31k miles and P0018 happens...
 

Alright guys, last Friday on 11/27 my car came up with CEL P0018. Below I am updating what has been going on with my response to the dealership. Please note my car has 31k miles.

Brought the car in early on Tuesday morning to the dealership on 12/1/15. Don't want to label the dealership as of yet just in case. When I was there they all seemed pretty nice got me in there pretty quick and had the paperwork handled promptly. The guy taking care of my paperwork proceeded to ask multiple questions about my car and then asked if I had ever watched Initial D. I told him that I have heard of it but sadly have not watched it yet. He then proceeded to go on about how my car was based off of that show.

Anyways let's fast forward until about 10:30am.
The representative proceeded to tell me about how they couldn't exactly figure out what was wrong, but what he thought in his own terms was "the computer had a glitch in the system. We continued to find a lot of random codes that the computer was throwing up but could not find out why." He then asked, "Do we have your permission to keep the car overnight and put some miles on it so we can figure out what exactly is going on? We have our head foreman working on the car and he is considered the best of the best for toyota." after asking multiple questions about why they needed it and why can't I just take it home and then bring it back if it has problems again. But after some time I agreed to let them take care of it for the sake of figuring out what is wrong.

Edit 12/2/15:
So here comes the next day after I agreed to let them use my car and put some miles on it. I called the dealership at roughly 2:30pm to figure out what's going on because I would be leaving work in 1 hour. I get a call back and the representative told me that the lead foreman did in fact have the same problem come up when he tested the car. He since then has been working on it all day and has been on and off the phone with Toyota all day figuring out what to do. He said "they replaced some parts and tried different things to figure out what is going on" one thing that bugged me was he did not specify what these "parts" were. He was very generic with the termology and did not warn me before hand in case I need to be paying for them. He then proceeded to tell me that he will call me later with any updates.

I got a call from him roughly 2 hours ago. He said they got the O.K. from Toyota to replace "Intake Gear Bank 2" and if that doesn't fix they issue they are going to replace the whole ECU.


Guys..... What's "Intake Gear Bank 2" ????? That threw me off. He first said that they were going to replace the Camshaft positioning sensor and then corrected himself with the Intake Gear Bank 2 and I doubled check with him that he said that correctly.
update: Realized it's the intake cam gear sprocket for bank 2


update! 12/3/15 3:00pm

I just received a voicemail and will call the representative back. This is word for word from that voicemail.

"... Exactly 25 parts have been ordered for the car. Most of them are little O-Rings... bolts.. little small things.... *mumble, mumble* the one things... gear sprocket.. whatever they want to call it.. is the big thing. If all 25 parts show up they will proceed tomorrow."


I called him. We talked about if all these parts were covered under warranty and they are. So basically all we can do now is play the waiting game...


Update 12/9/15:

Yesterday they were able to replace the intake cam gear and other misc parts so they did an overnight drive and when they started it this morning the CEL came back. They are now going to go ahead and change out the entire ECU. Hopefully to be done by tomorrow or Friday. I should know more by tomorrow.

Good luck with your dealership experience. I hope you don't need the luck

:)

Good luck bro. I'm in the middle of the same issue, I posted a thread on here a few days ago. I took my car in three weeks ago. After a week, I got my car back with a new ECU. Two days later I had to bring it back in. It's been ten days now without my car. I was called once saying they are replacing the cam sensors. That was 7 days ago. I've been patient because I don't want to sacrifice quality of service to get my car back sooner but I finally called today for an update. I was told all the service reps were busy and they would call me back. They never called back, and I fell asleep so I didn't get a chance to call back. Going to call first thing in the morning. I'm starting to get frustrated, so I'm gonna make sure I speak with someone to find out what the hell is going on. Even with the holiday weekend, it's been a little too long to not hear anything back from the dealer.

They will be running via this script I think

02-132-12 : DTCs Relating to the AVCS (Active Valve Control System)

These cam codes can be due to

OLD ECU Calibrations (rom/tune)
Problem with ECU hardware
Problem with cam position sensor either new sensor required or re-shim the sensor to provide correct clearance
Problem with Oil Control Valves on intake/exhaust or both
Problem with Cam Sprocket/gear/actuator on intake/exhaust or both

Going through the same exact thing but my 2013/51k/code p0016.

1st visit 11/24 - early last week ecu reflash but didn't fix the issue.
2nd visit 11/27 - left car last Friday and has been there ever since. Cam shaft sensor and oil control valves have been replaced. Issue wasn't fixed. 12/4 - Now ecu is being replaced tomorrow.

Seems like if that doesn't work, next is cam sprockets.

Good luck to all dealing with this nonsense. Wishing this was a Toyota engine right about now.

Seems like quite a few of us 2013's are dealing with this issue right now.... wonder if it's got something do to with the weather? I have no clue but this sh*t ain't fun. Deffinately agree that it needs a toyota engine.... My last subaru had engine problem as well.

Update for me, if anyone cares. Toyota got back to me this morning. The service rep told me that they are switching out the ECU again for one with the updated software on it already, changing the sensors, changing the fuel injectors and doing something else. I can't remember the list of shit he said, because I was sleeping when he called. I don't know how the hell fuel injectors got involved in this but I'm not as car savvy as you guys. Anyway, then he said they will drive it 150 miles to make sure the issue does not return. My first thought was, I hope they total it and give me a new car, haha. But regardless, that's where I'm at and I should have the car back Monday. And I'm hoping this issue will be resolved because the 150 miles they are putting on the car will put it over 36k and out of warranty.

Most likely the cam sprocket gear on the intake of bank #2 (see above post).

Gad, I hope they get it sorted out!


humfrz

@Stockton_Bomb that would be some shit if they were trying to drive it out of warranty before they give it back to you smh lol. Hoping they resolve your issue though. Now you are making me wonder if I'm getting a new ECU with the updated flash already on it.. 2015 ECU?

That freaking sucks and I'm sorry that you're having to deal with that.... I hope everything goes well. Usually they'll offer a warranty on work they just did and sometimes it's up to 25k miles after that work such as within 25k miles of them just now changing your ECU yet againa and they need to go and switch it out again (I sure hope they don't... knocking on wood rock now as i type this) they SHOULD cover it under warranty. I would talk to them before they drive it and address that they will be driving it out of warranty and what they can offer you.

worse they can say is no :iono:

update! 12/3/15 3:00pm

I just received a voicemail and will call the representative back. This is word for word from that voicemail.

"... Exactly 25 parts have been ordered for the car. Most of them are little O-Rings... bolts.. little small things.... *mumble, mumble* the one things... gear sprocket.. whatever they want to call it.. is the big thing. If all 25 parts show up they will proceed tomorrow."


I called him. We talked about if all these parts were covered under warranty and they are. So basically all we can do now is play the waiting game...

Really? That's some shitty warranty. Is that the usual warranty in the US?
I just checked, I have a 5 year/160.000 km (100k miles) warranty on my 2013 GT86.

in the us the standard bumper to bumper warranty is 3 year 36k miles. You can get an extended warranty which different and unfortunately I do not know what exactly it is. But we also get a 7 year 100k mile drivetrain warranty. Which includes engine work.

Yea, I'm not too worried. If I continuously run into the same issue, I would expect them to cover it. If they didn't I would raise hell with corporate if I had to go that far. Not my fault all these 2013s have the same issue around the 30k miles. Now that I'm thinking about it, I may even have the extended warranty. I have to dig up my paperwork. It's sad that I don't even remember lol, but I'll give them a call either way.