2006 Toyota Corolla Diesel-clutch and gearbox gone

Redsoxfan

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

I think your rep may need replacing.

chris85

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

Is the rep male or female? What age?

dessierb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think he must have really rallied the car.

Run_to_da_hills

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

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

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.

(CH3)2CHOH

If the clutch is covered under warrenty they should replace it.

I can't belive everybody is so quick to blame the drivers. Cars break down, its a fact, even Toyota's.

There are way to many unkowns in this situation for anybody to jump to a conclusion.

Damien360

Finally some sense. (CH3)2CHOH is correct. Cars break down, even toyotas. Don't jump on the driver so quickly.

By the way, (CH3)2CHOH, if that is your real name.....why did you call yourself after IPA.

Lex Luthor

Redsox. PM sent

colm_mcm

Lex Luthor wrote: »

Redsox. PM sent

How mysterious!

javaboy

Lex Luthor wrote: »

Redsox. PM sent

Next in line if Redsox doesn't take it..... This is adverts.ie right?

javaboy

JHMEG wrote: »

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

Well they reproduce parthenogenically so I couldn't exactly stop them Plenty still available btw.

Lex Luthor

colm_mcm wrote: »

How mysterious!

Colm, any idea what the chiefs up in the big smoke have said about this one?

duff365

i think i have heard of worse than having a broken gearbox and clutch after 70,000km. It is possible that the previous employer was a bit of a ****e driver and if that was the case having something go wrong was probably long overdue. Also i was wondering if it was serviced regulary, and if it was why was nothing ever noticed, and if it wasn't serviced regulary,why not?

That said if you can't get it repaired under the warranty it would definitely be cheaper to go to a gearbox speciallist.

colm_mcm

Lex Luthor wrote: »

Colm, any idea what the chiefs up in the big smoke have said about this one?

Everyone's talking about it, they've never seen anything like it.
I heard there will be a conclusion of some sort soon.



:rolleyes:

JHMEG

javaboy wrote: »

Well they reproduce parthenogenically so I couldn't exactly stop them Plenty still available btw.

Yeah, I read that. Mad. You have the potential for a plague of biblical proportions on your hands there if they all start at that. Or you could just flush the eggs down the toilet. Not like they hatch quickly from what I've read.

javaboy

JHMEG wrote: »

Yeah, I read that. Mad. You have the potential for a plague of biblical proportions on your hands there if they all start at that. Or you could just flush the eggs down the toilet. Not like they hatch quickly from what I've read.

Yeah you simply destroy or discard any eggs you don't want to hatch. We better get back on topic before we get in trouble

Gearboxes and clutches and such

LuckyStar

I am just after reading through this thread and found it interesting- can anyone explain to me how a driver could deliberately ruin a car's gearbox and clutch? I have a habit of coasting and also leaning my foot on the clutch instead of the footrest.

Also what km/h (not mph!!!) corresponds to what gear? Most of the time, for anything over 40kph I go into 4th (unless I'm going up a very steep hill) and for over 60kph I go into 5th. However when I turn the corner at Newland's Cross to go onto the N3, I stay in 3rd til the car accelerates up to 100kph then move into 4th then 5th (I never go up more than one gear at a time even if I change again a few seconds later). I am pretty much going from 10 to 100 once I turn that corner and if change into 4th and 5th at 40 and 60kph respectively, the car accelerates to 100 really slowly, whereas if I stay in 3rd the car shoots along. (I was told to do this by a friend of mine after I was complaining about how sluggish the car was to accelerate on that stretch of road).

green123

LuckyStar wrote: »

Also what km/h (not mph!!!) corresponds to what gear? Most of the time, for anything over 40kph I go into 4th (unless I'm going up a very steep hill) and for over 60kph I go into 5th. However when I turn the corner at Newland's Cross to go onto the N3, I stay in 3rd til the car accelerates up to 100kph then move into 4th then 5th (I never go up more than one gear at a time even if I change again a few seconds later). I am pretty much going from 10 to 100 once I turn that corner and if change into 4th and 5th at 40 and 60kph respectively, the car accelerates to 100 really slowly, whereas if I stay in 3rd the car shoots along. (I was told to do this by a friend of mine after I was complaining about how sluggish the car was to accelerate on that stretch of road).

lol
funny

duff365

yeah i thought it was funny but didn't want to say anything.

groupb

LuckyStar wrote: »

I am just after reading through this thread and found it interesting- can anyone explain to me how a driver could deliberately ruin a car's gearbox and clutch? I have a habit of coasting and also leaning my foot on the clutch instead of the footrest.

Also what km/h (not mph!!!) corresponds to what gear? Most of the time, for anything over 40kph I go into 4th (unless I'm going up a very steep hill) and for over 60kph I go into 5th. However when I turn the corner at Newland's Cross to go onto the N3, I stay in 3rd til the car accelerates up to 100kph then move into 4th then 5th (I never go up more than one gear at a time even if I change again a few seconds later). I am pretty much going from 10 to 100 once I turn that corner and if change into 4th and 5th at 40 and 60kph respectively, the car accelerates to 100 really slowly, whereas if I stay in 3rd the car shoots along. (I was told to do this by a friend of mine after I was complaining about how sluggish the car was to accelerate on that stretch of road).

How many L plates have you got on your windows?

ninty9er

LuckyStar wrote: »

I am just after reading through this thread and found it interesting- can anyone explain to me how a driver could deliberately ruin a car's gearbox and clutch? I have a habit of coasting and also leaning my foot on the clutch instead of the footrest.

Also what km/h (not mph!!!) corresponds to what gear? Most of the time, for anything over 40kph I go into 4th (unless I'm going up a very steep hill) and for over 60kph I go into 5th. However when I turn the corner at Newland's Cross to go onto the N3, I stay in 3rd til the car accelerates up to 100kph then move into 4th then 5th (I never go up more than one gear at a time even if I change again a few seconds later). I am pretty much going from 10 to 100 once I turn that corner and if change into 4th and 5th at 40 and 60kph respectively, the car accelerates to 100 really slowly, whereas if I stay in 3rd the car shoots along. (I was told to do this by a friend of mine after I was complaining about how sluggish the car was to accelerate on that stretch of road).

Unless you're driving some 3.0l monster 4th is a bit high for 40km/h. It depends on the ratios of the particular car. Read the owner's manual and add a few km/h to the recommendation for each particular gear. Otherwise If you're driving a Fiat cun to gettinto, 4th is probably around right for 40 km/h as you're close to top speed at 40 km/h

ytareh

Also in defence of driver...Toyota (garages more so than distributor)can be 'funny' about warranty.I was assured by my dealer before purchase that I could change my own oil under warranty not a bother...Afterwards that changed to claiming Toyota would not cover any claims if I didnt get their expensive servicing.Yet distributor insisted they allowed owner oil changes...

colm_mcm

how is that in defense of the driver?

ninty9er

colm_mcm wrote: »

how is that in defense of the driver?

+1

And oil change is a different matter to servicing.

SHAMMY01

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.

But I take your point .

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

Hi redsoxfan, funny enough I have a 3 year old corolla diesel and the gearbox is gone it has 106000km on it so just out of warrenty and I have been told the very same thing 'abusive driving' and they have refused to repair it. Did you get any satisfaction with them? I would be very interested to know.