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A recent Subaru, Toyota class action lawsuit claims that repairs made to vehicles as part of an engine recall are only making the issue worse.
Toyota and Subaru reportedly recalled around 165,000 vehicles for a safety defect that caused engine stalling.
The recall included 2013 Subaru BRZ, 2013 Toyota Scion FR-S, 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek, and 2012-14 Subaru Impreza vehicles. The affected vehicles were to be taken in for repairs so that they could resolve the defect.
The original issue reportedly affected the valve springs in the vehicle engines. These springs can reportedly fracture which causes the engine to malfunction and can allegedly result in stalling.
Subaru and Toyota allegedly conceded that this defect can “increase the risk of a crash.” To repair the defective springs, a Subaru Toyota recall order directed dealerships to replace the springs with “new ones of an improved design.”
Although the repairs were intended to resolve the problem, repaired vehicles allegedly experience even more issues and are prone to further hazards.
Plaintiff Cristian Nunez recently filed a class action lawsuit against Toyota and Subaru, claiming that the companies negligently put consumers at risk.
“Unfortunately, and upon information and belief, the Recall Work is not remedying the hazard, but instead, is increasing the risk of valve spring and/or other engine malfunction, is causing catastrophic engine damage to the Class Vehicles and is increasing the risk of vehicle crashes caused by vehicles suddenly stalling while being driven,” the Subaru Toyota class action claims.
In some cases, the repaired vehicles reportedly burst into flames. The Subaru Toyota class action features a shocking photo of one of the affected vehicles charred and destroyed in the aftermath of a crash.
Nunez says he experienced the issue with his own 2013 Toyota Scion. He allegedly took his vehicle in for recall repairs in August 2019. Only a week later, Nunez reportedly heard knocking from the engine followed by complete engine failure, allegedly leaving him stranded on the side of the road.
When he took his vehicle in to the dealership, the mechanics reportedly found metal shavings in the engine and concluded falsely that Nunez “must have caused these issues when performing prior engine work himself.”
“This was in spite of the fact that (1) Plaintiff informed the technicians that he did not, and had not, performed any work on his own vehicle; and (2) these metal shavings were not present when the same dealership performed the Recall Work on Plaintiff’s car one week prior to these events,” the Subaru, Toyota class action argues.
To fix the issue, Nunez was told he would need to pay $6,500 out-of-pocket to replace his engine. After a week and a half with no contact from the dealership, Nunez was reportedly told that he would be forced to pay $1,500 to have a Toyota representative travel to inspect the car or he would need to pay to have the vehicle towed and return his loaner vehicle after paying for its usage.
Nunez claims that he and other consumers are being wrongfully slapped with extreme costs due to the fact that the Subaru and Toyota repairs caused further issues.
In his Subaru, Toyota class action, Nunez seeks to represent a Class of consumers who purchased or leased a Class vehicle, had recall repairs done, and suffered engine failure afterwards. He also seeks to represent a Class of the same consumers from Texas.
Do you own any of the vehicles recalled due to engine stalling that were named in the Subaru, Toyota class action? Share your experiences in the comment section below.
Nunez and the proposed Class are represented by Katrina Carroll, Edwin J. Kilpela Jr., and James P. McGraw III of Carlson Lynch LLP; Peter A. Muhic of Levan Law Group LLC; Jonathan M. Jagher, Kimberly A. Justice, William H. London, and Douglas A. Millen of Freed Kanner London & Millen LLC; David P. McLafferty of McLafferty Law Firm PC; and Richard R. Gordon of Gordon Law Office Ltd.
The Subaru, Toyota Engine Stalling Defect Recall Class Action Lawsuit is Nunez v. Subaru of America Inc., et al., Case No. 1:19-cv-18303, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
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45 thoughts onSubaru, Toyota Class Action Lawsuit: Recall Work Causing Engine Fires
The same thing happened to me. Please add me to the list.
