Door crack on 2012 Avensis Tourer!!

[Heidfirst]

Car had it's paint measurement this afternoon so we shall see how long it takes for Toyota to come back with a decision. Dealer staff seem positive that it will be approved so here is hoping!

[revband]

My previous car was a February 2011 registered 2.2 tourer and this problem reared its ugly head in January this year 2016, the dealer denied any knowledge of the problem but said the Toyota technical rep was coming the next day and they would ask him about it, the technical rep also denied knowledge and said he would ask his manager when he got back.

It rather looks like Toyota are doing their best to hide the problem but my outcome was good and both front doors were replaced under guarantee.

The door straps were definitely modified, the original ones when opening the door came to a full stop at the end, the modified ones reached a point where they checked the door but you could push the door past this point and it came back as if spring loaded and put no strain on the door metal, my new Avensis is the same, so the problem has been addressed by Toyota.

 

[estate]

5 hours ago, revband said:

The door straps were definitely modified, the original ones when opening the door came to a full stop at the end, the modified ones reached a point where they checked the door but you could push the door past this point and it came back as if spring loaded and put no strain on the door metal, my new Avensis is the same, so the problem has been addressed by Toyota.

When do you think they were modified to fix the problem Dennis?

I got the impression, reading other members posts that the problem was supposedly fixed when the 2011/12 face-lift models were introduced and as my car is a early 2012 model my thoughts were, that if there was a fix then, it didn't work. But your post makes me now believe that there wasn't a fix to the problem, until much later. 

My concern is the passenger door will crack as well, after the warranty has expired.  

[revband]

I don't know when they were modified but if the door reaches a stop when opened and does not a spring back then it is the unmodified type, Both my doors were replaced but I could only see the drivers door had the crack.

[Heidfirst]

4 hours ago, estate said:

My concern is the passenger door will crack as well, after the warranty has expired.  

Agreed, apparently the first thing that the bodyshop manager at my dealer said to the reception staff when asked about my car was "check the passenger door as well" ...

My car rarely has a passenger so little passenger door use hence not (yet) showing signs on that door.

[estate]

When I book it in for the door replacement next year, I'll get the Body Shop manager to give the passenger door a thorough inspection, Scott.

[estate]

Not good news about my car.

My vehicle was taken to a local Toyota approved body shop, by the dealership on Monday to replace the door, however got a call from the dealership on Thursday to inform me that my vehicle has been involved in an accident and as a result the damage to the car is probably too expensive to repair and it will probably be an insurance write-off.  

The Toyota body shop manager took me to see my vehicle at the body shop and as expected the damage was severe. A 3.5L Porsche was being driven into the garage and the engine throttled up and stuck on full power and went out of control and rammed the passenger side of my car and pushed the rear end of the car into a Mercedes car, parked alongside of it.

The owner of the body shop was deeply embarrassed and was full of remorse. However he handled the situation extremely well and he got his insurance company to fast track the inevitable claim. Also the Toyota body shop manager was also very helpful and ensured me that I would be looked after if I want a replacement vehicle from them.

The upshot is, the insurance company paid me above the current valuation of the car and I’ve purchased a 1.8 petrol Excel Avensis and it will be delivered around mid-February.

[Heidfirst]

Sorry to hear about your car. :(

Interested to hear that you have bought a 1.8 Excel as I thought that at 1 point they had stopped offering the petrol on the top spec. - I wonder if the forthcoming VED change & the diesel NOx issue have caused a change? I suspect that I may end up with a 1.8 Tourer at some point in the future (but hopefully not for a few years yet).

Actually on VED if you take delivery in February you will pay more VED than you would if you took delivery in April. Also, I would see if you can change to 17" rims, I honestly can't recommend 18s & 45 ratio tyres.

[estate]

Thanks for your sympathy Scott. The one positive outcome is that nobody was seriously injured in the incident. 

I didn't want to wait until April for delivery of the new car, Scott and although the Toyota dealership have allowed me to keep the courtesy car until I take delivery of the new vehicle, its an Aygo!!!

The 1.8 petrol edition of the Excel must be pretty new to their stock, as its not in their brochure and I was very pleased when I noticed that it was available on their website, the sales manager was also surprised when I enquired about it, as he wasn't aware about it being available as well. So maybe your thoughts are correct, I was always confused as to why you could only get the top spec model with a diesel engine.

I didn't mind the 18" wheels on the T-Spirit, so I've kept them and as I've got a spare set of good TDi alloy wheels and tyres plus a spare, so it made sense to stick with them. Not sure what I'll do with my CD's that I play in the car, as new models don't have CD players. Guess I'll have to look at transferring them onto a memory stick now. I just though it was so easy sticking one in the player, but I must move with the times.

[Konrad C]

19 hours ago, estate said:

Not good news about my car.

 

My vehicle was taken to a local Toyota approved body shop, by the dealership on Monday to replace the door, however got a call from the dealership on Thursday to inform me that my vehicle has been involved in an accident and as a result the damage to the car is probably too expensive to repair and it will probably be an insurance write-off.  

 

The Toyota body shop manager took me to see my vehicle at the body shop and as expected the damage was severe. A 3.5L Porsche was being driven into the garage and the engine throttled up and stuck on full power and went out of control and rammed the passenger side of my car and pushed the rear end of the car into a Mercedes car, parked alongside of it.

