Whiteout FR-S Towed into Dealership
 

On Saturday, there was a Whiteout FR-S that came in on a tow truck. My first though was about the idle issue and maybe it was stalling, etc. I spoke with the tow truck driver briefly and he said there was transmission issues. It wasn't shifting into gear, especially into reverse like it should. I first though that maybe the driver jammed it into reverse without using the collar and broke something. I was wrong....way wrong.

I had to go to the parts department this morning and I was talking with the guys back there and they informed me of what happened. The original dealer's service department did a half-assed PDI and never checked the trans fluid. Apparently, it left the factory empty! It was bone dry when our tech checked it out! It only has 600 miles on it too, but I guess that's pretty good to last that long with no oil. My dealership was not the original dealer FYI. I'm going to see if I can find out who it was and maybe do some bus driving over a competitor. :D

I'll admit though, it makes me a little nervous because I rushed one of our techs through my PDI because it came in near the end of the day.

Update (since I didn't finish my post all at once, I grabbed a pic in the mean time of the offending dealership):

http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/...y/IMG_0425.jpg

There were quite a few mistakes here. First the factory that built the transmission, then the Subie plant, and finally the dealer. Parts department told me the transmission is just shy of $6,300! :eyebulge:

BTW, I would make them take that sticker off for sure.

Ruskymx

Il would kill the dealer just for that sticker alone.

I don't mind repping a good dealer for a while after a car purchase if they were pleasant and the experience was good. I will ultimately remove it. This all relies on the decal being subtle.... yea that one is disgusting.

On my Jeep my buying experience was shit. I never once set foot back in that particular dealership in 6 years of driving the Jeep. The day after I bought it I power washed my car and was pleasantly surprised when their decal ripped right off with a little high pressure water.

If I was the car owner I would demand a brand new car. Getting a brand new transmission at 600 miles makes me wonder what else could have been overlooked...

If you were the owner would you want to wait X months for a new car? I'd have the new dealer do a full inspection to ensure that nothing else was missed. Get the tranny replaced at the expense of the original dealer.

Dealer #2 will hopefully see an opportunity to make a really good customer by taking care of someone where dealer #1 dropped the ball.

Some of those dealer stickers are impossible to remove. I gouged the clearcoat on my last car (it was a city beater so I didn't care).

That being said I don't mind repping the dealer I got my FR-S from. They hid my keys so the porters and pdi guys didn't get in to it (it was their first one), kept it off the showroom floor, didn't drill the front bumper without me even asking, sold it for msrp with no addons, got me a lower apr, they even power wash it for me whenever I want.

The list goes on, but it was one of the best dealer experiences I've had. To return the favor I carry a few business cards for my salesperson around and hand them out when people ask about the car. I even posted that they had a car in on the regional section to help both my dealer, and the community.

The owner should request an extended warranty + perks......

The manual transmissions are very hard to get in my area too. For the month of July, my region is bringing in around 110 manuals (all colors) for 135 dealers.

I'm curious to find out why they had the car towed to my dealership instead of the original. I'm guessing they may live closer to us, but bought the car at the other place because they had what they wanted. :iono:

Ruskymx

Damn. Makes me want to check my fluids. The techs had to rush mine also and I am still getting a little burning smell every once in a while (at 1k miles now).

How do you even check the trans fluid there is no dipstick for it.

There is a fill up hole and when its full oil will spil out of it . Just like the differential fill up

You will need to get under the car and not just on ramps because it should be level. I'm guessing that it's going to be similar to other manual transmissions that I have owned. There is usually a "fill" plug on the side of the tranny. Remove the plug and if the oil level is at or close to that level, it's good. If you can stick your finger in and not feel any oil, then it's low.

Ruskymx

Yikes. Makes me what to check mine now.

Just be careful that you remove the FILL plug and not the DRAIN plug lol. The fill plug is higher, and usually on the side of the transmission.

No dealer is going to pull the plug and check the trans fluid level on a brand new car that arrives from the factory, sorry. Maybe I shouldn't say no dealer, but almost no dealer. It's just not something that happens. I see no wrongdoing on the part of the dealership, only at the factory.

You check for visible leaks and you confirm operation, but you don't go pulling out plugs to check the levels of fluids in the diff and/or transmission, etc.

Jeff

that's what i thought. i don't think the pdi says specifically to check for transmission fluid either.

This is a warranty issue not a dealer issue, the first dealer did nothing wrong, they won't be paying a bill.

Again, dealer #1 didn't screw anything up, and while the customer may feel they did (potentially, I don't know), in reality they really didn't. Well at least not related to the transmission.

Or the car just broke down closer to your dealership.

