VVTI grief

[DriverLost]

So my brides xB RS 2.0 tosses a check engine light with 20,000 on the clock a few weeks ago. No major noticeable changes with the car, all fluids are good, new air filter. (bone stock btw)

Contact the dealer and got it in right away. The man says its the cam gear, and the pump switch. I'm like, Oh crap.
He says its no big deal, you can keep driving it untill the parts arrive, and it may run a little slower, or get bad mpg.

Well Tuesday morning I drop the box off, and hang out with Scott, my salesmen for what I thought would be a few hours.

After we had a late lunch, I go back to check on the box. No dice. two hours later, no dice. 4:30 pm rolls around and guess what. :x:

So Scott, the Scion Champ, goes to work right away, gets me a room and a nice loner car. I forgot to mention Sprigfield is about a three hour ride north of me.

Turns out this so called 1-3 hour job, is way off. A little situation going on between Toyota corp and service techs. So he says. On top of it being a major job, the timing fell off a few times when reinstalling the timing chain. :doh: A few?

I've had this happen to me a few times replacing timing belts on over head cam engines. Everthing lines up right where its supposed to be untill you adjust the belt tensioner applying tension to the belt, the cam gear turns one way, and the crank gear turns the other way. Pulling everything out of time.

Move the belt over a tooth or two and allow for the tensioner to tighten up, and your good to go.

Not so easy with the Toyota chain drive, and the adjustable cam. So the service writer says.

I think it was a classical case of of not having everything lined up corectly BEFORE you start taking it apart. But what do I know.

All I know is from 9:30 am Tuesday untill 2:30 pm Wednesday is close to 14 hours shop time. :ponder: That can only mean something went real bad for it to take that long.

[06xb30]

rob , sorry about your luck , hopefully they got it right now ..

[DriverLost]

hopefully they got it right now ..


Ya, me too. I got home and was too cashed out to go over it.

[1lowxb]

sorry to hear that..... i hope everything works out ok for you...

[firstkingofbeer]

dude that sucks man!!!! hope everything goes better!!

[dubstar2003]

Man my cam gear went out too. I had 40K on my car and the warranty was already up, but they told me it is covered until 6 year/60k miles or something like that. But when they changed the cam gear they "reccomended" that they replace 2 other parts that were in the engine, but were some reason not covered under the powertrain warranty. You would think that everything in the engine and trans is considered powertrain, so I had to dish out $180.

Then they told me I needed a new battery, because the tech said my 1 month old yellow top Optima was no good. I don't know if they left my car on for the 3 days they had it, but the week before I left it on at the drive inn movies for 3 hours with system and everything on and didn't have a problem starting and even giving the car next to me a boost.

I don't know about some of the dealers. I have had a lot of problems with the dealer F$%&'in up things on my car.

[DriverLost]

I have had a lot of problems with the dealer F$%&'in up things on my car.




I hate letting the dealer touch my car. They just don't give a crap. Its not their car, and they get paid crap on warranty jobs.

On the way home yesterday I heard a slight consistent clacking noise in the engine on the way home. very faint, but not normal.

I knew my bride who drives it all the time would tell me right away if something was different.
So I didn't say anything about it. I didn't want to plant any seeds.

She had to work last night and just called me this morning. Guess what she had to say: "It's making a funny clacking noise"

They f$%&'ed something up inside the engine. Now what!

I had a bad feeling about noon on Tuesday. I went to the car and acted like I was getting something out of it. The shop tech was a hack. He had crap all over the place.

The engine bay has pait chips all over inside. I noticed the missing bracket. All at a glance last night. I'm afraid to look closer later today.

If that was my show box I'd be so sick right now.

[fsu1dolfan]

Sounds like a fuck up job....they owe you a new box....hope things work out

[mafiamike]

Damn...my check engine light came on at about the same amount of miles. No noises or anything. Auto zone hooked up a code reader and the light went off. It hasn't come back on, but no loss of gas mileage or anything here. I dunno. Guess I should go get it checked out.

[DriverLost]

Ya I would go.
Lrae's check engine light was going on and off for a week or two, untill it just stayed on.

No real noticeable difference, just not as peppy up hills. :D Peppy, did I just say that. :rofl:

If it comes back to the cam gear and/or oil switch, make sure to get a good mechanic who know what he's doing.

The bad part is all the paint chips, he dented my core support, the missing wire bracket, missing caps on both the a/c service ports.

That's just what can be seen. :(

Who knows, a mechanic like that has probably never used a torque wrench in his life. If he's that careless about the little easy stuff, like putting all the pieces back like the factory had it.


I hate to bitch but corporate might be getting a phone call next week.

[dubstar2003]

I went straight to the service manager when they f%^ked up my shit. And ever since then if I go to the dealer they make sure my care get taken care of because they know I check my car from head to toe. But I would call corportate to let them know about their shady techs. Plus they probably send you some free goodies as hush money.

The code that it gave me when I took it to autozone I think was P0020 so if anyone get this code then it is more than likely the vvti cam gear

[BrideOfFrankenscion]

Damn Rob. If you get pissed enough you want to bring it to Tulsa instead of Springfield, you got a place to stay. :wink:

[BrideOfFrankenscion]

edit - double post

[shorberg]

just got your mail bro.

at least this gave me a reason to sign on this msg board, lol.

all right. what we need to do is find out what the problem is obviously. i can already hear gene meyle (the service manager) say "well when can he bring it in?" you are hearing a weird sound and there are parts missing is what i am gathering . . .

sooooooooooo . . . . since i know nothing about engines or cam gears or anything (i nkow that's terrible right?) but i do know your car is supposed to work.

call me when you can and let me know what we need to do. I am going to forward this topic to gene, he never checks his email, but i will send it to him anyway, lol.

ok, on with sunday. and btw, we are totally down for a pool party with animals on grills and beers in hands . . . lets set it up! I can grab some of that meat from the Harter House place we grabbed lunch at!

[DriverLost]

I've been doing a big job in Branson the past two days, I need to get over there and finish it up today before it gets to freekin hot.
Lrae's been driving it, and the upper end noise is less. Maybe the new part needed to break in. I hope that"s all it is.

I haven't had time to ask her about it, and she doesn't know about all this other stuff, like parts missing. She doesn't need to know............yet.

[whatmovesu]

I'm now scared my car idles rough and gets bad gas mileage it to is stock. fortunately I don't have a three hour drive. Love the black letter on your handle TVMFIC.

[DriverLost]

If its the cam it will toss a light.


Love the black letter on your handle TVMFIC.

Ya thanks, My boss picked that out for me :rofl2:

[FrankenScion]

If its the cam it will toss a light.


Love the black letter on your handle TVMFIC.

Ya thanks, My boss picked that out for me :rofl2:

:up:


And it's SMFIC. 8)

[whatmovesu]

SMFIC ????

sexual mother fucker in charge???

[FrankenScion]

Second!

[whatmovesu]

Oh :oops: I am such a dumbass. Makes sense.