 

The owner of the body shop was deeply embarrassed and was full of remorse. However he handled the situation extremely well and he got his insurance company to fast track the inevitable claim. Also the Toyota body shop manager was also very helpful and ensured me that I would be looked after if I want a replacement vehicle from them.

 

The upshot is, the insurance company paid me above the current valuation of the car and I’ve purchased a 1.8 petrol Excel Avensis and it will be delivered around mid-February.

 

All I say is wow!  sorry to hear about the incident. That must have been one mighty crash. 

Obviously the car is being scrapped, there are some components like the audio system, reverse camera, retractable mirrors with switch and facia, the seats, that would make good upgrade for somebody.

So you are going for a petrol which has a totally different driving characteristics. Is the car manual or auto, and is it an estate? I find pulling off a bit of an hit or miss compared to my old Mk1. Sometimes you can use low revs (just above idle), other times you have to go to 2000rpm. On the move the you have to go over 2000rpm if you need a bit of power, but it depends on the circumstances. You have a good opportunity to compare fuel consumption. You don't need to worry about EGR/DPF. Best of all, no door strap cracks.

Good luck with the new car. 

I     

[estate]

Yes Konrad, the side of the car took the full impact of an out of control on full acceleration, Porsche. It snapped the centre pillar between the two doors, but didn't really cause any damage inside the car. I was thinking of buying it off the insurance company, as you say there is some desirable parts in the car that someone would buy and the engine had only 41K on it, but decided against it.

I've opted for the 1.8 petrol/ manual version of the Excel, as they now do it in the petrol version and I think it will be a lot better that the BMW diesel version, as I don't think Toyota have been given the most reliable and latest engine from BMW, but maybe they re-engineered it. I certainly liked the performance of the 2.2 D4D engine and I felt reassure that power was there we needed. I was getting about 43MPG on long runs and about 40MPG on short ones, according to the car own calculations. I never actually calculated it.

On a different subject and I'll open a new topic on this: I've never had any of my new cars treated with the paintwork sealants that car showrooms are always trying to sell, but the Toyota ProTect with that states there is no need to wax within the five year guarantee, looks pretty good. Any thoughts?

[Heidfirst]

I suppose it comes down to how much they want for it (& how much similar would cost you elsewhere). Modern water-based paint does seem to be softer than the older oil-based paint.

[estate]

I've just posted a new topic for this Scott, it cost £399, so its not cheap.

[Heidfirst]

update on the continuing saga ...

so, after the paint depth measurements at the dealer Toyota wanted their area field service manager to see the car. A few weeks ago I was told by the dealer that he would be visiting them today & could I arrange to bring the car in for him to see? 

It's been in today, he has seen it & I have been told verbally that replacement will be approved. Now to wait for all the paperwork to be filled in, shuffled etc. etc.

[Attarren]

On 16/12/2016 at 10:43 AM, revband said:

My previous car was a February 2011 registered 2.2 tourer and this problem reared its ugly head in January this year 2016, the dealer denied any knowledge of the problem but said the Toyota technical rep was coming the next day and they would ask him about it, the technical rep also denied knowledge and said he would ask his manager when he got back.

It rather looks like Toyota are doing their best to hide the problem but my outcome was good and both front doors were replaced under guarantee.

The door straps were definitely modified, the original ones when opening the door came to a full stop at the end, the modified ones reached a point where they checked the door but you could push the door past this point and it came back as if spring loaded and put no strain on the door metal, my new Avensis is the same, so the problem has been addressed by Toyota.

 

Is your current car a late-2012 facelift or a 2015 facelift?

[revband]

2015 model BMW engine model.

[estate]

On 15/01/2017 at 10:14 AM, Konrad C said:

Best of all, no door strap cracks.

Good luck with the new car. 

I     

Had a good look at the door straps of the new car and it doesn't  look any different from the 2012 model and end stops don't appear to operate any differently. The modification to strengthen the side of the door must be in the inside of the door panelling.

 

[Alan1234]

I'll be checking mine sat morning it's a late 2012 2.2 tourer I do know it has the newer door check straps as I've just checked it in the dark . So I'll be putting on my glasses and giving it a thorough look at . 

[estate]

Alan, It can be pretty difficult to spot, but you can be sure that it doesn't matter how small the crack is, its not going to go away. Here's another photo of the crack on my March 2012, Avensis, you will most certainly need a good torch, if it's a small crack.

[Heidfirst]

mine is even smaller. will try to get a photo & upload.

[SAM LOVERS HER TOYOTAS]

We have a 2010 t4 model saloon diesel, but no sign in the slightest of any cracking,  im beginning to wonder why not since it appears to be a common issue.

Trust me im not complaining, just makes me wonder if its because the previous owner and ourselves are gentle with the doors.

[estate]

Sam, if there wasn't a problem with the doors cracking, why did they bring out a modification for them?

[revband]

They replaced both my front doors even though there was no crack that I could see on the passenger door.

[Heidfirst]

It's the same as with the AD head/head gasket issue - yes, the problem definitely exists but only in a small %.  But a small % of a vast number is still a substantial amount -  there are many hundreds of thousands of T27s in Europe so even a tiny % will still throw up quite a lot of cars e.g. if we assume for the exercise that there are 500,000 T27s & 1% have a problem that is still 5,000 cars.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Approx 56,600 Avensis have been sold in the UK between 2009 and 2015. Sales for the last four years have been averaging 5,240 per year.