CarComplaints.com Notes: The Toyota Matrix is the mechanical twin of the Pontiac Vibe.
Both models were a joint GM-Toyota venture, manufactured together at a NUMMI production facility in Fremont, CA. Only the heating & A/C systems are different.
I'll preface this by saying that this is 85-95% my fault.
I rode my Matrix hard and put it up wet for years. The thing was a rolling locker. I changed the oil when I remembered, which was maybe every 6 months. Maybe.
It stood up well to my abuse. In 5 years of owning the car (I bought it used, 110k miles), I don't think I had a single costly repair, except perhaps a pitted brake rotor.
This summer I started noticing a slight knock (more like a cute little pebbly gurgle) in the engine at very low RPMs. I wouldn't say I "noticed" it as much as I registered its existence, and sort of assumed the car had always made that noise. One day, I decided to check the oil, just for the hell of it. I discovered that the engine was almost completely without oil.
The reason I put this complaint here is not because of what eventually happened (I found the culprit for the oil leak [the timing chain tensioner], replaced it, and that poor or unskillful repair ended up causing the timing chain to skip a tooth or seven, resulting in total engine destruction).
The problem was this: no check oil light ever came on. When I talked to my mechanic neighbor about this, he said he'd heard of Toyotas like that running dry without throwing a code.
I realize I'm a fool. Another mechanic berated me for not changing the oil every three months. Perhaps what lubricated my idiocy over all of these years was Toyota's reputation for indestructibility. But no oil light? A tiny little light could have saved me worlds of trouble. So, too, of course, would have regular dipstick checks.
Moral of the story? Don't trust the blinky lights, my Millennial comrades.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I'll preface this by saying that this is 85-95% my fault.
I rode my Matrix hard and put it up wet for years. The thing was a rolling locker. I changed the oil when I remembered, which was maybe every 6 months. Maybe.
It stood up well to my abuse. In 5 years of owning the car (I bought it used, 110k miles), I don't think I had a single costly repair, except perhaps a pitted brake rotor.
This summer I started noticing a slight knock (more like a cute little pebbly gurgle) in the engine at very low RPMs. I wouldn't say I "noticed" it as much as I registered its existence, and sort of assumed the car had always made that noise. One day, I decided to check the oil, just for the hell of it. I discovered that the engine was almost completely without oil.
The reason I put this complaint here is not because of what eventually happened (I found the culprit for the oil leak [the timing chain tensioner], replaced it, and that poor or unskillful repair ended up causing the timing chain to skip a tooth or seven, resulting in total engine destruction).
The problem was this: no check oil light ever came on. When I talked to my mechanic neighbor about this, he said he'd heard of Toyotas like that running dry without throwing a code.
I realize I'm a fool. Another mechanic berated me for not changing the oil every three months. Perhaps what lubricated my idiocy over all of these years was Toyota's reputation for indestructibility. But no oil light? A tiny little light could have saved me worlds of trouble. So, too, of course, would have regular dipstick checks.
Moral of the story? Don't trust the blinky lights, my Millennial comrades.
- Ben D., ALBUQUERQUE, US