Rav4 Flywheel Problems Please Help

[sharris]

Hi

I was hoping that someone could give me some advice I bought a early 2003 Rav4 from a Toyota dealer in Bishop Stoford just 20 months ago it had about 46000 on the clock when I got it and has about 67000 now, when I bought it I asked the sales adviser if these models have any ongoing issues as I'd thought about getting a freelander but didn't because of the gearbox problems that that age engine has, he told me that the Rav4 is a great car and very rarely go wrong (he also told me I wouldn't have the cost of a cam belt when I asked, as it had a chain!! I soon found out that was wrong) so I handed over my card and paid £11250 straight out for it.

Yesterday as I was doing 70mph on the A303 I suddenly lost power and the car started revving up so I pulled over and called out RAC and nearly 4 hours later I was finally towed to my local dealer (not where I bought it as I live in Somerset). Today I was told It was the flywheel and that I would need a new clutch and a take off assitant as the car doesn't have one and needs one!! the total cost £2500.

As I've now found out this is an ongoing problem that Toyota know about but I wasnt warned about even though I asked about any problems these cars might have I have spoke to the dealer I bought it from they said as it was bought over 12 months ago not there problem so I tried customer relations and was told the extended garantee of 60,000 miles or 5 years wont count for me as its 5 years and a few months.

Has anyone got any advice or ideas for me as I just can't afford the repairs, I just didn't expect to buy a car from a Toyota dealer for £11250 just to find after 20,000 miles its no good anymore and I have a massive bill.

PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!

Sophie

[bothwell_buyer]

Hi Sophie and welcome to this forum....and don't you just wish you'd visited here before now!!

Search through this forum because there is a lot on the DMF - dual mass flywheel - problem and a lot of good information on how to approach Toyota.

They may look at your problem favourably - contact them as advised in the posts earlier this year, making the points that you have made here. The £2500 seems a bit on the high side compared to what some people have found....if Toyota won't pay anything for the repair or towards the repair, then it'd be cheaper in a non-dealers.

Changing the flywheel etc is not rocket science, although that price suggests so.

Have a search using the search button in the top right, or one of our dieselly fanatics may come along and help.....

At 67,000 miles it may have needed a clutch pretty soon anyway, but not the flywheel - a recognised fault. Hopefully Toyota will agree to help. If the cars at a Toyota dealer, they should try to make a case for you.

good luck

[local hero]

Hi

I was hoping that someone could give me some advice I bought a early 2003 Rav4 from a Toyota dealer in Bishop Stoford just 20 months ago it had about 46000 on the clock when I got it and has about 67000 now, when I bought it I asked the sales adviser if these models have any ongoing issues as I'd thought about getting a freelander but didn't because of the gearbox problems that that age engine has, he told me that the Rav4 is a great car and very rarely go wrong (he also told me I wouldn't have the cost of a cam belt when I asked, as it had a chain!! I soon found out that was wrong) so I handed over my card and paid £11250 straight out for it.

Yesterday as I was doing 70mph on the A303 I suddenly lost power and the car started revving up so I pulled over and called out RAC and nearly 4 hours later I was finally towed to my local dealer (not where I bought it as I live in Somerset). Today I was told It was the flywheel and that I would need a new clutch and a take off assitant as the car doesn't have one and needs one!! the total cost £2500.

As I've now found out this is an ongoing problem that Toyota know about but I wasnt warned about even though I asked about any problems these cars might have I have spoke to the dealer I bought it from they said as it was bought over 12 months ago not there problem so I tried customer relations and was told the extended garantee of 60,000 miles or 5 years wont count for me as its 5 years and a few months.

Has anyone got any advice or ideas for me as I just can't afford the repairs, I just didn't expect to buy a car from a Toyota dealer for £11250 just to find after 20,000 miles its no good anymore and I have a massive bill.

PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!

Sophie

Unfortunately Sophie, you have fallen fowl of just about the only problem these cars have, and i am afraid once it is over the 5yrs + 60000 mls Toyota will not budge, i am not mechanical so i don't know what is meant by (a take off assistant) what i do know is that a good independent garage can replace your clutch + flywheel for about 1/2 the price you have been quoted, someone on here is doing the job his self but i would assume you would need considerable skill to do this. in any case i believe the parts cost £800+ I sympathise with you + i realise you bought it 20 mths ago but £11250 for a 2003 seems a bit on the expensive side as well 18 mths ago i was offered £6500 for an immaculate late 2002 with only 23000 mls in p.ex at my local dealer, I sold it for £9000 privately, but had a complete clutch + flywheel fitted prior to the sale P.S its still a lot, lot better than a Freelander..

