Not doing the Valve Spring Recall?
 

Hi All,
I have been sitting on my recall that I received from Toyota early January or something. I have not taken my 2013 FRS for this recall yet and seeing so many issues with this recall, I was thinking about it not doing it at all. Has anyone gone this route and haven't taken their FRS to the dealer yet?

The likely hood of you having a problem because of the recall is greater than the issues the recall was attempting to fix.

I went to Sansone toyota (Sansone Auto Mall) for my recall, motor started knocking 1600 miles after recall (July 8, 2019), no lights came on, I suspect main bearing 4 spun, currently in the process of determining cause and replacing engine, looks like dealer/toyota is gonna eat the cost (according to assistant service manager).

Youre chance of having a catastrophic failure IMO is about 15-25%, theres a guy whose been drifting his car that had the recall done at the same dealer as me and as far as I know its still good. I saw 5 other FRS's getting the recall done at the same time as me, but I do not know their current state. My buddy's car spun all 4 of his bearings and seized the engine after 500 miles.

IMO if you have a car with a modded engine/drivetrain such as tune, exhaust(headers), FI, power blocks, e85, etc or plan to do such mod within 3000 miles I would not do the recall.
If you have a fairly stock car, that choice is up to you.

After doing the recall, would I do it again, 50/50, probably not unless I had a leak from the valve cover or timing chain cover.

BTW im in essex county new jersey, should meet up once my car has a new engine

Hi ya, arnie0000 and welcome to - The Forum - :clap:

I'm in a similar situation as you. I have received a recall notice and have not taken my car in. My car has about 25,000 miles on it and I am generally quite gentle with it and have not had ANY problems with it.

I figure the odds of having a problem after the recall work is greater than the odds of having the original valve springs giving out.

If (or when) the throw out bearing acts up and it's time to change the plugs, I may take it in and have the recall work done and the throw out bearing and plugs changed for the cost of the parts, while they have the engine apart.

My take is "If it ain't broke - don't let em break it".


humfrz

I'm at ~20k miles and have no plans to take it in for the recall. My car is not stock and I would rather not take any chances with issues after the recall work is done based on all the horror stories I've read here.

It's one thing if there were lots of folks reporting issues with valve springs in higher mileage cars, but the fact that most issues occurred early on with fewer miles means the odds are in your favor that if nothing broke by now, you're probably safe.

2013 BRZ and no plans to do the recall since do not want to take the chance of getting stuck paying for a new engine!

Plan to sell the BRZ anyway in DEC --likely back to the Subaru dealer. Let them take the risk with the recall.

I have no plans to have the recall done on my '13. Too much risk involved.

I think its important to vet the dealership you're taking it into. If you can be assured by Toyota that they have a master tech at that location doing the recall work and that they've done a few other cars successfully then that should be reassuring.

Since I took mine into a Subaru dealership, I'm more confident knowing they're doing this recall on multiple models and have serviced lots of model year '13 cars, and probably with a high success rate. Their printed instructions on the assembly of the engine are very specific, its a neat read.

My BRZ is running well 2500 miles after recall, currently at 108,300, Car runs cleanly with a fresh clutch throw-out bearing and spark plug change. Have done two oil changes and am running on Mobil 1 0w30 AFE, running well through the hot summer, car drives smooth.

I am considering running an endoscope line through the oil drain plug and check the oil pickup screens and perhaps send an oil sample for analysis - thats just another $100 of dealing with an extra oil change though at the moment. I might call the dealership and have them check it for me.

Other thoughts are we are given a reasonable warranty on the recall items unless your dealership is acting shady. Hope you bought that extended warranty.

I agree with you mostly, but one thing so everyone is clear, the multiple models that Subaru is doing do NOT have the same engines in them. The problematic issue of the sealant is unique to the 86/BRZ (as I've read it) so they are no more likely to have done any more, and actually probably less of them, than a Toyota dealer.

In other words, "Sleep well".

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

THIS ^ The other engines and years do not have to come apart to even remotely the level of the FA20. They also do not use sealant for every mating surface even if they did come apart. The instructions are radically different. There are three 13 FRSs out there for every 13 BRZ so the Toyota techs will have had more practice by now.

So are you saying to take it for the recall fix? I am at 70,000 miles now.

My FRS is stock. I have no mods done on them. My thought is that I am already past the engine warranty. And I called Crystal Auto Mall on Rt 22. They strongly recommended to get the fix done. Also, I talked to the technician there and he has done few of these repairs so far and no issues yet.

Thanks! I was thinking along the same line, however, I have about 70K miles on my car and hence the worry.