Enthusiast Claims Toyota Denied Warranty On A Stock GR 86 After Engine Blows Up On Track

Toyota encourages spirited driving but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of this kind of coverage denial with a GR 86

by Stephen Rivers

17 hours ago

by Stephen Rivers

Taking a performance sports car to the track offers an excellent opportunity to explore its capabilities and understand its characteristics more intimately. For one unlucky Toyota GR 86 owner, however, his day at the track ended with him learning about what a blown engine sounds like. Despite the vehicle allegedly being in stock condition, the owner claims that the dealer is denying warranty coverage, leaving him in a frustrating situation.

According to the person at the heart of a YouTube channel called Lunk, the 2022 GR 86 in question has 19,000 miles (30,577 km), a fresh oil change, and no engine mods. Lunk says that the unnamed dealer and Toyota corporate are “refusing warranty coverage for this due to the nature in which the vehicle was used.”

The video of the engine failure isn’t as dramatic as one might expect given the catastrophic nature of such a breakdown. Instead, we get about six minutes of pretty sedate track driving. Speeds are often below highway limits and the driver isn’t banging off of the rev-limiter either.

Read: Ford Says Broken Bronco Diffs Were The Fault Of Aftermarket Mods, Not Trail Turn Assist

Despite this, there is a discernible change in the engine’s behavior around the six-minute mark. At this stage, all that is known is what Lunk, who also goes by the alias Lukeine on Reddit, has shared online, stating that “I reached out to the corporate and they echoed the dealer’s response, refusing to review the video.” If this is indeed true, it does raise some questions and appears rather odd.

Wait, Haven’t We Heard About Another Similar GR 86 Breakdown?

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In case any of this is sounding familiar that’s good because it should. Last August, another GR 86 owner said that his Toyota dealer denied him coverage on a blown motor because it claimed that he abused the car. Its evidence was video of the owner using the car during an Autocross event. In that instance, Toyota ended up covering the engine and reassured its customer base that using the vehicle at performance driving events wouldn’t void the warranty on its own.

This fresh incident has understandably sparked doubts regarding the stated stance. It is important to consider that customer claims may not always reflect the full truth, as past events have shown. In order to gather more information, we have contacted both the owner of the GR 86 in question and Toyota. We will provide an update in this space if we receive any responses from either of them.

Image Credit: LUNK