Jeff

still sounds like a shit PDI. I bet if you drive a trans with oil itll sound/feel NOT GOOD, which then would warrant a peek into the case to check leaks/fluid level... common sense even though its not in writing on the PDI.

I agree, but it may/probably did have some gear oil, enough to drive fine until it was overheating. It's hard to say without hearing exact details.

Jeff

c'mon guys... you're giving me nightmares already. I have less than 200miles on my BRZ.

But if this happened... I'd go ballistic on everyone, at fault or not. I hope this turns out okay though...

This is a reminder to all to check their fluids.

heh, well realistically the odds of a car coming from the factory entirely missing a certain fluid is very low. Considering the car has to be driven onto a boat or truck and then back off again, its in the best interest of everyone that it leave its plant of origin in full operating condition. Sadly the car in the OP was doomed before it even got to the dealership or into the customer's hands.

The dealer did a crap job. Period. I worked new car prep for a couple of years for Pontiac back in the mid-70's and every car had all the fluids checked. That's what dealer prep is for, to catch the possible mistake that the factory may have made. Owner should have gotten a copy of the prep sheet in the car or should have asked for it. Then if there is a check box on there for transmission fluid, service guy isn't doing his job. So now you have an unhappy owner wondering what else got overlooked, maybe a cotter pin on a tie rod or a ball joint.........:iono:

I did new car prep in 2000 for a company with 9 dealers in the city (Chattanooga TN), wasn't part of the checklist to check any of the fluids, cause it was done at the factory.

There is no checkbox on the sheet to check manual transmission fluids. It is not done.

Dealers are not instructed to check these fluid levels. Period.

Dealers check any fluid level that can be checked easily, but they do not remove plugs and/or other bolts to check fluids like this in the diff or transmission. Things are visually inspected, things are not disassembled to check them. They don't pull off the oil pan to make sure that the main bolts are tight, or take out the driveshaft to make sure the seals were installed straight. You can only do so much, beyond that you expect that people at the factory did their job. A situation like this is extremely rare, the need to check something like this is near zero.

Honestly, as I've said, I see no fault of the dealer, at all.

Jeff

I don't know...Dealer sticker and a license plate frame...I'd say that's worth billing the dealer $100 a month for the advertising. If there's a license plate frame in the front too, make it $150 a month. But there is a high market demand for this vehicle so you better mark that up to $275 a month.

And now you have a customer with a blown tranny, which, if the dealer had checked the fluid, would have not happened. On a brand new car it takes less than 5 minutes to check the rear and the transmission. Maybe the new car prep guys should have a little initiative, not just do what you're told or what's on a piece of paper (or not). If you're not trained right, you'll never learn. I guess if it's not on the paper, hey don't do it..........

Driving the car out of the factory or onto a truck or the ship is not going to generate enough heat to cause a problem. I'd also have to guess that once the prep was done, the car didn't get a road test either because that tranny had to be screaming with no fluid in it.

I'll bet that dealer will check every car now....................

Thats no fun. Another low VIN # car down.

I spoke to a couple of master techs at the dealership and they confirmed that checking the diff, tranny etc are not part of a PDI. It is the responsibility of the plant that built the car to make sure those are all at their required levels. It seems that this was just a rare case of a major ooops by the manufacturing plant.

It still wouldn't hurt to check your fluids just to be safe and make sure this isn't a more widespread problem. Better safe than sorry!

BTW, the dealer didn't put a front plate on it. They are not required in the state of Pennsylvania, but I have seen some dealers putting holes in bumpers just to have one of their plates installed. It drives me nuts!

Ruskymx

"I spoke to a couple of master techs at the dealership and they confirmed that checking the diff, tranny etc are not part of a PDI. It is the responsibility of the plant that built the car to make sure those are all at their required levels."

So basically the dealer now tells the customer, "It's not our fault, the factory goofed". As a consumer I'm afraid I would not be buying that and my first question to the service writer is of course going to be "Why didn't your prep guys check that fluid level?" If I was that service writer I don't think I'd have the balls to say "It's not our job to check that".

I guess if a wheel had fallen off and it wasn't on the PDI sheet to check lug nuts, once again it's the factory's fault. I'll bet if the car is an automatic the dipstick gets checked............at least I hope so.

Personally I think you guys are over reacting on stuff that happens to the FR-S/BRZ.

They are making thousands of these cars. Stuff is going to happen. Its the odds game.

Now I can not speak for Toyota, But I know other companies that ship with very low oil levels. Why you ask? Keeps shipping costs down. All that gear oil adds up in weight. The penny savers win out. Most motorcycle companies ship without fluid as well. Now they are crated so its easier. But they still save money the same way.

