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

[slowride]

Originally Posted by hampersnow

thank you to all who responded to my post about my NOT buying an FR-S this morning. I do believe the salesman I dealt with was an idiot, especially considering I took the time to print out pages of proof (none of which he read). while this forum knows of 152 cases, it would seem to me that means realistically a few hundred cases exist and that should be enough for Toyota to inform it's dealerships of the problem. this dealership has an excellent reputation (my friends and i have all purchased from here) but should a problem arise I shouldn't have to be the one explaining to them what the problem might be. from what I've read problems can pop up even before a CEL comes on. BTW, the salesman also informed me the problem could be caused by people who didn't know how to drive manual.
There are few of these cars for sale in Virginia. I found only one other within 100 miles but it had nearly 400 miles on it. many advertise they have some in stock but do not when you call. one dealership changed their story 4 times about what they had coming in. strangely though the red car i saw has been sitting 3 weeks now unsold. maybe others are holding back on purchasing with word of this problem ? I know manual is the desirable choice but I cant be the only one who wants automatic. Ultimately I think it's up to Toyota to acknowledge the problem and inform their dealers. For right now I'll wait.

I have been watching this thread since it started, and it was enough for me to cancel the FR-S I waited since May for. I got to see the car when I went in to get my deposit refunded. I am sure it made someone else happy that they were able to get an FR-S that should have been in my driveway, but until Toyota officially releases a fix, and members here receive it and it works without flaw, I will never buy one of these.

[choi0706]

Originally Posted by developer

You mentioned in previous posts of throttle lag. Did the 812 ecu improve that problem? Are you still getting an idle dips? If so how often/bad are they?

throttle lag is MUCH better.. but still not as responsive as I'd like.. with the CEL/SL I could press the pedal an inch or so before it rev'd up..

[Sargy]

Will find out in the next hour if I get my car back or not(ECU). FedEx said its shipped/in transit but dealer didn't receive it yet.

[Sargy]

.....November 1st. What is this.

[jduffy]

Originally Posted by dawnst3ar

So, given just the numbers we have on this thread....

To date, there have been around 10183 total sales of the FR-S/BRZ.

Of those, we know of 152 that have had the issue...

so, 152/10183 = 0.01492 or around 1.5% that we know of FROM THIS THREAD. I would postulate that the number is slightly higher, but I doubt that it is more than 2-3%, and that Toybaru will fix it in time.

On the other hand, we have been seeing these same approximate numbers throughout the time we have been collecting the data - around 1-2% of all the cars sold at any given time appeared on this forum under this thread with the same issue. I do not think that it has gotten more widespread, but that we are just finding out about more of the issues as more cars are sold.

It is like the crime rates - we percieve that there is more crime today than there was 20-30 years ago, when the opposite is actually true. This is because we are able to hear the reports of the crimes that do happen much more readily than we could then, so it seems that there is a new atrocity every day, and that there was only one a week in the past - when there were really 2-3 a day, but only the most egregious were reported nationwide, mainly due to a lack of space to report them all.

Also, take into consideration that there are people now posting from Europe on the list which should probably not be included in the sample because it will skew a higher percentage. Also, I read somewhere that there have been more sales than the figure you posted, so again less than 1% occurrence seems relatively accurate.

You're spot on about crime rates and how they are manipulated by the media for the sensationalism it causes. One murder in a town is horrible for those involved but it does not constitute a crime wave. Everything should be kept in perspective.

I do not know what the current mathematics curriculum is for US students but they should stress percentages much more. How do you conduct a business if you can't readily calculate percentages of profit, loss, expenses? I had to teach a 20 something at work how to manipulate a decimal point and what those values mean. Freaking embarrassing!

[brichard0625]

Originally Posted by choi0706

throttle lag is MUCH better.. but still not as responsive as I'd like.. with the CEL/SL I could press the pedal an inch or so before it rev'd up..

i just took my car for a 10 min drive and according to the dealership they reflashed the ecu so i wanted to see if there was a difference...my car is slower than ever now...Whatever they did made the car worse and now i have throttle lag! I didnt notice it yesterday because i drove it like a grandma. i floored it in 2nd and i could feel it struggling. I barely made it to 5000rpm before i said okay and just turned around and parked the car. THeres still no idle dips but its shakes at idle a little harder now fml!

