Archives

New development. From my previous post.

After having about 2 service calls. And many many MANY phone call conversations later...
I found out...

My 2007 Toyota Corolla S... has to be completely rebuilt.

with only 25,000 or so miles on it. All the normal maintenance down to the letter...(Oil change, regular inspection by "professionals" who missed this apparently) and the Engine block SEVERELY cracked. Causing the seals to separate. Causing miss firing, causing the radiator to CRACK! Amazing... all in a period of 20 mins on 494, near 42 in Rosemont, MN.

How did I catch it early? With NO warning. No "check" engine light? No SGII warnings (engine sensor had MELTED! :eek:)

How did I catch it? FUEL ECONOMY TANKED... and I was able to notice on the SGII. From 50 highway... 40 Highway... 21.... then to 8... then the smoke started to rise... and the noise... after a very long day, I got it there...

What surprises me, I had the "Routine service" done two days prior, "nothing" was the matter. Everything looked fine.

The manager was very angry about this, because on the lift, he showed me the the HUGE crack. And apologized about 20 times. Saying only if they caught it earlier, I would not have to rebuilt the entire engine.

So now I have a FSP Lexus rental car... which eats gas. BUT, its fine, hahahah, amazing though.

Anyone else have similar problems with the 2003 to 2009 Corolla line?

That is horrible! :eek:

This happened to my 1974 Civic, due to my own stupidity, though.

Hope they fix it soon!

Hi Lord Biron:

___Holy smokes (literally!).

___I have an 03 with over 100K on its ticker and no issues but have never heard of a destructive disassembly of an all but brand new Corolla in quite some time!

___Thank goodness for warranties in this case!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Wow,
This is EXTREMELY UNUSUAL especially on a Toyota. In fact it is very rare for engines of any brand to fail - period -they just don't fail anymore. Whats makes it even more unusual is that failures because of a way out of spec part (piston/ring/crank/block) usually happen much earlier-1st few thousand miles.

Did the service manager give a best guess as to why?- I guess maybe the casting didn't completely with molten metal "fill",so it left a defect? This is so rare, especially for a QC conscious bunch like Toyota.

hmmmm, it sure would be nice to get a whole new motor, but apparently they are going to reuse your head/valvetrain/ maybe the crank and other parts? I would be tempted to try to squeeze an entirely new motor out of them. It is hard to believe that rebuilding yours is actually cheaper for them than just popping in a new one. Maybe they will just put your heads on a new bottom end/block/crank/pistons rod etc? That would be ok, but all new would be even better!

Very, very uncommon even with lesser brands. A buddy of mine managed to crack a Piston on a 2000 Lumina at 5000 miles, but he ran it at 105mph for one hour-Chevy did repair it under warranty. This is the only engine failure I can remember in the last 20 years.Cars fall apart around their engines, but the engines usually run forever.

Luck,
Charlie

I'm guessing the odds of that happening are about the same as winning the lottery. So sorry Biron, but you'll never win the lottery now.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it is possible that during the "Routine Service" they forgot to refill the oil, left the drain plug loose, or left the radiator empty?? In other words, is it possible that the crack was the result of overheating due to no lubricant or no coolant rather then the cause of the overheating??

It's extremely suspicious that the car had been in for service two days before the failure.

I'd definitely demand a completely new engine. There's no way to know how much of the other components' lifetimes has been lost due to the catastrophic failure.

Yeah it is extremely rare.

They have only seen it, at the service dept, on a 07 Camry, which was dropped when it was being loaded on to a BNSF Train carrier in Portland, Oregon. Then repaired, and resold. Which was metal fatigue.

This one is a puzzler. But its all under warranty, even the FSP rental, which is averaging 18 MPG right now...

They never gave me a straight answer to why it happened, which I totally understand. I am at a loss in why it happened.

Its just very disconcerting. But yes, I won the Lottery, yippy,

hahahahah. Thanks for the laugh, i needed it.

