My car currently has 21,000 km on it, when my car had about 4-5000km one morning while putting the car into first gear the car had a vibration kinda like when you are about to stall it but stronger and more aggressive the whole car seemed to want to shake apart, I thought almost stall it but I felt like the car was at 1500rpm or higher, so I stopped the car and tried to see if I could recreate the problem and I could but confirmed the rpms where at 2000, the car had a vibration that felt like the car would shake apart, I could only do this one more time and it was much lighter after that it stopped. This only happens when shifting into 1st once engaged into 1st the vibration is gone.
I call Toyota and they tell me to take it in and I opt for the next week to also do the 5k optional maintenance, before the week is up I feel the vibration several more times, sometimes strong sometime weak, when I do get to Toyota we try to recreate the problem but no vibration which I expected because it was very random, always on first gear though.
They tell me to see if anything changes after a few weeks.
The vibration was there the very next day, but I have no time to take it back to them and they are 40 minutes away I was denied a temp car from them they said they don't have one available and the reason I latter found out was that the main manager always uses them for personal use and I have no back up car, so I ask if we can do it a different time, they say no problem.
The vibration is still there from 5k to 10k on the 10k maintenance they tell me again nothing is wrong with the car, that I should leave it with them to test the next morning, I do and they find nothing.
At this point I am upset and frustrated and they tell me to try a higher octane gas because Mexico's gas is apparently bad, I explained that that doesn't make any since for the vibration I am having but I will do as they ask.
The vibration seem to be gone after changing the gas for nearly 800-1000km but before you know it the vibration was back but rarer then when it first started, I call and they tell me to keep up using the more expensive fuel and before the 15k maintenance it got stronger again, so I tell them I am going to see them, I take the car to them bright and early at 8am in the morning and we test the car and at first no matter what we do no vibration, but then the vibration set in at its full glory shaking the car violently (like always with 1500rpms or more) and the mechanics eyes peeled open with a WTF look on his face and said "Well that is in no way normal, you were right there absolutely is a problem".
They told me to leave the car there for the rest of the day, when I go to pick it up in the evening another mechanic says the car is fine and has no problems that I need to learn to not stall it. I was pissed how is it possible that one mechanic can say that there is nothing wrong when the other says the car is clearly messed up. So I asked to speak to the repair manager and he says that what happened was that the mechanic that detected my problem left and the car was given to some other mechanic that then again test drove by himself and concluded that there was no problem anymore and left it at that.
The manager followed to say that there absolutely is a problem but they have no clue what it is, that they are going to call Toyota Mexico HQ and find out what to do, then the will let me know, I say ok, thats fine at least now they confirmed there is a problem and are willing to fix it.
Two weeks go by and no phone call, I call for the manager but he is not in, I call the next week and he answer and tells me he will call me back but never does I call Toyota but he seems to be unavailable every time I call, I eventually stopped calling until one day the problem was strong again and call and he tells me that HQ got back to him (over a month later), and he tells me I need to take my car in to get the injectors cleaned so I tell him I need a loaner because I have no other car and cant be without mine for more then a day (they need at a minimum two, don't know why), I asked them if it can wait a while and it ends up being done at the 20k maintenance, the clean the injectors they tell me they were a little dirty but shouldn't be the cause.
The vibration is still here, so I take it to them and today they tell me that some part on the clutch is broken or damaged and the steering wheel motor as well and its my fault for bad having bad shift changing skills.
I am not a bad driver I have over 200,000miles driving a manual tranny's (3 years on the US-Tijuana boarder thats all 1st gear thats well over 1500hours of shifting from neutral to 1st, I told them I may put it into 2nd or 3rd and miss the clutch but its very rare and on this Corolla I have done it 3-4times in over a year of owning it. he responded he doesn't know but this is what HQ reports from seeing the pictures that they sent them from their shop.
The repair bill which they do not want to pay is over $1000.00 USD in parts alone. also Toyota HQ say before at some point that they have never seen or heard of this problem before so their assumptions of me being a bad driver is just that, an assumption.
I need your help into figure out what else realistically can cause this other then their assumption of bad driving, I know many people claim to be good drivers and arent but please put this aside and help me out here, I am so bumbed out I could cry in frustration this is not fair.
(Update 04/26/2011)
Well they replaced the Clutch (everything in the kit including the bearing) and the flywheel cost me $450 bucks, no labor cost and Toyota included the flywheel, the very next the day I noticed the vibration was still there. Toyota agrees its not my fault but doesn't know what is causing it.
I do not want to sell my car or hate it as
damgik says, I love my car and I find it to be a great car an expect to keep it for years to come, but I do have a problem with it and I would like to figure out whats wrong with it.
Its not you,
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