96 Oil Pump Failure? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter RedFiveAZ
- Start date
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I’m not a lawyer but stuff like this tends to require class action. They’ve got millions of dollars to spend to avoid responsibility. You probably don’t. There are quite a few stories like this with the wix filters but until someone organizes, the chances of winning are slim.
Sucks. Your situation is 100% exactly the same as mine. 0 to very low oil pressure with wix filter, replace with toyo and normal pressure but too late, engine damage. I sent my filter to Blackstone (they don't usually do mechanical analysis of filters but they attempted with mine) but did not find anything wrong. That said, I know definitivly it was the filter.
So, if you are going to try the legal route, you may want to try and find a 3rd party that can do an official analyis on the filter vs. sending it to Napa/Wix and trusting they'll do something about it.
No one to my knowledge has been successful at getting any warranty back...but not sure anyone has ever found a company to do an official analysis and had it show something.
Best of luck getting this sorted. And bump for anyone else...make sure not to run these filters! Its a roll of the dice...
So, if you are going to try the legal route, you may want to try and find a 3rd party that can do an official analyis on the filter vs. sending it to Napa/Wix and trusting they'll do something about it.
No one to my knowledge has been successful at getting any warranty back...but not sure anyone has ever found a company to do an official analysis and had it show something.
Best of luck getting this sorted. And bump for anyone else...make sure not to run these filters! Its a roll of the dice...
I'm sorry to be a Negative Nancy, but you don't have a chance with a lawyer for the one reason already pointed out. You have pennies, they have millions. There are so many stories out there just like yours, and mine. We are in the right. No question about it! BUT, they have insurance just for this occasion. It says the insurance company will pay for all legal fees, and fight when sued. Wix doesn't have ANY skin in the game. You have all the financial burden. It Sucks. Unless you have an unbrella insurance policy for big bucks, and you can somehow convince your insurance company that you have been harmed, AND they should take up the fight, then it just isn't economically winnable.
That is unless you are getting a good share of the $2,200,000,000,000 the government is printing up and giving away in the next couple of weeks, and need something to do with all that cash.....
That is unless you are getting a good share of the $2,200,000,000,000 the government is printing up and giving away in the next couple of weeks, and need something to do with all that cash.....
Linking this here for consistency.
forum.ih8mud.com
If you're using a WIX oil filter read this
First off I am sure that WIX makes a great filter. So sure I put them on both my Cruisers. With that being said a faulty 51515 roached my 1FZ. A couple weeks ago before I left to go to work, I started the 80 before I went to work to let it warm up a little since it was around 20 degrees outside...
forum.ih8mud.com
- Thread starter
- #46
Update 09 July 2020:
I waited to update you guys until everything was complete, I hope you can all understand. Today I received a wire transfer from Mann+Hummel's insurance company covering the cost of a reman'd engine, installation by my local shop, and flatbed towing from Colorado to California. I appreciate all the advice I received here that got me to this point, so in order to pay it forward, I'll back up and tell you exactly how I got here.
I was away from home at the end of 2019 for several months of professional training in Denver. During that time, my 80 was doing great out in the snow. The belt wasn't always thrilled about the cold weather, but otherwise she was running great at 220k. One day, she stopped running when I was headed east out of town to visit an old friend's grave in Kansas. I detailed that earlier in this thread.
I had her taken by flatbed to the nearest shop who turned it over once and said it was beyond their capabilities. They recommended Toy Doctor in Denver. I haven't gone back to re-read everything I wrote at the beginning of this thread, but suffice to say these people were hell bent on taking me down the most expensive route possible (having them do a full rebuild in-house). They refused to consider a reman/crate engine or a used engine and talked down to me at every opportunity to let me know what a terrible owner I was for not wanting them to rebuild the engine right there on the spot. Meanwhile, they refused to do any diagnostic work. I gave them very simple instructions over the phone which they did not follow: "Please turn the engine on and listen to it and observe the oil pressure gage -- it's at zero. Then torque the crank. Check the gauge again. Then finally change the oil filter and check the gauge one last time." They could not (or would not) follow these simple instructions. They turned the engine over once and decided the only path forward was a full rebuild.
Needless to say, I said **** it, I'm just going to ship it home and deal with it when I get back. Toy Doctor decided to hold my truck hostage from the shipping company until I paid a bull**** $140 diagnostic fee -- all they did was turn the engine over, they didn't read any codes or do anything I asked them to. I paid it, but those people are assholes and the woman running their front desk has clearly never turned a wrench. I hope all of google and the interwebs finds this post. Don't go there.
