big time Avalon transmission failure

[mrbill5]

And my reply is Toyota's reputation of reliable cars is a myth. The transmission should not have failed (could have locked up and caused an accident) at 69,000 miles much less 100,000 miles.
And the replacement rebuilt tranny had a major fluid leak which probably would have failed due to low fluid in about 3 months.

We hope the rebuilt tranny holds up for another 69,000 miles.

[Hatch]

no matter how perfect something is you cannot expect that nothing will ever go wrong with it... and yes it COULD have locked up, but what would the diference be if it locked up at 69,000miles or 150,000miles? It wouldnt have caused an accident then becuase its allowed to break at that time?

[mrbill5]

I can see a transmission need adjusting at 69,000 miles, not failing. Most modern car engines and transmissions should go 100,00 mile without breaking. If it failed at that time I would have accepted it. THe clincher was the replacement transmission was faulty right out of the box. Did not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling with it leaving a puddle in my garage. I think Toyota paid 1/2 because they know the original transmission should not have failed and the replacement should not have been bad either.

[jhbhatia]

count your blessings and be happy! I always insist on the "tranny flush" every 30K services. Dealerships guise you by price and reterm the service as major tranny service and minor tranny service. Drain and fill is great for every 15K miles, but i don't do it. I rather wait out the process and do a tranny flush every 30K miles.
mrbill5: I'd suggest you to insist on a tranny flush every 30K miles..regardless of how they term it. Count your blessings that toyota paid for 1/2. i think you got a lemmon tranny!

[repinS]

Originally posted by mrbill5
And my reply is Toyota's reputation of reliable cars is a myth.

Because of one car and a potential error on a servicer's part? Rebuilt trannys don't come from the factory. Somebody did it at some point.

You're free to buy another car of another make, but to say that Toyota's reliability is a myth because of *one* Avalon's problems isn't right. Yes, you may be frustrated, but it's not like you're the only Avalon out there.

[Compuwiz]

My 96 Avy with 125k miles on it still operates like brand new. I need to get the left windshield wiper looked at, changes position everytime I use it, thats the only defect ATM.

Sorry buddy.

[mrbill5]

There is more to this than just the transmission. While doing research on Avalon transmissions I found a site that lists the hidden warranties for each model, year car. Seems the very noisy brakes we complained about 2 times while under warranty were covered by one of these bulletins. We were told that "they all do that" and " well, when we drove it it didn't do that." The noisy brakes weren't an everyday thing. It would show up sporatically. The noise was just like there was no brake lining left- metal to metal. Then the next brake application it went away. I brought this up with the regional rep and the VPs.
I got the usual run-around that it was out of warranty and the dealership did not hear it (there are 3 service bulletins about this one defect.) I brought up that I did mention it while the car was under warranty. So, my cure will be that I do the brake repair myself. We are going to seek an independent repair shop now that the car is out of warranty for major repairs.
So you see it wasn't just my crying about a one in a million transmission failure. It was the brakes too. And don't get me started about the front suspension bushing noises.....

[jhbhatia]

FYI:

A "recall" entail a dealer provided change/update to a faulty system. Essentially, the manufacturer admits their fault and is more than happy to swap out the defective unit/system for a replacement.

A TSB aka. Technical Service Bullitens (this is what i think you were referring to mrbill5) is where certain smaller segments of the entire manufactured units could be plagued by problems. These problems are not necessarily manufacturer's fault, but its used widely as a means to know what others have experiencing and thereby giving solutions/resolutions to those problems. The catch here is that the dealership/manufacturer is by no means always responsible for the cost of parts or labor here. Its all too dependant on your past history with the dealership and if they can slide something to your advantage. (BTW: i've had tsb's looked at for free on my camry, just cause i always take all my cars to the same dealership...and they know me pretty well).

[mrbill5]

Yes I did mean TSB.
And I do understand that the dealer does not have to perform the fixes but it would have been nice for them to say that they really want us as customers and offer to fix the "problem."
Our dealer did all the work on the car (I did oil changes, coolant and brake fluid flushes) which meant yearly state
inspections, tire installs and balancing and the major 30,000, 60,000 regiments. We did not have any warranty work done since nothing broke during the warranty.

So it's off to find a good independent mechanic who will do the future overhead cam belt changeout, 90,000 mile regiment .

End of story.

mr bill

[jhbhatia]

Originally posted by mrbill5
Yes I did mean TSB.
And I do understand that the dealer does not have to perform the fixes but it would have been nice for them to say that they really want us as customers and offer to fix the "problem."

Agreed it would have been nice. But you also got to keep in mind, until a few years ago, TSB's were dealership known and protected info. To gain access to a tsb # or what it entailed wasn't easy. Some service depts' aren't exactly comfy with a customer coming in with a problem and saying he looked it up and thinks its covered by a tsb. Service depts' (from what i've witnessed, others feel free to critique this..but this is MY OPINION) some dealerships still consider the TSB's as their property. Thanks to advances in internet we can have access to them...thanks to the internet i got a 10 year old car (which was recalled 8 years ago) get a new evap coil for my a/c (5th gen celica)....so the dealership was naturally PO'ed about this..but they honored it...