2006 Toyota Corolla Diesel-clutch and gearbox gone

Redsoxfan · 05-03-2008 10:26pm #1

Hi

Would appreciate your views on this:-

One of our rep's cars recently gave up the ghost. 70,000 km done and still under warranty, so taken to nearest franchise.

Initially told that the problem would be repaired under warranty (clutch, gearbox and possibly something else needs to be replaced).

However Toyota now say that the car was mistreated/abused-I am not the driver and am not familiar with the driver so can't really comment on that. However, as far as I am aware, this car would have been driven in the Dublin area quite a bit and on motorway/national routes thereafter. The mileage looks about average compared with our other reps.

What kind of 'abuse' would cause this kind of damage? Are Toyota correct to repudiate the warranty?

colm_mcm · 06-03-2008 7:32pm

I think your rep may need replacing.

chris85 · 06-03-2008 7:35pm

The rep probably aint the best driver. I would think he had not got great control on the clutch and rallied the thing about and bad gear selection.

JHMEG · 06-03-2008 8:33pm

Is the rep male or female? What age?

dessierb · 06-03-2008 8:57pm

The corolla is a bullet proof car. It would take unreal abuse to cause this damage. Toyota know this, such is their track record for superb cars. I would be having a serious chat to that rep. There is no chance in hell anythig else caused this damage. Lazy driving, not using the clutch and very deliberate abuse caused this damage. As for Toyota, this is not normal wear and tear so you may have a job getting them to fix this problem.... Best of luck...

Damien360 · 06-03-2008 9:04pm

On what basis are they saying it was misused. Is there damage they can see which points to misuse instead of a badly put together car. You are going to get stung with a bill unless you stand up and be counted. They will point to many other Corollas of the same age with no damage. Same can be said of many cars but you could still have got a lemon.

I am currently stuck for the last 3 weeks with a 1.4 diesal corolla until I get my new Mondeo on Monday. The clutch is heavier than most diesals I have driven. You have to drive this car very hard to get any level of performance on an overtake and is totally unsuitable as a rep car doing high miles from a comfort and safe overtaking point of view.

I have worked with many people who drive their cars like they were stolen and the clutch never gave up. I drove my last Mondeo carefully doing 30000+ miles per year and the clutch bearing gave up at 96000 miles. It can just happen. Chase them to get the warranty as promised when you bought the car.

Run_to_da_hills · 06-03-2008 10:03pm

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Initially told that the problem would be repaired under warranty (clutch, gearbox and possibly something else needs to be replaced).

Whats the "something else" the engine??? did it ever get an oil change??? :rolleyes:

JHMEG · 06-03-2008 10:15pm

Damien360 wrote: »

I am currently stuck for the last 3 weeks with a 1.4 diesal

Damien360 wrote: »

The clutch is heavier than most diesals

I know this isn't English class, but diesel is even in the thread title.

blackbox · 06-03-2008 10:53pm

dessierb wrote: »

The corolla is a bullet proof car. It would take unreal abuse to cause this damage. Toyota know this, such is their track record for superb cars. I would be having a serious chat to that rep. There is no chance in hell anythig else caused this damage. Lazy driving, not using the clutch and very deliberate abuse caused this damage. As for Toyota, this is not normal wear and tear so you may have a job getting them to fix this problem.... Best of luck...

+1

Redsoxfan · 06-03-2008 10:53pm

Thanks for the responses so far.

To answer a few questions/address a few points:

the rep is around 21 years of age and is male
he only had the car for a week
prior to that the car had not been used for a number of months
prior to that it was driven by a rep who has now left the company
I don't know what the 'something else' is-I am waiting for Toyota to call me back
I haven't seen the car, so can't see the service history-I am looking for invoices to see how often the car was serviced
I have never met the rep who had the car for the majority of the time we have owned the car-he left the company before I joined

I will certainly fight Toyota on this if they confirm that the warranty will not be honoured. If they can provide me with an engineer's report on the damage and how it was caused, I will post back.

I won't be allowed to let this lie-the cost is over €2,000 and I have responsibility for the company finances. I will never let us own a car again-I am only in the company 3 months and the amount of issues that our fleet of around 20 vehicles and their drivers generate is astounding....thankfully we have most of the fleet on operating leases.

unkel · 06-03-2008 11:09pm

If Toyota is not going to repair under warranty, then surely they must prove the car was abused?

