Avensis 2.0 2016 Fuel, Front Seats and Vibration

[bigpace]

Hi All

Thanks for your comments on the seats.   My issue is more of a flaw with the seat - the second stitch line on the seat base; the stitch line at the rear of the seat.   Unlike the stitch line at the front there is no support, at least on my seat, on the second stitch line.   The means the stitch line acts like a tight piece of string and constantly moves when I'm driving.

It's actually getting worse and not only is it uncomfortable it’s extremely distracting, not ideal when you need to be fully focused on driving the car.

I might be the only one experiencing this; it might just be my seat, although the passenger seat has the same flaw, but the seat in not as described in the brochure, not fit for purpose and is certainly faulty.

Toyota continue to give me the brush-off but I'm determined to pursue this.   I’m getting legal advice from a lawyer next week 

Also, for info I have the heated seats but not sure if that would make a difference

I've attached a photo - the red line shows the 2nd stitch line on the front seat.   Ignore the green area - the Toyota technician highlighted the wrong area in the report to Toyota.   Even when I pointed out to customers services that the wrong area of the seat had been looked at, they weren't interested.

[revband]

Having looked at this picture, I have just been out and checked mine in the same area and it does have both the stitch  lines as yours but pressing around the area does not show any problem, have you checked other Avensis seats at the dealer to see if they are like yours?.

[bigpace]

Wow - that was quick - thanks

I sat in a BE plus in the showroom but I really couldn't tell without driving it.   I asked Toyota if they could arrange a test drive in another Excel grade, which they said they could but my local dealer doesn't have that grade currently in stock.  Besides, customers services told me that even if I did/didn't find the same issue, they still weren't going to do anything about it.

I also suggested getting an independent report, offering to pay but again they said that wouldn't change anything.

Plus, they told me if I got anybody else to fix it that would potentially have a bearing on the warranty.

I know it's not just me as my wife is complaining about it now but perhaps it's only my car or a bad batch of seat bases or even because the seats are heated?

Whatever the case, one thing is for sure - I'm totally disgusted by the response from Toyota.   As far as I can tell they didn't road test the car, the wrong area was reported in the report - they didn't re-investigate.   They deny there is a problem - how - by a visual check of another Avensis seat, that is "it's look the same".   They will not give me a copy of the full report.   

Sorry for ranting.

 

 

 

[revband]

The odd rant does you good, I'm guilty as well recently.

I have now done my own under warranty repair on my car and need to ring the dealer to cancel with them, the wheel arch liner is held in with clips the push through type and they are a loose fit allowing the liner to hang down about 5mm cured by removing clips and putting a 9mm O ring on the clips and refitting, another design error?. Also the two bolts in the bonnet catch striking plate had been left loose.

[Ivan Petkov]

Hmm Bigpace I don't know if it's the angle of the picture but I find your seat very different. Your seat actually looks more right to me lol. I'll upload a pic tomorrow. The area where the perforated leather ends is much higher on mine. 

[Ivan Petkov]

It's probably the angle. But today I had to readjust the lumbar support again. It holds up to 4-5 days and then when I feel awful pain in the legs and the back I know that it has to be readjusted again :/.

[Ivan Petkov]

Hey, bigpace what's happening with your seats? Haven't heard from you in a while. Probably fixed your issue? Would be nice if you share man.

[bigpace]

Hi Ivan

Sorry but I'm still trying to sort this out with customer services.   Your complaint is different from mine, my seat issue is with the base not the lumbar area.   Have you taken the car to your local dealership?

[Ivan Petkov]

I will, soon! I'm still trying to figure out what is my issue with. Sometimes I think the base is sinking to much and that's why my lumbar support pushes me way too high. It's a really a difficult issue to explain. For instance when I tilt the back of the seat so the angle of it becomea 90 degrees I feel the support just fine but obviously it's impossible to drive like that because you feel a lot of pressure on your joints and stomach. This last segment of the base is very weird I don't think that there are a lot of seats which have such a large flat area. You know parallel to the ground. It's not supposed to be like that and it should be more firmer and keep you from sinking down to the point where your waist has nothing press against to. By the way a lot of plastic squeeking came up last days. It's coming from behind the vents of the passanger area and it goes continuously when driving on uneven roads. I was thinking of waiting another month because I  will go to the official dealer to swap into summer tyres anywat but I might be heading erlier up there.

