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Comments
You can even seize an engine by just starting it up in the morning---if you have a leaky head gasket, water will drip into the cylinder during the night, and yes, even the force of just your starter motor might bend the rods....or at least lock the motor until all is drained out.
He spent a young fortune equipping it with a snorkel air intake and exhaust, huge oversized knobbly tires, a winch with a looong cable, jack-all jacks, chain saws, ropes, etc. He says it's "fun".
Yuk!!
Thanks everyone for replying. I'll try to post after this gets resolved.
David
Three days back , while my car was in my garage the alarm went off (factory installed), then I used the remote key and pressed "unlock" to shut the alarms off. Then for the past 2 nights the alarm is going off (for no reason) in the night atleast once. It will stay for 20 seconds to 1/2 minute and shuts off. The garage is closed by the way in the nights. I checked the system and it is working fine . the theft deterrent system light is flashing when the system is on and goes off when the key is introduced and turned to on.
Any reason why the alarm goes off for no reason in the middle of the night and when it is dead calm outside and when it is parked inside the garage ? I need to find an answer soon, as it is making me and my neighbours go "NUTS". Is there a way to disarm this ? Thanks.
My car is
02 Sienna LE,
37 000 miles,
PS as you can tell I don't know much about cars.
Brad
Either go to the dealer -- I'd rather avoid that, but they should at least know what they're doing.
Or, and this is the best option, ask around and find yourself a really good independent repair shop. Then have everything done there and build up rapport with them. The less you know, the more important it is that you have people you can trust and who know their stuff.
Muffler shops, tire dealers, all those places try to compete on price and can usually not afford to hire truly competent people. Trust me on this: $75 an hour is a bargain, if you really get a professional's full attention, his tools, his experience for that amount of time. You can try to locate a good shop using the "mechan-x files" at the clic&clack website -- i think it's cartalk.com.
Good luck,
-Mathias
i suggest a dealership, but that is just a personal suggestion. another alternate "toyota specialist" shop might be a consideration, but in the end, you could be throwing good money after bad to try to save additional $$$.
my thinking is you have a vehicle that is out of alignment, a rear suspension issue, a tire out of balance, a bad bearing, or even a tire with a bad tread.
Patti
Carolyn K
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I think you hold the trip reset button as you turn the ignition on. It has to be on the odometer.
The exact procedure is in the owner's manual.
The reason I turned mine off is that some times we fold the seat flat and the people in the 2nd row rest their legs on the seat. The weight fools the system into thinking there is someone in the chair, when there isn't. So we'd get an annoying reminder to fasten the seatbelt for an empty seat!
Try the disable on the warning chime, it might work for both sides.
thanks again.
While we're at it, you can reset the oil maintenance light with a similar procedure, only you do it with the Trip A on the screen.
I had some else turn on the key while i was at the engine compartment, and I found out that the noise comes from a solenoid/relay mounted on the ABS unit (just right behind the air filter unit). Anyone has any experience with this? is it the this relay/solenoid or something else that causes this to make noise? how much to get it replaced? can it be DYI (I am capable of doing a lot of replacing/reparing car things)?
joseph
Joseph
Sorry but I doubt this will be a simple fix.
pressures what makes it go in gear?
I purchased my 1998 Toyota Sienna minivan from Sloane Toyota in Devon, PA, in the summer of 2003. I also purchased a 3-year extended warranty. Within the timeframe of the warranty, in the winter of 2004-2005, the transmission started making an odd noise and was replaced under warranty by Sloane in June 2005.
Within the one-year warranty on that new transmission, my car started experiencing unusual behavior: on the coldest mornings, it would not automatically shift out of first gear into second gear for one to two miles, or about five to ten minutes, even if I pressed the accelerator down quite far. I contacted Sloane’s service department and described the problem in detail to one of the service people. They told me definitively that this behavior was “normal” and nothing to worry about. I questioned this, but was assured that everything was ok with my car. I even called one more time and received the same reassurance, plus the suggestion that I might check the transmission fluid level (I did, and it was full). They did NOT recommend that I bring the car in to be checked, or that there was any reason for concern, or that I should even check the color of the transmission fluid (I will refer to this later).
Over the next two winters, there were few truly frigid mornings during which this behavior exhibited itself. Thus, trusting the advice of Toyota’s service department, I ignored it on the few mornings it occurred. (This only happened in the morning when the car was completely cold, never at the end of the day.) Additionally, the car exhibited no other unusual behavior during this time.
