help with oil and engine please????

Anonymous · March 30, 2004, 10:09

I don't recall any stickers on that compontents saying "warranty void if removed".

Comer · March 30, 2004, 10:12

I know. Maybe I'm comparing my car to my TV s:D

s:D

Anonymous · March 30, 2004, 10:36

Quote from: "Comer"I'm wondering whether the dealer will say that the warranty is invalidated because you have taken the O2 sensor out yourself.

Whilst I wouldn't put anything past a dealer, it'd be a bit like refusing a rusting brake disks claim because you'd taken the wheels off once...

Chris · March 30, 2004, 12:49

ok, so assuming that it's ok to take them out yourself, what should one look for? Presumably a golden/light brown discolouration/coating from the oil?

I may just follow SteveJ's lead and buy/get a new one every year - hey I'm already on my second new one!!! s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

markiii · March 30, 2004, 12:52

they can't refuse it just because you have taken it out. if you knackered the 02 doing so, they could refuse to pay for that but not the pre-cats.

I would insist at service intervals that they check and document their findings. If you raise a legitimate concern they have a duty to ensure that somethin covered by warranty is not broken. The only way to do that is to physically look. And it's a 5 minute job for teh dealer to do anyway.

loadswine · April 1, 2004, 00:39

I am now getting just abit concerned,my 2 is otu of warranty,serviced 3k ago ,30k miles total and from the service history has used about 1 litre of oil in about 3k miles. Only had the car a couple of weeks, seems to drive fine but I want the car to last a little while before the engine needs replacing. First thing is to change the oil as it has the dreaded Magnatec in it . Second thing is to check the precats and if in doubt a bit of gutting should do the trick. Do the O2 sensors come out without a fight or is there a chance of damaging them on removal? Will check other threads to find what oil viscosity ratings members recomend.
Thanks to all who post this sort of info on here, this is invaluable stuff. s:? :? s:?

SteveJ · April 1, 2004, 06:42

With Magnatec, 1litre to 3K miles isn't unheard of, but if it's only just been put in then it may be a bit high (once its been in for a while it wouldn't surprise me).

The first thing to check is to remove the O2 sensors, and check the surface of the cats for signs of degradation - they should have a nice well-defined square matrix - any 'fuziness' to the edges indicates they are starting to break-up, and the engine failure cycle has probably already started s:(

s:(

Anonymous · April 2, 2004, 09:22

TomMR2 - have you checked if you can buy extended warranty from Toyota ? I am not sure if you can do this after the original warranty runs out, but it is worth checking.

Toyota Extended warranties are administered by ToyotaGB, backed by AON insurance and supposedly would cover all these pre-cat/engine problems.

As they are based on engine size alone (not model), I thought they were not that expensive, at about £280 per year, so if you are worried about pre-cat/engine problems it might be worth it for peace of mind.

My personal view is that my engine could have been saved if the dealer had been competent and had properly investigated the problems earlier, as my oil consumption only became noticable several months after I first went to the dealer and they had worked on the car and given it back still rattling.

My only advice would be that If you have a rattling noise from your engine under load when accelerating, do not accept a dealer saying this is belt tensioner, as this would only be audible at idle. If the dealer claims it is timing chain noise, then this would stop over 3-4k revs (as oil pressure comes up and timing chain is tensioned by hydraulic tensioner), so this also means this is not timing chain related.

If your dealer cannot or will not take this seriously and keep the car until they have fixed it, then you need to insist on a Toyota Field Service Manager inspecting the car, and badger ToyotaGB cust relations to send one, they will probably tell you they cannot do this, but I understand this is not true, and they can organise a FSM visit if they wish.

Anonymous · April 2, 2004, 23:30

the car is now 4 years old and i bought it privately. Can you go and buy a toyota warranty at any time then? if so, i might buy it - as soon as i start to hear a ticking or see a crack in one of the pre-cats (that's if i havn't gutted them first).

Liz · April 2, 2004, 23:55

For info the Toyota Warranty is £380.00, I got the same cover from the AA for £181.

Anonymous · April 3, 2004, 00:13

£180!! that looks like a very good deal to me! thanks Liz.