Oh-Oh's, I Think I Broke It!

[clayrush]

Originally Posted by GavinAnt

And I bought a Subaru because my Toyota Landcruiser back door cracked after my wife's friend opened it roughly and they didn't help me. The saddest thing is their engineer justified it by giving the static loading capacity of the door: he should have looked at the dynamic load as the door swung open and hit the stop! Anyway, I just got it fixed but it left a sour taste...

Makes me wonder if it depends on the dealer. Or perhaps it helps I went to high school with a fue of the guys at my local dealer. and my family has bought 4 cars from the same :P

[xwd]

It does depend on the dealer.

Subaru however gets regional people involved when there are high dollar repairs or things that might look like abuse. After all the warranty claims with the WRX/STi it seems these days they claim abuse first and you have to prove it wasn't... Subaru is also a much smaller company than Toyota/Scion.

[AllDayJonRay]

Originally Posted by was385

That's different than voiding the warranty. They found that it was being used in a competitive event and put a restriction that all future drivetrain work would not be covered under the warranty if and when it was submitted.

This... If they can prove your abuse broke it, they will deny a claim. The warranty cannot be "voided". A "voided" warranty would mean denying to cover, say, a window switch because of drivetrain abuse... And this is not legal, as I previously stated.

And he's not a douche for pointing out your error.

[was385]

Originally Posted by Justin.b

You knew what I meant. Don't be a douche.

-Justin

I'm not trying to be a douche. You were claiming that they can void the warranty, but the article you brought up has to do with a very defensible action on the part of Mitsubishi. They did not void the warranty because that would be illegal and I'm sure if the guy had brought in his car for something that couldn't have been caused by his pushing the car at a track, they would have covered it.

[Justin.b]

Originally Posted by was385

I'm not trying to be a douche. You were claiming that they can void the warranty, but the article you brought up has to do with a very defensible action on the part of Mitsubishi. They did not void the warranty because that would be illegal and I'm sure if the guy had brought in his car for something that couldn't have been caused by his pushing the car at a track, they would have covered it.

This is not a case of someone seeing this guy blow his engine on a racetrack and then denying the claim based on that.

Before any warranty claim was made, Mitsu voided any coverage of drivetrain issues on that car. If there's a more appropriate wording, I'm open to it. To me, void seems like an accurate description.

It also wasn't a track, it was an autocross event which are typically held in parking lots and where the speeds usually top out around 50mph. I would think that any car that can be driven on the highway and in the city should be able to turn a few 40 second parking lot laps without sustaining any more damage than the daily drive. The only real difference between autox and daily driving is the stopwatch, and I don't think the stopwatch blew his motor.

-Justin

[was385]

Originally Posted by Justin.b

This is not a case of someone seeing this guy blow his engine on a racetrack and then denying the claim based on that.

Before any warranty claim was made, Mitsu voided any coverage of drivetrain issues on that car. If there's a more appropriate wording, I'm open to it. To me, void seems like an accurate description.

It also wasn't a track, it was an autocross event which are typically held in parking lots and where the speeds usually top out around 50mph. I would think that any car that can be driven on the highway and in the city should be able to turn a few 40 second parking lot laps without sustaining any more damage than the daily drive. The only real difference between autox and daily driving is the stopwatch, and I don't think the stopwatch blew his motor.

-Justin

I'm not disagreeing that a performance car should have held up to autox. But I do disagree that there is something wrong with the way they handled it. We all know that if you autox (which does put a lot more stress on the car than the average driver does) or track the car, you run the risk of damaging the car and the manufacturer not covering it. I think it would have been better press for them to take a look at the car and not just blacklist it for drivetrain stuff, but if the automaker finds out someone was tracking the car, I really can't hold it against them to deny any drivetrain warranty claims. It generally would be pretty easy for them to show a reasonable connection between the extra strain and whatever broke. I have an issue with the use of voiding the warranty because it's really no different than if they had found the scca results while the car was in for repair and turned it down. They just found out about it beforehand.

That being said, I still hope that the OP gets his stuff done under warranty.

[Justin.b]

Originally Posted by was385

I'm not disagreeing that a performance car should have held up to autox. But I do disagree that there is something wrong with the way they handled it. We all know that if you autox (which does put a lot more stress on the car than the average driver does) or track the car, you run the risk of damaging the car and the manufacturer not covering it. I think it would have been better press for them to take a look at the car and not just blacklist it for drivetrain stuff, but if the automaker finds out someone was tracking the car, I really can't hold it against them to deny any drivetrain warranty claims. It generally would be pretty easy for them to show a reasonable connection between the extra strain and whatever broke. I have an issue with the use of voiding the warranty because it's really no different than if they had found the scca results while the car was in for repair and turned it down. They just found out about it beforehand.

That being said, I still hope that the OP gets his stuff done under warranty.

It is even worse than that. I know for a fact that in the early 2000's when this was going on, people would get an SCCA info pack in their glovebox when they bought a WRX and I know at least two people who bought new evo8's at the time who were encouraged to autox by their salesperson.

If you're going to use competitive motorsports to sell these things, you have to be on the hook for the warranty when they break in the course of an autocross. Yes, an autox is going to put more stress on the car than my mom puts on her taurus - but it's probably not much/any more stress than an enthusiast may put on his vehicle on a spirited weekend run through the mountains.

To have some zit-faced dropout searching the internet for autocross results is just creepy. I suspect the exec that came up with that plan has a few gigs of child pr0n stashed away.

-Justin

[benster]

back to the topic, I don't think pcasso cares about the other guys's evo or sti. you guys can start a thread in general discussion about it.

Any updates on the engine bud?

[track_warrior]

Originally Posted by benster

back to the topic, I don't think pcasso cares about the other guys's evo or sti. you guys can start a thread in general discussion about it.

Any updates on the engine bud?

New engine is being put back in the car as we speak, i should have it back in my hands this week hopefully.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by pcasso87

New engine is being put back in the car as we speak, i should have it back in my hands this week hopefully.

Of that outcome there was no doubt in anybodies mind.

The real questions are if a root cause was found and whether or not the fix was covered under warranty.

[track_warrior]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Of that outcome there was no doubt in anybodies mind.

The real questions are if a root cause was found and whether or not the fix was covered under warranty.

Techs have no indication as to what caused the fault but the ecu is being replaced as a precaution since there was a couple of cars reported to have a faulty ecu that led to problems and codes. Warranty is covering the problem.

[FirestormFRS]

Originally Posted by Justin.b

The warranty department is a tiny cog in the Toyota machine. If the people in charge tell them to operate a certain way, that's what they will do. The warranty guys certainly aren't running the show, although they may have a bit more pull than the purchasing/sourcing department after those bad pedal sensors.

-Justin

The warranty department of Toyota is not a tiny cog in the machine. Toyota investigates every warranty claim. There is a department soley responsible for investigation into catastrophic engine failures. You obviously haven't the slightest idea how the Japanese manufacturers handle warranty claims like this.

[NickFRS]

Originally Posted by pcasso87

New engine is being put back in the car as we speak, i should have it back in my hands this week hopefully.

That's awesome man!

[was385]

Originally Posted by pcasso87

New engine is being put back in the car as we speak, i should have it back in my hands this week hopefully.

I hope you know that we all expect celebratory track day videos soon.