I had the recalls done in Nov 2020 and now, July 2021, the engine stalls and the brake lights will not properly work. While driving onto the highway the car stalled while putting the foot on the gas pedal. The brake lights have 3 lights that light up on the dash, and what is even more bizarre is that the brake lights randomly turn on at night and kills the battery. Yesterday, We had AAA/CAA jump start our car and the brake lights were on with no one in the car. Afterwards we checked to make sure the lights were all off before we went to bed. Today, the car is dead again. I just spoke with my neighbor’s mom and she let me know that the brake lights were on today at 9am, so the brake lights randomly turn on and kill the car’s battery.
Literally first time owning a Subaru I picked up my 2012 Subaru Impreza used but it was I. Great shape with Maintenance records to show. First think I knew I was in deep waters was I was going over the fluids at home an noticed so
Show I have spots of oil in my radiator fluid. Freaking out I called the dealer I bought it from an he assured me that it was nothing. I wasn’t mixing in the engine an it just got in their by accident. Fast forward a month later I’m driving an out of no where my low oil light comes on an that’s when the real problems started. I lift my oil cap an it has the infamous chocolate milk slug under it an I take my radiator cap off an it’s just filled up with oil. But weird enough I wasn’t getting the milky look on my dip stick. The refused to work on my car even though I knew it had problems from the get go. Hopefully I can get some closer from this so this doesn’t happen to know one else
Hazardous roads light, check engine light and flashing cruise control light will all come on at the same time. When this occurs cruise control doesnt work and acceleration in the car decrease/stalls. This is a major safety issue. There have been many times Ive gone to get on the highway (imagine rush hour times) and the car doesnt accelerate. There have been countless times where I thought I was going to be hit. This issue started only six months after I bought the car brand new, has occurred MANY times and the dealership has never truly resolved the issue or been able to explain it.
2013 scion frs owner, 40k miles when brought in on january of 2019. Houston area.
After receiving the recall notice through the mail. i took my vehicle to the dealership where it was worked on over the weekend. After receiving the car i managed to drive it, but only just made it to my neighborhood before the car completely shut down. I owned the car for at least one year already and did oil changes. The car did not leak and it ran smoothly throughout the drive before failing.
Months passed and until april they managed to do a fix with the engine they had. It started up but had a certain noise coming from it that i told my service advisor about. Shrugging it off i began driving home when suddenly it got louder and louder. i pulled over and i heard a hard knocking sound. turned off the car and the dealership took it back. eventually in june i was told that toyota would not cover the cost of a new engine. The dealership told me afterwards that i could get it fixed by them, with a slight parts discount that would still cost me about $5k dollars. I wrote to toyota on why they didn’t help me, but i only ever got the vague answer that it was in fact my fault for not doing proper oil changes.
I had done an oil analysis on my car in mid 2018 and it showed that i had healthy chemical contents that do not indicate metal particles from excessive wear. The damage to the car on the second instance felt different, like it indeed was starved of oil, but that would have fallen on the dealership as they were the last to work on it.
More recently i was trying to get evidence that it was not my fault with the help of another dealership, i paid for the car to be disassembled. They told me that they could fix it for $5k but then found that the transmission was also damaged along the main seal that surrounds the spindle, as well the dowel pins were sunken indicating technical mistakes done by dealership mechanics. the cost rose to just under $10k. I have a video with the master technician and he explains all of the damage done to my car. They mentioned that the car was at one point indeed starved of oil and there are multiple causes that most likely point to it being the fault of mechanics. From day one i gathered calls, emails, pictures, videos, and records about the whole situation.
I also have dash-cam footage with some surviving and other corrupted but retrievable if i paid a company about $1500. corrupted footage would show both instances of my car failing and their differences. Some mechanic conversations are also included as well as my car running well before the recall. I lack many resources which is why i have yet to find a solution to my issue through my own legal pursuit.
Please add me.
My 2013 FRS had the recall done about 3000 miles ago I recently experienced what sounded like knocking shortly but it went away. I parked the car and started it today and it seemed fine. Drove it around most the day sounding and performed completely normal then on the highway going about 60mph it started knocking extremely bad and stalled out. Will not start and seems to be engine failure. I called the Toyota dealership and expressed my concerns especially with what I read on this forum. We’ll see what happens
Started a claim with Toyota directly. Their number is 800-331-4331. Toyota of Tri-Cities where I live was unwilling to acknowledge any possible fault and immediately wanted me to approve being charged to look at it since my recall warranty is expired. It expires after one year and I hardly ever drive the car it’s mostly garaged with only about 3000 miles on it after recall was done. Toyota the brand was much easier to work with at this point and set up a claim. They also allowed me to take the car to another dealership in Hermiston OR near by since I’ve only had bad experiences with the local dealership.
