[mightar]

Toyota GR86 Engine Failure Warranty Claim Denied Over Pics of Owner Drifting

The owner says the "evidence" is inaccurate, and that the problem stems from a known engine weakness.

www.motortrend.com

Ouch. I had heard similar reports on reddit. If Toyota takes that stance on the GR Corolla...

I haven't seen or heard any issues regarding oil starvation on our VNs - have you?

 

[Stamoose]

All these car commercials you see of vehicles driving on Daytona's road course, offroading in 3 feet of mud while hauling logs, weaving around cones with some dude wearing a helmet on and full fire protection, yet when push comes to shove they don't want you doing any of that and they deny your warranty because you once pulled an e-brake over 20mph?

I sure hope that Veloster N warranty "letter" that makes it's way around here actually has some validity.

 

[almazing]

I'm on the top of the list for a GRC, and my decision for buying that car(and subsequently selling or trading the VN) rests solely upon how Toyota handles this situation.

There have been many, many collective VN miles and hours on track, and I think that if there were oil starvation issues, we'd know. The VN does not have a baffled oil pan, which would mitigate oil starvation during high G cornering, but does so just fine even without. And most of the blown engines or turbos I've seen on VNs appear to be self inflicted. Money shifting and running too much boost with a questionable tune has been the trend I've been seeing with catastrophic failure. The VN engine has a low power ceiling in comparison to other turbo I-4s, but that doesn't mean it's weak. It's just optimized for a specific power level, and it can run forever within that range. I'm okay with that, though I understand why others wouldn't be. I just feel that it's the wrong platform if one just wants to make the highest numbers on the dyno.

And to be honest, there hasn't been a ton of aftermarket development time on these engines and ECUs. I mean that in the sense of elapsed time, and number of competing aftermarket tuners. Pair that with the low production numbers of the VN and the general unpopularity of Korean cars in the greater tuning scene, I personally can't trust tuners at this time. But I do thank the early adopters for taking that risk. The stock engine mapping for any of the modes besides Eco is worlds better than the other recent model year turbo cars I've had in the past. Focus ST and Fiesta ST to name a few.

 

[RedVN]

I’m waiting on a Toyota GR Circuit Edition as well.

However, the GR86 and the GR Yaris have weak point is in the valve train, specifically the rocker arms. There’s nothing to keep the rocker arms from dislodging. Toyota knows this and has known it for at least 5 or so years and won’t upgrade the valve train. Now there are two weak points!

At high rpm’s and or with a missed shift, it can and usually does cause a rocker arm or two, to dislodge and lock valve/s open. This leads to piston and valve damage. However, there is a fix from an Australian company who manufactures rocker arm keeper clips. It completely solves the issue.

Toyota won’t add the keepers and is aware of the problem. It can happen on and off track. Toyota has no such track warranty and is very strict about road use only. It’s very obvious in their warranty manual. The GR86 owner knew this from the beginning. Again, his has already happened to two specific GR Yaris Corolla’s across the pond and Toyota refused to warranty he engines as well. This will be no different.

If you need the Australian manufacturer of the clips let me know. It will be the only way to correct the issue. The GR Yaris Circuit Edition we have coming will, not go on the road until the rocker arm retaining clips go on and the dealer service where we purchase the car will do the work.

I posted this in the GR Yaris thread earlier.👍🇺🇸

Additionally, I know and am aware of, there is no baffling in the VN Oil Pan;

The GR86 oil pan is small and sloped to fit the lower contour of the flat 4 engine. Looking at the pan you can see exactly why oil slouches fore/aft and side to side easily.👍🇺🇸

 

[almazing]

I’m waiting on a Toyota GR Circuit Edition as well.

However, the GR86 and the GR Yaris have weak point is in the valve train, specifically the rocker arms. There’s nothing to keep the rocker arms from dislodging. Toyota knows this and has known it for at least 5 or so years and won’t upgrade the valve train.

At high rpm’s and or with a missed shift, it can and usually does cause a rocker arm or two, to dislodge and lock valve/s open. This leads to piston and valve damage. However, there is a fix from an Australian company who manufactures rocker arm keeper clips. It completely solves the issue.

