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

[@Art_Mighty]

Originally Posted by choi0706

what will happen to us if it's a casting issue?

That's the worst case senario for everyone involved. We would all need our heads inspected, some of them would need to be replaced and the wait for parts would be months long. Either the engine work, engine replacements or car replacements would cost Toyota/Subaru millions and while this is all getting sorted out the sales of the twins would drop to near zero.

Look up the BMW S54 motor recall back in 2001-2002.

[ftc~brz]

Originally Posted by @Art_Mighty

Details, we need details!..

Posted pics of last work order here, drop her back off 10/8 and send in lemon papers if I don't get a call. After throwing cel yesterday 15 miles after p/u on cam swap, I don't feel safe in this particular car while at a stop. It stalled on me at an intersection that day.
I don't mind ebraking and throddling for a few days just to get to work, but I'm not doing this for the next 10 years

Got a follow up from the head of service at Heritage Subaru shortly after calling to say I would be returning this car for same issue (rough idle/CEL/SL) throwing 1 same code/1 new code.
I let him know that I am not upset with the dealer/service. That has been outstanding considering the situation.This is what I got back from Ed.

Rhiannon- I apologize for having to bring the BRZ back. I will get with Harry and Frank Higgs our Shop Foreman to get this problem resolved.

Thanks for your patience and kind words -- Ed

[@Art_Mighty]

Originally Posted by ftc~brz

Posted pics of last work order here, drop her back off 10/8 and send in lemon papers if I don't get a call. After throwing cel yesterday 15 miles after p/u on cam swap, I don't feel safe in this particular car while at a stop. It stalled on me at an intersection that day.
I don't mind ebraking and throddling for a few days just to get to work, but I'm not doing this for the next 10 years

You said your dealership or showing growing signs of concern...

Body language, any usefull nuggets spill out of their lips?

[@Art_Mighty]

Originally Posted by ftc~brz

Posted pics of last work order here, drop her back off 10/8 and send in lemon papers if I don't get a call. After throwing cel yesterday 15 miles after p/u on cam swap, I don't feel safe in this particular car while at a stop. It stalled on me at an intersection that day.
I don't mind ebraking and throddling for a few days just to get to work, but I'm not doing this for the next 10 years

Got a follow up from the head of service at Heritage Subaru shortly after calling to say I would be returning this car for same issue (rough idle/CEL/SL) throwing 1 same code/1 new code.
I let him know that I am not upset with the dealer/service. That has been outstanding considering the situation.This is what I got back from Ed.

Rhiannon- I apologize for having to bring the BRZ back. I will get with Harry and Frank Higgs our Shop Foreman to get this problem resolved.

Thanks for your patience and kind words -- Ed

Got it...

[@Art_Mighty]

Originally Posted by Yruyur

I think if you know the PID? you can log them via an app like Torque.

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PID?

[einzlr]

Originally Posted by ftc~brz

.
I let him know that I am not upset with the dealer/service. That has been outstanding considering the situation.This is what I got back from Ed.

Rhiannon- I apologize for having to bring the BRZ back. I will get with Harry and Frank Higgs our Shop Foreman to get this problem resolved.

Thanks for your patience and kind words -- Ed

wow, that's unusual for a dealership (any!) to be so forthcoming. Kudos to them!

[boonFRS]

Just got the car back today from the dealership. So far the car runs great, don't know if its because I haven't driven it in a week. 5 days total at the dealership. This is what they did to the car:

Sorry in ADVANCE for the big picture. Uploading it from my phone since I'm not near a computer.



Vin# 7076. Had the *New, at the time of install* ECU install prior to my DRL delete. I guess they install another new ECU from the one i previously had. Don't know if that makes any significance or not. Just throwing it out there.

[Sigh-on-Rice]

Originally Posted by sajonf

So I took the list and did some clean up and sorted by VIN. Very interesting to see all of the BRZs with 27XX, 28XX and 29XX VINs and all of the FRSs with 7XXX and 8XXX VINs. It seems like most of the reported incidents are recently built cars. I deleted any that didn't provide a VIN

This is where I started to have a question I asked in my previous post.
My question was, if those of the few that have lower (older) VIN number had their ECU changed for DRL TSB.

[@Art_Mighty]

Originally Posted by einzlr

wow, that's unusual for a dealership (any!) to be so forthcoming. Kudos to them!

If there's one piece of advice I would give anyone stuck in this mess is be sure you are very nice to everyone at your dealer. Get to know the GM, the service manager, the service writer, and mechanic doing the work on first name basis. It pays off in spades...

[rapidcars]

Originally Posted by @Art_Mighty

You said your dealership or showing growing signs of concern...

Body language, any usefull nuggets spill out of their lips?

I can say from my experience that they really aren't sure what's going on and have a sense that they're in trouble. Even my customer service rep seemed very apologetic and brought up compensation without me having to ask. Though of course they can't say what without knowing the official diagnosis. I was happy that they did not rule out getting a new one and simply said we'll have to see what the diagnosis is. We'll see how it goes tomorrow when I hopefully have my diagnosis and start the real negotiations.

[ftc~brz]

Originally Posted by @Art_Mighty

If there's one piece of advice I would give anyone stuck in this mess is be sure you are very nice to everyone at your dealer. Get to know the GM, the service manager, the service writer, and mechanic doing the work on first name basis. It pays off in spades...

yes, yes it does...

[JohnS_Rosamond]

Looking at the new organized list of VINs, it doesn't seem to matter what age the vehicle is (build date). The list of FRR-S Vins seems to be pretty continuous. I am guessing that if there were more BRZ's listed we'd see the same thing.

What I am confused about is why, if this is really a software problem have not many more cars suffered? If it was really a bad batch of cam actuators, why isn't it more localized to a specific VIN range?

[einzlr]

Originally Posted by JohnS_Rosamond

What I am confused about is why, if this is really a software problem have not many more cars suffered? If it was really a bad batch of cam actuators, why isn't it more localized to a specific VIN range?

I've been puzzling over this as well. The only explanation I can think of for the latter case is that maybe parts batches aren't aligned with car assembly ergo with VINs

[Yruyur]

Originally Posted by @Art_Mighty

PID?

Parameter ID. If you know the id the signal sends then you can tell the torque app to watch for it.

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