Results of the Valve Spring Recall Work

[FRS.808]

Rande, it is under recall. Someone else is now buying it. I'm just gonna get a 2014 model instead anyway. It's a bummer! I just don't wanna risk $10k for a new engine if some tech messes up.

[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by nextcar

For what it is worth:

Most people have no issue with the recall. You only hear the horror stories, not the "I had no major issues".

This. Failure due to a botched seal job putting the engine back together almost always occur within 2k miles of the recall, usually within a few hundred miles even. If you find a car that has driven 5-10k since the work was done I would not hesitate to buy it if there are no other red flags.

[Dirty Harry]

I must admit I was pretty nervous about getting the recall done. Kind of felt the same as taking my dog to the vet to get the “operation” done. But in the end couldn’t be happier, they also replaced the AVCS solenoids too, no charge. They were leaking apparently. Car runs fine, put on a few thousand kms now.

[JesseG]

Originally Posted by gravitylover

Grrr this Forester keeps frustrating the shit out of me. This morning it caused an accident! The dumbass collision avoidance jammed on the brakes when I was still about 150 feet from the car in front of me and brought the car down from ~35mph to less than 5 in what felt like no time and the car behind me didn't expect such a radical maneuver and barely missed rear ending me and ended up in someones front yard instead. The car it was trying to avoid was turning left (slowly) but there was no other traffic so I knew it was going to be out of my way in plenty of time so I only had my foot hovering over the brake pedal. Apparently I'm too dumb to handle suburban driving at 7:15am

Another thing that I really can't stand is you can't downshift. I was coming down a 2+ mile descent (drops over 1k feet in the first mile and a half) and had to ride the brakes to keep the car within 10mph over the speed limit. I kept pumping them but when it got to ~70 I had to just ride them. Before I got to the bottom of the hill the pedal had nearly sunk to the floor and it felt terrible. In any other car I would have dropped it a gear and let the engine do the work but in this car you only have D or L with no option in between and there's no way even though it's not my car I was throwing it in Low at highway speed. It's not like I was cruising going into the hill either because I stopped at the top to take a picture.

Unless you turn the lane control off completely every time the car gets to the edge of its lane it beeps and gives a subtle tweak to the wheel to let you know you're not perfectly in the lane. Sometimes you do drift around the space or need to avoid bad pavement or whatever but the car punishes you for that. Bullshit...

I'm getting used to the nose heavy handling, I drive like my dad now The upside to that is I got 33mpg on a 700 mile road trip yesterday

Good points - It's quiet, the tunes sound pretty good, it has a huge sunroof and it doesn't scrape going in and out of parking lots or on dirt roads. It also takes care of itself pretty well in traffic, it's quick enough and is really quite easy to control (until the nannies take over) and the visibility all around is very good. Most people would probably love it...

It’s interesting you experienced that with Subaru’s collision avoidance system, they were one of the first on the scene with those safety features. (Aside from some Mercedes, Audi, etc). I’ve heard stories of a car stopping because of something sitting in the road, like debris or a raised manhole cover. From what I know of Subaru’s safety systems, they work very well. *shrug* I wonder if that car in front of you was slowing much faster than you think and/or your speed was too high??
And from my seat time using Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 the collision detection, blind spot monitoring, and radar cruise all worked flawlessly. And I spent a lot of miles driving on one of the craziest highways in my area. (This was in my 2019 Corolla)

The Forester is a great alternative to a small SUV, and I’m sure you will learn to love it’s “quirks”. All Subaru’s have them. Lol It’s too bad we never got the Forester STI. Fast and practical!


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[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by JesseG

It’s interesting you experienced that with Subaru’s collision avoidance system, they were one of the first on the scene with those safety features. (Aside from some Mercedes, Audi, etc). I’ve heard stories of a car stopping because of something sitting in the road, like debris or a raised manhole cover. From what I know of Subaru’s safety systems, they work very well. *shrug* I wonder if that car in front of you was slowing much faster than you think and/or your speed was too high??
And from my seat time using Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 the collision detection, blind spot monitoring, and radar cruise all worked flawlessly. And I spent a lot of miles driving on one of the craziest highways in my area. (This was in my 2019 Corolla)

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I was given a base Impreza when my car was being recalled for J02. I was SHOCKED how smart the eyesight system was. The lane keeping and blind spot systems were annoying, but eyesight was brilliant. I liked being able to adjust how aggressive it is too. I kept trying to trick it into braking when it wasn't supposed to, and it only really braked when I would have hit something without a fairly violent swerve.

[JesseG]

And I apologize that post was way off topic. Lol

The valve spring recall would be nerve wracking for sure. The cost of failure is unfortunately very high. Personally I would only look at 2014+
But like others have said, you will only hear the horror stories online. It’s a shame the trouble some early owners of the twins had to go through. I just wish Toyota had developed or put their own engine in the FRS/86.


