06 Corolla died, bad ECM unit

[hate2work]

This problem was first talked about in this thread

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/posts/1998703/

We got our official Toyota letter about it in September and we were told to wait until we were notified to bring it in for the service.

Well, the car died last night while my wife was driving it. She was just up the road from our house and it just simply stopped right in the middle of the street. Fortunately she was able to call a neighbor and he came and helped her push it to the side of the road. When I got home I went up and it started and drove just fine, but at that point we couldn't trust it, so I had it towed to the dealer we bought it from.

It will be covered under warranty, as well as the towing charge, but it's going to be a week before they get the part in to fix it. And even though they won't pay for a rental car during that time, they do have a loaner car for us to drive.

Get this, the service guy told me that for the first couple years they were replacing these bad units with other bad units, I mean units that they knew were going to fail again!! It's just been recently that they have a new, redesigned one being made, and they are slowly being doled out to the dealers which is why it's going to take a week to get the part.

Anybody with an 06 - 08 Corolla or Matrix might want to get this done before it fails on them while they're driving it.

http://www.toyota.com/recall/corolla-matrix.html

 

[2oldtommy]

Wow! that service recall was issued in Aug. You would think that they would have provided the replacement ECM's in qnantity by this time.It's good your wife was close to home when the failure happened. FWIW--Oldtommy

 

[pidster]

Any known issues with 2004 models? I read the recall and it states 2005-2008 but,,,,,

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: pidster
Any known issues with 2004 models? I read the recall and it states 2005-2008 but,,,,,


Click on the link at the bottom of my first post, on the left side of that page is a place to enter your VIN to see what recalls might effect your Toyota vehicle.

 

[mikiee]

Slightly off topic......what's the diff. between a rental and loaner car? You have to pay for them to loan you a car?

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: 2oldtommy
Wow! that service recall was issued in Aug. You would think that they would have provided the replacement ECM's in qnantity by this time.It's good your wife was close to home when the failure happened. FWIW--Oldtommy


I think they have plenty of the OLD ECMs, but very few new ones. Yes, I'm very thankful she wasn't in the middle of a busy intersection when it died.

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: mikiee
Slightly off topic......what's the diff. between a rental and loaner car? You have to pay for them to loan you a car?


No, they simply loan you the car until your car gets repaired. There will be no charge, all they ask is that you have insurance and you refill the gas tank to the same amount that was in it when you took it.

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: mikiee
Slightly off topic......what's the diff. between a rental and loaner car? You have to pay for them to loan you a car?


We scored on the loaner car, they gave us a brand new Sienna to use for the next week!!

Toyota of Puyallup, you rock!!

 

[J_Sap]

Funny my moms Corolla died earlier this week, but it was parked in her driveway. She has always had the check engine light on in her car, had a rough shifting tranny until some synthetic ATF was put in, and now her car died. My dad didn't know what to do so he checked all the fuses in the car and put the battery on a charger. It started working again but he was worried that once the battery was fully discharged once it only has so much time before it goes completely; so he bought a new one so my mom would not be stranded in the winter. After reading your post I called him and asked him if he had the ECM replaced per the recall. Hopefully they call up and get it fixed under the recall. It will save them a lot of guesswork and me some time.

Sorry needed to vent a little but thanks for jogging my memory on the ECM recall and keep us informed if the car has anymore problems. Hopefully yours will all be fixed with the car when you get it back.

 

[hate2work]

The dealer got the part in already and the wifey got her car back, seems to be running fine. Time will tell about future problems, but supposedly this ECM they put in is the "new" version. lol

J, those symptoms sound like the ECM unit is failing in your mom's car, she needs to get it in and get it fixed. Below is the website you can put in her VIN number and tell what recalls affect her car.

http://www.toyota.com/owners/sscinfo?siteid=too_toyota_recall_vinlookup

 

[Ryan]

Hmm... our 06 Corolla had a check engine light maybe 2 years ago and they replaced the ECM. You got me wondering if they replaced it with the "updated" one or just put another bad one in there. No problems since they replaced it though...

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: Ryan
Hmm... our 06 Corolla had a check engine light maybe 2 years ago and they replaced the ECM. You got me wondering if they replaced it with the "updated" one or just put another bad one in there. No problems since they replaced it though...


Well, according to what I was told by the service manager, they kept having problems with them so they redesigned the ECM and the new ones have only been available for a few months now. If what he told me is true, my best guess is that your car has an older one in it.

 

[LTVibe]

Originally Posted By: Ryan
Hmm... our 06 Corolla had a check engine light maybe 2 years ago and they replaced the ECM. You got me wondering if they replaced it with the "updated" one or just put another bad one in there. No problems since they replaced it though...

Check your ECM part number and see if it is listed in this link. The list shows which ECMs are affected by the recall and have to be replaced.

You should be able to see the ECM part # label by looking up under the dash (passenger side).

 

[sunfire]

I got my Toyota recall letter recently.



I've never had a recall on the car before. Are they going to replace the ECM with a brand new one? Anything I should watch out for when taking to the stealership? My car hasn't seen a stealership in over 4 years.

 

[Hootbro]

Originally Posted By: sunfire
I got my Toyota recall letter recently.



I've never had a recall on the car before. Are they going to replace the ECM with a brand new one? Anything I should watch out for when taking to the stealership? My car hasn't seen a stealership in over 4 years.


My understanding is they are swapping the ECM out with a new build. Part of the delay has actually been waiting on new build supply to catch up.

 

[Ryan]

Our 06 Corolla had that problem probably late 06 or maybe early 07. It didn't die on us, but the engine light came on and it was still under warranty so we took it to the stealership. I was worried that they replaced it with another bad one, but I was able to look online and look up the part number on the ECM to see if it was recalled or not. The one in there now is a good one. Now I'm dealing with a bad intake manifold gasket. Have you had that problem fixed in your car yet?

 

[sunfire]

I've taken apart the intake manifold twice. And the gasket was in good shape.

 

[odie]

We're thinking the reason why our YARIS and a friends YARIS are (two 2010 ) / had been ( 2008 fixed ) leaking oil from the the #1 cylinder of the head cylinder gasket is possibly due being so close to the exhaust manifold and the extreme heat impacting the gasket or the head itself or both . Maybe it's a defect in the design of the engine or a bad batch of muti layered steel head cylinder gaskets .

 

[odie]

The friend with the 2010 YARIS that leaks oil also has an COROLLA that had the ECM replaced under warranty . The car would stall out at times , not a good thing when driving .

 

[mikered30]

There is a TSB for the intake manifold on the 9th gen corolla. In sub freezing temps, the gasket shrinks and deforms allowing dirty unmetered air in the engine. There is a redesigned gasket, but availability is poor.