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A group of plaintiffs from five different states have filed a Toyota oil defect class action lawsuit, alleging that a defect in the design of pistons in a four-cylinder engine used in many of the company’s vehicles as well as its Scion subsidiary led to excessive oil consumption and the potential for serious accidents.
According to the class action lawsuit, the 2AZ-FE engines have been known to have oil consumption issues that Toyota was aware of since at least 2008. However, the alleged design defect does not generally occur until after the warranty period for new car buyers and so Toyota has repeatedly refused to repair the vehicles except at the owner’s expense. Owners of the following vehicles in California, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Washington would be members of the class:
2007-2011 Toyota Camry Hybrid;
2007-2009 Toyota Camry;
2009 Toyota Corolla;
2009 Toyota Matrix;
2006-2008 Toyota RAV4;
2007-2008 Toyota Solara;
2007-2009 Scion tC;
and 2008-2009 Scion xB
The problem reportedly manifests itself when owners take their vehicles in for scheduled maintenance including having the oil changed, according to the class action lawsuit. Several of the plaintiffs have alleged that the amount of fluid in the oilpan dropped to nearly nothing over the course of the roughly 5,000 miles between expected maintenance. One alleges that a local service center employee told her “that it was abnormal for a vehicle to be consuming oil at a rate that would deplete the entirety of her oil shorter than Toyota’s recommended maintenance intervals.”
More disturbingly, according to some of the plaintiffs, is when the oil consumption issues lead to no lubrication before a driver realizes it. Some noted that the engine was “making a knocking noise” which can be an indicator of impending failure. A major component of design defect-based class action lawsuits is the impact of the failure on an owner’s safety as well as those of its occupants. The plaintiffs’ class action lawsuit lawyers argue that because an engine failure can lead to serious accidents, it puts too many people at risk.
However, while there were more than a dozen reports to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding the Toyota engine oil consumption issues, the auto maker never directly notified owners. Instead, it issued an internal service bulletin outlining a process where by owners would have to subject their vehicle to several oil consumption tests. If that demonstrated that the pistons were malfunctioning, and the car was under warranty, then the dealership would perform the repairs. Otherwise, the quoted price was several thousand dollars, according to the class action lawsuit.
The group of Toyota and Scion vehicle owners are seeking damages based on the decreased value of their vehicles. The class action lawsuit alleges violations of consumer protection statutes in the five states, breach of express warranty and common law fraud.
The plaintiffs are represented by class action lawsuit lawyers Jae J. Kim and Richard D. McCune, Jr. of McCune Wright LLP
The Toyota Oil Consumption Defect Class Action Lawsuit is April Lax, et al. v. Toyota Motor Corporation, et al., Case No. 14-cv-01490, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
UPDATE: The Toyota Oil Consumption class action lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed on December 16, 2015.
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286 thoughts onToyota Hit with Class Action Lawsuit over Oil Consumption Defect
Below is a copy of the post I made earlier tonight before I found your website regarding my
2009 Toyota Camry Excessive Oil Consumption – Left in the Dark!
Asked by GuruL5J9H 10 minutes ago about the 2009 Toyota Camry LE
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I bought my car from a local well know Toyota Dealership that has a good
reputation and I trust. The car was a one owner and had only been on the lot
1-2 days. It was in excellent shape and the owner had all maintenance
records. It only had 80,000 miles on it. I bought it in April 2017 and had no
idea whatsoever about the problem regarding the excessive oil and still did not
until the car completely shut down on me the other day while traveling down
the road at 60 mph. I had no warning at all…. It just started making a loud
noise and then the engine light came on, I started to work my way over to
the side of the road and then it sounded like something just broke into. It was
very loud and the car started to shut down literally. It shut down and all
dashboard lights came on and would not do anything and I had not even put it in
park yet and the ignition was still engaged. I totally expected to get out of the
car and see car parts laying all over the road it was so bad. So, after having
it towed home and doing research I have discovered this issue about
excessive oil consumption. I did notice the car going through a lot of oil
however i drive over 200 miles a day and just thought it had something to do
with that. I had zero issues with the car and have kept the oil changed every
3000-4000 miles and always used the extended life high priced oil to try and
take care of the car as best i could. I had expected to have the car for a long
time and felt that it would last me a long time due to it being a Toyota. This is
the whole reason why I bought it ! So now here I am with a blown engine
looking at a $5500-$6000 repair for a new one! Paid $10K for it and owe
$5800 on it currently. I am paycheck to paycheck like most consumers and
have no idea how in the world to handle this problem. My car payment is
$260 a month and now I am paying $160 a week for the cheapest rental
offered and I checked 6 different rental companies! I have also discovered
that the dealer provided me with an extended warranty that just recently
expired in November 2018. So, my question is how do I handle this situation
best? If the dealer is not required to tell the consumer about this issue and
what to watch for, shouldn’t some type of ethics come into play here? Since I
had no issues or warnings about the problem, I had no reason to take the car
to be checked for anything. How can I push Toyota to do the right thing and
help me with the cost to replace the engine?
