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Lauren

Recall issued on cars to have valve springs replaced 2012-2013

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I had my car booked in with RRG Macclesfield for the valve spring recall in July and phoned them today to check that we were still on for this.

They told me that Toyota had cancelled all GT86 recalls and that it was likely to be several months before any further update. RRG only returned to work this week but will be contacting those affected soon.

Does anyone know anything more on this? Has anyone else got their car booked in/had it cancelled? I got the impression that the delay was due to the technical matter of undertaking the work (perhaps a change in procedures) rather than any parts supply issue.

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My car was booked in for Monday just gone have heard nothing official from RRG ( second time cancelled) by the time this gets sorted I might be living five and a half hours away so wont be done.

I wouldn't worry too much about it anyway if your engine goes bang it will just get fixed by Toyota.

 

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I did post up on the FB group a while ago that all recalls were cancelled. The problem is though RRG have returned to work a couple of weeks ago, they are running reduced numbers in the workshop with only three mechanics in and Takumi, Gary is not yet back in as he is still furloughed. I don't think he will be back till the end of the month and it is a struggle with the social distancing stuff and all that. 

So yes the problem is down to the issues around the pandemic and not having a full workforce in, plus the issues of the mechanics being in close proximity to each other. I had a good old chat with Richard when my car was in for new discs and pads a couple of weeks ago and he said that that they are still very much working out how to operate safely, for all involved, which is harder than you might think. I don't yet know when normal service will resume, but on the plus side, if your valve springs do fail which is unlikely, you will be be covered as it's not your fault. I think all you can be is patient at this point. 

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I did post up on the FB group a while ago that all recalls were cancelled. The problem is though RRG have returned to work a couple of weeks ago, they are running reduced numbers in the workshop with only three mechanics in and Takumi, Gary is not yet back in as he is still furloughed. I don't think he will be back till the end of the month and it is a struggle with the social distancing stuff and all that. 
So yes the problem is down to the issues around the pandemic and not having a full workforce in, plus the issues of the mechanics being in close proximity to each other. I had a good old chat with Richard when my car was in for new discs and pads a couple of weeks ago and he said that that they are still very much working out how to operate safely, for all involved, which is harder than you might think. I don't yet know when normal service will resume, but on the plus side, if your valve springs do fail which is unlikely, you will be be covered as it's not your fault. I think all you can be is patient at this point. 
What discs and pads do you use Lauren?

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9 hours ago, BRZ-123 said:

What discs and pads do you use Lauren?

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For the fronts, Reyland 330mm grooved dics to go with my AP 4 pots. Rear discs are OEM. Pads are DS2500 all round. 

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What with the lockdown I'd left doing anything about my recall, but then figured I could perhaps do a combined Sevice/MOT this month with the work (yes I know it would take more than a day to do the springs!). Phone RRG last week and got the service/MOT booked but was told that they don't have the parts from Toyota for the spring replacement and don't know when they will. I guess it's something to do with the factory being shut down.

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My car is booked in for the recall to be done next week.  Just a couple of questions/requests for thoughts please.

My understanding is that many people have had their clutch inspected/replaced while having the recall done.  I purchased my car second-hand, but understand that an Xtreme organic clutch was installed around 4 years/20k miles ago.  I don't therefore anticipate it should have significant wear but thought it would be good if it could be checked/the clutch release bearing inspected and greased as necessary.  Dealer has advised that they would not inspect the clutch and would just check via road test.  This seems at odds with others experience?  I appreciate that they may not actually remove the clutch as part of the recall but it will be coming out with the engine and easily accessible.

I asked if they could quote for doing some additional work which they seemed happy to do.  I will be doing the other 60k mile service items but the costs quoted for a couple of other items seemed very high to me, bearing in mind the easy access.  

Are the exhaust manifolds removed as part of the recall?  Cost quoted to fit aftermarket manifold and overpipe (these parts and gaskets supplied by me) - 4 hours labour - £528.

Cost quoted to fit Cosworth baffle plate into sump - 2 hours - £264.

I have told them not to bother with these items as the cost seemed high.  Just after some thoughts.  Please set me straight if I am underestimating the work involved.  If I am correct in thinking these should be fairly straightforward though, I wonder whether it may be worth asking the dealer whether they could double check their figures/that they haven't quoted on the basis of stand alone jobs!