[Ivan Petkov]

I hope that there is some objective diagnostics for the seat but unfortunately the odds are pretty low on that!

[Alan1234]

On 7 January 2017 at 10:43 PM, revband said:

I have to say that I do feel it is a daft system to have when the fuel warning light comes on with the tank still around one third full, it just means to get a decent tank range you need to do some mental arithmetic. That is something I can live with but I would be happier without it.

Having owned Toyota's since 1975 when one of my friends took the dealership I have lost count of how many I have had in those years but it will be around 30 new cars, I definitely think that the build quality has gone  down in the past 10 or so years.

 One thing you have to remember your dealing with a common rail diesel furling system that runs at constant eye watering pressures , now say you only have a 5 litres reserve and you go oh my I didn't realise I was that low on fuel and your doing 80mph on the motorway your high pressure and low pressure fuel pump system runs dry , you can kiss goodbye to the high pressure one . This is the reason behind them building the warning system idiot proof no offence mean't . I am a engineer working on forklift machines running newer common rail systems and idiot forklift drivers love running them dry and the boss hates paying for new pumps saying why can't it **** down on low fuel level . which they do now by going into crawl limp mode . 

[revband]

Yes Alan I do understand but 18lt or around 4gal in reserve?, that's nearly a third full, My previous three cars have been diesel Avensis with a far smaller reserve, around 8/9lt and never had any problem as that is more than enough. Unless you are a total idiot.

[Heidfirst]

was reading a review on an American site of a Toyota & 1 of the things that they did not like was the overgenerous "low fuel" warning - so it appears that it is not just Toyota Europe.

[Alan1234]

I too find the reserve a bit excessive I filled the wife's car this morning and only got 47ltrs in hers is a avensis 2012 2.2 and she gets 450 to the fuel light coming on with a mix 10 miles A roads and 10 miles motorway each way to work . We also only put in Shell v power diesel . Her old focus 07 petrol auto only did 26-30 mpg at best so she thinks the diesel is awesome lol . She has leather seats in hers and I've just driven 200 miles all motorway today in it traveling to Doncaster from south area and it's only dropped two bars on the fuel guage mpg thingy says 48.7 mpg but I was just cruising at 70-80. I must admit her seats are very comfy compared to my new transit van which is awefully hard with no lumbar support. I Hope you get all your problems sorted out as in a few years I was thinking of trading in for a newer model avensis or rav 4 . 

[Heidfirst]

put 46.5l in mine yesterday (Shell Vpower) with the range countdown showing 30+ miles, no low fuel light on. Mind you the forecourt was sloping so possibly might have squeezed a drop more in if it was on the level.

[Wheelie1978]

On 31 January 2017 at 10:12 AM, revband said:

Yes done under warranty FOC, Toyota know about the problem and this is a newly revised modification with a heater inside they had to remove the headlining to install the new wiring.

So I had my Avensis in to the dealer for the TSS modification, the heater was installed and I haven't seen a whisper of an issue since. However today whilst travelling on dual carriageway with cruise control on the car judders as if it lost revs or as if I had braked at random. I then noticed that cruise control was no longer active. Weirdly I couldn't activate it, the speed limiter would work but no cruise control. 20 minutes later the dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree and a message saying "check parking brake system" appears. 

I pulled into a nearby supermarket, applied the handbrake (epb) and all was good. I opened the door tried to push the car and the handbrake stood firm. I turned off the car, handbrake was still good so I continued travelling. Cruise control was now active again. Later in the journey stopping at roadworks on a downward slope I applied the epb and all was good. 5 minutes later at my destination I stopped turned off the engine and got out, to have the car start rolling forward , the handbrake had failed to apply.

I am now 160 miles from home and need to see if a local dealer can look at the vehicle tomorrow. The car isn't even a year  old yet. Anyone experience anything like this. I'm wondering if it's linked to the electrics and the safety sense mod.

 

 

[revband]

I think is you do a forum search, there were a few people complaining about the brake not coming on automatically around 2012/3 and Toyota didn't want to know.

[Heidfirst]

Toyota changed the behaviour of the EPB with the MY2012 facelift so that it should comes on automatically when you switch the engine off. It sounds like Wheelie may have a module or possibly connection failure though.