Fingers crossed this sucks!
Hey same old problem for me i own a 2013 frs and got the call for the recall in early 2020. I was reluctant to bring it in because of the bad news that pretty much everyone has. But i did it you know its a safety thing its mandatory. not even a month later(also only drive maybe 40kms a day to work and back)the rod knocking started and the noise changed, got in the parking lot at work and it died, had to tow to a dealership they wont give me a straight answer as to what blew my piston barring but i already know why they said there was black cyllicone in the oil, that comes from scraping off the old cyllicone while doing the recall and it falls in the engine or the oil then plugs off the oil somewhere then starves the engine then thats where things break and lite on fire. The toyota dealership is now coming up with every thing they can including toyota canada to dissclaim there wrongdoing. they have even said the valvesprings were already broken before the recall wich im pretty sure i wouldnt have been driving it for the past 6 years without a hic up if that was the case. Oh ya ps the dealer has had my car for 2 days less then a month today wich is july 24 and no answer or ever a call back, have to hound them every day and still get no info pretty f,ing crappy bussiness putting peoples lives in danger and everyone else on the roads at risk due to there errisponsable negligence makes me sick
Thought i should mention its like they knew we were about to finish paying off these cars and that the warrenties are mostly all out now, low blow ps i also had no engine light or oil light or any lights come on even up to when it died, weird hey
I am also affected by this Scion FR-S issue. Within 2,000 miles of having this recall done, numerous engine issues occur. The dealership tells the previous owner that he needs to purchase a new short block for the car. Within 200 miles of the new short block, the oil control valve is needed to be replaced at the owners expense. Now 4,000 miles after the recall and metal is found in the oil. I now own the vehicle and am being told that I need to pay to have the engine taken apart and inspected. I am also being told that I will likely need a new engine. The dealership and Toyota/Subaru are taking no responsibility, even though a large list of people are having severe engine problems shorty after their required recall.
Add another car to the list.
I am the original owner of a 2013 BRZ.
Recall was performed with 33,625 miles on the car.
At 35,925 we had a catastrophic failure. The cause has not be determined at this moment.
Failure started with a change in the exhaust note, followed by complete failure 30 seconds later.
Passenger side of the engine had something come through the top, lightly spraying oil.
Hello the same case is occurring to me but I am in earlier instances and am for your advice on what my next step should be. So i took back my car on December 23rd,2019 for the valve recall and i got it back December 31ST. It had a continuing rattling noise and sounded like a broken car. So I took it back and the claimed an oil issue occurred and was not allowing motor to run properly. They foxed it and gave me back my car after a little less than two month my car broke down on the highway and I had to pull over. I took my car back to the dealership a week ago and they said they are going to look at the issue and if its associated to the recall they will cover the 2000 to remove engine and check and if it not I will have to cover that cost plus the engine replacement.Should I go forth with this or save that money because the dealership will not admit to their fault? They also told me im looking at 15000 for the engine work to done altogether.
Sounds like they’re trying to scam you for double. Short story, Toyota said it’d be $1,000 for the teardown and it would be covered if it’s recall related (I think they tried to scare me out of doing it, but it was recall related so I paid $0)
Then they told me the block replacement would have been over $7000 but I still paid $0 bc recall.
Long story, my car was fine, I went for the recall repair on the stock motor. 3 weeks later I get a rod knock on the way to my first day of the semester.
Then eventually I get a NEW block and it runs better than ever!
BUT it just knocked and shit on me like 2-3 days ago so I’m doing some research on it.
It’s a shame they couldn’t make a reliable slow or fast motor, it’s such a good looking and handling car!!
I have a 2013 but the VIN was NOT included in the recall for some reason. Just had the exact failure as the recall. Not sure what to do.