09 Camry motor blown at 30k
 

Can't give much info yet but my wife was driving on the freeway to work and her 09 Camry which just hit 30k had a check engine light come on and just a mile or so down the freeway on an interchange the car lost power.
Had it brought to the dealer who said something about leaking anti freeze into the engine and no compression in the engine.
They did call back and say they had a Toyota rep or tech flying to Michigan from California to check it out before proceeding and gave my wife a hybrid Prius for now.

He also said there was no record of dealer maintinence and wanted to know who maintained it and when.

This dealer is a good 24 miles from us so I have done most of the maintinence myself with the exception of one oil change my wife had done at a quick change place .

The car has Mobil 1 in it but I am not volunteering this information just in case they try and say owner neglect or some such nonsense.

I really don't think the oil has anything to do with this problem regardless.

Sorry for such a negative first post but I was doing a search for blown head gaskets and found this site which had several reports on Camrys but none on 09's.

This being our first non American car and the only car we have had problems with out of 20 new vehicles purchased, I joked with my wife about how this was Karma for not buying American.

When I find out more tommorow , I will post more info.

Dealer called and said they are not sure what happened but the thermostat may have stuck shut.
They ordered a brand new engine for it under warranty and thats about all I know at this point.

Dealer ended up puting in a new block , radiator , water pump , intake, hoses ect and the car runs ok but my wife is not real happy about the whole situation and Toyota claims they have no idea why the motor over heated quickly and blew to the point there was no compression in any cylinder.
I did ask if we could get a brand new warranty on the new motor and they said no...so this is most likely my wifes last foreign car and she will be going back to a Ford when the Camry is paid off in another year.

Unfortunately Greg Ford, GM, and Chrysler are no better at handling warranty. I just bought my first Ford and will never buy another one. Doing your own maintenance is ok as long as you keep all service paperwork (very important during warranty), which in your case would have been oil/filter purchase receipts. Sticking to the manufacturer's schedule is also very important. I don't think you did anything wrong especially when this occurred at 30k, except maybe that you're wife did not pay enough attention to the heat gauge and pull over immediatly. Toyota has been having some bad press lately on their legendary quality and I think they have recognized this and are taking steps to correct. As for extended warranty on the engine I think it would be difficult to get extended warranty on the entire engine, but you should at least get 1 year/12k on the components they replaced. Did the new block include complete bottom end, pistons, crank ect?

The new engine is still covered under your existing 5yr/60k powertrain warranty. Any other manufacturer will do the same as far as covering the new engine under the existing warranty. The only case where a repair will get it's own seperate warranty is if the existing warranty is soon to be over. Lets say for example if you had 59,600 miles on your car and your warranty is due to expire in 400 miles and you get a replacement engine . In this case, you will likely get a part/labor warranty of 1yr/12 k miles.

JJ

sorry to break this to you GregT, but your Camry was assembled in Georgetown, KY

my Japanese Hybrid was not, and I have no prob with it

The only problem was your wife's neglect

:p

A motor blowing 30 seconds after a dummy light turns on while on a high rise interchange between freeways in rush hour traffic....does not constitute neglect in anyones book. And you better have those brakes checked on that hybrid.

Yep, she had test drove a hybrid that had 100k warranty....and we wrongly assumed a 100k warranty on the Camry as well. If we had known about the chintsy warranty , we would never have bought it with the miles she drives.
The problem lies in the fact that she never had any serious problems on her three Ford Tauruses up to 140k on each before trading them in , or her Ford Explorer with 150k. If you put yourself in this exact situation , beleiving in the quality of Toyota , evidently in the past now , most people would feel exactly the same as she does. So far , the Camry seems to run ok , now we just have to worry about the gas pedal problem.

Yes , a complete new block was installed. I would not buy a Chevy or Chrysler product after the bail outs , and because we have never had a serious problem with any of her Ford's or my Ford company work trucks , we will be buying them from now on.

Between the motor and the gas pedal problems , one more thing happens to this car and our States Lemon Law takes over. And we will be getting our money back if this scenario happens. I am very suprized that nobody seems to care that Toyota could not even figure out why this happened.

Friend of mine has an 06 Explorer. His radiator turned into a shower head just after his fine Ford warranty expired. He went to the "selling" dealer where a service droid told him $1200.00 to replace it. I told him to try a shop I knew was good. FIRST the shop owner gave him a price which was about HALF, then called him back and said there was an extended warranty on the radiator and the part would be FREE, thus lowering his cost to 300 bucks. The dealer should have done the job at no cost. I wonder why the FORD dealer didn't tell him that? Looks like a little case of double billing. I think Toyota does a pretty good job on warranty stuff, look at all the engines they replaced for the "oil gell" problem. Some of those motors had the FACTORY installed break in oil filter still on them and Toyota STILL replaced them. I don't think your wife is to blame for this, BTW, though the TEMP gauge might been a tip off. Cars are run for months with the check engine on. (often 'till just before emissions testing)

buddy blew headgasket on mazda 626 on way home from dealer. less than 100 miles. stuck thermostat. replaced headgasket and put 60k miles on car and traded it in. will a stuck thermostat always produce a high temp reading on coolant temp gauge? does your wife monitor her dash gauges?

Can only go off our own experience when it comes to maufactuer quality , and ours is vast and our own experience...not hear say. These temp gauages on modern cars are just dummy gauges and not actual temp gauges , and what do you not understand about the gauge reading hot , the check engine light coming on , and in less than one minute , the motor blowing in rush hour traffic on a dangerous freeway interchange? My problem with the Toyota warranty is that American manufactuers all have a higher milage warranty.....and how in the world does that even suggest quality from Toyota? When it comes to manufactuer reliability , speak from your own experience....or not at all. Camrys gas pedal problem , the hybrids major brake problems , and now the Corrolas major steering problems....do not say quality , and I firmly beleive any quality advantage that Toyota may have had over American manufactuers is long gone.

You are required under warranty to do certain services at stated intervals. If you do not have the dealer do it, just keep the receipts for the oil/filter and other parts if any.

There are items in the owners manual to check also at certain intervals.

I do my own. I take a photo of the speedo then the car on my hoist with the oil, filter and tools in one pic. I do a check on all the required things to check with my comments on a written log. Then I file it.

If you don't have the records and just say you did it and they refuse the repair no court would rule in your favor without proof.

It seems they found the problem and fixed so what is your beef. You were somewhat at risk because the car was continued to be driven after the light came on. And are you sure that it was noticed right away. It sounds like that sucker was run until it fried.

Stop whining and start shining.