2012 Engine Failure - warranty claim rejected

[sirlux]

Soooooo, for those with prefilters, how often do you check your filter? After every fuel up?

often, with my once a week oil check

You check your oil that often, I can barely get
A half decent reading from my dipstick

[NimrodAUS]

Soooooo, for those with prefilters, how often do you check your filter? After every fuel up?

often, with my once a week oil check

You check your oil that often, I can barely get
A half decent reading from my dipstick

Yeah, i do it at work every day on a light vehicle. Doesnt take long.
Really? What do you mean?
Mine is good, and perfectly on the full mark. The pre filter is perfect as well, bluey greeny tinge. No much. Ive only filled up at two servos, both Bp and one only once.

[Highrust]

[kickinback]

Was wondering if there has been any updates on the OP's dealings with Toyota. Seems a bit hit and run to me.

[CHS002]

Hi Guys
Just a quick update.
After much debate between myself and Toyota, I have had to end up going through my insurance company. The Lux is still at the doctors and Toyota are still pushing the dirty fuel issue even though I have had it tested and it meets Australian standards. Needless to say, the saga still continues..... I’ll let you know what the final outcome is when it is all finalised. Cheers.

[kickinback]

Thanks for that. Good luck.

[wnewton]

I purchased a D4D Hilux SR5 in 2011 since the purchase I have spent $15000 on extras getting a tray fitted a bull bar winch tool boxes tow bar driving lights and a chip with petrol injection from chipit. I have had so many issues with this car I don't know where to begin. First the stability control is way to sensitive it goes off at random in corners making the vehicle very unstable and dangerous, secondly it had to have a new clutch fitted after 50000km now today I left to go to Melbourne & 5km into the trip it started blowing masses of smoke (couldnt see out the back window) & lost power. I limped it to the dealer and am awaiting the diagnosis. Possibly a cracked piston or major injector failure in cyclinder 3. Of course as soon as Toyota saw the chip system that was the reason it failed even though they cant explain or prove the chip had anything to do with the issue. I realise the chip increases the pressure in the common rail and this could potentially put added stress on the injectors but isnt that why there is a safety valve on the common rail? This valve has released before because the tune was to agressive but after re programming the chip & clearing the fault code its fine. There automatic response id if the engine is modified in any way they will not warranty the engine. I will let you all know the outcome when the diagnosis is complete but looks like I am in for a legal battle to get them to take responsibility for this problem. My question is also to Toyota WHY didnt they tell me this in the first instance, they knew the chip was fitted as they have serviced the car since new & what about the thousands of other Prado & Hilux drivers in Australia driving around with chips????

[wnewton]

I purchased a D4D Hilux SR5 in 2011 since the purchase I have spent $15000 on extras getting a tray fitted a bull bar winch tool boxes tow bar driving lights and a chip with petrol injection from chipit. I have had so many issues with this car I don't know where to begin. First the stability control is way to sensitive it goes off at random in corners making the vehicle very unstable and dangerous, secondly it had to have a new clutch fitted after 50000km now today I left to go to Melbourne & 5km into the trip it started blowing masses of smoke (couldnt see out the back window) & lost power. I limped it to the dealer and am awaiting the diagnosis. Possibly a cracked piston or major injector failure in cyclinder 3. Of course as soon as Toyota saw the chip system that was the reason it failed even though they cant explain or prove the chip had anything to do with the issue. I realise the chip increases the pressure in the common rail and this could potentially put added stress on the injectors but isnt that why there is a safety valve on the common rail? This valve has released before because the tune was to aggressive but after re programming the chip & clearing the fault code its fine. There automatic response id if the engine is modified in any way they will not warranty the engine. I will let you all know the outcome when the diagnosis is complete but looks like I am in for a legal battle to get them to take responsibility for this problem. My question is also to Toyota WHY didnt they tell me this in the first instance, they knew the chip was fitted as they have serviced the car since new & what about the thousands of other Prado & Hilux drivers in Australia driving around with chips????

[StevenS]

Doesn't ChipIt cover Genuine warranty if a chip is blamed for a failure?

[outbackjoe]

I'd try playing chip manufacturer off with Toyota. However it is difficult to prove conclusively that the chip caused your specific failure. So hard to get chip manufacturer to cover it. Similarly it's easy to prove that a chip increases the probability of failure. Score for Toyota. Moral of the story - use chips at your own risk. It would be interesting to see the result if you pursue one against the other and see if anyone comes up with hard proof.

[Talktheroo]

I have now fought many battles with these issues. The man behind these bad decisions is Robert Marsh. He works at the main office at Port Melbourne, Toyota Australia.
Get it fixed, and then take Toyota Australia to small claims in your state. Make sure you keep a log of all your expenses as this will add up to probably close to the ceiling amount. As an example, in QLD, QCAT, it's $25,000, and that's what you want to go them for. NSW is $30,000, etc, etc..
Sooner or later, Toyota Australia are going to wake up that there is consumer law in this country, and they are not above it. It's a pain in the backside taking these guys to court, but that's your only option really.
The bad quality fuel thing, in most cases, it's a load of rubbish. Look out for the fine print in the warranty document though. It states that you do have to use diesel fuel that is above 48 cetane, at least in the Prado warranty document.
I don't know how they would prove or disprove that your vehicle has been using diesel fuel that is lower anyway. Seeing that we all use the BP brand, if you know what I mean.
The Roo.

[Alby]

Wnewton. I feel your pain and wish you well with it but from Toyotas point of view you have modified there product so why should they be responsible for someone else's tinkering with there product? it needs to be demonstrated that the non genuine modification was not the cause of the problem before they can be held responsible.
This goes for any product from anybody. Just last week my sons IPhone died, it is still under warranty and he took it to Apple to fix it, they had a look at it and saw that he has had a screen replaced on it by a non genuine repairer previously. That automatically voided his warranty and would do nothing more for him unless he paid for the work. Sounds tough but imagine if you were selling a product or service and you were held accountable for something a third party had done??