I will keep you all posted. I hope no one else in this climate gets this surprise. All I know is there are not any service bulletin about it. Fuel levels were checked and good. Oil was good. All lubrication was done at regular service cycles...

Its all under warranty. I will keep the faith :)

My theory. Metal fatigue, or a 1/100000 change of failure! at least it happened while it was under warranty.

Anyone else have something similar to any vehicle? What was the cause? I want to figure this one out!

Wow! Did you ever get it up to 130mph?????:Banane13:

Did you buy the car new? I would bet on the service two days earlier being linked to the failure.

Where does the crack start and finish?

Would it be possible to get pictures of it?

Really sorry to hear this, but at least it happened under warranty, and they're on the hook for the repair cost + rental car for you.

What kind of Lexus did they give you? An ES? Or did they give you an SUV?

It always seems like dealers think they're doing you a favor by giving you an SUV as a loaner. My wife's Pontiac G6 had to go into the dealer to fix the airbag for a few days, so they gave us a Hummer H2. The guy at the rental car desk seemed really pleased that he was "able" to give us that vehicle, too. I tried to get a sedan or coupe (even a V8 sedan would've been nicer,) but there were none to be had. I drove it to work, just out of curiosity....obviously, the fuel economy sucked, but the thing handled like it was a Winnebago. I was not impressed with it at all.

In 1983 I got a 1974 CVCC Civic. One day I ran out of coolant and probably did the most stupid single act to a car, ran water from a garden hose. Of course I cracked the engine and within six months went to the junk yard.

I hear some people will spray the engine with the power washers, but kind of leery from my act of stupidity just stated plus you might penetrate the wiring and hoses.

How did I catch it? FUEL ECONOMY TANKED... and I was able to notice on the Sgii . From 50 highway... 40 Highway... 21.... then to 8... then the smoke started to rise... and the noise... after a very long day, I got it there...

Did this happen after the service?

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. The only time I ever had a block crack it was due to the car being left out all winter w/o anti freeze in the water. It was my first car, a 1948 Ford. I replaced it with a 1940 Olds. We called the Olds "The Royal Flush" because it made a noise like a flushing toilet when you put your foot in it!

In 1983 I got a 1974 CVCC Civic. One day I ran out of coolant and probably did the most stupid single act to a car, ran water from a garden hose. Of course I cracked the engine and within six months went to the junk yard.There's nothing wrong with running straight water in your cooling system, provided that it's only temporary and that you wait until the (probably overheated) engine cools before adding the water.

Clarification: in the 74 Civic I ruined, I bathed the engine with a garden hose - not sprinkle.

Clarification: in the 74 Civic I ruined, I bathed the engine with a garden hose - not sprinkle.

Ah, yes that will crack a block. Running straight water in the radiator is one thing. Pouring cold water on a hot block is something else entirely.

I lost a good go-kart to the same thing when I was younger.

Clarification: in the 74 Civic I ruined, I bathed the engine with a garden hose - not sprinkle.AaaaaaaiiiiiiieeeeeEEEE! :Banane54:

New development. From my previous post.

....

Anyone else have similar problems with the 2003 to 2009 Corolla line?

I understand that aluminum is less forgiving than steel, so you probably wouldn't have much time to catch the problem. Probably they forgot to tighten or replace something at the routine service. Oil plug? Coolant? I'd bet on Lightfoot's radiator fluid theory--that would be similar to what happened to lots of aluminum block Vegas back in the 70's when they lost their radiator fluid due to a design flaw.

When I was in the car rental biz years back we never had that happen to any of our cars (GM's, Ford's and Chrysler's that we kept ~5 yrs/100,000 mi.) that the customers abused. The only similar engine failure we had was when somebody (the manager:rolleyes:) didn't tighten an oil plug.

i bet you they forgot to put oil in the engine, simliar thing happened to a matrix with the same engine. They had to replace the short block, and when looking at the old one it was a carrier bearing that went seized, then it went downhill from there. Rebuild took over 8 hours of labor, but hey now they got a brand new block for no cost :)

Well, all I know is its still in the back lot. I guess not even looked at, after telling me "first thing Monday morning".

