Faulty Engines
07-01-10, 05:09 AM
#1
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Faulty Engines
No recall yet due to "performing as designed." (snickers)
http://www.comcast.net/articles/fina....Japan.Toyota/
TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday about 270,000 cars sold worldwide — including luxury Lexus sedans — have potentially faulty engines, the latest quality lapse to hit the automaker following massive global recalls of top-selling models.
Japan's top-selling daily Yomiuri said in its evening edition that Toyota will inform the transport ministry of a recall on Monday. The paper cited no sources.
Toyota spokesman Hideaki Homma said the company was evaluating measures to deal with the problem of defective engines that can stall while the vehicle is moving. He would not confirm a recall was being considered.
The automaker has been working to patch up its reputation after recalling more than 8 million vehicles worldwide because of unintended acceleration and other defects.
Of the 270,000 vehicles with engine problems, some 180,000 were sold overseas and the rest in Japan. They include the popular Crown and seven models of luxury Lexus sedans.
Toyota said it has received around 200 complaints in Japan over faulty engines. Some drivers told Toyota that the engines made a strange noise.
Homma said there have been no reports of accidents linked to the faulty engines.
The automaker's shares dropped 2.3 percent to close at 3,010 yen in Tokyo on Thursday.
U.S. authorities recently slapped Toyota with a record $16.4 million fine for acting too slowly to recall vehicles with defects. Toyota dealers have repaired millions of vehicles, but the automaker still faces more than 200 lawsuits tied to accidents, the lower resale value of Toyota vehicles and the drop in the company's stock.
In the aftermath of the recalls, Congress is considering an upgrade to auto safety laws to toughen potential penalties against automakers, give the U.S. government more powers to demand a recall and push car companies to meet new safety standards.
Toyota said last week it will recall 17,000 Lexus luxury hybrids after testing showed that fuel can spill during a rear-end crash.
http://www.comcast.net/articles/fina....Japan.Toyota/
TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday about 270,000 cars sold worldwide — including luxury Lexus sedans — have potentially faulty engines, the latest quality lapse to hit the automaker following massive global recalls of top-selling models.
Japan's top-selling daily Yomiuri said in its evening edition that Toyota will inform the transport ministry of a recall on Monday. The paper cited no sources.
Toyota spokesman Hideaki Homma said the company was evaluating measures to deal with the problem of defective engines that can stall while the vehicle is moving. He would not confirm a recall was being considered.
The automaker has been working to patch up its reputation after recalling more than 8 million vehicles worldwide because of unintended acceleration and other defects.
Of the 270,000 vehicles with engine problems, some 180,000 were sold overseas and the rest in Japan. They include the popular Crown and seven models of luxury Lexus sedans.
Toyota said it has received around 200 complaints in Japan over faulty engines. Some drivers told Toyota that the engines made a strange noise.
Homma said there have been no reports of accidents linked to the faulty engines.
The automaker's shares dropped 2.3 percent to close at 3,010 yen in Tokyo on Thursday.
U.S. authorities recently slapped Toyota with a record $16.4 million fine for acting too slowly to recall vehicles with defects. Toyota dealers have repaired millions of vehicles, but the automaker still faces more than 200 lawsuits tied to accidents, the lower resale value of Toyota vehicles and the drop in the company's stock.
In the aftermath of the recalls, Congress is considering an upgrade to auto safety laws to toughen potential penalties against automakers, give the U.S. government more powers to demand a recall and push car companies to meet new safety standards.
Toyota said last week it will recall 17,000 Lexus luxury hybrids after testing showed that fuel can spill during a rear-end crash.
07-01-10, 08:38 AM
#5
Lexus Champion
07-01-10, 11:15 AM
#6
^^^^Nope - It's a valve spring issue caused by a faulty robot.
Lou
The auto maker has found a problem with the valve spring of 4.6 liter V8 engines and 3.5 liter V6 engines installed in the Lexus LS460, Lexus LS600h, Lexus LS600hL, Lexus GS350, Lexus GS450h, Lexus GS460 and Lexus IS350 and the Toyota Crown.
The problem could cause the engine to stall, the Toyota spokeswoman said.
Of the 270,000 vehicles powered by the affected engines, 90,000 were sold in Japan and the rest overseas.
Toyota has received 200 complaints about the engine problem, the spokeswoman said, and no related accidents have been reported.
There is a set of robots that assemble these engines. In late 2007/early 2008, one of the robots was found to be out of adjustment, such that when it installed the spring, it scraped it and caused a “score” mark on it. That small score mark created a weak point that can cause a failure of the spring after thousands of cycles.
By the time they discovered the adjustment problem, a large number of engines had been assembled and put into cars, which had been shipped out over the world. It was not known if it would be a problem or not, nor when it might result in a failure, so Lexus had to deal with it when/if a spring failed. IOW, on a case-by-case basis. It wasn’t practical to recall a ton of engines just because a spring “might” someday fail.
The problem could cause the engine to stall, the Toyota spokeswoman said.
Of the 270,000 vehicles powered by the affected engines, 90,000 were sold in Japan and the rest overseas.
Toyota has received 200 complaints about the engine problem, the spokeswoman said, and no related accidents have been reported.
There is a set of robots that assemble these engines. In late 2007/early 2008, one of the robots was found to be out of adjustment, such that when it installed the spring, it scraped it and caused a “score” mark on it. That small score mark created a weak point that can cause a failure of the spring after thousands of cycles.
By the time they discovered the adjustment problem, a large number of engines had been assembled and put into cars, which had been shipped out over the world. It was not known if it would be a problem or not, nor when it might result in a failure, so Lexus had to deal with it when/if a spring failed. IOW, on a case-by-case basis. It wasn’t practical to recall a ton of engines just because a spring “might” someday fail.
07-01-10, 11:25 AM
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No problem, let's see how they treat their customers as they take care of it. Will they be able to replace the valve springs without removing the cylinder head? Use compressed air through the spark plug hole to hold the valves in the closed position as they remove/replace the valves.
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07-01-10, 02:55 PM
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I'm hoping the same too.... the diesel engine noise, the engine vibration at idle too (Althought I have heard every excuse from 3 different dealers - "the frame twists on the car when it is stopped and that causes the vibration", "the winter fuel mix causes the engine to run rough", "they all idle rough, it's just the characteristic of the engine", "it's designed that way so that it uses less fuel when it idles"..... Even the TSB on the active motor mount didn't fix it. Although it has never stalled, it certainly comes close at times.
07-01-10, 04:08 PM
#9
Back in 2006, the service manager told me that the diesel engine noise was the "direct fuel injection". Made him write it on the service order from 11/06. Then the transmission went around Thanksgiving time of 2006.
07-01-10, 05:26 PM
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engine noise
If your noise in a low end knock like my RX350 has its not a lifter noise. Its a piston slap. What they did was make the piston skirt smaller to get a few more miles per gallon from the engine they use most is350,rx350 & es350. As the engine warms up the piston expands the noise goes away, well most of the noise goes away. To make the cafe standards they are trying to offset there larger gas guzzlers high end vehicles by making their more affordable cars get a few more miles per gallon. I worked my way up from the shop foreman to the district field rep. At the end of the day I was told by Lexus USA if I could not get over the noise to get buy something else. We are now looking at Audi & Benz.
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