top dog
Footballguy
Have a 2018 Toyota RAV4 that a couple weeks ago threw a check engine code, went into limp mode and started throwing timing codes. Engine sounded HORRIBLE. A friend is a master tech for a Toyota dealership. I asked him to come over and take a look. He brought his laptop ran a bunch of diagnosis and all signs pointed to worn exhaust camshaft timing gear. Had it towed to the dealership for them to pull apart the engine. Ended up being a work gear. They replaced both the exhaust cam gear and the intake cam gear (recommended because the exhaust cam gear was bad). Took 2 weeks to get the parts as the one gear was on backorder. $1014.72 later its back up and running.
Drive it home from the dealer, no issues. Even had it up to 80 mph on the highway. Next day after sitting for 12 hours it throws a low oil pressure message and starts sounding like crap again. Had to have it towed back to the Toyota dealer. Now that it is complaining about low oil pressure the tech pulls the oil filter to check that and the oil filter is collapsed. Not like every oil filter I've seen in the past, this one on the Toyota the housing unscrews from the engine and you replace the paper filter inside the housing. There is an insert in the housing that keeps the shape of the oil filter. That insert was not in the housing. When National Tire and Battery did the oil change the tech there either broke off that insert and said "nah, you don't need that" or it came off in the old filter and they didn't see it. Just shoving the filter back up. Either way it is what caused the filter to eventually fail, collapse on itself and slowly starve the engine of oil. Causing the exhaust cam gear to fail.
I have the oil filter that collapsed and housing. Photos from the dealer showing what an OEM filter and housing look like with the housing missing the insert. Even took a photo of the oil pan to show the blue paint that NTB put on there to verify they did it and it hadn't been tampered with. What's my next step? Go to the local chain that did the work with all the photos and raise hell? Start with a corporate complaint or something else?
Drive it home from the dealer, no issues. Even had it up to 80 mph on the highway. Next day after sitting for 12 hours it throws a low oil pressure message and starts sounding like crap again. Had to have it towed back to the Toyota dealer. Now that it is complaining about low oil pressure the tech pulls the oil filter to check that and the oil filter is collapsed. Not like every oil filter I've seen in the past, this one on the Toyota the housing unscrews from the engine and you replace the paper filter inside the housing. There is an insert in the housing that keeps the shape of the oil filter. That insert was not in the housing. When National Tire and Battery did the oil change the tech there either broke off that insert and said "nah, you don't need that" or it came off in the old filter and they didn't see it. Just shoving the filter back up. Either way it is what caused the filter to eventually fail, collapse on itself and slowly starve the engine of oil. Causing the exhaust cam gear to fail.
I have the oil filter that collapsed and housing. Photos from the dealer showing what an OEM filter and housing look like with the housing missing the insert. Even took a photo of the oil pan to show the blue paint that NTB put on there to verify they did it and it hadn't been tampered with. What's my next step? Go to the local chain that did the work with all the photos and raise hell? Start with a corporate complaint or something else?