2004 Flywheel Problem - Car Not 2 Weeks Out Of Warranty

[Hildretha]

Well it looks like the old flywheel problem has not gone away. On Sunday my car broke down due to the clutch failing on my Rav 4 XT3 D4D. It was not even 2 weeks out of warranty.

At first the dealer it was sent to after paying 55.00 to get it towed to them told me he was not aware of any problems with Rav 4 Clutches (hard to believe after what I have read here). He said he would look at the problem for free and come back to me.

When he came back to me I had already read the comments on this page so was more than prepared for what he had to say to me, he said I would need a total new clutch including the plates etc and it was going to cost 1800.00 (or the region of) and that it was down to the way I had been driving the car and it was my fault.

Now I have had cars do over 60K miles and not need a new clutch it is most definitely not the way I have driven the car. He said he was going to have a word with Totyota and come back to me, this is when I asked him about the flywheel and he was taken back a bit and admitted he was speaking to Toyota as they had clear guidelines on this issue. ie. if car was pre 2002 all of it is replaced FOC, you would get nothing of the car was a 2003-2004 model and after 2004 they sometimes offer to replace "some" of the parts but it was likely they wouldn't cover all of them and it would still cost 1000.00 even if they did offer some of the parts.

Eventually after lots of twoing and froing and getting the General Manager of the dealership involved (as someone I know knows him) they came back and said they would replace ALL of the parts, shirked a bit when I asked if they would be warranteed and eventually agreed yes for 12 months but have landed me with a 650.00 labour bill that Toyota are just not willing to do anything with. Even though it is a known fault on the car and it is just under 2 weeks out of warranty. So essentially I am paying them to fit replacement parts for parts that were not fit for purpose in the first place. Am paying for the labour to fit a new clutch on a car that hasn't even done 32K miles and this is on a car that is supposed to be reliable.

I have had Toyotas for a long while and so have my parents and I tell you, Toyota know nothing of customer loyalty so I have decided I am now just going to sell the car and go for a totally different make, they have had all the cash they are gonna get and to be honest what they are making on these repairs they must not be spending it on customer service training as the lady I spoke to was just plain rude!!

Now I am going to write to Toyota and put in an official complaint, have already written to Watchdog seen as the Renault story has been sorted they may just be interested in this sort of thing, either way am not lying down and am certainly not gonna recommend anyone buy a toyota especially a rav 4 diesel. Not sure if it will do any good but it will make me feel better about it am sure.

Thankyou for letting me have my rant and thankyou to all of you on this forum who have given me the informaion i have needed.

[Fujisan]

Very sad to hear that you have had these problems not only with your RAV but also with Mr T. :(

Good luck with your next car.....what ever it maybe

Just not a CRV, we couldn't stand that! :D

[anchorman]

Here we go again.

This subject needs to be addressed.

Kingo

Do you think that we could get Toyota PR to issue a clear policy on this as it is just not fair. I'm sure that Toyota have paid parts and labour on some claims. Or are some of the dealers using this to cash in on customer misfortune without the knowledge of Toyota?

It is perhaps unfair for me to ask what you think but I have a contact in PR that I will try to phone.

We should all be concerned about this as we don't know how these 4.3's will shape up with a few miles on them.

Zippy is in an even wose state than this because hers has gone outside of the derisory "extended warranty" and can claim nothing.

It's not good enough.