Anyways, while I do most of my own mechanical work, sometimes I run out of time due to my job and I just need something done. As such, I've built a great relationship with Wolf's Foreign Car in San Diego. I had the truck shipped directly to Mike's shop and he let it sit there for a couple months at no charge until I could get home. When I finally got back to California, we got it on the lift and went through the diagnostics I mentioned above. It wasn't the torque on the crank, that's for damn sure. But it was the oil filter. We turned it over with the undisturbed Wix still on there from the day it broke down and there was, as we expected, no oil pressure. We put a new Toyota filter on it and turned it over and magically, there was oil pressure. One of Mike's mechanics thought I was grasping for straws during this whole evolution and he started laughing when it turned out I was right. In his words "I learned something new today!" Honestly, it wasn't me who was right -- it was you all who led me to this diagnosis. So thank you.
Having learned from some other experiences here on this forum, I decided it would be against my best interests to dissect the filter. Mike and I bagged it up and I took it home and put it on a shelf. I seriously considered the legal options available. I read their warranty several times to see if there were any "gotchas" that might preclude my eligibility. There really weren't. The warranty is written in plain english and is easy to understand. I was still cautious, however, so I wrote them a paper letter and asked them to contact me via email or snail mail. I didn't want to talk to them over the phone, I wanted everything documented.
They responded a few days later and said they would need the filter sent in to run on their test bench. I considered trying to get a neutral testing party involved, but decided to take a leap. I sent them the filter just as it was when Mike and I triple bagged it in his shop.
Long story short, from the outset, Mann+Hummel's didn't kick me around from one guy to the next. I was in contact with one guy the entire time, the same guy who received my filter in the mail, and the same guy who put it on their bench and tested it. I eventually started speaking to him over the phone as it became readily apparent that this company wasn't out to screw me. While he wasn't permitted to say exactly what was wrong with the filter, he agreed that without a doubt they owed me a new engine. He did talk around his findings and I was able to deduce exactly what happened, but I think it would be of no surprise to anyone here, so I'll leave that off the record for their sake.
Because the 80 has a unique engine and is becoming harder and harder to find, they were willing to discuss all the options with me -- used, reman, or an in-house rebuild. Mike wasn't really looking forward to rebuilding an engine from scratch since that's not quite his normal type of work, but he would have done it had I asked. Mann+Hummel tried to help me locate engines without me even asking. Between myself, Wolf's Foreign Car, and Mann+Hummel, we collectively decided that a reman from a company in LA would be the best option.
Mike put one of his guys on the job and he didn't stop until it was finished. As of a few weeks ago, I now have a 1996 Land Cruiser with a supercharged engine that only has 25 miles on it. It runs like a champ. It's ready for that trip to Argentina. I paid Mike for his services and the engine/parts and hoped that this was not all a dream. There was a 1% chance in the back of my mind that I would be stuck holding the bag. It took a few weeks, but the wire transfer finally came in today. Not only did they pay for the entire engine swap, but they also covered the tow from Denver to San Diego.
While all this was going on, I still needed wheels. I have a Lotus in the garage back home, but it's not your best daily driver. So I decided to go ahead and get a 2013 Tacoma. My plan is to put trailing arms on, long travel it, and turn it into the ultimate Baja camping machine. Maybe a bit cliche these days, but my significant other lives down there and I spend a lot of time there, so I'm certain it'll see more than the grocery store parking lot.
I kind of want to keep the Land Cruiser for sentimental purposes, but I know I should probably pass it on to someone who's really going to use it -- I don't need two offroad trucks (or do I??). It didn't make it any easier that one of my buddies turned me on to a new youtube channel the other day called DirtSunrise. I'm sure you all probably know about it, but it's a couple offroading their 80 all over Central and South America. Pretty legit.
So, that's it, that's my story. I hope someone finds this useful if their Wix Oil Filter stops allowing positive oil pressure through. Thanks for everyone's help and if you guys have any idea how much a 96 FJ with a new supercharged engine is worth, let me know. I had an idea of how much it was worth before, but no clue now!
I waited to update you guys until everything was complete, I hope you can all understand. Today I received a wire transfer from Mann+Hummel's insurance company covering the cost of a reman'd engine, installation by my local shop, and flatbed towing from Colorado to California. I appreciate all the advice I received here that got me to this point, so in order to pay it forward, I'll back up and tell you exactly how I got here.
I was away from home at the end of 2019 for several months of professional training in Denver. During that time, my 80 was doing great out in the snow. The belt wasn't always thrilled about the cold weather, but otherwise she was running great at 220k. One day, she stopped running when I was headed east out of town to visit an old friend's grave in Kansas. I detailed that earlier in this thread.
I had her taken by flatbed to the nearest shop who turned it over once and said it was beyond their capabilities. They recommended Toy Doctor in Denver. I haven't gone back to re-read everything I wrote at the beginning of this thread, but suffice to say these people were hell bent on taking me down the most expensive route possible (having them do a full rebuild in-house). They refused to consider a reman/crate engine or a used engine and talked down to me at every opportunity to let me know what a terrible owner I was for not wanting them to rebuild the engine right there on the spot. Meanwhile, they refused to do any diagnostic work. I gave them very simple instructions over the phone which they did not follow: "Please turn the engine on and listen to it and observe the oil pressure gage -- it's at zero. Then torque the crank. Check the gauge again. Then finally change the oil filter and check the gauge one last time." They could not (or would not) follow these simple instructions. They turned the engine over once and decided the only path forward was a full rebuild.
