Has anyone had a warranty claim denied? Seized engine! Pics of teardown added 6/5

[clayrush]

I know the Celica GTS does not let vvtl-i engage till oil temp is up.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by ft_sjo

Mazda 3.
Ford Focus ST.
Volvo something.

It's usually to protect the transmission.

Thanks for providing examples.

FYI for anyone who doesn't want to google here's what I found:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazdaspeed3"]Mazdaspeed3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] (no citation though)

https://www.accessecu.com/support/do...scriptions.pdf (p. 48, references a table that limits the amount of torque the crankshaft puts out)

(couldn't find anything solid on the Volvo)

It seems like both those vehicles limit the boost available depending on the gear being used for various reasons, be it torque steer, fuel economy or to "protect the transmission".

Thanks, :happy0180:

[sierra]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

I've NEVER heard of that (ECU "reducing power" for lower gears) outside of vehicles with very specialized motors/purposes (trucks or racing maybe?), would love to see evidence of that in commercial passenger vehicles, would be interesting.

I remember reading it from one of the Ecutek tuners, that they remove the power limits placed on 1st and 2nd gears.

[dsgerbc]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

Source?

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'd just love to see some evidence aside from "trust me".

Subaru does it with WRX/STI/LGT. Go to romraider and search 'per-gear timing'. This one killed a lot of motors on the track until tuning community realized that per-gear adjustment was there.

[Mikem53]

Originally Posted by strat61caster

I've NEVER heard of that (ECU "reducing power" for lower gears) outside of vehicles with very specialized motors/purposes (trucks or racing maybe?), would love to see evidence of that in commercial passenger vehicles, would be interesting.

Really.. It's very common.. It's called torque management. My V6 accord had it as well as my vettes. Especially with automatics.. It's very obvious to detect in an auto V6 accord. Between the torque steer and all the tranny failures.. They have to do it. My vette was a manual, but they still had some tq management in the lower gears. The auto vettes got a much more noticeable dose of tq management. Many had it tuned out.. But not all of it.. They also pull timing during shifts on the autos to reduce shock.

[feldy]

Originally Posted by Sithspawn

A quick heads up for everybody. This car has issues with detonation with the factory tune. I'm not talking about crappy Cali gas, but the ECU calibration guys at Subaru screwed up here.

This failed engine is a direct result of cascading failures due to a bad tune. Detonation is not normal and anyone who says so, ought to be doing something else for a living.

Detonation over time will damage engine internals. This is a given. The first component to fail on this engine with the detonating tune is the nylon collar on the direct injector tip. When that insulator cracks and breaks off due to detonation, there is nothing left to protect the injector seal from combustion gasses and the seal fails as a result. Then, the failed seal leaks, causing more detonation and misfires until the engine throws in the towel (or a rod).

This car detonates on the 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6 shifts when driving the car hard. By hard, I mean WOT and shifting with speed and authority. I have attached a log that shows detonation happening at exactly the shift points (you can see the engine speed rising to redline and the shifts). On the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts I logged, there was detonation resulting from too much timing advance which can also be seen in the log. Keep in mind that this is the factory tune and all I did was log what it does.

I have also attached a view of the factory Transient Ignition Retard Table that shows that it is not pulling jack for timing in the high rpm range. It does pull timing at low rpm and low load, but keeps the timing too far advanced up top. This is due to the fact that the base timing map is advanced a lot in the low load range at high rpm (which the engine sees when you close the throttle for your shift).

Apparently, there is a new flash from Toyota that fixes the tune...sadly, the tune is what ultimately caused the engine failures here people. Subaru needs to step up and fix their mistake.

In closing, while not everyone drives their FRS/BRZ like a madman, driving this car hard will eventually kill the engine with the stock tune. Tracking the car only accelerates the inevitable death of the engine since you are shifting like this much more often.

Not being a tuner myself should knock correction always read 0? when reading the ecutek logs does - 1 or more indicate knock/detionation? or what knock correction lean value means?

[#87]

Any updates from @CSG Mike

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by #87

Any updates from @CSG Mike

Not yet... other than a lot of downtime.

[regal]

Does this sound like a rattle above pulling above 4k rpm ? My idle and low rpm are fine. But a hard pull past 4krpm and I get a rattle coming from the cowling on the mid passenger side. It sounds like something loose rattling. The only thing remotely loose on the engine is the sound tube, but it looks designed to not be held tight.

[Dezoris]

There is a 45 day lead time to get any parts related to the DI system. I complained about this 7 months ago and just blamed it on the new model. But after a year of production, we still don't have anything in our local depots in the States is piss poor.

Literally if you have any issues with this car, its going to be out of service for at least a month.

I expected this shit when I owned a Lotus, but not from a major OEM.

[spitz]

Originally Posted by Dezoris

There is a 45 day lead time to get any parts related to the DI system. I complained about this 7 months ago and just blamed it on the new model. But after a year of production, we still don't have anything in our local depots in the States is piss poor.

Literally if you have any issues with this car, its going to be out of service for at least a month.

I expected this shit when I owned a Lotus, but not from a major OEM.

Ditto. I owned an Exige and the lead time for parts was less. Sad.

[zoomzoomers]

Wow that sucks! I feel you man. I had to lemon law a E46 M3 for 2 engine failures and the tranny blowing up, a M Roadster with motor issues and a Z4 Roadster for engine work three times in 8 months. They replaced the entire head before month 3 of ownership and then had to do it again at month 5. Then the entire motor at month 8. One thing though, BMW was pretty good about it all and never really tried to put one over on me. I got more than fair value for all my cars and got to drive most of their fleet for months, including a 750i, 640i, M5, M3 and various BMW's for months.

Good luck and hope you get this fixed ASAP!

[Dezoris]

Originally Posted by spitz

Ditto. I owned an Exige and the lead time for parts was less. Sad.

You could pay to expedite parts so they could be at the dealer from the UK in 4 days if you needed them. Otherwise it was 2-3 weeks normally. And at least you knew how long the wait was.

With this car its, zero answers, just wait. S2000 and RX8 were bad too but not this bad.

[clayrush]

I had synchro problems fixed under warranty for my 2000 Celica gts in 03 it took them more than 45 days to get the parts. Part of the delay is that they sent the parts by boat and they said they had no way of expediting the shipment. I am just glad they gave me a rental car.