ALL POSTS - motor whine or "HUM" (Milling Sound)

[dstjohn99]

Today I had a call from Toyota Carlsbad telling me the hire car they gave me is my financial responsibility. Going to see the service manager tomorrow to refute this.

Let us know how that works. I know the 3/36 factory warranty has rental car coverage, but depending on whether this is being done under the original "powertrain" warranty or an extended warranty it could be an issue. Find out which warranty applies then show them the page with rental car coverage. Otherwise you may need to file a claim with Toyota for reimbursement if it is covered but denied.

 

[asavage]

I, too, will be interested in whether your rental car's cost will be covered by your dealer or Toyota.

 

[Jonathan_UK]

Waiting till Monday now, as the service manager is ill and off-work. I don't believe they've even contacted corporate yet, so I could be waiting even longer to get an answer on the rental car.

The way I see the situation is that I do not have a vehicle because the motor they replaced six months ago was defective. For a 15K dollar repair, any issues caused by that repair (including leaving customer without a car) need to be fully rectified by Toyota.

I don't have a current warranty on the car, as my last one expired when I used it to cover the motor last time. The motor is covered by a repair warranty (Toyota corporate). I'm not sure if I can get a copy of this warranty, but I'll try.

 

[Jonathan_UK]

Today I had a call from Toyota Carlsbad telling me the hire car they gave me is my financial responsibility. Going to see the service manager tomorrow to refute this.

Let us know how that works. I know the 3/36 factory warranty has rental car coverage, but depending on whether this is being done under the original "powertrain" warranty or an extended warranty it could be an issue. Find out which warranty applies then show them the page with rental car coverage. Otherwise you may need to file a claim with Toyota for reimbursement if it is covered but denied.

So today I received confirmation that the rental car is covered 100% by the post-repair warranty, even if it takes 2+ months to get the replacement motor.

Now, I'm awaiting coverage of my fuel costs, which so far, has amounted to an expense of approximately $75 a week out of pocket. At a rental rate of $55 per day, plus fuel costs, it would surely make sense to hire another brand's EV than this rubbish hybrid!

 

[smkettner]

Ask for a Mirai

 

[TonyWilliams]

It sounds like a rare issue. Good luck.

 

[Jonathan_UK]

Today I had a call from Toyota Carlsbad telling me the hire car they gave me is my financial responsibility. Going to see the service manager tomorrow to refute this.

Let us know how that works. I know the 3/36 factory warranty has rental car coverage, but depending on whether this is being done under the original "powertrain" warranty or an extended warranty it could be an issue. Find out which warranty applies then show them the page with rental car coverage. Otherwise you may need to file a claim with Toyota for reimbursement if it is covered but denied.

So today I received confirmation that the rental car is covered 100% by the post-repair warranty, even if it takes 2+ months to get the replacement motor.

Now, I'm awaiting coverage of my fuel costs, which so far, has amounted to an expense of approximately $75 a week out of pocket. At a rental rate of $55 per day, plus fuel costs, it would surely make sense to hire another brand's EV than this rubbish hybrid!

So, I got the car back on Monday. Amazingly, with Toyota paying my rental car, they managed to get the motor swapped out in under three weeks! My first motor swap was three months. The failure cause was cited as water in the motor, but in discussing with Tony, it had to be an internal coolant leak from a failed internal seal.

The part number of the replacement motor is: 1024827-00-B.

 

[davebb]

Hello fellow rav4 owners. I just read all these 51 pages and decided I should add my 2 cents. My 2014 has been in Toyota of El Cajon for a couple of weeks now. It was miles from home when after parked for a day it wouldn't go. The ready on the dash wouldn't appear it said something like see dealer immediately. Towed to dealer (not cheap). It had the 55mph to 65mph hum (gear noise) for at least 6 months before this. incidentally it recently gave a couple error messages something like check ev system and have your vehicle checked by a dealership immediately and another I can't remember. Those messages went away and the car worked fine until that final day. It turns out it's 2000 miles over warranty and I would have to pay around $14,000 to have the motor replaced. Looks like I'm out the $25,000 I paid 2 years ago for the car.
I'm bringing it home to see what I can find. Maybe I can bring it back to life. I wonder if there is a factory shop service manual available for this thing.

 

[dstjohn99]

I'm in east county also, and when I am forced to use a dealer I use Toyota of El Cajon. They replaced the DU on my 2014 in 2016.