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Dealers don't make much on the recall from central Toyota, so this seems like the perfect opportunity to make the job worthwhile for them. The baffle plate in particular seems steep, even if it were two hours work, that still works out at over a hundred quid an hour labour, with VAT knocked off. Unless you're desperate to only have dealers hands on the car (which would be daft if you're doing mods) personally I'd make them do the bare minimum required to get the recall done, at no expense to you and then get your aftermarket bits done by a good indie. It's not like manifold, overripe or baffle require specialist knowledge of the model.

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Thanks. I'm not precious about only having Toyota dealers work on the car, it was more that I thought it could be convenient and cost effective. From some of the photos I've seen on here, I would have thought it would be the ideal opportunity to do some extra items while 'working in the area'. I would be happy to pay a representative cost for any extra labour, but don't want to be charged for more labour than necessary. The below photo of a recall in progress seems to show manifold off and sump easily accessible...

Edited to add, it appears from the second photo below that the clutch actually has to come off to mount the engine on the work stand?

20201027_101715.png

 

20201027_102826.png

Edited by James7

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Fitting the cossie baffle plate isn't that high really. From what I can remember, a large chunk (almost half?) is down to the sealant being expensive - then a couple hours of labour for removal, putting the plate in and applying the sealant. Car then stays overnight for it to cure but obviously you're not paying for that time. I had other things done at the time but I'm sure it was around a similar price you've been quoted.

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Fitting the cossie baffle plate isn't that high really. From what I can remember, a large chunk (almost half?) is down to the sealant being expensive - then a couple hours of labour for removal, putting the plate in and applying the sealant. Car then stays overnight for it to cure but obviously you're not paying for that time. I had other things done at the time but I'm sure it was around a similar price you've been quoted.

The sealant is about £4 worth. Had my baffle plate fitted by rogue Motorsport on the weekend. I would say that cost for the baffle plate is reasonable. It will take them probably a lot more time than that if they show due care and attention, cleaning up the sump and block could take a while.

 

However the manifold has to be taken off and put on with the recall. I think RRG actually left my manifold attached with the front pipe and just detached it from the block. I think that's a stupid cost anything more than 100 quid would be ridiculous.

 

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The official sealant is a lot more than £4 though, I'm sure its like £80
Maybe for a whole tube but they are using very minimal

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As others have said, sump baffle installation estimate is sensible and fair while Manifold is extortionate. You could go with the former as the car needs to be left with them overnight ans best to do it when car is left there. For the manifold and overpipe install its a drive in drive out job. 2 hrs tops if you don't need a retune.

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It takes longer to remove the undertrays, than it does to replace the manifold and overpipe - half of which have to be removed anyway to do the recall!

I asked for the 5 year / 60k service to be done at the same time, and was originally quoted the fixed price rate. I complained, politely, even saying "When I mentioned this on the online forum everyone said it was obscene" and they dropped the price to merely the cost of sparkplugs.

I'd ask them to drop the price to a more reasonable one. Doesn't hurt to ask. I can't comment on the oil baffle.

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Almost exactly a year since I had my first recall letter, another one arrived with me yesterday. I need to contact the dealer to arrange everything, but given that no one ever bothered getting back to me last time (despite three chasers), I'm guessing that things will be even slower given the pandemic situation. 

On 1/16/2020 at 11:01 PM, Test Drives Unlimited said:

I was told that Abbey Sport are doing some of the rebuilds for Modified cars in the South East Keith on behalf of Toyota.

Maybe an idea to contact Mark and see what he says...

Is this true? If so I would be much happier taking my car to Abbey. Only lightly modified, and as per previous posts in this thread, Beadles Medway appear to have handled several recalls already, but I'm wary given the amount of failures experienced. 

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4 minutes ago, Conscript said:

Almost exactly a year since I had my first recall letter, another one arrived with me yesterday. I need to contact the dealer to arrange everything, but given that no one ever bothered getting back to me last time (despite three chasers), I'm guessing that things will be even slower given the pandemic situation. 

Is this true? If so I would be much happier taking my car to Abbey. Only lightly modified, and as per previous posts in this thread, Beadles Medway appear to have handled several recalls already, but I'm wary given the amount of failures experienced. 

