A Tale of Woe - Pre cat failure????

[Anonymous]

I have just got to get this off my chest after 3 months of poor service from toyota Cambridge.  Apologies for the length but this has been going for a while now.

It starts the week before 20 April when an engine warning illuminated on the dashboard on the way into work one morning, checking this out it recommends getting the car into garage ASAP and the car was duly booked in.

After looking at the car the diagnosis was an oxygen sensor was at fault, therefore a new one was ordered and the car was given back told to us being told it was fine to drive.  It was also booked in for a service at the due period.

Two days later the car sounded like a bag of nails and was not particularly responsive.  After a couple of days of pleading with Toyota to have another look the car was dropped off on the 20th April.

I have not seen my car since!!!! (As of 19th July)

Less than a week after having the car in for an engine fault and virtually giving it a clean bill of health they now decided it needs a new engine!!!

Due to the car being under warranty (just) they needed the approval of toyota warranty to go ahead with work.

...6 weeks later after no progress and regular unreturned phone calls I wrote to the after sales director of toyota UK + cambridge about the crap service.  I was promptly rung by the after sales manager telling me that the warranty people deny ever hearing from Cambridge Toyota (which they also said in writing to me).

However the reason for the new engine - no oil, and the guy from toyota makes it sound like he's doing me a favour by getting a new engine in this car under the warranty.

Fortunately my girlfriend got talking to a guy in a petrol station about why she was always driving the courtesy car and filling up with a £5 every time.  He told us what was wrong with our MR2 and that we were not the only people affected.

On further conversations with toyota they have not got  a clue why the engine oil has gone from full to less than empty in 2000 miles, and could not comment on whether the pre cats had caused the engine / oxygen sensor failure (" I'm er, er new here"!!).

But get this - the manager told us the car would use 1ltr every 1000 miles F*** Me its only got 36500 miles on it.

After finally getting the engine in they decided to wait 3 weeks (despite us phoning regularly) to tell us they could not road test it due to the rear tyres needing replacing.

The situation now is that the oxygen sensor is still playing up (they have not replaced the pre-cats) and all the alloys have blistered (all four were replaced in June 03) but they are refusing to replace them.

Any suggestions or advice would be welcome - its nice to know we are not alone.

Mel & Rob

[Anonymous]

Hi Robfor,
Sorry about your bad luck.

If the Toyota Shop didn't replace the cats when they replaced the engine tell them to go ahead and order you another one (others have had this problem too....check out what has been said about this on spyderchat as well as this website). Hope everything works out alright.

[Anonymous]

I'd get medieval on their ass.   s:evil: :evil: s:evil:  

First off, I'll assume you've tried being nice and polite with them. After the length of time they've had your car, I think that it's gonw way past politeness time.

Arrange a meeting with the Manager of the Cambridge branch (or wherever your car is): I don't mean just pop in on the off chance, I mean speak to the actual bloke himself and sort out a proper full-on sit down meeting.

Take evry last bit of paperwork you've got with you (including the dates of any phonecalls made) and make him sit there while you go through the whole saga. It doesn't matter if he's heard any/all of it before, as the longer you can make him sit there and listen to all the crap you've gone through, the more chance he'll feel a bit of sympathy with you. Don't let him interrupt, either.

Finish your 'speech' with something along the lines of "I'm pretty certain that if you were in my position, you'd be both furious and curious about this whole issue. My car was in warranty when the engine went, you've acknowledged this, and yet nothing seems to have been done. I'd like you to tell me personally what you're going to do about it."

That'll probably make him sit up and take notice. Let hime make his next few points (just nod a bit), and then ask him if he thinks that it's acceptable that a car that has only done 36500 miles should be using 1litre of oil per 1000 miles. Ask him if he would accept that from his car.


Keep pushing it like that: ask him what he'd do in your position, and he'll have to reply honestly, or he'll sound like a twat. If he does, question him as to why he'd find whatever acceptable.

Finally, before you leave the place, make him give you a copy of everything you've discussed, and the remedy, and get him to sign it, with you counter-signing it. My guess is things will start moving pretty rapidly. If they don't come back and let us know.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Damn that is some serious bad service by the sounds of it.

As said above, if they've replaced the engine without replacing the precats chances are the engine is gonna get borked again in no time flat.  Basically (as I understand it) little pieces of the precat are sucked into the engine and destroy it.

There's a massive thread on the sticky about it.  Might be a good idea to print it off and take it to them, as it sounds like they're clueless.

[Liz]

Without wishing to sound like a wet blanket, would rather not that the name of the club is used as part of an argument with Toyota.  Ekona has the right idea - sit down - make an appointment and get it sorted once and for all whilst you are there.  I done that over something on my car and it got sorted out.  Good Luck.