I suggest you get in touch with Tony at Quick Charge Power (San Marcos). They can likely do a motor swap or repair for less than $5k. But there may be other underlying issues. At any rate, Tony is the best available resource.

I would also suggest contacting Toyota and opening a case / claim, as the motor is an ongoing known issue. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to get a good faith warranty or adjustment.

 

[davebb]

I just got home with the car on a trailer. Dealer said "coolant found in speed sensor housing"

I know it didn't have any pending recalls so if that sensor thing was a recall that means it went bad again.

I had my wife call the toyota 800 number so she could cry on their shoulder. Maybe we'll get something out of that call. They'll call us back tomorrow. They said they're opening a claim.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Hello fellow rav4 owners. I just read all these 51 pages and decided I should add my 2 cents. My 2014 has been in Toyota of El Cajon for a couple of weeks now. It was miles from home when after parked for a day it wouldn't go. The ready on the dash wouldn't appear it said something like see dealer immediately. Towed to dealer (not cheap). It had the 55mph to 65mph hum (gear noise) for at least 6 months before this. incidentally it recently gave a couple error messages something like check ev system and have your vehicle checked by a dealership immediately and another I can't remember. Those messages went away and the car worked fine until that final day. It turns out it's 2000 miles over warranty and I would have to pay around $14,000 to have the motor replaced. Looks like I'm out the $25,000 I paid 2 years ago for the car.
I'm bringing it home to see what I can find. Maybe I can bring it back to life. I wonder if there is a factory shop service manual available for this thing.

Ship it to us, and we will look at it. We are nearby, in north San Diego county.

 

[davebb]

Hello fellow rav4 owners. I just read all these 51 pages and decided I should add my 2 cents. My 2014 has been in Toyota of El Cajon for a couple of weeks now. It was miles from home when after parked for a day it wouldn't go. The ready on the dash wouldn't appear it said something like see dealer immediately. Towed to dealer (not cheap). It had the 55mph to 65mph hum (gear noise) for at least 6 months before this. incidentally it recently gave a couple error messages something like check ev system and have your vehicle checked by a dealership immediately and another I can't remember. Those messages went away and the car worked fine until that final day. It turns out it's 2000 miles over warranty and I would have to pay around $14,000 to have the motor replaced. Looks like I'm out the $25,000 I paid 2 years ago for the car.
I'm bringing it home to see what I can find. Maybe I can bring it back to life. I wonder if there is a factory shop service manual available for this thing.

Ship it to us, and we will look at it. We are nearby, in north San Diego county.

Thank you very much Tony. I've been thinking about contacting you. I am now waiting to see what our Toyota case will do for us. Probably nothing. I'll be in touch after they let me down.

 

[Weekdayskier]

My turn to have the motor replaced.

Now at 74K miles.

My mistake? is that the onboard charger failed and I asked the dealer to look into that as well as the motor. Apparently, the platinum warranty will only pay up to the value of the vehicle. The combined repair cost is about $3K more than their claimed value.

I will also need to pay 3 hours of to remove and re-install JDemo.

Decided to absorb the cost, as I'm just not looking to buy another car at the moment. The buyout offer does not consider the added leather interior, JDemo or hitch (same as when trading in a car-aftermarket accessories don't count)

 

[dstjohn99]

Take the warranty cash, then take the car to Quick Charge Power for repairs at a fraction of the cost.

 

[Weekdayskier]

Take the warranty cash, then take the car to Quick Charge Power for repairs at a fraction of the cost.

I wish. It doesn't work that way. It's similar to an insurance buy out when the car is wrecked. You get the $ offered, they keep the car, or sell it back to you for what a junkyard would buy it for. Anyways, my out of pocket is a little more than 3K. Shipping the car to Tony would be at least 1K and the repair would be $6K.

The warranty runs out in December. I might utilize the repair services when out of warranty.

 

[davebb]

Hello fellow rav4 owners. I just read all these 51 pages and decided I should add my 2 cents. My 2014 has been in Toyota of El Cajon for a couple of weeks now. It was miles from home when after parked for a day it wouldn't go. The ready on the dash wouldn't appear it said something like see dealer immediately. Towed to dealer (not cheap). It had the 55mph to 65mph hum (gear noise) for at least 6 months before this. incidentally it recently gave a couple error messages something like check ev system and have your vehicle checked by a dealership immediately and another I can't remember. Those messages went away and the car worked fine until that final day. It turns out it's 2000 miles over warranty and I would have to pay around $14,000 to have the motor replaced. Looks like I'm out the $25,000 I paid 2 years ago for the car.
I'm bringing it home to see what I can find. Maybe I can bring it back to life. I wonder if there is a factory shop service manual available for this thing.

