Other What's ruining your life right now?

Yesterday's dry roasted peanut-athon...

 

Given the amount of damage they have done to it, couldn't you just demand a new car anyway? Or give Toyota themselves a bell and see what they have to say about it.

 

I've owned two Subarus, both with EJ20 engines - the ancestor of the lump under your bonnet. They are very prone to oil leaks, I can say with experience. Usually it's simple things like the rocker cover gasket corners but if it's leaking around the bell housing, it's possible they've had the main rear seal apart and instead of replacing it with new as per spec, they've refitted the old seal.

With Subaru engines (and by default the FA20 in yours), you MUST use new gaskets and seals if you remove parts, not refit old ones, regardless of condition. If you see any sign of high temp silicone (RTV) gasket sealant being used, such as seepage from a join, then don't drive it under any circumstances, particularly if they've used it on or around the sump. It'll get broken down by the oil and then block the oil pickup or worse, get through the pickup mesh filter and block the oil galleries and you've just pressed 'start' on an oil starvation time-bomb.

Sorry if this is a bit doom and gloom, but I can't stress how quickly these engines can go wrong if there are any oil flow issues and the first sign you'll have is a bottom end knock/spun bearing and that's an engine out rebuild and about 4k Euro.

Hope you get it sorted!

 

Just take a look at the current Mighty Car Mods videos on Youtube to see what RTV can do to a Subaru engine. They are currently replacing a 2.0l jobbie that had a failed bottom end due to the stuff being used everywhere during a previous (badly done) rebuild.

 

Not seen it but it doesn't surprise me. My first EJ had a terrible rebuild done by a poor mechanic at some point before I owned it. I inherited a £3k bill within months of ownership because someone opted to save £50 on new gaskets and/or didn't know better.

 

These guys have been picking out lumps of the stuff from the oil pick up. It clogged the oil intake so much that the big end bearings were starved of oil and spun in the housings.

 

Update:
The leak is the drive shaft seal (which they damaged while taking the drive shaft out in order to get the gearbox out, in order to get to the clutch) p*ssing oil (as in - by the time it was up on the jacks, there were 4 drops on the floor) onto the exhaust causing the smoke.
After uttering the words "fraud", they agreed that the damage to the windscreen and the bumper is on them.
Admittedly, getting a good look at the vehicle from underneath showed the damage was less than initially thought, but I don't think it'll panel beat out.

Again, no lead time on the seal, so I have ANOTHER courtesy car (a 1.6L Corolla... that thing doesn't even have a radio in it... I call it "The Polo Vivo of the Toyota World", since it feels like the steering wheel was an optional extra there).

I have in the meantime, I have sent a polite "FYI - this happened, with images" email to the MD of the holdings company... he's known to be customer centric, and a right stickler for great customer service (to the detriment of his staff). Just to make sure things happen the RIGHT way now...

All that said - we'll see what happens - it's the last damn time they'll ever see my car, that's for sure...

 

Glad you're on the way to getting a resolution. In the meantime, there's no faster car than a loan car. Give it back with way less rubber on the boots and at least you can have some fun at their expense.

 

haha... it's a 1.6L corolla... there's not much there to leave rubber anywhere... BUT - it's got 5000km on the clock, that engine is working hard for its age under my "tenure"

 

If it's front wheel drive, slip some baking trays under the rears and pretend!

 

Ah crap, not seen that on my end but I'm in the same boat!

More an irritation than anything else, new bike light got delivered, its a smart light an you configure it via an app, said app is garbage on Android but super slick on iOS, and i only have an iPad somewhere at home. WHY!!!

 

PC has taken to randomly freezing... deep joy...

 

LOL

First rule of IT support - "have you tried turning it off and on again"

Or, in the words of a full fat Muppet I used to work with..

"Hi David, Ive just conversed with our computer support department colleagues vis-a-vis our current communications situation, and they requested that you down-power the Em Yoo Ex communication equipment and then re-up power it to see if that resolves our current predicament"

Me: yeah we tried resetting the modem, mate. It didn't work.

Muppet: no no no, they wanted you to down power the Em Yoo Ex comm... Yada yada yada

Me: yeah that's the MUX modem.

Muppet: oh right. Did you try down-powering it and then....

Me: are you taking the piss?

 

When running Windows shut down every night to allow the install of security patches. With an SSD everything opens in seconds anyway. So why wouldn’t you?

Many large companies mandate reboots whether you want it or not just to make sure things are patched and running better.