I doubt that it is related to the TSS work, just a coincidence.

Hopefully the system will retain any codes generated & the dealer can read them.

[revband]

I would agree with that re the TSS, if memory serves I recall on the early ones some people even complained of their cars being damaged due to the non application/self release of the brake, with Toyota blaming customer error.

The complaints did seem to stop appearing on here, I hope this is not a return of the problem because as I said Toyota seemed to just dismiss the problem.

[Wheelie1978]

2 hours ago, Heidfirst said:

Toyota changed the behaviour of the EPB with the MY2012 facelift so that it should comes on automatically when you switch the engine off. It sounds like Wheelie may have a module or possibly connection failure though.

I doubt that it is related to the TSS work, just a coincidence.

Hopefully the system will retain any codes generated & the dealer can read them.

So the local Toyota dealer where I am for the next 24 hrs kindly looked at the car this morning. They have diagnosed an EGR valve fault and said it needs replacing. All warning lights were off though when I drove to them today. They have not cleared the codes so that my local dealer can see them when I get the car to them. 

The kicker is that the technician said the issue is likely to-reoccur when cruising on the motorway. I have a wedding to get to and then a 200+ mile trip home with the knowledge that the car may go into limp home mode. It's 11 months old with under 9000 miles on the clock!

I called my local dealer to book it in and the part is not available until the end of the first week in March. They do not know what to advise. I wish I had never bought the car.

[Heidfirst]

I wouldn't have thought that an EGR problem would cause the failure to set the EPB (the cc kicking out etc., yes). What did they say about the EPB?

[Heidfirst]

2 hours ago, revband said:

I would agree with that re the TSS, if memory serves I recall on the early ones some people even complained of their cars being damaged due to the non application/self release of the brake, with Toyota blaming customer error.

On the original T27 the EPB had to be manually set hence I imagine why for the facelift they changed it to automatically applied when engine switched off.

[revband]

7 minutes ago, Heidfirst said:

On the original T27 the EPB had to be manually set hence I imagine why for the facelift they changed it to automatically applied when engine switched off.

Yes my previous 2011 model had a manual operated brake, it was the later automatic one which was getting the complaints.

I had a problem with my MAF sensor a few days ago which was just a connector which someone had not fully pushed home this gave me a list of on dash displays including the check parking brake. the auto operation stopped working as did the engine auto stop start it seems when the ECU gets a fault code it does as Devon Aygo said in a recent post regarding a different model but I guess these react the same.

Quote " the car will spot it and trigger a fault code the reason EML, VSC & TRC come on is they are all interconnected so when the EML triggers and the car goes into limp mode the car goes into a basic engine running function the VSC & TRC ECU's see this and do the same as the Engine ECU is no longer giving them the info they require."

[Wheelie1978]

4 hours ago, revband said:

Yes my previous 2011 model had a manual operated brake, it was the later automatic one which was getting the complaints.

I had a problem with my MAF sensor a few days ago which was just a connector which someone had not fully pushed home this gave me a list of on dash displays including the check parking brake. the auto operation stopped working as did the engine auto stop start it seems when the ECU gets a fault code it does as Devon Aygo said in a recent post regarding a different model but I guess these react the same.

Quote " the car will spot it and trigger a fault code the reason EML, VSC & TRC come on is they are all interconnected so when the EML triggers and the car goes into limp mode the car goes into a basic engine running function the VSC & TRC ECU's see this and do the same as the Engine ECU is no longer giving them the info they require."

That's pretty much what the Toyota technician said. The misfire/judder when driving which temporarily knocked out the cruise control was probably the EGR getting stuck/blocked etc. Then this caused an engine management issue which lights up the dashboard and overrides all other fault codes and causes the weird parking brake message as the computer is not getting all the correct info.

The parking brake has been checked and is working, he said to apply it manually and not trust the brake to automatically apply when turning off the ignition until the part is replaced. 

The car has driven fine today including two trips on the M6 without issue. However not looking forward to a long trip tomorrow with extended motorway driving. 

[revband]

I am really sorry you have this problem the only thing on the plus side is that this model just seems to put the lights on but keeps going, the earlier ones lost all power until you stopped and restarted the engine, now that could be dangerous.