Lost Serpentine Belt

[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?