Then this past winter, my car started exhibiting other odd behaviors that seemed to point to the transmission. The gear slippage worsened - it would occasionally be slow in switching between gears, typically from second to third. I started hearing a high-pitched whine that rose in pitch as I accelerated. I finally brought my car into Sloane Toyota to have it checked; they said my transmission was shot, and that it would cost $5000 to replace it. Sloane said they would not cover the replacement because my new transmission’s warranty had expired. I pointed out that I had experienced and reported unusual behavior earlier on, and that they never told me to bring it in. I also pointed out that it seemed quite clear that my more recent gear slippage was a worsening of the original problem on cold mornings, and thus an inherent problem in the new transmission they had installed in 2005. I said that this all could have been avoided if they had advised me to bring it in rather than assuring me that the symptoms I had experienced were “normal”. I pointed out that I did not bring it in because I was not advised to do so by their own service department – I had relied on their advice. I spoke with the service manager, Jim Nagle, on several occasions, trying to convince him of this, and thus that Toyota had some responsibility in the matter due to their poor advice of his own service department, but he remained firm on this position.
I also issued a complaint through Toyota Customer Service and spoke with a regional service manager, Larry Roberts. He indicated that the original problem of not switching from first to second gear on cold mornings was a “safety feature” to prevent stressing the transmission, and that the new problems I was experiencing were completely separate and unrelated.
For a second expert opinion, I then took my car to a very reputable and highly-recommended local transmission shop near me, who indicated that the transmission was a mess, that whatever was wrong had been building up for several years (i.e., since before the warranty expired). They said they found many “chunks of metal” in the transmission fluid and that the filter was completely clogged. The fluid was black rather than the usual clear color. They didn’t think it would last more than a few months. I explained the entire history of my transmission and my dealings with Toyota. They pointed out that Sienna minivans have a history of bad transmissions from the late 1990s through the early 2000s, and that my initial transmission replacement was one of many that Toyota quietly did under warranty. I described the “safety feature” concept, and he said it was complete and utter nonsense - that in all his years of transmission repair of Toyotas other cars, there was no such safety feature. Obviously, Mr. Roberts was lying in order to get me off his back, something I seriously resent and am deeply offended by as a Toyota customer. I called Mr. Roberts back to tell him this, and asked him for proof of such a safety feature. He ignored my request and became very gruff, hostile, and non-responsive.
My trans shop replaced my clogged transmission filter and refilled the fluid, to at least give my car some short-term life. Their cost to replace the transmission is *only* $2500 (not surprisingly half of the dealer’s price).
It surprises and distresses me that Toyota will not stand by their cars in this situation. Certainly, a new transmission should last more than a couple of years, especially on a Toyota!
Here are the points I was hoping would convince Toyota to take responsibility in this matter:
· Pat’s Transmissions expertly diagnosed how badly my transmission was damaged, compared to how relatively new it was.
· The extent of damage points to the certainty that problems started very early on, related to my original problem of gear shifting on cold mornings. I would even suggest that the ‘new’ transmission Sloane Toyota installed was a ‘lemon’, i.e., faulty right from the start.
· Sloane Toyota’s service department gave me poor and erroneous advice that the original symptoms I was experiencing were “normal”; moreover, they did *not* recommend that I bring my car in to have it checked while it was still under warranty.
· There is a known history of Sienna transmission problems in the timeframe of when my car was manufactured. I have had two bad transmissions in my car over the span of only five years!
· As a manufacturer of high-quality cars, Toyota should be expected to stand behind their products. Transmissions should not fail after such a short time, regardless of the arbitrary one-year warranty.
It's just that Toyota is not going to go up against one of its own dealerships. They represent Toyota.
You could fight to get discounts, but if you don't trust them to begin with, that's not really worth it.
Your biggest problem is the timing - you bought the car 5 years ago and it's now 10 years old.
Trade it in for something. Dodge has a lifetime powertrain warranty now, though they're not as reliable historically.
The average car payment today is over $400, so it would take only about 6 months to recover your investment in the trans.
It's probably worth it, actually. As long as you have faith in the new mechanic that this will be a long-term solution.
I just had to plop down over $1000 on a 1993 Miata. It was due for timing belt, water pump, and a cooling system service (symptom was overheating).
Still, it's running like a champ now and in a few months I'm sure I'll be glad I fixed it.
This happens after about 30 minutes of driving and continues until the car cools down for about 2 hours after driving it. The owners are real gear heads (I've known them for a while now) and they seem to think that it is due to a dirty intake manifold.
I'm no car expert but it seems that this would not necessarily be the case. This is a major purchase for me and I just want to make sure I don't buy a car that needs a couple of thousand of dollars in repairs because I can't afford that right now.
Does the dirty intake manifold seem like it is the reason the car dies when it idles?
Run as fast as you can in the other direction. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
Struts aren't cheap, but it takes money to keep a vehicle functioning properly on the road. If you try to cheap out then you not only shorten the life of the vehicle but take a risk with your life and the lives of those on the road around you.