Faulty ECM in Rav-4's - Article

[jake75]

August 26, 2009, 8:37 amRAV4 Owners Fume Over Toyota’s Handling of Transmission GlitchBy Christopher JensenAlthough customer satisfaction studies have often given Toyota’s RAV4 cute ute highmarks for quality, some owners are furious at the automaker because it failed to warn them ofa serious transmission problem. Had Toyota warned them, they say, they could have avoidedexpensive repairs.Benjamin Birkbeck of Yarmouth, Me., who owns a 2002 RAV4, is one of those consumers.His wife, Rhonda, was trying to merge into traffic when a suddenly faulty transmission meantshe was almost run over by a semitruck, he wrote in a complaint on the Center for AutoSafety Web site. This is a safety issue. My wife was almost killed. Dianna Radford of Albuquerque, N.M., had to pay about $4,000 for a repair on her 2002model. I have owned Toyotas for 12 years and I will never buy another one, the way I wastreated, she said.They are not alone. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has more than 120complaints about transmission problems with the 2001 2003 RAV4, of which Toyota soldabout 250,000. Often the blame is put on the engine control module (E.C.M.), which tells thetransmission what to do.In March 2006, Toyota sent dealers a technical service bulletin warning them that someconsumers might complain about harsh shifting. It said improvements were made to thecomputer manufacturing process to reduce the possibility of this condition occurring. It thentold the dealers to replace the module and if that did not work to replace the transmission. Butconsumers owning the vehicles were never notified about the problem.That kind of a warning is important because, as soon as the transmission begins to misbehave,consumers should stop driving it and get it fixed to avoid major transmission damage, saidLance Wiggins, the technical director of the Automatic Transmission Rebuilders Association.Mr. Wiggins said the association is quite familiar with the RAV4 problem.Over all, Toyota has a fairly responsible customer satisfaction program, said ClarenceDitlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. But this time consumers are gettinga bad deal. At best you can say it slipped through the cracks, Mr. Ditlow said. At worst you can saythat Toyota is knowingly imposing the risk of a very large repair on consumers. Brian Lyons, a spokesman for Toyota, said that when the bulletin was sent out the automakerdidn’t notify consumers because it was not considered a safety problem; additionally, repairswere being covered by a warranty, he said, and Toyota did not realize that the E.C.M.problem might result in damaged transmissions.Although it is now clear that the E.C.M. problem can damage transmissions, Mr. Lyons saidthe automaker isn’t ready to send out notices to consumers because it is still studying theissue and whether to extend the warranty. He said consumers with problems should callToyota’s customer assistance center at (800) 331-4331.Mr. Ditlow interprets the March 2006 service bulletin as an admission of a defect, somethingMr. Lyons did not dispute. But despite the defect, Toyota did not offer any special warrantycoverage. Instead, the bulletin said repairs would be covered under the federal emissionswarranty of 80,000 miles or eight years from the time the vehicle was sold.The bulletin also told dealers they could only make repairs under that warranty based onconsumer complaints once a problem had been identified not to prevent the problem.Many owners have turned to the federal safety agency, saying they feel their vehicles are notsafe and asking for help in the form of a recall. But the agency has not undertaken a defectinvestigation, which could lead to a recall.Mr. Ditlow, who has watched the safety agency and the auto industry for three decades, sayshe has concluded that the agency is reluctant to open investigations into transmissionproblems unless they involve vehicles that stall or have problems on the highway, whichconstitutes a clear safety problem.Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the agency, said the problem has been deciding whether thecomplaints are a safety issue or just consumer inconvenience. They are watching it veryclosely, he said.Rhonda Birkbeck says if an agency official had the same experience she had there wouldn’tbe any doubt it was a safety defect. I just hope they won’t still be studying it when someoneloses their life, she said.

[Tubaryan12]

That sounds like what my Vibe was doing, That's why I got rid of it.

[northvibe]

ohhh I almost bought a rav4...