Below is a copy of the post I made earlier tonight before I found your website regarding my
2009 Toyota Camry Excessive Oil Consumption – Left in the Dark!
Asked by GuruL5J9H 10 minutes ago about the 2009 Toyota Camry LE
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I bought my car from a local well know Toyota Dealership that has a good
reputation and I trust. The car was a one owner and had only been on the lot
1-2 days. It was in excellent shape and the owner had all maintenance
records. It only had 80,000 miles on it. I bought it in April 2017 and had no
idea whatsoever about the problem regarding the excessive oil and still did not
until the car completely shut down on me the other day while traveling down
the road at 60 mph. I had no warning at all…. It just started making a loud
noise and then the engine light came on, I started to work my way over to
the side of the road and then it sounded like something just broke into. It was
very loud and the car started to shut down literally. It shut down and all
dashboard lights came on and would not do anything and I had not even put it in
park yet and the ignition was still engaged. I totally expected to get out of the
car and see car parts laying all over the road it was so bad. So, after having
it towed home and doing research I have discovered this issue about
excessive oil consumption. I did notice the car going through a lot of oil
however i drive over 200 miles a day and just thought it had something to do
with that. I had zero issues with the car and have kept the oil changed every
3000-4000 miles and always used the extended life high priced oil to try and
take care of the car as best i could. I had expected to have the car for a long
time and felt that it would last me a long time due to it being a Toyota. This is
the whole reason why I bought it ! So now here I am with a blown engine
looking at a $5500-$6000 repair for a new one! Paid $10K for it and owe
$5800 on it currently. I am paycheck to paycheck like most consumers and
have no idea how in the world to handle this problem. My car payment is
$260 a month and now I am paying $160 a week for the cheapest rental
offered and I checked 6 different rental companies! I have also discovered
that the dealer provided me with an extended warranty that just recently
expired in November 2018. So, my question is how do I handle this situation
best? If the dealer is not required to tell the consumer about this issue and
what to watch for, shouldn’t some type of ethics come into play here? Since I
had no issues or warnings about the problem, I had no reason to take the car
to be checked for anything. How can I push Toyota to do the right thing and
help me with the cost to replace the engine?
I bought the 2009 Camry in 2011 when Toyota already knew about this problem and we were not notified about this problem. After a while we started having problems with oil consumption asked the dealer no one could give us a answer. After our warranty was up we started having problems with knocking and car shutdowns. What can we do?
I have a 2009 Toyota Camry with similar issue and now it does not work. What are my options?
I just paid off my 2007 Camry because of this defect I had to purchase a new car, toyota sucks
I had my car repaired by toyota for this problem, they put the wrong size parts in my car. and am now having problems with my car blowing white smoke. this is a long story. who can i contact to discuss the issues with.
I gave up after fighting Toyota, dealership and the so called lifetime warranty ITV was supposed to have. It’s a joke service people said it shook be covered it wasn’t. Bought a 6 banger now. This was a total joke the feds should of stepped in.
I too am having this oil consumption issue at the moment. I tend to follow up on these updates, Thanks
I have the same problem witha 2009 Matrix I bought a few months ago. Anyone know more about this class action law suit? I plan on taking Toyota to small claims court, if i cannot start a class action suit (I live in Toronto Canada) Any information on this law suit would help. Conact me at kenne.gunATgmail.com
I just found out about this problem myself. What can I do?
Can someone still sue Toyota if they missed the 150000 miles or 10 yr warranty and Toyota refused to cover?
The case is still moving through the courts and has not yet reached a settlement. Claim forms are usually not made available to consumers until after a court approved settlement is reached. We recommend you sign up for a free account at TopClassActions.com and follow the case. We will update the article with any major case developments or settlement news! Setting up a free account with Top Class Actions will allow you to receive instant updates on ANY article that you ‘Follow’ on our website. A link to creating an account may be found here: https://topclassactions.com/signup/. You can then ‘Follow’ the article above, and get notified immediately when we post updates!
But is their a class action lawsuit pending ?