Low Oil Pressure Warning Light

[Jagrmeister]

Hi everyone. I hope someone here can set me straight on a problem my wife has with her 2001 Corolla 1.6 GS Auto.

She bought it 1 year ago, has done only 6000 miles (trouble free) and just took it into Toll House Toyota (Horsham) for its annual service & MOT.

Horror of horrors, the garage rang her up a couple of hours later saying the car has a major problem: no engine oil, and subsequently some expensive damage (est £1500 parts + labour). Apparently they are claiming that since we didn't open the bonnet up every week and check the oil level we have invalidated the warranty. :censor:

My reaction (to my wife) was: what about the low oil pressure warning light? - i.e. since this has obviously failed then we must be covered by the warranty - it should have lit up and we would have taken it to be looked at right away. She rang the garage and was told that Toyotas do not have an oil pressure warning light. I don't believe that for a minute and the only reason I can think for the garage acting like that is if they realise they messed up the service they did on the car before we took delivery (ie. they forgot to check the oil or lied and didn't do one at all).

BTW, we've seen no oil smoke and no leaks. Then engine has sounded a little rough the last 2 weeks but to my ears it always sounded rough compared to my VW - I've never had a Toyota so I had no benchmark to compare it to.

Can anyone confirm or deny the existance of a low oil pressure warning light on the 2001 Corolla. It sounds daft to me - I thought every car since Herbie had one.

[quiksilver]

I have a 95 corolla and it has a oil warning light on it, just a thought when you turn your ignition on does a low pressure light show?

[Twincam.GTi]

Yes they do have an oil warning light (sometimes in the shape of an engine block) or a ' ! ' sign.

However with some cars (not necessarily a Toyota) when the oil light comes on it is to late, much damage has already been done.

Personnally I think Toyota engines are quiter than VW ones so I would say your engine has been 'iffy' since you bought it if you think it sounded louder, sorry.

Dare I say this but it would appear the Garage may be 'trying it on'.

Perhaps they had some little "workexperiance" Urchin drain your oil during the service, then start the car up to move it and forget about replacing the oil until afterwards.

Don't knock it! I know a case were a garage had some young lad on the YTS and asked him to drain the oil from a car, after most of the oil drained out he proceded to start the car up. When asked why, he repied "to help force the rest of the old oil out of the engine"

[Jagrmeister]

Personnally I think Toyota engines are quiter than VW ones so I would say your engine has been 'iffy' since you bought it if you think it sounded louder, sorry.

I was thinking that myself ... it always sounded more like a diesel to me, and yes, I think they're trying to pull a fast one.

[silverrims]

sounds like the garage are bull*****ting you, i have a 2001 1.6 corolla and it definitely has an oil warning light. I also had trouble after servicing, it came back with no coolant in the resevoir despite the fact it was full the morning of the service. they tried to tell me it was a leak so i wouldnt leave the car out of my sight until they showed me where it was , which of course they couldnt. the moral , check everything before ya leave the garage.

[Tawse57]

For what it is worth, Whatcar has a very useful consumer advice section on car disputes. May be worth contacting them.

[Jagrmeister]

Update: the bill is now up to £3800 (est) :censor: of which the garage are saying the warranty will only cover £300. Toll House are sticking to their line about the warning system - they say the light will only come on if there is literally NO oil in the engine - if true that makes it completely useless, and I still don't buy it.

Picture this, I'm driving down the M-way and for whatever reason my oil starts to leak, but my warning light doesn't come on until the engine has been destroyed? Smells like something that begins with 'bull', ends with 'hit' and has an 's' in between.

I've fired off a snotty letter to Aon (the warranty people) and told them in no uncertain terms that I will escalate it to Toyota GB and litigate if necessary, not least because the cost of the repairs is likely not much different than the trade in value of the car (in mint condition).

[spwolf]

Update: the bill is now up to £3800 (est) :censor: of which the garage are saying the warranty will only cover £300.  Toll House are sticking to their line about the warning system - they say the light will only come on if there is literally NO oil in the engine - if true that makes it completely useless, and I still don't buy it.

Picture this, I'm driving down the M-way and for whatever reason my oil starts to leak, but my warning light doesn't come on until the engine has been destroyed? Smells like something that begins with 'bull', ends with 'hit' and has an 's' in between.

I've fired off a snotty letter to Aon (the warranty people) and told them in no uncertain terms that I will escalate it to Toyota GB and litigate if necessary, not least because the cost of the repairs is likely not much different than the trade in value of the car (in mint condition).

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Unfortunatly, your engine might get damaged before your oil warning check light goes on, thats why sports cars also have oil pressure gauge (it is the same thing for every other car due to the design of the engines).

However, here is the thing. If you have your car serviced properly according to Toyota (whatever the warranty book says - I assume every 12 months), same as previous owner, your warranty will still cover it. I assume you took the car to the service immediatly when you bought it, right? The fact that you say that the car sounded like an diesel might show an problem there since 1.6 units are pretty decent and definetly dont sound like any diesel I ever heard.

Nevertheless, if you have serviced your car according to your warranty rules, you should get the warranty.

I would ring up Toyota GB customer service right away, and explain them situation. I dont know why service shop isnt willing to cover you, unless they screwed something up or you didnt follow warranty checkups.

[Jagrmeister]

However, here is the thing. If you have your car serviced properly according to Toyota (whatever the warranty book says - I assume every 12 months), same as previous owner, your warranty will still cover it. I assume you took the car to the service immediatly when you bought it, right? The fact that you say that the car sounded like an diesel might show an problem there since 1.6 units are pretty decent and definetly dont sound like any diesel I ever heard.

Nevertheless, if you have serviced your car according to your warranty rules, you should get the warranty.

The car was ALLEGEDLY given a full service by Toll House Toyota right before they handed it over to us, and yes, it always made clackety noises like a diesel. We were well within the 12m/10000mi service interval (11m/6000mi), and the warranty documentation makes no reference whatsoever to DIY maintenance, nor does it refer to recommendations in the manual, so I pointed this out in my letter to Aon - IMO they're on legal thin ice because there are no generic clauses they can use to escape. If Aon don't respond by the end of this week I'm going to raise the matter with Toyta GB directly.

FYI, I just found out that Toyota reluctantly had to replace 3.4 MILLION 4 & 6 cyl engines of a similar vintage to ours in the US in 2002 because of oil-related problems. In all the cases I've read about, the warning light DID come on but the engines were all sludged up inside because they run too hot and break down the oil :o

[mytbyte]

FYI, I just found out that Toyota reluctantly had to replace 3.4 MILLION 4 & 6 cyl engines of a similar vintage to ours in the US in 2002 because of oil-related problems.  In all the cases I've read about, the warning light DID come on but the engines were all sludged up inside because they run too hot and break down the oil :o

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I had the lower part of my 1.6 engine replaced under warranty due to oil loss in the cylinders!!! When the oil lamp went on the engine had already been damaged. The noise was very grind-like (of course, there was no oil, the components grinded)...if the above is true there is a great risk for toyota's reputation...

Now the engine has developed a rattling, vibrating diesel-ish sound between 1500 and 2000 rpm which they say is probably a noisy intake manifold...jesus...

[Jagrmeister]

Great news: the Warranty company sent someone round to Toll House to inspect the car and the end result is that Toyota GB are picking up the bill themselves.

Reading between the lines, since its not the Warranty people (Aon) footing the bill they must have found the engine full of sludge (see my earlier post) - which is the result of the maufacturer specifying the wrong type of oil - a problem which has also been known to affect the VW/Audi 1.8T engine (like the one in my Bora ).

to Toyota GB for not pushing me to litigate