Gen 7 Oil Prob - Just Bought Car

[wafers]

Hi guys, I'm new! Bit of advice needed if poss please....

I have had a gen 5 gt4RC and gen 6 GT, and my father parted with his readies yesterday to buy a Y plate 140 Gen 7 VVTI.

It has 55k on the clock, with full yota dealer history. It is immaculate overall, and he bought it privately from a trader on eBay (no warranty tho as he is a private trader).

However, following it yesterday, I noticed a puff of smoke occasionally from the exhaust, seemed to be when he coasted downhill, and put his foot on the gas at the bottom (valve stem seals I thought)....

He announced this morning that it 'made a tapping sound' for about 60 secs when driving it from cold.

He has managed to get in contact with the previous (1 owner from new) owner, who says that the car used to 'need topping up with oil quite often'.

I have since found this site, and read a lot on oil probs with vvti's. I also noted the post which said about notifying dealer if you have a fsh vvti with this problem.

Does this mean the dealer can recall the car, and repair potential engine probs free?

He has spent good money on the car, and bought it in good faith. My brother and myself will be gutted and will feel partially responsible if he has to fork out for a load of engine work - what's the crack?

Thanks in anticipation - much appreciated!

[T600]

Welcome.

I think he's probably in luck. I've heard of Toyota replacing the short engine free of charge on cars up to 7 years old (and that was last year) so should include this car. The criteria are that you need to have FTSH and prove high oil consumption (1l per 1000km I think?).

If I were him I'd be checking the service history really is complete, and then be calling the nearest dealer on Tuesday to arrange to get them to look at the car.

BTW - it's not a recall as such because not all cars are affected. Rather you contact your dealer and see whether they will speak to Toyota about getting the work done at Toyota's expense. Remember this is good business for the dealers, so if your car is affected then it's in the dealer's interest to help you on this.

[wafers]

Welcome.

I think he's probably in luck. I've heard of Toyota replacing the short engine free of charge on cars up to 7 years old (and that was last year) so should include this car. The criteria are that you need to have FTSH and prove high oil consumption (1l per 1000km I think?).

If I were him I'd be checking the service history really is complete, and then be calling the nearest dealer on Tuesday to arrange to get them to look at the car.

BTW - it's not a recall as such because not all cars are affected. Rather you contact your dealer and see whether they will speak to Toyota about getting the work done at Toyota's expense. Remember this is good business for the dealers, so if your car is affected then it's in the dealer's interest to help you on this.

Hi T600, thanks very much for the help. I will give him a buzz in a mo and get him to check the paperwork. Sounds like there could be a small light at the end of the tunnel!

[ReaperGFX]

does this problem affect all pre face lift celicas or just a certain batch

[wafers]

Damn! Just spoken to him, and it has full service history, but only the 20k service was done by Toyota. The rest were done and stamped by a local non-Toyota garage.

Is it worth asking the dealer if they could do it, or am I going to be told to take a walk?

Now wondering whether it is going to be better to chase the private trader he bought it from - just worked out that in 250 miles it has consumed 500 ml of oil (was full, and now halfway on dipstick). No warranty given tho....

[Scarlett Arrow]

You don't have to have 100% TSH to make a claim for a replacement Short Engine. However the lower the percentage, yours being only 20%, the more difficult it will be to persuade Toyota GB to cover the cost. Three of the five Services so far are basically only Oil and Filter changes (10K/30K/50K) with only the 4 year/40000 being a Major that wasn't done at a Toyota Dealership.

[T600]

Reaper> I believe it potentially affects all pre-facelift VVTi cars; that's not to say all will be affected. As I understand it the oil can sludge behind one of the rings causing it to block the oilways. There's a technical document explaining this in great detail somewhere. But regular oil changes will go a long way to reducing the chances of it occurring. Beyond that, it's pot luck whether your engine gets it.

wafers> I'd try both routes. If no warranty was given - not even a month - it sounds as if the seller may have known that the oil consumption was this high. Not sure where you'll stand with non-Toyota service history. Ordinarily proof that the necessary work has been done by someone competent should be sufficient for a warranty claim. But, in this instance Toyota are not obliged to replace engines over 3 years old; they're doing it at their own choice, so presumably can therefore set the criteria as they see fit. I guess it's worth a try, might even be worth trying more than one dealer if the first won't help, or trying Toyota directly. But your chances are much lower than they would have been with FTSH. Got to be worth pursuing though as the cost will be significant if it has to be paid for.

Good luck though; let us know how you get on.