Needless to say, I said **** it, I'm just going to ship it home and deal with it when I get back. Toy Doctor decided to hold my truck hostage from the shipping company until I paid a bull**** $140 diagnostic fee -- all they did was turn the engine over, they didn't read any codes or do anything I asked them to. I paid it, but those people are assholes and the woman running their front desk has clearly never turned a wrench. I hope all of google and the interwebs finds this post. Don't go there.
Anyways, while I do most of my own mechanical work, sometimes I run out of time due to my job and I just need something done. As such, I've built a great relationship with Wolf's Foreign Car in San Diego. I had the truck shipped directly to Mike's shop and he let it sit there for a couple months at no charge until I could get home. When I finally got back to California, we got it on the lift and went through the diagnostics I mentioned above. It wasn't the torque on the crank, that's for damn sure. But it was the oil filter. We turned it over with the undisturbed Wix still on there from the day it broke down and there was, as we expected, no oil pressure. We put a new Toyota filter on it and turned it over and magically, there was oil pressure. One of Mike's mechanics thought I was grasping for straws during this whole evolution and he started laughing when it turned out I was right. In his words "I learned something new today!" Honestly, it wasn't me who was right -- it was you all who led me to this diagnosis. So thank you.
Having learned from some other experiences here on this forum, I decided it would be against my best interests to dissect the filter. Mike and I bagged it up and I took it home and put it on a shelf. I seriously considered the legal options available. I read their warranty several times to see if there were any "gotchas" that might preclude my eligibility. There really weren't. The warranty is written in plain english and is easy to understand. I was still cautious, however, so I wrote them a paper letter and asked them to contact me via email or snail mail. I didn't want to talk to them over the phone, I wanted everything documented.
They responded a few days later and said they would need the filter sent in to run on their test bench. I considered trying to get a neutral testing party involved, but decided to take a leap. I sent them the filter just as it was when Mike and I triple bagged it in his shop.
Long story short, from the outset, Mann+Hummel's didn't kick me around from one guy to the next. I was in contact with one guy the entire time, the same guy who received my filter in the mail, and the same guy who put it on their bench and tested it. I eventually started speaking to him over the phone as it became readily apparent that this company wasn't out to screw me. While he wasn't permitted to say exactly what was wrong with the filter, he agreed that without a doubt they owed me a new engine. He did talk around his findings and I was able to deduce exactly what happened, but I think it would be of no surprise to anyone here, so I'll leave that off the record for their sake.
Because the 80 has a unique engine and is becoming harder and harder to find, they were willing to discuss all the options with me -- used, reman, or an in-house rebuild. Mike wasn't really looking forward to rebuilding an engine from scratch since that's not quite his normal type of work, but he would have done it had I asked. Mann+Hummel tried to help me locate engines without me even asking. Between myself, Wolf's Foreign Car, and Mann+Hummel, we collectively decided that a reman from a company in LA would be the best option.
Mike put one of his guys on the job and he didn't stop until it was finished. As of a few weeks ago, I now have a 1996 Land Cruiser with a supercharged engine that only has 25 miles on it. It runs like a champ. It's ready for that trip to Argentina. I paid Mike for his services and the engine/parts and hoped that this was not all a dream. There was a 1% chance in the back of my mind that I would be stuck holding the bag. It took a few weeks, but the wire transfer finally came in today. Not only did they pay for the entire engine swap, but they also covered the tow from Denver to San Diego.
While all this was going on, I still needed wheels. I have a Lotus in the garage back home, but it's not your best daily driver. So I decided to go ahead and get a 2013 Tacoma. My plan is to put trailing arms on, long travel it, and turn it into the ultimate Baja camping machine. Maybe a bit cliche these days, but my significant other lives down there and I spend a lot of time there, so I'm certain it'll see more than the grocery store parking lot.
I kind of want to keep the Land Cruiser for sentimental purposes, but I know I should probably pass it on to someone who's really going to use it -- I don't need two offroad trucks (or do I??). It didn't make it any easier that one of my buddies turned me on to a new youtube channel the other day called DirtSunrise. I'm sure you all probably know about it, but it's a couple offroading their 80 all over Central and South America. Pretty legit.
So, that's it, that's my story. I hope someone finds this useful if their Wix Oil Filter stops allowing positive oil pressure through. Thanks for everyone's help and if you guys have any idea how much a 96 FJ with a new supercharged engine is worth, let me know. I had an idea of how much it was worth before, but no clue now!
