Unofficial - CEL/SL/Idle Issue List for FR-S/BRZ Owners

[bazi]

#32 bazi FR-S. Issue resolved on 9/21. Was offered a new car, but I ended up getting my car with the extended 100k warranty. It has been running like a dream. Have put about 600 miles since getting the car back.

[dawnst3ar]

7080xx Dallas, TX 2940 miles

Add me to the list, got all the symptoms, but the service techs were gone by the time I got to the dealership, so no codes, no fix yet. Will let you all know.

[Marrk]

Originally Posted by bazi

#32 bazi FR-S. Issue resolved on 9/21. Was offered a new car, but I ended up getting my car with the extended 100k warranty. It has been running like a dream. Have put about 600 miles since getting the car back.

New car offer sounds about right. Finally.

What fix did they do on your car? New ECU?

[Grishbok]

Originally Posted by BORGSRT

UPDATE: purchased Sunday, 5 days later in shop for 22 days, had it for 2 days then went back they had it for 7 more days. In total they replaced cam gears, replaced 2 ECU's and a reflash on this last ECU, they also put on 100 miles on the car and in there words they weren't "easy on her." Car is a lemon in my state of TN now and asked Clayton from customer service and asked yes or no is scion telling me to go screw my self his response "yes" I will never at this point purchase another Toyota car ever again and do my very best have everyone i know do the same.

Ok, let me get this straight, you talked to a Scion customer service representative named Clayton, who told you that his employing company is telling you to go screw yourself?! Or is Clayton customer service from the dealership you went to. I could see that response from some untrained uneducated person at the dealership, but if that was a scion customer service representative, you need to call them back, tell them what happened with your car, and what happened with "Clayton". Theres no chance that kind of behavior would be tolerated.

[AceNiNe]

AceNine, FR-S, 1500 mi, 7079XX, in shop, NJ / NY

Picked up the car in NJ 09/08 , found the CEL SL and idle shaking immediately after getting back to NY . Called the sales rep, said it was fine to drive and to bring back to the service department on 09/15.

Drove it for a little bit and found the CEL SL to be coming on and off. Idle shake happened sometimes.

Sales rep called in to reschedule my appointment with service for 09/18, so i brought it in that day. Service took the FR-S and said they had brought in a total of four FR-S since launch and they would know how to fix the problem. I went ahead and took the RAV4 loaner.

Morning after a lady calls me (i think one of the managers in that dealership) and gives me the sorry news that it might take two weeks or perhaps sooner, because the parts are on backorder . A few days later i call Service to see how it was going, they said they said it could take 2 to 3 weeks for the parts to come and that it shouldn't be a problem since one of their most experiences Toyota technicians would be taking care of it.

Got a phone call from Service on 09/25, said there was some good news that they are going to go ahead to try to flash the ecu chip and they wouldn't need to change any parts at all. Apparantly it would be the second FR-S they would have done it to. Said they are just waiting for instruction from a Toyota tech which could take 24-48 hours and hopefully if everything goes well i should get it by 10/01.

Currently crossing my fingers for the ECU Chip flash to work

[bazi]

Originally Posted by Marrk

New car offer sounds about right. Finally.

What fix did they do on your car? New ECU?

The new car offer was good but I had 3 reasons to stick to my "dealer fixed car". 1) with the car fixed i know for sure that the parts are not faulty as indicated by the gaurenteed fix and 2) i could have a gotten a new car and risk the CEL issue with it as well. 3)The biggest reason i stuck to my fixed car was because dealer gave me an extended 100k warranty with this car,payed my first month payment and also I did not want to wait for 6-8 weeks for them to get me another 6MT asphalt (my preferance barebones).

They fixed the cam gears, solenoids, ecu...the usual suspects with this issue.

Im glad i made this decision because so far the car has been riding smooth. Was well worth the wait. hope u get the issue resolved fast. I know waiting sucks bro!

[eyebone]

I'm gonna have to wait a month to get mine back. That's fcked

[BORGSRT]

Clayton is from corprate not the dealership.

[Grishbok]

Originally Posted by BORGSRT

Clayton is from corprate not the dealership.

So a corporate representative, told you that his company is without doubt, screwing you over. Did not provide any form of solution, and told you deuces? I find that outrageously difficult to believe, but if in some strange way that actually did happen and Clayton was just having a bad day, you need to get customer service on the phone and inform management.

[Jaxxx]

Surprised people still buy BRZs after having all these problems

[@Art_Mighty]

Originally Posted by Jaxxx

Surprised people still buy BRZs after having all these problems

Test drive one and you'll understand...

[Sean K.]

Originally Posted by Jaxxx

Surprised people still buy BRZs after having all these problems

It's not like it's common knowledge either. The dealers are telling customers in spite of it being a new model, they have had no issues with any of the cars and people are driving them "hard".

My wife searched on-line for recalls, TSBs and class action lawsuits on the BRZ before we started the buying process. I only found a BRZ forum to look for new wheels/tires for our car.....came to that forum to find out how wide I could go without rubbing issues....and found the trouble forum....which linked to this forum with the issue on the CEL.

We got lucky....the dealer screwed us over and sold the car to someone else after all our paperwork was complete.....but that was the same time I found out about the CEL issues.

Now we're either waiting until this mess gets sorted or we're getting an STI instead.

I hope they get the BRZ sorted out quickly.

At least that's my reasoning for not buying right now.....others who already bought obviously had no idea about the CEL b/c it's only been very recently that it's come up (like from August or so). You have to remember, these cars haven't been out that long.

Sean

[pituala]

Just got the call from the dealership that the car is ready to be picked up. He told me they drove it 50 miles and no issues. He also said they called Corporate and were instructed to release the car to me. So I'm picking her up at lunchtime and keeping my fingers crossed.

[fasteddy]

Originally Posted by Jaxxx

Surprised people still buy BRZs after having all these problems

You need to keep in mind that this is really only a small percentage of cars affected. There have been about 8,000 cars sold in the US so far and perhaps 200-300 problem cars. Forums have a way of magnifying issues such as this.

I am sure it would suck to have the problem. I would not have let it keep me from buying one. Many first year cars have issues, that is the chance you take. I have no doubt this will get figured out and not be an issue for long.

Pat