NEW!!! Service Bulletin for Engine Knocking at Startup T-SB 0012-10

See attached doc.

I am taking it in tonight for an over-night soak. I am mainly interesting in the engine mount issue as I am confident I will not have the violent knock as I did two times in 09.

 

Yep, pretty much the same spiel I'm getting. I'm anxious to see what the customer service person from my dealership says. Has you service rep contacted you? Is that why you're taking it in overnight? Our temps have increased here so much that I think even leaving mine overnight would not replicate the issue. I'm hoping I'm not SOL at this point.

 

You almost certainly are SOL. If I were you guys I'd stop trying to get this done. It's possible if you complain enough Toyota will do something, I guess, but it seems like a lot of effort for a very uncertain end result, and even then there's no evidence that this problem actually causes any long term problems.

 

Nope, the rep has not contacted me. I just had this on-going service request since Monday and I finally have a chance tonight to leave it overnight. Again, I am mainly hoping for the engine mount replacement as I do think my engine drones and starts with a jolt when it is cold (really cold). Normal? It didn't before.

 

Well, a pleasant turn of events. Just got my car back from an overnight stay at the dealer. I dropped it off about 4:00 yesterday and got a call about 6:00... as I picked up the phone I was thinking, great too soon, they are just gonna tell me nothing is wrong without even a cold-soak!

But it was the Customer Representative. He was very apologetic that things had gotten to this stage and if he had only known about it earlier, things would have been better. He said they put their master tech on the job and he (the tech) knew exactly what is going on and that everything is going to be taken care of! Wow.

I picked it up today and the SA said that the parts for the two T-SBs were on order and should be here before next weekend and will be installed next weekend. On top of that, they included a new engine under-cover! Previously they said it was fine and would not be replaced. Wow.

 

Squeaky wheel gets the grease!

 

Not necessarily, I called them twice and received a case #, with all responsibility being thrown on the shoulders of the dealer both times. I went onto email Toyota after that point (detailing the TSBs, the applicable VINs, links to my videos, et al) and received a call a few days later. Had I been told (again), "Tough sh*t, try another dealer," it would have been time to do arbitration. However, by the time Toyota called me in response to the email correspondence, I had already committed to trading in the vehicle, so who knows what would have come from that phone call. I did inform him what happened, what I had decided to do and was then asked if I'd like him to close the case. I gave him the go ahead...have fun, next owner.

 

You didn't keep squeaking but gave up and traded the car in.

 

Well, I joined the noisemaker club this morning. The event lasted about 3 seconds.

 

Sounds like you did exactly what toyota wanted. You traded in a perfecly good car and bought a new one. Toyota made out like a bandit! They spend millions in advertising trying to get all drivers to do the same thing you did voluntarily.

 

Well, that just goes to show they don't have much competition in the high mpg department, otherwise I would have jumped to a competitor. After having to waste money on a rental one day, going without the vehicle for a week and finally suffering a bicycle tire flat after a frigid (and windy) 20-mile ride home so I could conduct the experiment myself the following day, I felt better washing my hands of the whole thing. Life is stressful enough without having to play games with dealers and the apparatus that encourages them.

 

After a few trips to the ds and Engineers flying in from Japan to look at my car for another problem. I got the tsb fix done to my car! I wonder how the manifold is different.. Anyhow good luck guys. It almost took an act from congress to get mine changed & I had a CEL in my records from a prior knocking incident. I'll advise if it knocks any more..

 

My update...
After going back and forth between Toyota Care and the dealership. THe dealership has now agreed to fix the engine mount, but not the manifold. Toyota Care is backing the dealership. They say without a code in the computer, they won't fix the manifold. Period. They SB states that the vehicle "may exhibit one or more of the following conditions" then proceeds to list the codes as one of the conditions along with initially runs rough and loud engine knock or rattle noise. "May exhibit one or more" means that I may or may not have an engine code. Toyota disagrees and says I must have a code. I told them I was going through the dispute settlement process and asked for the form to be sent to me. They said they would mail it and gave me a new case #. I know I have the dispute form in my owners manual, but I wanted to see if they'll actually send it to me. So... we'll see how it goes from here. I think I may need to change my "LuvMy2010" user name?!

 

Maybe change it to LuvMy2012 after you trade your '10 in on a new '12

Mike :madgrin:

 

Sorry it is not going well for you. I too was in the run around until I found out about the Customer Relations person @ my dealership. He turned everything around and this Friday my Prius goes in for the manifold. I also have to say the Shop Foreman is top notch and knows how to get things done. Basically I sent them all my research which was this thread and others plus the YouTube videos and pointed out how inconstant the dealerships were on the issue and they said OK.

 

I went to the dealer's service department with the TSB. The service advisor says they have to connect the car to read the codes. If there are no error code exists, they'd have to charge me a diagnostic fee of $115. If any of the codes mentioned in the TSB is recorded, they will perform the TSB repair, at no charge. If other codes exist but not those mentioned in the TSB, they will not perform the repair but will not charge me for the diagnostic fee.
The TSB only covers up to 60000 miles only. If this is a known problem, why isn't Toyota just make a recall to fix it.

 

$$$$$$. It is more cost effective to handle a few problems here and there rather than bring in the whole fleet (my theory).

If you experienced the violent knocking, the dealer should not charge you at all to diagnose the problem (e.g. reading the codes). It is still under warranty right?

 

I did remember it happened at least a couple of times but don't remember the Engine light was lit up. There may or may not be a code recorded.
What the dealer says is if they can not find any code, then they can not claim Toyota Canada for their labour of performing a warranty service. In this case, someone has to pay. The advisor did say if there is any code, even like code generated by a loose gas cap, they will waive the diagnostic fee. Do you think he is hinting me to generate a code so they can have an excuse to waive the fee?
I will ask my friend with an OBD to scan it before take it back to the dealer next week.

 

There you go, pop the cap and run around till you get the light.

It takes them 5 minutes to hook up their laptop and read the codes... sheezzz.

Also ask them to ask their Master Tech what would he require (for the car to do) that he/she would perform the T-SB and ask for it in writing. That way in the future you know exactly what has to happen in order to get the work done.

 

Pull an injector connector off an injector and drive it around until it throws a code. That will show a code for misfiring

Mike