Tracking/Racing/Auto-X regulars - What's broken so far?

[cleong]

I'm just thinking that the Yarii that regularly take part in closed-course events would likely be driven harder than your typical Yaris that does the occasional traffic light sprint.

Therefore I'm curious to know what's broken or worn out on your car so far, and at what mileage it happened at.

For me, I found that track days are highly detrimental to tire longevity, but that's a simple wear and tear issue.

I suffered a 2nd to 3rd gear gearbox syncromesh failure at around 25000mi though.

[Loren]

I'm at over 18k miles and have seen plenty of track time and autocross in the 8 months that I've owned the car.

So far, tires and brake pads, of course. Which I don't consider "breakage", that's just motorsports consumables. The only "problem" I've had has been a high-rpm misfire at Sebring which was cured by replacing the spark plugs with a set of good ol' NGK's.

[jkuchta]

I've had no problems so far, with 40,000+ miles and two trackdays under the Yaris' belt. I've only seen oil temps above 109 Degrees C once on the track, and on the street I only see 80-90 degrees C.

This car eats tires, esspecially with the factory camber settings. A few degrees negative should help the situation, though.

[seth_man]

21K miles, track time, stiff coilover springs and so far nothing has broken and no odd noises. :thumbup:

[thepoche]

After 4 track days, only thing that went wrong is brake pedal travel. Even after installing stainless brake lines and good brake fluid, the travel on the pedal is way more than stock.

[largeorangefont]

After 4 track days, only thing that went wrong is brake pedal travel. Even after installing stainless brake lines and good brake fluid, the travel on the pedal is way more than stock.

Sounds like you have an air bubble somewhere.

You need to bleed your brakes, and maybe the master cylinder. If you have ABS and you got an air bubble down in the ABS module you will probably have to take it to the dealer.

[Tamago]

Sounds like you have an air bubble somewhere.

You need to bleed your brakes, and maybe the master cylinder. If you have ABS and you got an air bubble down in the ABS module you will probably have to take it to the dealer.

get brake fluid that boils at a higher temperature as well.


70,000 miles, more autocrosses than i can remember, coming up on 5 years..

what's been replaced:

front brake pads
stock clutch (at 10,000 miles.. it wasn't worn out, burned, scored or anything.. it was just too weak.. the Spec stg3 has the other 60,000miles on it)
one wheel stud (rear of the car, installer error)
more sets of Hoosiers than i want to think about it

what needs to be replaced:
swaybar endlinks
steering tierod endlinks (when the car is on R comps, you feel a very slight pop when you wiggle the wheel left/right)
brake pads again (i have Project mU pads now.. i'm gonna go back to OEM toyotas)

what has broken:

an engine
a transmission
4 sets of shift cables
3 bumpers
1 set of racing harnesses (they were out of spec)


i know this is all xA info, just thought i'd show you guys what you'll be looking at in your future of autocross/trackdays

[mojoyaris]

Besides tire wear, brake fluid and pads
Almost a dozen track days, Solo sprint events and lots of Autocross.
The most wear on the car was the body kit where a co driver at one of the regional events cracked my brand new front end.

The engines overheated, radiator gets hot and brakes glow orange, but the clutch is still solid.

This is one tough little car!!

[cleong]

My mechanical concerns as I go into the next round of track sessions is,

Engine mounts
Driveshafts
Suspension bushes
Clutch
Gearbox syncromesh fault reoccuring

I'm glad to see no one brought these issues up yet. But then again, no one broke their gear syncros when I did!

[thebarber]

2 track days and i havent broken anything. tires (which are high performance all seasons - - fuzion hri's) show signs of being heated up really hot (minor chunking), but thats it...

[LtNoogie]

I am stuck with the automatic transmission. Should I just stay away from track days and just stick to autocross?

Specifically, is the AT sturdy enough?

[Tamago]

add a transmission and a set of axles to my above broken list lol

[thebarber]

add a transmission and a set of axles to my above broken list lol

damn

that from auto-x or running boosted?

[YarisSedan]

After 4 track days, only thing that went wrong is brake pedal travel. Even after installing stainless brake lines and good brake fluid, the travel on the pedal is way more than stock.

Yeah sounds like you got your brake fluid hot enough that it started to boil over and possibly air got into your abs system. YOu can put on a new master cylinder replaced your lines brake pads and bleed the system all you want. Nothing you can do to get the pedal back to the way it was without hooking a scanner to the computer and command the abs system to bleed itself out. Then manually bleed the lines after. Have to take it to a shop with a manufacture specific scanner to do it.

[Tamago]

damn

that from auto-x or running boosted?

combination of both i'd say..

[WolfWings]

I'll add another set of syncro's here, 1st and 2nd are rough to shift into without noticable grinding, after about five sessions worth of autocrossing. (Three times solo, one time with a co-driver hot-swapping so the system just never had a chance to cool down between runs.) I'm just over 30k miles though, gonna take it into the dealership in a day or four since changing the tranny oil didn't improve matters any.

[Tamago]

I'll add another set of syncro's here, 1st and 2nd are rough to shift into without noticable grinding, after about five sessions worth of autocrossing. (Three times solo, one time with a co-driver hot-swapping so the system just never had a chance to cool down between runs.) I'm just over 30k miles though, gonna take it into the dealership in a day or four since changing the tranny oil didn't improve matters any.

what did you use for gear oil?

[HTM Yaris]

I have done several track days . One really sticks out . I drove 3 hours to Savanah GA . Then did 120 + consecutive laps . Then back 3 hours . I love the Yaris .
I've only had to replace tires( 5 sets) , pads( 3 sets) and rotors(2 sets). I have 67 K on mine so far .

[cleong]

My 3rd gear syncros began acting up some months after I fitted the TRD quick shift. In between, I also dropped the factory gearbox oil for Redline MTL. I'm not sure which one might have caused the syncros to go bad.

The guy whom I sold the TRD quick shift to, has also reported an intermittent syncro grind. He doesn't track/cross the car though.

[cali yaris]

three track days on the yaris and nothing has broken. :thumbsup:

My tC has suffered a few problems. The only bad one was the oil cooler breaking off and having to tow her home where I could replace it.