New car problems

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 18:04

Hi, nicely new to this board as I'm new to owning an MR2 roadster.

Well, what problems I've had!

I swapped the MR2 for my car, straight swap, no problems. The previous owner said it was running fine and was topped up with water & oil, fibber! So, I drove it the 80 miles home from Chester, and the oil light flashed on roundabouts, I thought, oh must be low, but its not on constant, so I'll grab some oil at work the next day. I then parked it at my dads for a few hours, picked it back up and back on the motorway home, where the engine got louder & louder and I lost power above 3k rpm. I wanted to pull over in a well lit spot, 300 yards before then, the engine stopped. The AA came out, and went straight for the dipstick, bone dry. So he tried to rock the car to turn the engine, nothing. It had seized.

Anyway, after this bad luck, and through recommendations of the AA man, I found a place that would put a new engine in (at a cost of £920, car picked up and fitted). Great. So, its been there a week and I called yesterday, where they said the engine is in, but it wont fire, as the ECU had also gone (they said they ran diagnostics), so I said they could get it inspected to see if fixable. So I spoke to them today, and they said it is, at a cost of £250.

What I want to ask is, would the ECU blow from this kind of problem.

Thank you for taking the time to read, if you have.

Cooki

Anonymous · October 9, 2012, 18:08

Sounds like nonsense,I have never heard of the ECU going on one of these.

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 18:10

Quote from: "life of bryan"Sounds like nonsense,I have never heard of the ECU going on one of these.

With this kind of problem?

Anonymous · October 9, 2012, 18:14

I don't see the connection that would make the ECU blow.

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 18:20

Nor could I, I need to find out the full explanation as to why. Thanks

Anonymous · October 9, 2012, 18:42

Sounds a bit like a scam,what's the name of the company changing your engine?

mrzwei · October 9, 2012, 18:54

Just for clarification, is it a 'new' engine (usually a half engine), a re-con engine, or another engine from a breaker? If the latter, from what car?
As said, the ECU will seldom be the issue; you won't find any evidence of this on here following engine failure, basically they are 'plug and play'.
This is difficult but the AA have some responsibility.

I think I would try to get them to say exactly what the problem with the ecu is and ask how they got it checked. (There are places that do that and so would issue a report).

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 18:57

m http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOYOTA-CELICA ... 416bf84c23 m

Is what I found, and called

Anonymous · October 9, 2012, 19:03

They seem to be a breakers and have no feedback on engines so is this a new venture with breakers not mechanics trying to fit engines?

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 19:06

I read down and says all engines remain property of 247 car clinic until paid for, this is their website m http://www.247carclinic.co.uk/ m

loadswine · October 9, 2012, 19:09

If its not firing up, then a missed or bad earth connection would be my first thing to look for. I'd be very surprised if it actually was the ecu.

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 19:11

Whats annoying is I need my car tomorrow (they've had it a week, had a hire car for a week but thats gone back) I said on the phone, they could do the work with the ecu. Been screwed...?

loadswine · October 9, 2012, 19:16

Well, if they've changed your ecu, it will be interesting to see if they have done anything to your original key, as the immobiliser in the ecu and key fob transponder are linked. Unless, of course it is an import and has none.

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 19:17

They said they are repairing the original ECU. At £250, seems very steep

loadswine · October 9, 2012, 19:21

Toyota ecus, apart from being very robust, are not reprogrammable by anyone I've ever known of, on the Roadster anyway. Be very intrigued to know exactly what they have done and indeed what was wrong with the original.
Welcome to the club anyway, sorry to hear of your opening experience with the 2.

Anonymous · October 9, 2012, 19:23

Sorry but this just sounds like another rip off garage. If I was you looking at your location tell them to remove the engine and get matt to pick up your car and old engine and have him do the work.

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 19:24

I will find out full details in the morning, and report back. But its going to set me back a nice £1200, on the plus side, the engine should last!

Thanks for the induction, wanted to join the roadster owners club for a long while, just took me a while to find one (which I thought) was good enough!

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 19:25

Quote from: "rbuckingham"Sorry but this just sounds like another rip off garage. If I was you looking at your location tell them to remove the engine and get matt to pick up your car and old engine and have him do the work.

Who is Matt? Sorry, new here! Thanks for your reply

spit · October 9, 2012, 19:33

The ECU isn't strictly a serviceable item. What are they proposing? Are they re-flashing it? I don't think that can be done on our ECU (could be wrong, although I see that's the concensus from others posting here).

I think you need more info from them about what they're up to, and you should get receipts for any 'specialist' work that is being commissioned at your expense. I very much doubt they'll be able to produce anything valid.

If this isn't an out-&-out money con, or the insanely unlikely truth that your lunched engine decided to kill the ECU, maybe they're trying to mask something that hasn't gone to plan during the engine swap?

It all sounds a tad fishlike. s:? :? s:?

Oh, and side-note, get written confirmation of the engine swap with engine number - you'll need it to update your reg docs.

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 19:39

Thanks for that reply ^^

Unfortunately I am unsure as to what they are proposing. I called Monday, they said the engine was all in, but when they tried to start it there was nothing. So they ran it through diagnostics and that came back that there was an issue with the ECU. They said that they couldn't diagnose the problem there, but would send it to someone who could run tests on it (at a cost of £40), as to whether it was completely frazzled, or repairable. Its come back that its repairable, so they said it would cost 250 to repair. What they are repairing, I don't know. Whats to repair?

They have said all work they have done will include invoices & receipts.

Thanks for the advice also with the engine number, I'd never have thought that, as I've never had one before.

normanh · October 9, 2012, 19:42

This in all honesty has a very strong fishy odour to it just based on the price of the engine alone - how can they do a recon for what £595 very suspious and the ECU repair well! I wondering whether they have tried to bodge up your old unit?

norman

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 19:44

Quote from: "normanh"This in all honesty has a very strong fishy odour to it just based on the price of the engine alone - how can they do a recon for what £595 very suspious and the ECU repair well! I wondering whether they have tried to bodge up your old unit?

norman

595 + 250 fitting

normanh · October 9, 2012, 19:48

Still too cheap when you price up the parts like shells, pistons, regrind crank and rebore and then not forgeting a full engine gasket set and I havent even touched the recon labour costs. I am a little out of touch lately but my brother was in the trade for the best part of 30 years so I have some inside info on this.

norman

PS check the engine numbers when you get it back finally, if its a replacement I would lay money on it being a 2nd hand unit with a splash of silver spray paint, I hope not but there are a lot of dodgy folks out there!"

simers · October 9, 2012, 19:49

Matt performance on here is the man to deal with when it comes to engines etc... Send him a pm and have a chat with him.... A full engine rebuild 2 months ago cost me 1200€ so can't see that engine bein rebuilt for 595 and fitted at 250 extra.... Sounds seriously dodgy...
Welcome to the site

Cooki · October 9, 2012, 19:53

It appears that I've been so far duped by the too good to be true rule. No doubt they are adding costs to make their money back from the cheap cost of the engine. awesome