I am not having a go at you or anyone else with this just trying to put some perspective and balance into the argument.

I wish you well with it and hope you get a good outcome

[wnewton]

I to have a Hilux with an issue seems like this is more common than Toyota would like the Australian public to believe.....Unbreakable what a joke. Mine is a 2011 Dual Cab SR5 D4D. Since I purchased the car it has done 70000km. When I purchased the car I spent $15000 to get it reasonable. It has a Bull Bar HID Lights & Driving lights, 12000lb winch, Gas Struts with a 3" lift, diff lowering kit, rear comfort shackles, fires tine air bags rear, tow bar, Steel tray with alloy tool boxes, snorkel, UHF and a Chip it chip with petrol injection. Plus a few things I probably forgot. At 50000km the clutch blew up & was replaced under warranty but I did have to pay $300 towards the repair. Since new the stability control makes the front brakes lock up with normal cornering on the bitumen especially when towing a load. Now at 700000km it appears to have a cracked piston No 3. Of course Toyota is blaming the chip which I know has nothing to do with it. If the chip was (as they are supposed to) increase pressure in the common rail and it went to high the safety valve opens & the excess pressure is released & the car goes into limp mode. They cannot say definatley explain why the chip caused the problem but they are using it as a scapegoat to shift liability away from themselves. They are now telling me that any car with a chip is not covered under warranty.....why tell me now they have been servicing it since new with the chip & never expressed any concerns before or told me to remove it. Maybe they know there is an issue & these chips are a convenient out clause. I am still waiting for a final diagnosis and decision from them so will keep you posted.

[bloke&tackle]

If you believe what Chip-it say on their website, the onus is on Toyota to prove that the chip caused the failure.
That may be true in court, I don't know, but in the real world the poor mug who owns the vehicle is left holding the bag and has to fight everyone in long drawn out, stressful (and expensive) legal battle.

[stevehastings]

I just brought a brand new D/Cab 4x4 sr today leaving to stock hope its not going to blow up ??????

[NeKeleC]

Hey wnewton your running a diesel engine with a chip and "petrol" injection which the engine was NEVER designed to run with and your wondering why toyota won't warrant it!!! come on you've got to be joking!!!

All engines have limits and if you want high performance buy a V8 don't try to ring every ounce out of the poor little diesels life and then try to blame someone else. You have added about 500kgs of extra weight to the car and then bombed it up so now it is running on it's limits while working harder to carry more weight and it gave in.

When i lifted my truck and then tore a cv boot ya know what i did, I fixed it at my cost because I know what i did was a DIRECT causing factor in tearing the cv boot. How do you know the chip has no direct connection to blowing up your motor?? what are your qualifications to back this up???

I am only getting my back up over this because all the other guys on here who have had genuine warrenty issues are being dealt a harder blow by dealers because people like you make dealers not want to help the genuine people.

Suck it up princess you modded the engine you pay the price!!!

[Talktheroo]

I just want to point out that since 2008 I have been dealing with these issues. All of the clients and people that I know that have had issues with the 1KD-FTV, have had regular servicing and have not modified their engines in any way, except for a secondary filter assembly. All warranty claims were rejected and some of them were not even told why.
This seems to be the norm with Toyota Australia these days.
Modifications like performance modules, do make it even harder as TA seem to look for any excuse to reject a claim at the moment.
I don't recommend any modifications except the secondary filter thing and a catch can. Outside of those to mods, I think you are just making it harder for yourself when it comes to a warranty claim.
There are a lot of these situations happening to, so fellow members be warned and educated about it.
It is also my personal opinion that all modern diesel common rail engines are wand up enough. As an example, most CRD engines are running at pressures above 20,000 psi (1300 to 1400 bar), so you don't want to increase the pressure in the rail with a performance module or an aftermarket chip.
The 1KD-FTV produces about 15 to 20% more horsepower with a reduction in fuel consumption of around 10% over the 1KZ-TE. So it's wand up all right, just in it's factory standard form.
The Roo.

[Weekend Warrior]

i really don't understand why people put chips in these things.... it's a 2T 4x4 ute not a race car.

it's got plenty of power where it needs to be, and still gets up to speed quick enough in standard driving, the risk of chipping far outweighs the benefits to me..

[NeKeleC]

I have to agree with Talktheroo and Weekend Warrior most car manufacturers get the most out of the cars to the point where they remain reliable, as someone posted earlier about mine vehicles that are left standard and don't seem to have issues.
I too work in the mining industry and the have relied on toyota for a long time now and I have not seen one toyota broken down on a mine yet - now before anyone jumps up and down i'm in no way saying it doesn't happen all i'm saying is it must be rare as the mine I work on we have approx 40 hilux's all ranging in age from a year to 3 years old and all amounts of K's on them the one I drive has 105,000km on it and is still going strong, it is a manuel and it may have already had the clutch changed but none of our vehicles have broken down, they are all serviced by toyota locally (so filter change half the oil dumped out and then topped up scenario) when they are due and they all get a hard time I would say harder than anybody who owns their trucks drives them.
As said if you want a performance car buy a V8 or do as I did get the best of both worlds, a Blown Lux (TRD) as also mentioned earlier if you want power it costs money if you don't have the money to spend be happy with what you got.

[outbackjoe]

I think chips are ok as long as people accept and understand the risks and take responsibility when that risk manifests as a failure. Some are lead to believe there are no risks which is misleading and the source of many upset people, understandably so.