Lexus SUV vampire... I have the Tires at 51 PSI. Now i get about 20 MPG.

Like the Hummer 2 rental... they thought they were giving me a treat. Its a Lexus RX, which is nice and all. But, I commute at least 80 miles a day. So its going from 48, 44 MPG and a range of 540 miles lately... before this incident, to 18, 20 is doubling my fuel consumption, emissions and sucking from wallet.

To add insult to injury. They will get my car done by Friday, (maybe) which will be 7 days. The warranty only allows for a rental for 5 days. its 55 USD a day after the 5 days for this FSP.

Little more insight:

Now apparently the official story is: A faulty seal caused an "explosive" burst of pressure that *they think* cracked the block. Toyota has seen this only in the 07 to 09 Camry, and about 2% of reported cases. For Corolla from 2003 to 2008, 0%... so I am that lucky lucky first I guess.

However, Toyota has been wonderful with all this. As of now, no cost to me, for now. I hope.

I asked about fluids. Oil was full, all levels at their recommend levels.

So, I guess that is it for now.

Right now, the car is engines less in the back. Tomorrow I hear it "might" be done.

Interesting huh?

Hmm...maybe I'll go take a peek under the hood.

...what am I looking at?

Where are you from? If it affects Camrys, I'm wondering if the cars that are available to California and the Northeast only are different.

Thanks for the update. Faulty seal caused a burst of pressure large enough to crack a metal block????? The oil seals are rubber with some sort of spring tensioner. I would like to hear the technical details of this failure.

It's great that they are taking care of it. Hope it all turns out well.

Final Update: (I hope)

They took the entire engine, and sent it on to Toyota. Replaced, and running fine... until I ran the heater core.

Turning on the heat creates a horrific smell... a mix of fire and brimstone, ha! Perhaps, its a one time only thing, cannot recreate it so far... cross your fingers for luck.

Just smells so bad. i think its when they reconnected the hoses from the Radiator, perhaps didn't clean it off?

This is a bad day, because my Ford threw a Rod, and is dead in the parking lot.

I hope your luck turns around. You have had more than your share of misfortune!

WOW!:eek: I hope it wasn't a new Ford. I would say that a pattern is developing!:D

Pop the hood and make sure antifreeze is not oozing out anywhere and make sure the brimstone smell is not coming from your exhaust pipe or anywhere from under the hood. The smell of burning sulfur is not a positive sign.

Final Update: (I hope)

They took the entire engine, and sent it on to Toyota. Replaced, and running fine... until I ran the heater core.

Turning on the heat creates a horrific smell... a mix of fire and brimstone, ha! Perhaps, its a one time only thing, cannot recreate it so far... cross your fingers for luck.

Just smells so bad. i think its when they reconnected the hoses from the Radiator, perhaps didn't clean it off?

This is a bad day, because my Ford threw a Rod, and is dead in the parking lot.

Lord B,
How many miles and what model/year is the Ford? I'm debating spending $3000 and maybe 200 hours to replace the motor in my 207,000 mile 98 Suburban( it it will take me at least a month in my driveway knowing how slowing I work on PITA projects)
One of the few advantages of Chevy's V-8s is that you can buy a new GM motor(not rebuilt) really cheaply($2300 delivered, but I expect at least $500 in gaskets/fluids/hoist/misc other costs).
Will you fix the Ford or scrap it?
Good luck,(you are DUE some)
Charlie

sorry for bringing a old thread back to life, but its relative to my 2010 Corolla XRS block crack with just 20k miles on it.

i cant rewrite everything here, but it's on another forum if you wish to read about it (http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=341682).