Ship it to us, and we will look at it. We are nearby, in north San Diego county.

Thank you very much Tony. I've been thinking about contacting you. I am now waiting to see what our Toyota case will do for us. Probably nothing. I'll be in touch after they let me down.

Well...... Toyota is reimbursing us for the cost of the new power unit (motor). We only have to pay labor. He said he's giving us internal labor rate so it's $1200.00 I think. I'm so happy they decided to give us a break.

Got it back yesterday and it only took about a week and a half. It's working great and was only about $1800. Toyota came through for us. Thanks to everyone at Toyota of El Cajon. Matt and Jeremy.

 

[dstjohn99]

I wish. It doesn't work that way. It's similar to an insurance buy out when the car is wrecked. You get the $ offered, they keep the car, or sell it back to you for what a junkyard would buy it for. Anyways, my out of pocket is a little more than 3K. Shipping the car to Tony would be at least 1K and the repair would be $6K.

The warranty runs out in December. I might utilize the repair services when out of warranty.

I wondered about that. It seems unusual that if you use all the money for repairs, you keep the car. But they can't send you a check for the same amount and let you keep the car and fix it yourself.

 

[davewill]

I wondered about that. It seems unusual that if you use all the money for repairs, you keep the car. But they can't send you a check for the same amount and let you keep the car and fix it yourself.

That's because the repairs don't really cost them as much as they count against the warranty.

 

[user 340]

Toyota of Palo Alto replaced the motor in my 2013 RAV4EV today due to excess noise. This was my first and hopefully last motor replacement. The cost was covered under my Toyota Platinum VSA extended warranty.

The car started making a faint noise at low speed a couple years ago. A whine could be heard when the accelerator was applied at speeds of 10-20 mph. It got more noticeable about a year ago, a couple months after the 5 year / 60,000 mi powertrain warranty expired. It became more noticeable in the past few months and could be heard from about 5 - 35 mph. There was no milling sound or other motor noise at higher speeds. The car had 35,200 mi on the odometer when I took it in a couple weeks ago (late June).

The dealer explained that they needed to record the noise and send it to Toyota / Tesla to evaluate whether it qualified for a replacement under warranty. This would have been free if done during the original powertrain warranty period, but there could be a $200 charge if it was not found to be loud enough for replacement now that the extended warranty / Toyota Platinum VSA was in effect. The dealer's lead EV tech drove the car and thought it was loud enough for replacement so he recorded it and sent it in. Toyota confirmed (same day) that it was loud enough for warranty replacement.

That was the easy part. The Toyota VSA / extended warranty outfit decided that the noise needed assessment by one of their roving inspectors who could show up at the dealer within 48 hours. My dealer says that this is somewhat rare but it happens sometimes - like a random secondary screening by TSA at the airport. Apparently the VSA warranty division is somewhat separate from the new car warranty group. I brought the car back a week later (couldn't leave it there) and the visiting inspector agreed that it was loud enough. I believe that this was a purely subjective evaluation - he and my service advisor just took it for a drive.

Two days later the dealer called and told me that the motor had arrived! They installed it today, and the service invoice identifies it as Motor Assy, Electric, part G1100-0R012-84. The parts cost was $5824 with a total charge against my VSA of $7269 (presumably including tax and labor). The dealer charged me a modest and reasonable amount for partial removal and re-installation of my JdeMO. The old / original motor serial number was T12L0004268 and the new one is T14B0036534. I assume that T is for Tesla and I wonder if the next 2 digits are year of original manufacture. Any info on this? I was a bit surprised that the listed cost was not higher given that others reported higher costs earlier in this thread.

The car is very quiet now!

 

[miimura]

I'm glad you had a relatively smooth experience at Palo Alto and that Toyota seems to have gotten over the ridiculous prices they were charging before. This leaves a considerable amount of the Limit remaining for the balance of your VSA coverage. I am down to the final two years of my VSA and I still haven't had a chargeable repair yet.