[dave.m]

I think all you can do here Sophie is plead your case with Toyota as some on here have done allready and

got a discount off the bill. When you find out how much it will cost you just have to make the decision wether

to go with it or as said above get a price from an indepent garage. The discount Toyota have offered to members

on here seems to be much varied and down to individual circumstances. But have a go, youv'e nothing to lose

and a lot to gain. Good luck.

[sharris]

Bounce!

[sharris]

Hi Sophie and welcome to this forum....and don't you just wish you'd visited here before now!!

Search through this forum because there is a lot on the DMF - dual mass flywheel - problem and a lot of good information on how to approach Toyota.

They may look at your problem favourably - contact them as advised in the posts earlier this year, making the points that you have made here. The £2500 seems a bit on the high side compared to what some people have found....if Toyota won't pay anything for the repair or towards the repair, then it'd be cheaper in a non-dealers.

Changing the flywheel etc is not rocket science, although that price suggests so.

Have a search using the search button in the top right, or one of our dieselly fanatics may come along and help.....

At 67,000 miles it may have needed a clutch pretty soon anyway, but not the flywheel - a recognised fault. Hopefully Toyota will agree to help. If the cars at a Toyota dealer, they should try to make a case for you.

good luck

Thanks for the advise It just seems so unfair that Toyota have never made this public!! I could of ended up in a bad accident i just hope that nobody ever does end up hurt because of this.

Sophie

[bothwell_buyer]

The loss of drive is a nuisance!!

My father runs a Punto, with 24,000 miles on the clock and 4 years old. Its had 3 clutches in its lifetime already - due to abuse of course. However, the last time was complete and sudden loss of drive and the car just rolled to a halt. He's 89 and thankfully was within slow walking distance of the house.

The clutch on the Punto is smaller than a saucer and the guys at the performance garage who play with my RAVs and spend their time on beefed up sportscars fell about laughing when they saw the clutch plate...they'd never seen one so small.

Fiat planned the size of the clutch plate as well!!

The RAV4 DMF fault has been rectified now, and arguably the affected cars should have been fixed through a recall programme...a chat with your local trading standards people would clarify whether the car was ever fit for purpose. Once its fixed, with the new flywheel then you shouldn't have any further issue.

If its any consolation, I believe Ford have had equal problems with DMFs at some time...and the word transit was mentioned to me by one garage.

[Garry.L]

Thanks for the advise It just seems so unfair that Toyota have never made this public!! I could of ended up in a bad accident i just hope that nobody ever does end up hurt because of this.

Sophie

Sorry to hear of your problems Sophie but it's VERY unlikely ANY manufacturer will shout from the rooftops about a known fault with thier cars (unless safety related) for Eg Land Rover and MG-R refused to admit there was a problem with the K-Series engine (fitted to Freelanders) despite most cars suffering HGF before they had even reached 20K miles from new...

BMW as another Eg are more than happy to tell you about thier 'quality' Bavarian engineering and how their cars are the 'Ultimate Driving Machines' what they fail to mention is the dodgy electrics and crap 1.9 engine thats pretty much ****** after 70K miles unless it gets a complete rebuild.....

My 'other' car is a Vauxhall VX220 (lotus Elise) which has a 'known' paint bubbling issue due to contamination in the manufacture of the GRP body panels causing the paintwork to lift after a few years, the only cure for this problem is to replace the whole front or rear 'clamshell' of the car which costs circa £4K+ for each clam. However there was never a recall notice issued and once the 6 year bodywork warranty has expired you can't claim - Vauxhall have even rejected claims that are 'in' warrenty on the grounds that the car was not serviced every year by them or had previous paintwork done by non-Vauxhall approved bodyshops (accident damage)

For the most part Toyota seem to have a much better reliabilty record than many other manufactures, however even their cars have their problems.......... sadly.

[sharris]

I think all you can do here Sophie is plead your case with Toyota as some on here have done allready and

got a discount off the bill. When you find out how much it will cost you just have to make the decision wether

to go with it or as said above get a price from an indepent garage. The discount Toyota have offered to members

on here seems to be much varied and down to individual circumstances. But have a go, youv'e nothing to lose

and a lot to gain. Good luck.

I begged and pleaded and was told as I'm 6 months past the extended goodwill warrenty its a no!!! so I'm going to get some legal advice, as it just can't be right that they have sold these with a known fault.

Thanks for the advice I'm gonna start shopping for other qoutes on monday

x

[Bodgit-fixit-run]

Hi Sophie.

I'm just in the process of replacing my DMF on a DIY basis. Have a look at my thread Knocking Noise. I ordered a new yesterday kit from JAPTEC IMPORT PARTS SPECIALIST for £550 all in Flywheel and clutch kit via eBay. It will be arriving on Monday.

