Timing belt slippage

A few months ago on the Toyota group a guy was complaining that his 1 year old Toyota engine had self distructed. The dealer claimed that he had redlined it and therefore Toyota would not cover it under warranty. That according to the black box computer installed in every Toyota and many other cars these days. My arguement would be that perhaps the computer malfunctioned and led to the engine failure and recording of the redline data. He never posted how it ended up. Bottom line is that just because your Toyota is perfect that does not mean all of them are. I usually buy an extended warranty on my cars for 7 years and sell them in mid year 6 so I can offer them with a warranty (it is transferable) and get a good price. You might consider that next time but this time you are lucky if they pay half.

Belt? Must be the 3.0L When will people learn not to buy cars with timing "belts"? The 3.0L is nothing to brag about, neither are Toyota's. I'll put a million miles on a chain before I trust a belt to last 10 miles.

*snip*

I agree, too. There's no maintenance on the system you failed to do, and you did the other regular maintenance. It failed cause it broke prematurely, which is in all certainly a material/manufacturing defect. Though you'd have to prove you dont' ''abuse' it, which should be easy if you've got no teenage males and it's a wagon anyway.

I wouldn't go bragging about Toyotas, though. I've been hearing more and more Toyota horror stories, not to mention they are known for engine sludge issues, which Toyota claims isn't an inherient defect in their cars, though I know of no other engines that have them. Hell, at

210,000 miles, my Saturn's motor was darn clean inside.

Then again, I'm waiting for the *big* Honda recall on their flakey 5 speed automatics...

Yeah, I remember reading about the sludge - can't remember what it ended up being (thought it might have been undersized oil galleys). I got a new Tundra and I read that older ones had brake issues and they didn't like the overdrive in the autobox (something about metal fillings in the pan).

And there's a few reports of fires on the CRV/Element because, and I paraphrase, if the oil filter is not installed correctly during a service, they drip oil on the exhaust and burn. I believe in Japan they are equipped with a fire extinguisher

Whoa, Girl. What does the warranty book say on a 2000 Wagon for the timing belt? If the warranty says "yes - covered" then I would promptly call them back and politely tell them they can shove the belt 55% of the way up their azz, or the next person to get a phone call will offer to go 105%, and yank it out their nose after they post your complaint in every local newspaper within

100 miles. Either that, or run down to your local court house and file a small claims (sue them - or whatever they have where you're from - I'm in Canada) against Saturn. It would be worth the $55 to file it to make them spend $1,200 on a lawyer's letter back to you. Then I would pay the 45%.

If it says "no-not covered" I would quietly say, "Thank you oh so much Mr. Saturn Dealer sir" take the 45% kick in the junk, then sneak up behind them and shove the rest of the working car 55% up their azz.

Can you tell I have a serious hate-on for bullsheit warranties which are sneakily designed to tilt the table in favour of failure? I like the "extended warranty - sell it" idea, though. I might try that myself on my next one.

Best of luck, friend.

-e

Piss poor design. To boot - the temperatures differential between the head and block is apparently very hiugh, plus there's a lot of places the oil can pool and cook up there, and a few other things (like tiny passages).

Toyota, naturally, has been playing the blame game and dragging their ass on what's pretty much a known, predictable defect on these cars. I think there's a class action going around now.

*shrug*. Toyota gets their trucks generally right, at least.

Bad maintenance practices coupled with poor design. The gasket sticks to the engine, if you don't pull the gasket off, the new one doesn't seal right. Actually, it's probbably not a BAD design, I think they pinned it on a supplier issue with the gaskets.

Might be standard equipment on cars there, along with really stupid name (Diahatsu Applause?)

Hey, first few models of Xerox machines had built in fire extinguishers too....