Got my RAV4 back from the dealer who had it for another 4 days, they started it every morning and of course NOTHING ! I even witnessed the last days start and NOTHING ? I'm sure I will go out to my driveway today and hear it though.....LOL !
If it where not for the video's I sent over to the service adviser I would look like a total NUT ! They could not reproduce what was happening in the video's and simply washed their hands of it. I will keep an open ticket on this through the dealership and Toyota corporate and I already informed Corporate that I am not the only customer with concerns of this TSB related to the 2AR-FE COLD start and this can turn out to be a massive headache for them in the future. This is not normal to me or the various others who witnessed it, I'm sure it will show it's ugly head again some day when I will have to be towed home with a blown chain or possibly a motor ?
They also said the metal shaving filled oil filter was normal after an extensive repair like that, guess we will see what happens in the next oil change ?
I love everything about my RAV4 even though it starts louder than my lawnmower and would have dumped it the first time it came back with no resolution of this, I would loose thousands to trade it in at this point. So I will keep it until enough damage is done but will probably be when Toyota has 2 or 3 more revisions on the vvti cam gear. I am looking forward to having a 4 or 5 year old RAV4 WITH A BRAND NEW ENGINE !!!
Advice to all Toyota owners........GET THE EXTENDED WARRANTY !!!
I have a 96 Sentra with a worn timing chain. It rattles on startup. Sometimes it does not. If I start the car cold and move it so my wife can get out of the driveway, then the next day, its quiet when I start it. Now if I drive on the interstate for 20 + miles and get the oil good and hot and park it overnight, its guaranteed to make the noise. When the oil gets hot, it drains back out of the oil galleries easily because its thinner. (The same reason they recommend you change your oil when its hot)
If they are letting it sit overnight after running it for just a few minutes, it may may never make the noise. A good mechanic knows this. The tech bulletin does not say "get it hot", it just says "cold soak startup", but it will definitely be worse if you get it hot before you let it sit.
The noise on startup occurs before oil pressure has a chance to build up. It will stop about the same time that the oil pressure indicator light goes out. If you get the oil hot and let it sit, it has a chance to drain out of the oil galleries, increasing the time needed to build pressure, and the system is looser because the moving parts are not being fed by oil, but air. This is particularly noticeable on timing components with a weak tensioner, but can also be heard on bad main and rod bearings.
You can do a test yourself by getting the oil good and hot before you park it for the night, and by doing it cold and see what kind of difference it makes. Oil temp usually lags behind coolant temp, so just running the vehicle until the temp needle stabilizes is not getting the oil hot enough. You have to drive it a good bit. Stop and go driving will do it, but interstate will do it faster. Usually about 20 miles, even if its cold outside is plenty, less if it is warm out.
Also, in my experience, changing cam sprockets should not produce metal debris in the oil. gasket bits maybe, but no metal. This is just BS. You can however have residual debris from the old sprockets. If you still have a sample of the metal debris, put a magnet on it and determine if it is ferrous or not. It its not, its probably aluminum, and I'd suspect that a slipper has been damaged, or the chain is slapping against something aluminum, like the block or cover. If it is steel, then it could have been from the damaged lock pins on the old sprockets
To the shops benefit, All shops (and other businesses too) have to deal with cranks and nuts and peeps who want something for nothing. This makes them cynical when they cannot duplicate the problem. I'm not saying you are, but they may think you are. Also, the shop is just the middle man. They get paid by Toyota to do the job...once. Unless they get some sort of special permission from Toyota, they would be doing it again for free, and some shops are more resistant to doing that than others.
Before you take it back anywhere, get the oil good and hot. drive at least 20 miles, preferably interstate, and then go straight to where you want to leave it. Leave it running if possible while you negotiate with the service writer, so when he parks it for the night, it can sit in that spot until they are ready to check it.
Hope this helps