[Sean K.]

Originally Posted by hampersnow

I would like to thank everyone who has posted on this thread because reading the horror stories has kept me from a purchase this morning. The largest Toyota dealer in Central Virginia has a red and a blue automatic and all I had to do was choose which one. after staying up till 1 am reading these posts I went to the dealer with print outs of these posts and other articles online about this problem. the salesman dismissed it as lies and "people jumping on the bandwagon" of a select few problems. the head of the service department knew nothing of this problem and said they have had no complaints out of 18 to 20 sales there. he said Toyota has not informed them of anything but a possible fuel pump problem.
I feel with all that has been written about this problem on this car, it would have been better to hear that at least they knew it existed. This is a huge dealership. the Vin #s on both these cars start with 709XXX and one was made August 22nd according to the salesman.
Although this would be a second car for me, i still decided not to chance it right now. Do you think I've been too hasty in saying no to the sale ? thanks....Charles

I don't....I would have turned down the BRZ we bought on the 19th (IIRC) of Sept. if the dealer hadn't sold it out from under us for $7K over MSRP.

I'll wait until they get this figured out for sure...then I'll reconsider.....but in the meantime, I'm eyeing something even less practical. LOL.

Sean

[einzlr]

Originally Posted by Sargy

.....November 1st. What is this.

It's All Saints' Day

[Sean K.]

Originally Posted by jduffy

Think about it, you chose to not purchase a car based on an issue that is happening to less than 1% of the manufactured vehicles.

Again though, it's your choice, no one is forcing you to make it either way.

Again, the 1% figure people keep throwing out is UNSUBSTANTIATED.

We simply don't know and have a very small sample to extrapolate from.

[ftc~brz]

Originally Posted by hampersnow

I would like to thank everyone who has posted on this thread because reading the horror stories has kept me from a purchase this morning. The largest Toyota dealer in Central Virginia has a red and a blue automatic and all I had to do was choose which one. after staying up till 1 am reading these posts I went to the dealer with print outs of these posts and other articles online about this problem. the salesman dismissed it as lies and "people jumping on the bandwagon" of a select few problems. the head of the service department knew nothing of this problem and said they have had no complaints out of 18 to 20 sales there. he said Toyota has not informed them of anything but a possible fuel pump problem.
I feel with all that has been written about this problem on this car, it would have been better to hear that at least they knew it existed. This is a huge dealership. the Vin #s on both these cars start with 709XXX and one was made August 22nd according to the salesman.
Although this would be a second car for me, i still decided not to chance it right now. Do you think I've been too hasty in saying no to the sale ? thanks....Charles

no, we posted pics of our service orders...why take the time to fabricate that?
if you are ever in BelAir md or baltimore county hit me up I'll show you my paperwork. Sounds like a dealer that was gonna try to crack your head in the FI box then leave you to bleed out if you happened to get a cel...screw it and don't feel bad about not giving them your money.
You do what feels right so you have no regrets

[brichard0625]

so i decided to pull the negative off the battery...let the car sit for 20 mins..got a text message on my phone saying battery low and then another one saying power loss because i have the ituran security thing on the car...plugged it back in and let the car idle for a few minutes and even tho the cel came back after two drive cycles the car feels alot better again...I think these ecu's are more sensitive than i thought they were..seems like anything u do to this car the ecu has to be reset

[dabocx]

At this point im wondering if i should even bother going to the dealer to get this looked this at on Saturday. At this point it seems like they are just going to make it worse.

[dun3]

Thanks guys, I'm back on the boat!

[fistpoint]

Originally Posted by jduffy

I do not know what the current mathematics curriculum is for US students but they should stress percentages much more. How do you conduct a business if you can't readily calculate percentages of profit, loss, expenses? I had to teach a 20 something at work how to manipulate a decimal point and what those values mean. Freaking embarrassing!

Jesus H., was this guy a middle school dropout?

Originally Posted by Sean K.

Again, the 1% figure people keep throwing out is UNSUBSTANTIATED.

We simply don't know and have a very small sample to extrapolate from.

A small sample? Go check the Civic forums and see the problems they are having with the 2012's...but factor in that they sold over a quarter of a MILLION of them just in the US alone. Now check the pages here for the plethora of issues from a scant 6k or less vehicles sold.

6k vs 250k