I looked around our FRS this morning. Without going under the car there is no way to check that stuff. PDI tech is not going to do that. Only if there is a dip stick.

The bottom line.... Don't rush the PDI staff. Your only pushing them to take short cuts. Then later on your going to bitch because something was over looked and happen on your car. And stuff happens.... Relax, warranties are for these reasons right here.

FR-S / BRZ's are going to get crashed, They are going to have problems. It happens....

I'd feel the same if it was a Ford Focus or a ZR-1 Corvette. Back when I did new car service every car went up on the lift so that we could check that suspension nuts were tight and there was a cotter pin in each one. That there were clamps on all the gas lines, there were no leaks, rear end and manual trans fluids were checked. Lug nuts checked, all lights, seat belts, A/C, heat, radio, seat adjusters. Basically the whole car got the once over and then it got road tested for squeeks, rattles and performance.

Dealer prep is designed to catch small things that might have gotten overlooked at the factory or may have happened during transport.

Yes, warranties are made to repair problems, but would YOU be happy if your brand new car, only one day old or two or three, locked up a transmission because it had no fluid? No you wouldn't.

And if 'gee, didn't they check that when they serviced it' go through your mind, then I've got a bridge for sale...... :happyanim:

I know it's been said but what a dikhead putting a sticker on the boot... Surely they asked before they did?!.. If I rocked up to pick up my new car to find there was a sticker on it the dealership tried to sneak on I would be pissed!!!!!

my dealer badge was larger then the subaru badge. it came off the same day i got the car!

as for the transmission...stuff happens! itll get fixed for free and im sure they will have a renter/loaner till it gets back.

I used to be a level 4 Ducati/MV master tech... Everything and I mean everything was checked.. I walked each bike with a set of torque wrenches. Hell I fixed stuff that was known problems at the PDI even without being paid for it. But I knew the customers where happy. I knew after they saw on the forums about a problem they would be calling trying to get it fixed. Then I could always tell them it was already done at the PDI. Everything had a check list to check. And each night I could not sleep at night unless my mental check list was crossed off before bed. I have had some pushy motorcycles guys over the years as well. But end of the day I won. I held and stuck to the standard people came to us for. I had one guy even after the safety talk. He still pushed me to get his bike on the road. Cracked handle bar on the throttle side. (1098R) I loaded his bike up and took it to the dealer on the other side of town. Told him thank you, But sorry I could not help you.

He would have crashed and then blamed me for it. No thanks...

Don't rush the PDI guys. I know you want your car. But let the guys do their jobs it all about safety. The Factory is not perfect!

Depends on the fill type, some don't spill out, you just have to check if its level with the bottom of the hole.

Terminate with extreme prejudice

If its spils out it means its level with the bottom of the hole.obviously.
Most cases fill up is like that.

Your two statements are misleading here. Personally, I own an 1198 R Corse, and spending that kind of money on a bike, there is a certain level of it's mine and when do I get it. However, if the people who are prepping it say it's not ready; I am not rushing it. Though, if it takes 8 hours to walk around my bike to re-check everything the factory already did (buy my bike today, pick it up tomorrow), it literally be perfect. I can inspect everything on my bike in that time, and on my car in 13 hours. If the Master Tech (of which I am not) releases it and it is supposed to be cherry, and it is not; then I am pissing up stream and I am expecting something because that was 8+ hours of my time that not only I had to pay for (prep/PDI) because it's required for a competent individual to look at my toy. Since I am now also out additional, unwarranted downtime that is not my fault, this cannot be unreasonable as it is in no way the consumers fault (in California, check new vehicle Lemon Law). The consumer must pay any and all vehicle fees (Loan/Lease, etc) and gets no vehicle.

Comparing Ducati and Scion is like Apples and Oranges. WIth Ducati, it's necessary to re-inspect everything. Anyone who has every owned a Duc will agree, but they usually know of these quirks before going on to one. They are hand built; not on an assembly lined, and therefore more prone to mistakes. However, if you call Ducati of North America, things tend to get resolved fairly quickly. From what I have been reading, people calling Toyota/Scion of NA haven't been able to get through to anyone competent.

As of this day, I am still waiting for (2) screws owed to me by my selling dealer and an authenticity plaque for my duc; it has been (2) years since my purchase. Give the dealers/manufacturers an inch, and they will take you for what they can for any number of reasons. What makes the difference is the Dealer, and the people who volunteer their time to make each customer a unique guest.

On the contrary, it's very clearly listed on the PDI checklist. The dealers are expected to go through the list item by item, for this very reason.