If it was abused (and only for a week) what did your man do to break the gearbox :eek:

@Redsoxfan - let us know how this evolves!

Spit62500 · 06-03-2008 11:17pm

Toyota in Ireland have a reputation for being better than most in terms of honouring warranty claims so it would be unusual for them to dig their heels in for the sake of it.

While Toyotas have the reputation of being bulletproof, its relatively easy for someone to destroy a clutch and gearbox deliberately.

Is it possible that the rep who left the company was disgruntled and took it out on the car?

I'd get a written report from the Toyota garage and have a long chat with the current rep as to what happened. He must have at least noticed some symptoms that he ignored over the course of the week - it didn't happen out of the blue. If he shares the sentiments of Damien360 maybe he wanted a better car? Is it the least prestigious car on your fleet?

Have a long think about it then and if you want to pursue Toyota then you'll need an independent report on the gearbox before committing yourself to further, legal, expense.

You might consider going to an independent gearbox specialist for a replacement reconditioned box - I don't know how easy they are to source - that should be a cheaper option than a Toyota main dealer's labour rates.

Redsoxfan · 06-03-2008 11:26pm

Spit62500 wrote: »

Is it possible that the rep who left the company was disgruntled and took it out on the car?

It's possible, but I know nothing about the guy-I will enquire as to the circumstances around his departure..

Spit62500 wrote:

.....and have a long chat with the current rep as to what happened. He must have at least noticed some symptoms that he ignored over the course of the week - it didn't happen out of the blue.

I asked and apparently the car drive fine.

Spit62500 wrote:

Have a long think about it then and if you want to pursue Toyota then you'll need an independent report on the gearbox before committing yourself to further, legal, expense.

I'll get a report and think about it alright-I certainly won't be cutting off my nose to spite my face etc.

Thanks for the opinions/advice-it's all useful.

JHMEG · 06-03-2008 11:27pm

Surely if a clutch and gearbox were only a week away from destruction the current rep would have noticed when he took over the car? I would have thought the clutch would have felt almost fooked at that point?

Some things are not normally covered by warranties, like clutches, tyres and batteries as they all wear out anyway.

When you say "However Toyota now say that the car was mistreated", or do you just mean the garage, or do you mean Toyota Ireland?

JHMEG · 06-03-2008 11:29pm

Redsoxfan wrote: »

I asked and apparently the car drive fine.

Ding! Car was fine for 70,000kms, and in a week of yer man having it it goes from hero to zero...;) The fact that it did 70k kms in the first place would say the car was no lemon.

And a 21yo male you say...

Redsoxfan · 06-03-2008 11:33pm

JHMEG wrote: »

Ding! Car was fine for 70,000kms, and in a week of yer man having it it goes from hero to zero...;) The fact that it did 70k kms in the first place would say the car was no lemon.

And a 21yo male you say...

Well, he did manage to keep a 4 year Freelander on the road for over a month when he first joined the company, so if he was a crappy driver I would have expected him to have damaged that sooner than a 2 year old Corolla.

But I take your point

.

And hey, if Toyota can prove the car was abused, fair enough, we take the hit.

javaboy · 06-03-2008 11:36pm

JHMEG wrote: »

I know this isn't english class, but diesel is even in the thread title.

It's just as well that it's not because English is supposed to begin with a capital letter.

JHMEG · 06-03-2008 11:41pm

Redsoxfan wrote: »

Well, he did manage to keep a 4 year Freelander on the road for over a month when he first joined the company, so if he was a crappy driver I would have expected him to have damaged that sooner than a 2 year old Corolla.

I don't think he's a crappy driver, just a 21yo male with mates to show off to etc..

JHMEG · 06-03-2008 11:42pm

javaboy wrote: »

It's just as well that it's not because English is supposed to begin with a capital letter.

What in god's name did you breed Indian stick insects for?!?

E92 · 06-03-2008 11:53pm

JHMEG wrote: »

I don't think he's a crappy driver, just a 21yo male with mates to show off to etc..

Showing off a 1.4 diesel Corolla? I really think so;):rolleyes:!

galwaytt · 06-03-2008 11:56pm

javaboy wrote: »

It's just as well that it's not because English is supposed to begin with a capital letter.

