Lost Serpentine Belt

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by NickNickNick

I have two reports. One from June 21, 2010 where the drive belt was loosened and lubricated.

The second from May 5, 2011 where the drive belt was checked and reported as being in excellent shape.

The issue isn't really the drive belt anyway - it's the fact that I paid good money for a brand new car that I thought would last at least 10 years without any engine trouble.

We bought a 1998 used Cavalier shortly after the Yaris for my wife, and it has 200,000km on it with no issues at all.

Had I know I was going to have to pay $3000 to have the engine and clutch replaced on this vehicle, I would have bought a used car of a whatever brand I could get the best deal on. I bought a new Toyota because I believed in the reliability claims they make all of the time. I find it VERY difficult to believe that when I had all the parts of my car fully checked 7000km ago, they would miss a belt problem, engine problem, and a problem with the clutch (which is almost completely snapped off). Sounds defective to me.

Lubricated the belt. OK. The service you get is only as good as the place you take it, and I would be suspect of any place that said they lubed a belt.

A number of things could cause a belt to fail or come off... A piece of debris from the road kicked up, if the water pump was going and had excess end play. I lost one when our aluminum crank pulley (not stock) split in two. Bad stuff happens to cars.

I would love to see a pic of an almost snapped off clutch. How does that happen, and what is it almost snapped off of? I don't know of any service inspection that checks a clutch, hard to see it without pulling the trans.

Seems like there is more to this.

I have a 2001 Expedition with 199450 miles on it, and a 2007 with 40k, guess which one has spent more time at the dealer. Its the newer one. Sometimes your are lucky with a car, others times, not so much.

[bankrobber]

[QUOTE=Jason@SportsCar;595912]Lubricated the belt. OK. The service you get is only as good as the place you take it, and I would be suspect of any place that said they lubed a belt.

I was wondering same thing. I sprayed some penetrating grease stuff on bottom bolt and I think it got on my new belt and caused it to slip a tiny bit at start up with A/C turned on. I remember people using belt ease to quiet a belt. I replaced my belt when it was getting too many cracks. A decent mechanic could replace belt in same time to "lubricate" it. New cars should come with a shut off feature when oil or water gets too hot. My Mack truck will shut off engine Before it gets hot enough to cause damage.

[NickNickNick]

Originally Posted by Jason@SportsCar

Lubricated the belt. OK. The service you get is only as good as the place you take it, and I would be suspect of any place that said they lubed a belt.

A number of things could cause a belt to fail or come off... A piece of debris from the road kicked up, if the water pump was going and had excess end play. I lost one when our aluminum crank pulley (not stock) split in two. Bad stuff happens to cars.

I would love to see a pic of an almost snapped off clutch. How does that happen, and what is it almost snapped off of? I don't know of any service inspection that checks a clutch, hard to see it without pulling the trans.

Seems like there is more to this.

I have a 2001 Expedition with 199450 miles on it, and a 2007 with 40k, guess which one has spent more time at the dealer. Its the newer one. Sometimes your are lucky with a car, others times, not so much.

The place that lubed the belt was Toyota. The place that did the full check was Toyota. I have had all major service intervals done at the Dealership.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by NickNickNick

The place that lubed the belt was Toyota. The place that did the full check was Toyota. I have had all major service intervals done at the Dealership.

There are bad dealers (mostly bad employes) out there... We took our 4Runner in for a cat replacement. The dealer told us they suspected we had run diesel in the truck and that caused the failure. First, we know which fuel to put in our cars. Second, in the US the diesel nozzle is bigger than a standard nozzle, and won't physically fit in the 4Runner. Dumb @ss. This same dealer also left the oil filter loose on our Tundra. It leaked oil all the way back to our office, and a big puddle in the parking lot. We don't go there anymore.

I suspect you are dealing with a Dumb @ss, or you are leaving information out. How about pics of that almost completely snapped off clutch? Were those the dealers words, or yours? If that was the dealers description of your clutch problem I would say you need to find a new shop, one that does not have 17yr old kids working as service writers.

[NickNickNick]

Originally Posted by Jason@SportsCar

There are bad dealers (mostly bad employes) out there... We took our 4Runner in for a cat replacement. The dealer told us they suspected we had run diesel in the truck and that caused the failure. First, we know which fuel to put in our cars. Second, in the US the diesel nozzle is bigger than a standard nozzle, and won't physically fit in the 4Runner. Dumb @ss. This same dealer also left the oil filter loose on our Tundra. It leaked oil all the way back to our office, and a big puddle in the parking lot. We don't go there anymore.

I suspect you are dealing with a Dumb @ss, or you are leaving information out. How about pics of that almost completely snapped off clutch? Were those the dealers words, or yours? If that was the dealers description of your clutch problem I would say you need to find a new shop, one that does not have 17yr old kids working as service writers.

The dealership that did my repairs has been excellent. I don't have any pics of the clutch, though I did see it, and it was completely worn in places on the lever. "Snapped off" were my words.

The dealership that has serviced my car in the past, however, is definitely a problem. I have a lot of conflicting reports between these two places.

[NickNickNick]

Also, the plates/discs/whatever you call them on the clutch itself were obviously damaged. Hard to tell if it was wear.

[NickNickNick]

And, the plastic dipstick that was in the old engine was really warped/melted from heat. I don't understand how an engine could get so hot without so much as an engine light coming on at some point. I must've blown the temperature guage long before then.

[NickNickNick]

Update time.

New engine installed. New clutch installed. I have put about 1000km on it since I got the car back. Seems to work just fine so far. My gas mileage is also up on the last tank and half fill, from about 6.6L/100km to 6.1L/100km.

I have not received a call back regarding my case with Toyota as of yet.

One thing I did notice the other day - after driving about an hour at 90-100km/hr, I stopped the car at a rail crossing on a local grid road. I was planning on grabbing something out of the hatch. As I brought the car to a complete stop, the car made, what seemed to be, a loud vibrating sound, and felt like it shook a bit (almost like what happens when you idle the car in too high a gear at too low a speed). I was in the process of shutting the car off, which I did. I gave the engine a quick look before re-starting the car, and I have driven about 300km since, both in city and highway, and this issue has not occurred again. I don't believe I had the car in gear partially when I stopped. Anyone know of this happening?

I've also noticed that sometimes when I start the new engine up, it idles at about 1500rpm, then slowly, over about 1 minute, the rpm falls to about 900. Anyone know what's up with that?