Do you know anyone who might do it for you?

I can share some tips I'm picking up along the way.

[sharris]

Hi Sophie and welcome to this forum....and don't you just wish you'd visited here before now!!

Search through this forum because there is a lot on the DMF - dual mass flywheel - problem and a lot of good information on how to approach Toyota.

They may look at your problem favourably - contact them as advised in the posts earlier this year, making the points that you have made here. The £2500 seems a bit on the high side compared to what some people have found....if Toyota won't pay anything for the repair or towards the repair, then it'd be cheaper in a non-dealers.

Changing the flywheel etc is not rocket science, although that price suggests so.

Have a search using the search button in the top right, or one of our dieselly fanatics may come along and help.....

At 67,000 miles it may have needed a clutch pretty soon anyway, but not the flywheel - a recognised fault. Hopefully Toyota will agree to help. If the cars at a Toyota dealer, they should try to make a case for you.

good luck

I know!!! If I'd known I would of thought twice about getting one I do love my Rav4 its just such a shame that Toyota had let it's customers and it dealerships down by not sorting this problem out.

Sophie x

[bothwell_buyer]

Not to worry - this seasons cider must be about ready now down your way???

[Garry.L]

so I'm going to get some legal advice

Good Luck with any legal action you might take but TBH I think you'll be wasting your time..... sadly.

As said MANY cars have inherent design faults which have cost owners many £K's in repairs but the manufacturer refused to accept there was a problem, for Eg you mention the Freelander which has a 'known' fault with the engine resulting in HGF - yet despite countless complaints, on-line petitions and websites (see below) and even a TV programme about the problem LR (or MG-R) never admitted there was a fault.

http://www.freelanderheadgasket.co.uk/

'Caveat emptor' is perhaps the only real answer....

[sharris]

Not to worry - this seasons cider must be about ready now down your way???

Well I sampled quite a bit last night just to numb the pain!!!

[sharris]

Hi Sophie.

I'm just in the process of replacing my DMF on a DIY basis. Have a look at my thread Knocking Noise. I ordered a new yesterday kit from JAPTEC IMPORT PARTS SPECIALIST for £550 all in Flywheel and clutch kit via Ebay. It will be arriving on Monday.

Do you know anyone who might do it for you?

I can share some tips I'm picking up along the way.

Hi

I was looking at prices online I think its what I might have to do and then find a local garage to put it in for me, it such a shame the car now feels worthless to me all that money spent to buy it and now this!!!

I need a drink!

x

[anchorman]

Hi Sophie.

I'm just in the process of replacing my DMF on a DIY basis. Have a look at my thread Knocking Noise. I ordered a new yesterday kit from JAPTEC IMPORT PARTS SPECIALIST for £550 all in Flywheel and clutch kit via Ebay. It will be arriving on Monday.

Do you know anyone who might do it for you?

I can share some tips I'm picking up along the way.

Hi

I was looking at prices online I think its what I might have to do and then find a local garage to put it in for me, it such a shame the car now feels worthless to me all that money spent to buy it and now this!!!

I need a drink!

x

Did you get my pm?

[sharris]

Hi Sophie.

I'm just in the process of replacing my DMF on a DIY basis. Have a look at my thread Knocking Noise. I ordered a new yesterday kit from JAPTEC IMPORT PARTS SPECIALIST for £550 all in Flywheel and clutch kit via Ebay. It will be arriving on Monday.

Do you know anyone who might do it for you?

I can share some tips I'm picking up along the way.

This might be the way forward but I'm going to have a good look around at all my options first, let me know how it goes once its fitted.

Sophie

x

[nattyboy]

Sorry to hear about your woes.

Weve recently bought a 2005 d4d with 35k on the clock..are there any recalls and if not - is there anything you can do pro activley ? Any tell tale signs that its on its way out ?

Suppose its just luck of the drawer depending on your car ?!

Nat

[Bodgit-fixit-run]

Hi Sophie.

I'm just in the process of replacing my DMF on a DIY basis. Have a look at my thread Knocking Noise. I ordered a new yesterday kit from JAPTEC IMPORT PARTS SPECIALIST for £550 all in Flywheel and clutch kit via Ebay. It will be arriving on Monday.

Do you know anyone who might do it for you?

I can share some tips I'm picking up along the way.

This might be the way forward but I'm going to have a good look around at all my options first, let me know how it goes once its fitted.

Sophie

x

Hi Sophie

Just finished my RAV. Decided to do the timing belt whilst I was at it so it took a bit longer. (Spare time) Took it for a test drive today. seems to be ok. Just got a squeaky serpentine belt. Waiting for Anchorman to advise.

How are you getting on with yours