Ha! - best riposte yet !:D

Guy:Incognito · 06-03-2008 11:57pm

E92 wrote: »

Showing off a 1.4 diesel Corolla? I really think so;):rolleyes:!

Maybe he was doing extreme 3 point turns in a carpark.

To the MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX!!!!!!!!

HJL · 07-03-2008 12:01am

Im leaning toward the original rep who has left the company, while i think its strange that the other rep didnt notice any problem with the car, i doubt he could wreak a clutch, gearbox and whatever the other problem is within the space of 7 days.
I would have thought you would really need to be trashing it about Dukes of Hazzard style to do that sort of damage.
YEEEEEE . . . . HAAAAAAWW . . . . . .

JHMEG · 07-03-2008 12:01am

E92 wrote: »

Showing off a 1.4 diesel Corolla? I really think so;):rolleyes:!

We've all seen lads showing off to their mates 1L Polos, Corsas, Puntos etc. And those lads own their cars...

bazz26 · 07-03-2008 12:31am

From what I have read so far it sounds to me like a former disgruntled employee decided to take it out on his company car.

It will be interesting to see how Toyota go about proving it was abuse though. Let us know how it pans out in the end.

ninty9er · 07-03-2008 1:07am

If the car was a lemon I'd expect it to go wrong long before 70k, perhaps around the 5k mark. I know Toyota replaced a Yaris for one of my uncle's customers about 6-7 years ago when the gearbox fell out of the casing afther 1500 miles.

No questions asked....new car given. Toyota deal with problems fairly well when they do arise, but that isn't very often, and they certainly aren't normally drivetrain related (except 1-2 batgches of the early 1.6/1.8 VVT-i engines) around 2001

AngryHippie · 07-03-2008 1:33am

That sounds like somebody was really abusing it.
I've grown up in a "toyota house", We've had 8 or 9 of them from corollas, Avensis', Landcruisers, Hilux's, even a celica for a few weeks, None of them have ever given a bit of trouble.
The Toyota Diesel is one of those shining examples of how something can just work, Me and 2 brothers all learned to drive in 1 jeep, grinding, half clutching, riding the clutch, dropping gears, even rolling one over at one stage, They kept going, We have never had to scrap one, They were all fit for resale, and despite severe milage on all of them, 2 Gearboxes, and 2 clutches in 15 years with adolescent up to mid 20's males driving them, stereotypically. They are a rugged machine, But if you set out to destroy one, mechanically, its not that difficult.
The Engineers report from Toyota Ireland will probably show you the full picture, It might even point to what exactly was done. I'd say it was the lad that quit tbh, Your new fella, while young, might not know exactly how a small diesel sounds and feels when its running right, as the do sound heavier and more coarse than the petrol he may be used to, He might even have queried it to someone and been told its a diesel, they sound like that, The gearboxes are usually pretty decent, so it would struggle on until the bitter end, when it would either ring a pile of bearings, cease, or just fall out of the ar$e of it.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey....

Henry Ford III · 07-03-2008 10:17am

I think he must have really rallied the car.

Run_to_da_hills · 07-03-2008 11:40am

Henry Ford III wrote: »

I think he must have really rallied the car.

Maybe they forgot to remove the Grant GT steering wheel when they handed the car back to Toyota. :eek:

R.O.R · 07-03-2008 3:33pm

I don't think it's up to Toyota to prove driver abuse. As mentioned previously a clutch isn't generally included in warranty, it's counted as a consumable. It's very hard to prove that the vehicle wasn't abused and it was down to a manufacturing defect - this is what you'd have to do to get Toyota to cover it.....

....Or threaten that your company will never purchase a Toyota again putting your entire fleet of 300+ vehicles (of which around 60% are Toyota) out of their grasp.

70,000km is pretty early for a clutch to go, but a bit late for it to have happened due to a manufacturing defect. I've only ever heard of 2 cars where we've had manufacturers cover the cost of new clutches. One was a Nissan Pathfinder with about 6,000km on the clock - Nissan replaced it no issue. The other was a 520d with less miles on - BMW tried everything except replacing it but in the end caved in.

groupb · 07-03-2008 3:37pm

My neighbor had to have a gearbox replaced in their 04 corolla.
When I worked in renault , we had a corolla that we sold second hand , come back in with a broken gearbox.

2006 Toyota Corolla Diesel-clutch and gearbox gone

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