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[JesseG]

Originally Posted by Yoshoobaroo

I was given a base Impreza when my car was being recalled for J02. I was SHOCKED how smart the eyesight system was. The lane keeping and blind spot systems were annoying, but eyesight was brilliant. I liked being able to adjust how aggressive it is too. I kept trying to trick it into braking when it wasn't supposed to, and it only really braked when I would have hit something without a fairly violent swerve.

That’s what I’ve usually heard about Subaru Eyesight safety systems. They have been committed to getting that right for many years now. It’s amazing technology that Subaru pioneered. As long as they keep it out of the next gen BRZ/86 I will be happy.


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[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by JesseG

That’s what I’ve usually heard about Subaru Eyesight safety systems. They have been committed to getting that right for many years now. It’s amazing technology that Subaru pioneered. As long as they keep it out of the next gen BRZ/86 I will be happy.


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Eh, you can completely turn it off too.

Just having collision avoidance as standard makes a big difference in insurance premiums.

[JesseG]

Originally Posted by Yoshoobaroo

Eh, you can completely turn it off too.

Just having collision avoidance as standard makes a big difference in insurance premiums.

That’s true, but I don’t want to do that every time I drive my car. I hope Toyota and Subaru want to keep the twins very driver focused. I love that the Civic Type R defaults to Sport mode, ALL sports cars should do that.


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[radroach]

Find a dealership shop that you can trust. I would ask around your regional groups to find dealerships which were known to do the job right. Check these forums and facebook.

Some Toyota dealerships gave good support, letting owners talk with the master tech, assuring that the procedure was done right. Other dealerships seem to have performed less than admirably, slapped the car back together and the cars were knocking 10 miles down the road, gave the owners more trouble on the replacement process, etc.

My Subaru dealership was pretty short in taking my car. It was as simple as bringing my car in on scheduled day:

"I want recall X"
"OK bring it in".
"one more thing"
"ok hurry up"
"sparkplugs and throwout bearing please"
"OK".

Two weeks later I got the car back. Bill was $140.00 for parts. Car ran great. Couldn't have asked for better outcome.

[gravitylover]

Originally Posted by JesseG

The Forester is a great alternative to a small SUV, and I’m sure you will learn to love it’s “quirks”. All Subaru’s have them. Lol It’s too bad we never got the Forester STI. Fast and practical!

I'm just glad I didn't have to hold on to it for any longer, I really didn't like it. No, I don't think I'd get used to its quirks, I think I'd just get more annoyed by them. In fact I find it disturbing that the next round of new cars that will end up in our driveway are likely to have a variety of nannies that I don't want, they might be alright for our 21 year old twin daughters but if it's going to step on the brakes when there's no need for it I want nothing to do with it.

[Erroneous]

I hate to bump this thread, but I was hoping some of the gearheads here would be able to help out with a question I have.

I had the valve springs replaced at a Toyota service center and about 10,000 miles later, the car started heaving and cutting off randomly. Made my way to a different Toyota service center and they ran diagnostics and they told me the direct injector ECU was not bolted correctly and that was causing intermittent connection.

No one has touched my engine in any significant way other than the factory and the recall service center. But the original service center said they wouldn't have removed the ECU.

Is it true that the valve spring replacement was unlikely to be the culprit? Should I be otherwise concerned about issues moving forward and, if so, what should I look out for? Thanks for any input.

[Yoshoobaroo]

Originally Posted by Erroneous

I hate to bump this thread, but I was hoping some of the gearheads here would be able to help out with a question I have.

I had the valve springs replaced at a Toyota service center and about 10,000 miles later, the car started heaving and cutting off randomly. Made my way to a different Toyota service center and they ran diagnostics and they told me the direct injector ECU was not bolted correctly and that was causing intermittent connection.

No one has touched my engine in any significant way other than the factory and the recall service center. But the original service center said they wouldn't have removed the ECU.

Is it true that the valve spring replacement was unlikely to be the culprit? Should I be otherwise concerned about issues moving forward and, if so, what should I look out for? Thanks for any input.

The DI ECU and the ECU are 2 different computers. The DI ECU definitely gets removed because it’s mounted to the steel fuel rail shield over the head. Can’t take the valve covers off without removing that. A DI ECU rattling loose will wreak havoc on how the car runs, so it’s certainly a likely candidate.

That said if the service was 10k miles ago, it would be very strange for you to only see symptoms now. Most failures occurred between a few hundred to ~3000 miles. At 10k you’re likely in the clear.

[Erroneous]

Ah, so the Toyota guy lied when he said the DI ECU isn't removed during the valve spring replacement.

I do get the argument that 10,000 miles is a long time to go without seeing problems, but if it wasn't attached properly (per the other Toyota service guys), it had to be the last person to remove it that was responsible. And that's the service guys on the valve springs.

Thanks for your input. Not sure where I go from here. I only asked Toyota to reimburse like $150 for the fix and that was the response I got. Pathetic from a customer service standpoint.

If anyone is in NC, I'd avoid Toyota of Charlotte.