Quote:
Originally Posted by NedVargar
I noted the mileage from when I brought it in each time. The first time, for the test, it had 2 miles on it, the second visit for the fix 0.
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Yeah, when they do the TSB they don't take it on the test drive. All they do is start it up, let it run until hot, and see if the chirp starts.
The problem with not taking it on a test drive is that the chirp doesn't start for some people until after its been driven for a few miles, not just warmed up.
I honestly don't expect a fix until the 2014 models come out, it just doesn't make any business sense for Toyota to do another TSB and release another fuel pump. They are going to let the fraction of people who are stuck with fuel that has ethanol in it and let it ride until 2014.
We produced about 13 billion gallons of ethanol in 2012 and consumed 12.95 billion gallons of ethanol in the same year. The only other country to come remotely close to that is Brazil, and they were importing from us until 2002. In 2011 we were still producing 8 billion more gallons of Ethanol than Brazil; now their productions are stalling like ours should be but America hasn't been too fast on picking up on when we are in a bad deal and need to gtfo so we keep producing this expensive, wasteful, resource intensive ethanol.
What makes this ethanol scheme so successful is the sheer lack of interest people have in actually becoming educated on what they are supporting. They see "omfg this is going to be better for the environment and get us off foreign oil!". Not only is it not better for the environment, but its shit for your car and is damaging to farming land that could be used for something other than corn. Now we have to pay farmers (the same farmers we paid to grow the corn) to plant grass just to bring the land down to a idle state. It would take over 12+ acres of land per US citizen to replace the US fuel supply with Maize Ethanol.
Ethanol in its current various flavors isn't a solution, its a sidetrack from sustainable, high yield fuel sources. Its a cash grab. The the big energy companies don't want to totally replace petrol until they have to, so they push ethanol like its progress and people gobble it up. Then they lobby the government to give subsidies to farmers to grow the massive amounts of corn (which rapes the land and agricultural resources) they need to produce the Ethanol which shits on your fuel mileage and performance so you have to buy more gas. If we were smart we would stop blowing money and resources on a fuel that's at best a failed avenue in our path to clean energies in all sectors, at worst a scam that plays on the public's general desire to do something (as long as they don't actually have to go out of their way to do anything) for the environment.
Toyota isn't going to fix a problem that is mostly an North/South American problem. I'm curious to whether the Sugarcane ethanol and the Cellulosic ethanol cause the chirp verses our wasteful, illogical Maize Ethanol.