2007 Matrix Shuts Down

[JoeV]

My daughter owns a 2007 Toyota Matrix which seems to have a mind of its own. I was driving along and the engine decided to just plain stop running. I waited a while and the car restarted. Rather then risk driving it 20 miles to the garage I had it towed. My garage mechanic could not find anything wrong at first inspection. A while later he called and stated he ran the car for a while and it then again stopped running. Does anyone have an idea as to what the problem may be? I believe the warranty is only for 3 years and if that is the case it is out of warranty. The only other recourse is to take it to a Toyota dealer and have them run their OBD2 tests to see if they can come up with an answer. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[fishexpo101]

The manufacturer's bumper to bumper warranty is 36 months/36,000 miles - but what you are experiencing would be under the manufacturer's powertrain warranty, which is 60months/60,000 miles.

There were a few Matrix/Corollas that exhibited a sudden no start / no run condition that was traced back to faulty ECMs. Those would generally be replaced under the powertrain warranty. I would suggest that this be brought into a Toyota dealership to start the paperwork trail.

If you do a search online, it seems that there were specific batches of cars that were more susceptible to having this condition than others. The problem with the ECM were poor interior solder contacts to a damaged PCB inside the ECM from the DBW system (impedance mismatch, faulty wiring, faulty components - don't know, Toyota takes the bad ECMs back). Only a replacement ECM will fix this - the dealership will run a diagnostic to confirm this.

Quite a few member running 2005+ Corolla and Matrix models have run into the exact issue, and almost all of them had the ECM replaced under warranty.

[JoeV]

Originally Posted by fishexpo101

The manufacturer's bumper to bumper warranty is 36 months/36,000 miles - but what you are experiencing would be under the manufacturer's powertrain warranty, which is 60months/60,000 miles.

There were a few Matrix/Corollas that exhibited a sudden no start / no run condition that was traced back to faulty ECMs. Those would generally be replaced under the powertrain warranty. I would suggest that this be brought into a Toyota dealership to start the paperwork trail.

If you do a search online, it seems that there were specific batches of cars that were more susceptible to having this condition than others. The problem with the ECM were poor interior solder contacts to a damaged PCB inside the ECM from the DBW system (impedance mismatch, faulty wiring, faulty components - don't know, Toyota takes the bad ECMs back). Only a replacement ECM will fix this - the dealership will run a diagnostic to confirm this.

Quite a few member running 2005+ Corolla and Matrix models have run into the exact issue, and almost all of them had the ECM replaced under warranty.

Thanks for the response. The car was taken to a Toyota dealer and the ECM was replaced under warranty at no cost.