhaust!

Any advice on what to tell them if they do try to blame the inlet or the exhaust?

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Stay calm and talk to a manager(get a name) and not some random guy. If you want it on record, ask for the denial of service in writing. Or just take it to another dealer.

To contrast what has been said above:


It would be highly unlikely that the dealership will fix, or even work on your car with the mods installed, but it is up to the individual dealership whether they want to be a **** or not.


Best case: They tell you to return the car to stock and then they will work on it.
Worst case: they deny warranty work based on the mods, and make an entry in your records stating such.


#1 question: DO YOU have a tune on the car now?

No tune, everything is just bolt ons. Its only the 2 mods. Exhaust and inlet.

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I think you'll be fine. They'd have to prove those parts cause a timing issue somehow to deny warranty work.


Although as a dealer they might be able to do that....

If he did have a tune and flashed back to stock dealership would still be able to see how many times the ecu was flashed.

So far that is an unsubstantiated myth.
I know of no-one that has actually seen this so-called flash counter.


And if the OP has ONLY and inlet tube and a cat-back, he should be fine.
At first I thought he said "Intake" which usually means a tune is required.


the OP should be fine with what are essentially cosmetic mods.

AND:

I tire of hearing that. The dealership can CERTAINLY deny the warranty work and claim anything they want.
It is then up to the Customer to take them to court to "prove" anything.

Hey just wanted to thank all of you so far for the advice and help that you have given me. Like i said tomorrow 9 am sharp the car will be at the dealer. So as soon as i get the keys back (hopefully) i will post what they resovled with the car. The service manager filed a claim with toyota hq in cali and one of the case managers called me today and said he will investigate on his end what was up with the car and the cel and should be getting back to me in 2 buisness days.

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I have a feeling you may be a member of the valve timing fail club. This very long running thread is stickied. Don't let it scare you. It's a well known issue by now and will be resolved.

Does it cause engine failure?

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As I understand entirely from reading others' experiences here, IF the root failure is the separation of a certain plate in one of the timing gears which causes a drop in oil pressure AND the condition is ignored, then yes.

That is the worst possible scenario. There are other more common electrical issues which have a similar effect and are all lumped into this one category.

I spent way too much time at work this morning looking for a picture of that failed valve assembly.

Totally armchair troubleshooting here so I wouldn't put much credence in my guesses. Take the trust-but-verify approach with your dealer. It's a warranty case. Chin up and advocate for yourself professionally.

Such a stressful event. Hope everything turns out ok. Please keep us posted on the result of their investigation.

I've worked at a Honda dealer that saw a lot of 'tuner' cars and honestly, the service guys will not check for flashes unless they physically need to replace the ECU and your car is modded past intake and exhaust or drives like it's been modified (no vtec dip, higher rev limit, etc).

Service writers and even the service manager are unlikely to deny you of warranty or service work with bolt-ons at first glance. Why? The dealer makes money off of warranty work.

It's the mechanics that say, this car is too modified to work on. We don't want to figure out how aftermarket part A, B, C go back on and so forth. We also don't want to be liable for breaking parts A, B, C. So that's why if you need to replace the throttle body and you have an intake, the mechanic may say no and you have to put the factory air box back on.

See if a mechanic breaks an OEM part, they most likely have a replacement in stock or can order one from their dealer network and have it same day, next day, or within the week. They can write the cost off on warranty and the manufacturer will pay for it.

Hope that clears up some things.

I've worked at a dealer albit nissan as a tech and to put it. Most techs do not give a flying crap what you do to your car as long as it has stock wiring harness and stock sensors and they can actually get reliable data from the pcm/tcm. If it's been hacked then yes you'll pay straight time but since it's warranty it should go easily. No out of pocket for you. Depending on techs involved and what kind of management there is. There is one dealer here in my area that if you so much as change the air filter yourself they won't warranty it. But the techs don't care either way and just do it. It's a ford dealer btw.

@lizbrayan updates?

Hey sorry guys ive been really bisy with work just got promoted and school with midterms. So i took it back to the dealership and they came back and told me it was a lose gas cap. Called bs on so quick. They told me thats what theyre computer said. Whatever if it was fixed it was fixed. Few days later went for a sprited drive with the sports mode on and manual shifting (car is A/T) and after about 15-20 mins the cel came back on. I said F*** it and drove home shut it off and let it sit for a day or so. Came back light was gone and drove fine. This is the most confusing car I've ever owned

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It's a leak in the evap emissions control or something related. It's lazy of the dealership to just point to a loose gas cap and send you on your way.

edit: I mean if the code they pulled points to that area, the most common cause is a loose gas cap. That doesn't mean it's the only cause. I think there's even a vacuum pump that runs from time to time when the car is shut off.

I don't think that would cause the horrible shudder that you were experiencing earlier.

The smarter the cars get the more messages they will send you about their aches and pains. Was a day when you would be blissfully ignorant of any issues until they blew up in your face.

It will be much less confusing when you actually get the fault code that the ECU is reading. This is like complaining that 'my girlfriend took me to dinner yapped for a half hour and then broke up with me, I don't know what went wrong', you'd know if you had heard what she said.

Many auto parts stores will read the code for free if you ask someone. The most recent one is likely still stored in memory and you can find out what it was still. The dealership probably cleared the memory before you picked the car up so all the prior codes are gone. However they might be listed on your bill from the service.

The more computers a car has the more warning lights come on. Mercedes for example. bulb goes out. There's a code for that as well as cluster says light out even though half the time a light isn't even bad. Go to autozone of where ever and get the codes. Maybe the tech that was working on your car left a connector loose or something.

x 2
more digitalized feature = convenient stuff = more sensors = more money to fix = complication = so on...

i understand technology is keeping changing and better but i sometimes just miss simple mechanical built car like 80s - 90s..

I had a Honda that had a bad gas cap seal. I got a CEL on it quite a few times. What I didn't get was any other symptoms. I'd keep looking for the problem.


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You're only confused because you have incomplete information. To make it less confusing, get either a bluetooth OBDII adapter and Torque (Android) or a wifi adapter and DashCommand (iPhone) so you can read the codes yourself. If you're on Android, the BT adapter will run you $15 to $25 for a decent one off Amazon, and Torque Pro is around $6 on the Google Play store. Then you can read, research and clear your codes yourself. You can also monitor sensor data that the car has available but doesn't display on any of the stock gauges. Torque and DashCommand will do anything a $200 scan tool will do, and then some.

Then, when the CEL comes on, read it, write down the code and either search for it on the internet or come post it here to ask if anyone else knows what might be causing it. Confusion mitigated.

I once threw a code in rural Arkansas, read it with Torque, got on the internet to research it, found a thread on this site discussing it, determined that it could be cleared safely, used Torque to clear it and continued on my seven hour drive. All without getting out of my car.

Bullshit, when's the last time you read codes off an OBD1 system? Cars haven't been simple for about 50 years when they started vacuum powering everything and creating rats nests of convenience and emissions features.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8nZpQyoRh4"]how to check obd1 codes in a GM using google - YouTube[/ame]

Ok

Thanks

:p