Toyota Denies Warranty for track day blown engine.... again

He said no engine mods, not something I like to see. He only mentioned he just changed the oil to 5w30 yesterday. How can they deny warranty if no engine mods, the manner in which car was driven was not incorrect. Granted I would not have kept driving like that after first knocking noises appeared but that doesn't matter.

Doesn't surprise me at all. Toyota has a history of declining warranty work for those who they believe were at driving events like HPDE or track usage. I believe they have come around every time after some bad publicity, but who knows how many people have gotten warranty claims denied that just hasn't been documented online.

Hard to say how I feel about this without all the data. Would be nice to see the dealers & Toyota's official response as to why they are denying the claim. At some point, Toyota said that HPDE does not affect your warranty.

That really sucks.

Yeah I agree with Chris1. So curious what all the variables to this engine failure were, and the denial of the claim.

meeep said:

Hoping the guy was tuned or something which caused the denial

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We feel for you, and it sure would be nice if Subaru could get on the same wagon as the type R, miata, mustang, 350z, etc. basically, all the cars that passed you while that occurred.

86tex said:

Barring not purchasing this car, what have been your preparations on this car for high performance driving to mitigate this issue as much as possible?

My to-do list so far is:

• 5w-30 for track (I'll be running 5w-20 under normal conditions after flushing the factory 0w-20)
• Oil pan baffle to prevent oil pooling under heavy G's
• Oil levels checked and frequently topped off at max at all times
• Aftermarket oil cooler
• RTV removal from oil pickup (doesn't seem like this has been the leading cause in any of the blown engines, but can't hurt, especially if installing baffle anyways)

I know blowing the engine is still very possible, but if something can be done to lower the risk even a hair, I'm open to do it

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It would help but definitely void your warranty, I mean not that it'll matter considering toyota just denied the guy in the video but it seems like a design issue rather than a baffle issue based on this post Some data on the oiling system on track.

You knew you had engine trouble and yet kept going ? Put a hole through the block ?

You risked oiling down the track. As much as I want to feel bad for you, you took no consideration for all other people on track.

Shitty on Toyota for putting their name on a motor vehicle that can't handle 5 minutes of track time!

Vtor said:

You knew you had engine trouble and yet kept going ? Put a hole through the block ?

You risked oiling down the track. As much as I want to feel bad for you, you took no consideration for all other people on track.

Shitty on Toyota for putting their name on a motor vehicle that can't handle 5 minutes of track time!

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Not me by the way lol , just posting the link to the video

Hmmm. Having just changed the oil yesterday should be reassuring, but could also be the cause. Something could have went wrong along the way. Not all the way full, loose drain plug, loose filter, less than ideal filter used. He definitely wasnt driving any harder than I do when going to the grocery store. Lol

Just FYI for everyone else.. if you engine blows up or you have signed of engine or trans damage.. PULL OVER! Don't potentially oil down the track leading to HOUR or more of lost track time.

That also limits your exposure to cost of clean up! YUP.. most tracks CHARGE you for the clean up.. materials and time.

Vtor said:

You knew you had engine trouble and yet kept going ? Put a hole through the block ?

You risked oiling down the track. As much as I want to feel bad for you, you took no consideration for all other people on track.

Shitty on Toyota for putting their name on a motor vehicle that can't handle 5 minutes of track time!

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Agree. That should have been shut down immediately. Huge rookie mistake.

meeep said:

It would help but definitely void your warranty, I mean not that it'll matter considering toyota just denied the guy in the video but it seems like a design issue rather than a baffle issue based on this post Some data on the oiling system on track.

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Yeah the baffle would definitely void warranty...
The link has good info. Makes good sense considering the G's experienced in this car isn't THAT high...
Plans for the 86 for the first few years is a daily/occasional track day car, converted to full-time track car once it's paid off, but at which point the warranty would be done 😐
No chance for warranty engine replacement on a car that's habitually blowing up on track under less-than-extreme loads? Big sighs... let's hope something gets figured out or a TSB fixes it within the next 3 years 😬

TRU-BOOST said:

Hmmm. Having just changed the oil yesterday should be reassuring, but could also be the cause. Something could have went wrong along the way. Not all the way full, loose drain plug, loose filter, less than ideal filter used. He definitely wasnt driving any harder than I do when going to the grocery store. Lol

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I wondered the same thing. 5w30 is just one of the variables of good practices on the track…but only really matters if it’s filled, secured, temperature happy, and filtering properly etc. That engine sounded like it was in the middle of a dry metal battle there…I felt the same way about the level of relatively calm driving leading up to that moment. If that’s all it actually took, no thanks.

I think it's pretty clear in the video that the driver is new to the track and didn't know what to do. That being said, continuing to drive when the engine is knocking goes against all common sense, but the car wasn't even being driven hard. I've driven mine harder on the street getting milk from the corner store. Unless the oil change had gone horribly wrong, there's no reason why this engine should've blown up and Toyota needs to step up and cover this claim. Wish we had more details like who did the oil change, what oil and filter was used, the exact wording of why Toyota is declining the work, etc. etc.

The baffles are overrated IMO. The problem is drainage from the heads back into the pan, not oil moving away from the pickup. The best baffle in the world wont save you when there is no oil in the pan for it to contain.

The downshift into third from fourth [iirc] seemed a little jarring, but not much more jarring than many shifts I have put the car through…but I think it was immediately after that downshift that we start hearing the intruder knocking. My memory is pretty sad 😅. I will just rewatch the video.

He claimed this, one of my buddies talked to him.

• No oiling mods (no rtv clean up highly likely)
• Car was on A052
• Car was on 5w30
• Car had 19k on the odometer
• Car temp was around 230 ish?(I absolutely don't know about this, he might drove it hard in the previous session and skimmed a bearing alresdy)

A lot of us sent our Cars way harder than he did. Dude absolutely did not use up the potential of his a052. So I really don't know how did the engine blow up, maybe RTV maybe oil thinning out. But def not sloshing, cus the dude drove like my grandma

Regardless of cause, this sucks to see.