After watching the video, I got my brand new LC FE to make the fluttering sound once while reving engine on cold start. This is not good for anyone’s mental health. I think we all await what the product engineer says.BLUF: Brought in for exhaust leak and i'm being told Toyota is pulling the engine to work on cylinder 1.
Update as of Aug 5, 2024: "Hi Brandon, just called Toyota. They are still waiting to hear back from the Product Engineer. Unfortunately, he does not have an ETA yet."
Story below:
Well... here we are 3 weeks, 500 miles into the new rig...one of those weeks it's been in the shop...and will be for the foreseeable future. How it started...
It's a cooler Monday morning in Colorado and I'm leaving to go get my LC PPF'd. I think to myself... it's super nice out this morning...I'm going to roll my windows down and feel the cool mountain air on my way. Well... as soon as I do and I hit the accelerator to leave the house I hear what sounds like an exhaust leak.... that's weird. I drive about 3 blocks and and then I decide to turn around and check it out from the driveway. I pull into the driveway and I listen to it at idle....nothing... just normal loud injector noise. So I get back in and decide to put in neutral and rev a little bit and hold the gas down... yep!!! there it is... clear as day. Well crap... So I decide to stop over at Toyota on the way to get my PPF installed. Make an appointment for the following Monday and drive off. One thing I noticed was that after the engine warmed up...the noise went away. So... I keep that in the back of my head and I drop off my vehicle with the PPF installer. Fast forward to the weekend(no PPF got installed, another long story but maybe a blessing now) when I want to go drive the mountain pass and see how it handles a little bit on the windy roads and elevation gain. Same thing. On cold engine I hear the exhaust leak. When the engine warmed up. It went away. Fast forward.....
Monday 8 July, 2024
I drop off my vehicle and tell the advisor everything mentioned above. They order a Lyft for me and off I go to the house. Patiently waiting for a response.
Advisor (text): 3:16PM the tech finally gets to it or that's when my advisor texted me to let me know.
(text) At 5:52 PM I get another text "Hi Brandon we are going to need to keep overnight and talk with Toyota to make sure whether a normal noise or something that could be a know issue. To cover all bases."
ME (text): "You guys are hearing it though. Right? Do y'all do a leak down test or anything like that? Did you check against any other of your vehicles with the same engine to see if they do the same thing?"
crickets from my advisor....
Wednesday 10 July, 2024
Advisor(text): 12:57 PM "Hi Brandon we will put you into a loaner. bring drivers license ,proof of insurance and credit card."
Me(text): "Hey there. I look forward to hearing more about what's going on with my LC when I come in. Can you send a Lyft to pick me up?"
about 3 minutes pass and I get a notification that a Lyft is on the way (lyft app). I'm thinking to myself... I guess that means they are sending a Lyft.
about 15 minutes pass until the Lyft shows up and I get to the Service desk....
me to the advisor (in person): "So.. what's going on with it?".
Advisor (in person): "Tech looked at it and hears it but we need to have a field technician look at it to help identify what's going on. They are flying in from Arizona."
Me (in person): Great! Should I hear something back soon? When does the tech come in?
Advisor (in person): I'm not sure but..we will let you know as soon as we know something. Here's "Ed" to help you with the loaner.
Me: (in person) thanks. I look forward to hearing back from ya'll.
I get my loaner (4runner...not cleaned, didn't run particularly well. Made me appreciate the LC even more)
Friday 12 July, 2024
Advisor(text): 7:09 AM .... "Hi Brandon they found the noise coming from cylinder #1 Toyota is requesting tear down of engine to find problem."
Me (text) : "Um...what does that mean for me getting in my brand new vehicle? They are looking to replace the thing that is broke or pull the engine and replace the whole engine?"
Advisor (text): "That means the tech has to take apart to point of failure. What ever the failure is means they replace that part. Whether being a cylinder head or block."
Me (text): "What's the timeline on something like that?"
Advisor (text): "i WILL HAVE A BETTER TIME LINE NEXT WEEK ONCE WE FIND THE POINT OF FAILURE."
Me (text): replied with thumbs up emoji.
end of July update:
My engine is torn apart at the Toyota dealership. What I've pieced together from Service rep, "engineer", and sales person because they are all chatting about it. Big news at the dealership.
The engineer removed fuel from each cylinder to locate which cylinder the noise was coming from. When removing fuel from cylinder 1 the noise went away. This lead to a total tear down of the engine (in pictures). The engineer is thinking bad universal bearing in the block. There were metal shavings in the oil as well. They are waiting for Toyota corporate to send someone out to verify the findings.
Replacement part: Block
Replacement time: ETA 1 year....
So... at this point i'm pretty frustrated and I basically tell them I'm not taking the vehicle back. The sales person mentioned they could put me in another one that was coming in (trade out my other one for no additional money). I agreed to this.
A week passes and I get a text message that a LC LC model has come in and we agreed that we should wait until the next day to test for the same issue (need cold engine). The next morning I head over...we make our way out to this new Pearl White one and same issue... knock on cold engine...goes away after warmup (about 5 mins of driving). Then we decided to check a First Edition that they had and....same thing. The one thing they all had in common is the Hino Plant production (based off of vin number). At this point i've decided maybe it's best to get my money back and go that route.
I call toyota corporate: They give me a new case # and tell me it has to go to another department and I should hear something within 48 hours.
24 hours pass.... and I am told it takes 10 business days to get an email to tell me the process for lemon law. It will then take another 30-45 days for the lemon law to finalized. I feel like my credit and downpayment are being held hostage on Toyota's poor customer service.
Update: Aug 5, 2024: "Hi Brandon, just called Toyota. They are still waiting to hear back from the Product Engineer. Unfortunately, he does not have an ETA yet."
I've decided to go with the other vehicle I was test driving at the time. Ford Ranger Raptor. They were both in my wheel house and I was looking for something that I could do more Overlanding in. Hope this Ranger does a little better. Should pick up in about another week. Still waiting on the Regional office in Denver to give me next steps and timeline on my Lemon Law.
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