Valve Spring Recall Resolved!!!

[Bowflex]

I never got the letter in the mail but I'm dropping my car off tomorrow since I'll be on vacation for the next few days. They confirmed that I'll get a rental so I'll let everyone know how it goes.

[Dake]

Dropped mine off today. They told me up to two weeks even with the parts currently in stock. I think they're just padding it. Gave me the free rental booked through next week for now, but will adjust as necessary.

[LotsaMiles]

I just got the recall notice. I have 160k on my engine now. It's a shame they will have to do this on such a high mileage car. 'Course, it's still running like new, so who knows...

Since the dealership is by my workplace and it's 75 miles from my home, I'm assuming they will do the free rental car as well.

[LotsaMiles]

Originally Posted by Dake

Dropped mine off today. They told me up to two weeks even with the parts currently in stock. I think they're just padding it. Gave me the free rental booked through next week for now, but will adjust as necessary.

I have a really good relationship with the dealer because I own three scions, drive a lot, and am constantly in there for oil changes, etc. They even gave me a rental car once even though they didn't have to.

The guy that always works on my car has a brother that has a turbo FR-S. They say they only let that guy touch my car.

BTW, He showed me the dual clutch he was putting into his MR-2 spyder once. That MR2 of his is one sweet ride.

Based on the time it's taken them to do work before, I'd expect them to have mine done in two days. Three at the absolute outside.

[Bunsin]

Originally Posted by Bunsin

Got to admit this one makes me nervous...

Ok so I figured I should come back with an update. I decided to go ahead and do the recall. After some annoying negotiations on the amount of time it would take them to deal with the Edelbrock supercharger and Delicious Tuning E85 kit we settled on an additional 4-5 hours (what pissed me off is they didn't bother to tell me any of this prior to bringing the car in). They were pushing for up to 14 hours, but frankly anything over 2 is robbery given what they already have to do with the OEM setup (seriously how hard is it for an experienced mechanic to undue an additional 6 bolts, 2 hoses, and a few electrical connectors). We ended up going to the regional head of service who green-lighted 4-5 hrs. They also did the warranty work on the cam carrier (leaking) and installed new spark plugs.

The car was at the dealer for about 3.5 weeks. Interestingly Toyota gives them 14.5 hours to do the recall and the service manager indicated this was the first car they had in for that work. When I got it back there were a number of new noises and issues. The biggest problem was they did not properly go through the ECU learning cycle and test the vehicle. That was obvious from the way it drove, there was no oil on the dipstick (it has a Perrin oil cooler which apparently they managed to drain), and there was significant noises that should not have been there.

Noises:

I presume that the low oil level was leading to cavitation in the oil pump (?) or some other critical system on startup (yep, still pissed but at least I live only 5 miles from the dealer). It ended up being a quart low. The coolant levels in the overflow tanks for both the engine and the supercharger were low and I had to top them off multiple times so air was stuck in systems. However, all that was 'minor' (from a noise perspective) compared to the mechanical 'banging' that was going on when the engine was under load and in gear. Long story short (and due to no fault of the mechanic) the Motive overpipe was banging on the sway bar under specific conditions. You could hear and feel it every time you hit the gas lightly while in gear. The reinstall of the engine must have positioned it just different enough to cause the problem. Also, the serpentine belt tensioner went bad while they had it... (bouncing back and forth and causing the belt to slip). After installing a new tensioner and readjusting the exhaust everything sounds fine. I should note that they broke about a dozen plastic clips but lets be honest after 5 years in an engine bay I can't fault them for that.

So biggest problem is really the oil and complete lack of communication on the things they broke or were failing (belt tensioner).

All in all so far things are fine. It just took me half a Saturday to figure out how to fix the fix.