Valve spring recall - CEL and Slip Light now on
 

Just as the title states. I dropped off my 2013 frs (105k miles) last Wednesday, 1/19 for the recall. They did the work as well as replace the spark plugs that I supplied which I was gonna do myself but might as well asked them since the engine was gonna be out.

Fast forward to today, I picked up my car before I went to work. Drove it for about 20 minutes to get some breakfast. Got back into my car and drove for about a minute then all of suddenly my CEL came on along with the slip light. I called my dealership stating the problem and they said to bring it back. I couldn’t because I had to open up the store for the other employees today.

I won’t be able to bring my car back to Toyota until Tuesday or so because of work. My only concern right now is getting my car back home and it’s supposed to snow later this afternoon. I have blizzaks but having the slip light on worries me.

Just curious if anyone has experienced the same problems after they had their car serviced for the recall?

It's probably just a sensor left disconnected. Without a code though it's pretty finger in the air.

Need to see what code it threw.

Just dropped off my car at the same dealership. They’ll update me on Monday which I’ll do the same here

Keep us updated...interested to see what they screwed up. I assume you did not have the CEL before they touched it?

dealer told me mine threw a CEL after the work, so I didn't pick it up yesterday. Waiting to see if they can resolve it. They think they broke a cam sensor during the reinstall.

Great...as predicted.

Cam sensors look like a 2 minute job. If they broke one, swap it out and move on.

If one of the cams is out of time... start over. That one hurts.

Finally got an update on my car this morning. So VVT gear is bad, not sure how and I’m not that mechanically inclined to explain any more on that :iono: The part(s) they need is on backorder so I’ll be driving this rental corolla for another week or so. So much for hoping it being only being a disconnected sensor or something but hey I’m getting new parts

Cam sensors are not a 2min job. They have to be shimmed properly. Not a big deal but not 2mins. The connectors on the cam sensors are very vulnerable and easy to snap off. I was ultra careful when handling my timing cover while I had it off for fear of messing up one of them. It would be so easy to toss the cover on a bench and snap one of them. These are the sort of mistakes I would expect from dealers until they get used to doing this job.

Oh fun.. they are entering into the VVT cat and mouse game.

You guys aren't helping my "keep calm" coefficient, which is usually pretty good. Dropped mine off on Tuesday for the recall. Mine's the first one to be done at my dealership, and only their "master technician" will touch the car, I'm told. Here's hopin'....


And...ummmm... the loaner Corolla.... just.......ewwwwwwww. Appreciated, but......ewwwwww. Forgot about just how much I hate FWD.... torque steering...no immediate control when sliding. As an economical appliance, it's probably great. As a driving experience, it rivals a coasting toaster. Nah...the toaster would probably be thrilling in comparison.


edit... and.. it's an AT, so it can't be a real driving experience... ;)

Like I said, if it was a broken sensor they probably would have swapped it out and not said anything, no need to get someone worried over that.

Now it's getting torn down again. Either had a cam set a tooth off, or the gear installed incorrectly, or the gear "went bad" while sitting on a bench for a few hours.

It's possible to crack a connector and not immediately get a CEL and then release the car to the owner. I doubt they set the chain wrong, that would be super rookie. Everything is keyed on these gears so it's kind of impossible to put them on incorrectly especially if you don't take the actual gear apart. When I did my rebuild I did take mine apart to make sure they were clear of any potential bearing material. There is a little spring loaded door that can fly off which then allows a valve to fall out. Maybe it flew off and they didn't notice or maybe they did notice and then put the valve back in backwards (because it can go in either way and only one way is correct and the manual doesn't talk about the orientation). Anyways, there are lots of threads around here with people going around and around trying to resolve VVT issues. Replace OCVs, reshim cam sensors, replace cam sensors, replace gears, ecus and on and on. Let's hope he doesn't go down this road.