Timing Chain, Pulley & Crankshaft Failure

[YarisRo]

Hello,

I'm from Romainia and I own a Toyota Yaris since 2008 (engine 2SZ-FE 1.3 / multimode).

I’ve chosen Toyota based on its reputation for producing reliable cars.

4 and a half years (and 78.000 km) later I started to think differently.

Recently the “malfunction indicator lamp” turned on so I took the car to the local Toyota dealer. I was surprised to find out that the timing chain (part code 13506-23020) along with timing chain tension plunger (part code 13545-0J010) needed to be replaced. I’ve been told that it’s quite unusual for these parts to fail at current mileage.

One week later the parts arrived and the replacement was started only to find out that crankshaft pulley (part code 13411-0J020) was broken in pieces and also needed to be replaced, along with some other parts. The bill doubled at this point.

10 days passed until these new parts arrived. Once again the replacement started only to discover new parts were broken. This time the list started with the crankshaft itself. And the bill tripled.

I asked to be told exactly how I could have used the car in such a way that would produce this kind of damage. The only reply I’ve got was that the dealer never saw such a malfunction.

To my huge surprise the dealer suggested that perhaps the pulley was not properly fixed and the other dealer that performed the last two maintenance schedules (at 60.000 and 75.000 km) could not have properly checked pulley tightening as Toyota “does not share this kind of information”. I provided official documents listing the checks performed by the other dealer.

Taking into consideration following facts:

- the dealder did not see this kind of damage till now

- the dealer could not indicate any way I could have used the car in order to produce such a damage

- maintenance schedules were performed as specified in service and warranty booklet

- the car is less than 5 years old and it was only driven 78.000km (I’ve been told the timing chain is supposed to work hundreds of thousands of kilometers)

I strongly believe this is a case of manufacturing defect.

I was wondering if this happened to anybody else...

[MEP's Yaris GS]

It does indeed sound like a manufacturing defect. Not heard of it myself before. Just hope they rectify it for you with minimal hassle and ideally for free.