ok, I have an 08 tc that has just over 16000 miles on it and it is still under warranty until september. last night on the way from a friends house to go get some pizza the car started to "vibrate" when i gave it a little bit off gas...it was almost as if the motor was missing or something like that...so once we eat and go to leave I make it through like 3 red lights and the check engine light comes on. so i drive on home and go to school today with the light on. well tonight the light started flashing and it felt like it was down on some power but after a couple miles of driving the light stopped blinking and it seemed ok and only did the "missing" thing periodically. I called the dealer and I have set up an appointment monday morning to take it in a get it checked out. My question is this: about 1500 miles or so ago i went with some buddies on a cruise through some unbusy backroads in the mountains and drove it kinda hard... i mean i didnt push it to the limit or anthing...the highest I think i ever revved it was 5000-5500rpm (at most) and i am wondering if there is any way the computer like stores this information? and if so could they like deny any type of warranty claim? if this is a possibility should I like reset everthing by unhooking the battery or something? Thanks in advance!

paul

 

yes and no. the car keeps track of how many times you bounce off the rev limiter and speed limiter, but that is it. but there are also tell tail signs of abuse on tires and brakes and such. so yeah, they can see evidence of shenanigans.

also, if you check the owner's manual, it tells you to never drive when the CEL is blinking, you should have it looked at right away.

 

oh, and because you're 18...yeah, they'll be looking for signs of driver abuse.

 

yeah im gonna be taking my moms car to work tom so i dont have to drive it....the tires look fine so im not worried about that. idt i have ever bounced it off the rev limiter and it has never been near the speed limiter since i have had it and im pretty sure the lady that had it for 9,xxx miles before i got it never did either...she seemed pretty chill so...

 

yeah im sure they will....

 

the code was for a "random misfire" and they ended up putting new spark plugs in. they had on the ticket that there was corrision on the plugs...that doesnt sound normal for a car that has 16xxx miles on it...plugs should go much longer than that???

 

Our plugs should be good for 100k. But that doesn't mean you didn't have a bad one or something. Hard to say.

One little joyride around 5k RPMs and over isn't going to kill it. Trust me. I bounce mine off the rev limiter ALL of the time during autox season for the last 3 years. Mine is an 05 with nearly 80k and I haven't had a single problem.

 

"the highest I think i ever revved it was 5000-5500rpm (at most)"

You are way too paranoid. Any new motor is built to take whatever you can throw at it. You can't break a motor by driving it hard, and the rev limiter keeps you from revving high enough to break anything. Why would they rate the motor at 161hp @ 6,000rpm if revving to 6,000rpm would break it? Seriously, the only things you can do to damage the car (without hitting something) is mistreat the clutch by slipping it too much, or maybe mess up the tranny by poor or hard shifting. Toyota has designed the motor to take anything that you can do to it and they can't deny warranty claims for using the RPM band.