The Glade 4.0

The RAV4 my wife bought in 2001 started seriously acting up 3 days ago, shifting hard, not shifting, and stalling unexpectedly. She immediately stopped driving it and we had it towed to the dealer. Their recommendation - replace the ECM and transmission for upwards of $5000.00

We checked and the trade-in value of the vehicle is, of course, $5000.00 or so.

The funny thing was, the shop manager explained to us that the ECM (engine control module) was sending conflicting signals to the transmission that, at times, commanded it to be in multiple gears at the same time, no gear at all, stuff like that. In fact, he explained, a Technical Service Bulletin was issued for the problem, but these TSB's aren't sent to the public, they're sent to the dealer as information that will assist their diagnosis and repair.

Toyota KNEW there was a problem with 2001-2003 RAV4's, and they eventually replaced the devices for free - IF you brought your car in and they decided to let you in on the secret. My wife's car had always had a problem with the transmission shifting immediately after starting in cold weather and she took it in, but their "fix" was to re-program the device (a early repair technique that never addressed the issue totally). The problem is so prevalent that a class action lawsuit was brought against the company two years ago and is still in progress.

I was torn on what to do about the problem and decided to search out any information about the cause, and found that the electrolytic capacitors were the culprits - they were used on the output control lines that activate the solenoids that control the transmission. A whole cottage industry has cropped up to replace the caps in the ECM's, with excellent track records of success.

Now, it just so happened that I had some serious issues with computer hardware in the early 2000's... a long story you can read here, but the upshot of the story is, there were big problems with batches of caps back then that ended up being installed in everything electronic - everything from big box IBM systems to PC motherboards.... and I was bit several times by that flaw.

EVERYBODY in hardware back then knew about the problem, and I'm sure Toyota did too. I've found hundreds of reports on the problem on the web, and it turns out that only in the most extreme cases were the transmissions totally shot, and in the vast majority of cases, the replacement of the computer solved all the problems. So, I told the shop to only replace the computer (and flush the transmission afterward) and sure enough, the problem is fixed.

Now, Toyota had to have known that they had bad caps on the boards. They should have recalled all the computers immediately after learning about the problem. It's a safety issue, not only for the folks broke down on the side of the road, but for the people in cars that suddenly come to a stop in intersections and on highways. The technical bulletin proves they were aware of the problem. AND... what's up with suggesting a replacement transmission?

So, I've got all the paperwork from the dealer, and I've got the old computer, now I'm going to sit down and write a nice long letter to Toyota explaining to them how I expect them to make this right. I don't expect any compensation, but if I get a run-around, I'll just join in the class-action suit and see what happens.

I've never bought a foreign car and never will, and I can assure you, my wife isn't a fan of them now either. It's not that we think American brands are better or anything (however, the new JD Powers reviews suggest they are!), but the cachet of owning a Toyota with the idea of having it run faithfully for hundreds of thousands of miles has been shown to be just a pipe dream.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Perhaps that was true back in the eighties the whole running forever thing. In newer modles it's a toss up.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Start Simple Replacing everything is akin to the shotgun approach to the problem. Find a third party transmission shop that is honest(very rare breed) get them to check it out. If the is the Ecm the problem then that should take care of it no need for a new tyranny.
Just Went through this with My wife's Grand Cherokee, Dealer wanted to replace ECM and BCM, and security module(3 computers) for $3800, I took it to a good shop who diagnosed the real problem The ECM and the transmission speed sensor total cost $300.
HE was able to get ECM from Chrysler as upgrade replacement due to the number of TSBs(35) that had been issued on it.

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History of the Condom
In 1272, the Muslim Arabs invented the condom, using a goat's lower intestine.
In 1873, the British somewhat refined the idea, by taking the intestine out of the goat first.

A) Shotgun approach to making sure the problem is completely resolved and/or
B) An assumption that the problem existing in the first place, and people being like you and your wife by thinking its a minor problem for a while, is causing damage to the transmission, so that even if they just replace the bad module, there is a good chance that enough damage has already been done to warrant replacement there as well and will be noticeable to the owner after the first "repair", and/or
C) the work, at the time of the TSB, was still covered by warranties/recall authorization, so if the consumer is going to be getting the problem fixed, fix everything to avoid complaints due to point (B).

That said, its interesting that so much attention is paid lately to the "foreign" car companies and quality issues, yet the recalls by the "American" companies are ignored or downplayed by the media.