This isn't true I am afraid , we use the Toyota recall springs if we are carrying out a rebuild

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34 minutes ago, Mark@Abbey M/S said:

This isn't true I am afraid , we use the Toyota recall springs if we are carrying out a rebuild

Cheers Mark. I'll contact Beadles Medway then. Trying to arrange it so that the recall is carried out around the time I'm due for a service, but I'll be planning to come back to you in January for MOT/alignment anyway. 

Mind you, I tried arranging it like that last year and they never bothered to get back to me.

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On 10/27/2020 at 4:19 PM, BRZ-123 said:

As others have said, sump baffle installation estimate is sensible and fair while Manifold is extortionate. You could go with the former as the car needs to be left with them overnight ans best to do it when car is left there. For the manifold and overpipe install its a drive in drive out job. 2 hrs tops if you don't need a retune.

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I’ve done lots of sumps in the past and never waited for the sealant to dry. Its clamped down tight by the bolts and the engine heats up/dries out the sealant fast.

Amber Performance actually did my cossie baffled sump while I wait and I drove it straight home the same day. No waiting overnight for stuff to dry. This is the first i’ve ever heard of this if im honest.

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I think it's a standard procedure wherever the sealant is involved. Same goes for resealing the diff, overnight for drying. I *think* the idea is to leave it without oil too, presumably until it's fully cured there's potential for it to mix with the oil? Probably shouldn't happen but belt & braces for warranty purposes...

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I’ve done lots of sumps in the past and never waited for the sealant to dry. Its clamped down tight by the bolts and the engine heats up/dries out the sealant fast.
Amber Performance actually did my cossie baffled sump while I wait and I drove it straight home the same day. No waiting overnight for stuff to dry. This is the first i’ve ever heard of this if im honest.
Mike has explained above but to use an analogy , when your house walls are being skimmed, you can use heaters for it to dry out faster (but its not recommended) and get it done quicker. It does come with a risk of potential cracks in future.
Something similar. Better to be safe than sorry, really.

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Had my recall done earlier this year, all has seemed fine. But yesterday noticed the coolant had dropped to just below the minimum level on the bottle. I've topped it up ad booked it in for Toyota to work out what's going on.

Any suggestions on things that could cause such a thing? I'd noticed it slightly lower than maximum a few weeks after recall, just asssumed that was normal for having had the entire engine out etc. But I haven't had a car lose coolant since driving shitboxes in my teens!

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On 10/30/2020 at 2:02 PM, Leeky said:

I’ve done lots of sumps in the past and never waited for the sealant to dry. Its clamped down tight by the bolts and the engine heats up/dries out the sealant fast.

Amber Performance actually did my cossie baffled sump while I wait and I drove it straight home the same day. No waiting overnight for stuff to dry. This is the first i’ve ever heard of this if im honest.

The sealant used on these engine it is advised to leave to go off before any heat or fluids are added, the same sealant is used on the Nissan VQ motors we build and we always allow it to cure before any heat or fluids are added.

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I had my car booked in for the recall back in May but it was cancelled due to the Covid lockdown.

I just received my letter from Toyota on Saturday to say my car was due the recall so I contacted Charles Hurst Toyota Belfast who wanted to charge me £20 a day for a rental car as they do not offer loan cars (due to covid) anymore. No thank you. 

Phoned Curtis Toyota Ballymena, happy to provide loan car but was unsure if the recall campaign was still suspended or not. I'm awaiting a phone call to confirm.

I then contacted the Toyota Recall administration line, the 0800 044 3723 number. She wasn't sure if the campaign was active or not but more concerning was a little piece of information she gave about the length of time they allow for the recall. Two days. 

Two days warranty time is apparently what Toyota are giving their Techs to remove and replace an entire engine that most are not very familiar with. In a previous life I was a Service Advisor so knowing warranty job times I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was cut to the bone. I'm guessing that giving them such a short turnaround time is probably a contributing factor in the worrying amount of engine failures and other associated issues that I've just been reading about here and the FRS forum. I could fully understand if it was an engine that they were familiar with and comfortable working around but as it's such a departure from every other engine there would be a certain learning curve to working on these, never mind a full R&R job. 

I'm seriously considering leaving the recall procedure as it seems to have a higher failure rate than the actual springs that they're supposed to fix. What is the general consensus about the recall? Go ahead or leave it? 

It seems the dealers are happy to walk away from engine failures and issues as unconnected to the recall procedure when it does go Pete Tong. I guess they don't want to eat the cost of a new engine if it can't be 100% proved they were at fault. 

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