Toyota won’t add the keepers and is aware of the problem. It can happen on and off track. Toyota has no such track warranty and is very strict about road use only. It’s very obvious in their warranty manual. The GR86 owner knew this from the beginning. Again, his has already happened to two specific GR Yaris Corolla’s across the pond and Toyota refused to warranty he engines as well. This will be no different.

If you need the Australian manufacturer of the clips let me know. It will be the only way to correct the issue. The GR Yaris Circuit Edition we have coming will, not go on the road until the rocker arm retaining clips go on and the dealer service where we purchase the car will do the work.

I posted this in the GR Yaris thread earlier.👍🇺🇸

Thanks but I'm confused with certain nomenclature in your post. The GRCorolla and GRYaris are different models that share the same drivetrain. As similar as they are with each other, they're not the same car. The GRC we're getting in the US has more power, and it has not yet been confirmed nor denied that Toyota will fix the rocker arm issue with the more powerful G16E-GTS heading stateside. With Toyota's track record as of late, I don't think they'll fix the issue. But you never know. Adding 30 more horsepower and 20 more torques could mean more than an ECU mapping change from a car manufacturer's perspective.

 

[RedVN]

The rock arm problem exists in both engines. It’s virtually the same engine being used for the GR Yaris and GR Corolla.

Yes, they are different chassis but share the same drivetrain. To a vast degree both are the same design 3 cylinder engine. They share many engine internal engine components.

The latter; upgrade in tune producing more compression, boost and exhaust, resulting in higher hp output.

Toyota isn’t going to do anything about the issue. It exists in other production engine designs and also extends to several Lexus models as well. 👍🇺🇸

 

[AgingYoungster_PA]

I would add that our warranty covers autocross and track use. Apparently the dealer found evidence of "track" use and on that basis denied the claim. Almost all cars completely lose their warranty during track or autocross use. Read and follow your warranty.

 

[Piro Fyre]

Fun fact. The owner of the GR86 previously had a Veloster N.

Also, the oil starvation is the result of RTV blocking the oil pickup. And he was at a Test n Tune autox, testing out the handling of the car. Not exactly drifting. The only thing "drifting" was some certified Toyota inspector that came to check his car out to see if they should honor the warranty was a well known drifter in the community. EXCEPT he didn't even bother looking deeper into this mess. He just went through his socials and found pictures and videos of the ONE event he went to.

I was also sent this picture of another GR86 owner but his motor is fine. He was curious after what happened to the first guy so he removed his oil pan and what do you know. RTV in his pickup. At least for him, he caught it in time and his motor is still running. This could end up being a bigger issue.

Right now, the owner of the blown motor is facepalming over all these press titles saying "drifting". He really wasn't. The Toyota inspector even found videos of him driving his friend's GR86 that was white and used that against him while his car was black.

 

[mightar]

I'm struggling to understand why RTV was used vs a gasket. Are you saying Toyota uses RTV from the factory? And if so, the problem sounds like too much RTV was applied at said factory and the excess now causes risk of getting dislodged?!

 

[Piro Fyre]

Not Toyota. Subaru. Have to remember these cars were built at Fuji Heavy Industries, which is owned by Subaru. And from what I understand, this has been an issue since 2013.

 

[mightar]

Looks like Toyota did a 180 - they will honor the warranty now. I guess the negative backlash had an effect

 

[almazing]

Looks like Toyota did a 180 - they will honor the warranty now. I guess the negative backlash had an effect

I wonder if Toyota will keep this warranty up for all further(and inevitable) oil starvation issues stemming from non-competitive track driving from here on out.

Or if this was just purely a PR stunt to take the heat off of them for a while, until they have a bunch of engines they need to replace again.

More importantly, what would this mean for the other GR cars that have been, and are, being marketed as cars you can take to the track? Hell, the GRC even has a Circuit Edition and Morizo Edition. Morizo being Akio Toyoda's pseudonym when racing. The GRC is literally being marketed as a track ready car, with racy names like Circuit and Morizo, having a competition drift GRC, and marketing videos showing the GRC hooning on track and dirt. So they need to take a long hard look at how GR car warranties will handled from now on. Otherwise, I ain't buyin. They gotta put their money where their mouth is.