[wafers]

Cheers T600, will keep the latest posted. Forgot to bookmark this site, and just went searching for it again, and found Celica Club UK site accidently. One hell of a lot of bitchin' going on between mods and members in the gen 7 area, needless to say this site is now firmly added to my favourites!! Thanks for all the help so far! :D

[Scarlett Arrow]

Cheers T600, will keep the latest posted. Forgot to bookmark this site, and just went searching for it again, and found Celica Club UK site accidently. One hell of a lot of bitchin' going on between mods and members in the gen 7 area, needless to say this site is now firmly added to my favourites!! Thanks for all the help so far! :D

Aren't you up for some light hearted banter then?

TOC! is the friendliest Club on the Net!

[DefiantFrog]

Here's a damn good post on what Toyota will fix under warrenty. Clicky. Use the attached PDF thats on TOC, rather than wasting CC-UK's bandwidth via the link...

You'll notice they say you need a 'good' service history to benefit from the extended warrenty claim. Looking at the PDF, they suggest that a good history means a full history, bar missing one service. Note, they make no mention of it being a Toyota history... Perhaps as long as you have the stamps in the book, you'll be ok...?

[wafers]

Here's a damn good post on what Toyota will fix under warrenty. Clicky. Use the attached PDF thats on TOC, rather than wasting CC-UK's bandwidth via the link...

You'll notice they say you need a 'good' service history to benefit from the extended warrenty claim. Looking at the PDF, they suggest that a good history means a full history, bar missing one service. Note, they make no mention of it being a Toyota history... Perhaps as long as you have the stamps in the book, you'll be ok...?

Nice one Defiantfrog, have printed this off and will read it thoroughly before calling the stealership tomorrow!

[wafers]

Cheers T600, will keep the latest posted. Forgot to bookmark this site, and just went searching for it again, and found Celica Club UK site accidently. One hell of a lot of bitchin' going on between mods and members in the gen 7 area, needless to say this site is now firmly added to my favourites!! Thanks for all the help so far! :D

Aren't you up for some light hearted banter then?

TOC! is the friendliest Club on the Net!

Sorry, didn't mean to offend! The only bit I really read was a slanging match between a mod and a member, the sort of thing that you would normally expect to be a pm. At the end of the day, we should all see eye to eye, being Toyota nutters!

[wafers]

Well, just spoken to the dealer, he is going to send a piece of paper for us to fill in, to track how much oil is used over the next 1000 miles. I explained politely that it used 500ml in 250 miles, but he said they still need the 1000mile evidence. So, we will see.....

[BenMMellor]

Cheers T600, will keep the latest posted. Forgot to bookmark this site, and just went searching for it again, and found Celica Club UK site accidently. One hell of a lot of bitchin' going on between mods and members in the gen 7 area, needless to say this site is now firmly added to my favourites!! Thanks for all the help so far! :D

Aren't you up for some light hearted banter then?

TOC! is the friendliest Club on the Net!

Sorry, didn't mean to offend! The only bit I really read was a slanging match between a mod and a member, the sort of thing that you would normally expect to be a pm. At the end of the day, we should all see eye to eye, being Toyota nutters!

yes there are some slanging matches.... most comms of this sort is done in private but in some cases it needs to be done in public (especially when the member makes it public)

[wafers]

Happy to close this topic.....

The local dealership made us do the 600 mile oil consumption test - the results were horrendous.

They then booked the car in the following week, did the work, offered a free loan car (not impressed with a Yaris!) and gave the Celica back today, with a brand spanking new bottom end. Hopefully the car will run in ok.

Well impressed with Toyota customer service from start to finish, renewed out faith in the marque.

Just like to add that you guys on here have been superb - thanks for all of the help and advice. Without this knowledge the car would probably have reached the 7 year cutoff in July, and we would have been none the wiser that anything could be done about the problem.

Cheers!!

[T600]

Result; well done wafers.

Thanks for letting us know how you got on. Useful info for anyone else who owns a 1.8 VVTi with an expensive oil habit.

[celica140sport]

i just did a trip to middlesboro around 320 miles around trip used over a litre of oil think mines abit thirsty lol although if i do numerous short jorneys i can get a litre to last about 700 miles. so ive stocked up on eBay oil! starting to wish id kept my vectra not happy

[T600]

i just did a trip to middlesboro around 320 miles around trip used over a litre of oil think mines abit thirsty lol although if i do numerous short jorneys i can get a litre to last about 700 miles. so ive stocked up on ebay oil! starting to wish id kept my vectra not happy

Do you not have service history for your car then?

[celica140sport]

only up to 30k its just about to hit 60k now i only brought it month n half ago thought it was too good to be true. im gunna say what toyota can do when i take it for its mot in a couple of weeks. if not just going to have to keep topping it up as im not prepared to for out £££ after ive just spent enough buying it. anoying this is i really love the car deffiniatly gets the girls lol :P