Picked up a 2017 MT 86 that has been tracked. Help?
 

Good afternoon all,

I'm very new here, so if this needs to be moved or has been addressed please let me know. However, I've spent 10+ hours researching this and what I need is professional help.

I just purchased a FBO/EcuTek dyno tuned 2017 86 with 11,600 miles *from a dealer* clean carfax, one owner.

The car has an oil cooler and a 7,800 RPM redline - after posting on reddit and listening to some responses, it has become clear to me that this car was a track toy.

I purchased a 6 year/60,000 mile service contract through Toyota that should cover any issues - theoretically. I did this because the manufacturer's warranty was unsurprisingly voided - the VIN was flagged. Though I doubt the finance office and the salesperson communicated so who knows whether they would honor anything that breaks as a result of the POs tuning.

The tuner I purchased it from is useless for info. They will only tell me vaguely what was done and when. No printouts, nothing else.

Here it is:

At 7,308 miles the following work was completed...

Auto design UEL catless header, FP/OP
TRD intake
TRD sway bars
Mishimoto oil cooler
200whp 93 octane dyno tune (EcuTek)
7800 RPM rev limit
Full clear vinyl rap
+ more I'm too frazzled to remember right now


I love the car. Okay? It has been my dream car since early high school when rumors started. However, I have a couple major questions that I want your expert opinions on.

1.) How can I tell how long this car was driven on track? I have heard that one mile on a track is like ten in regular driving. It has some scraping on the underside of the front lip (likely track curbs right?), but nothing crazy under body and no wheel damage I can see. Perhaps I can post detailed pics or email someone kind enough to advise? How much could PO really have driven it?

2.) How do these vehicles stand up to track use with this tune, etc? The man had it for a little over a year so he had to have put some hard track miles on it. Am I looking at still being able to get 100-150,000 miles out of this car?

3.) I paid (sorry if this is faux-pa) 18,500 before tax/fee. Did I fuck up? Should I return it and exchange before the dealer's 7 day period runs out? It seems clean. If they tracked it, it's not too torn up.

4.) I have a CEL (I think it's P0420 b/c cruise control won't work) and I've read that EcuTek should be able to mask these. My tuner said PO knew once it was dyno tuned w/ the header it would have a CEL. Are they full of sh*t? Having a CEL in such a low mileage car sends my OCD through the roof. Does nearly everyone with UEL catless headers get this?

5.) Big apologies for the redundancy if any of you guys are there too (I know USG_Mike is) but here's the reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/ft86/commen...m_source=share

excuse the url gore, no reddit at work.

Anyway, thank you all so much in advance. I'll go ahead and f- right off if this belongs in another subsection of the forum.

1. You can’t but considering it’s a 2017, assume 3 years

2. Very well. Oil cooler is sign that measures were taken to protect the engine. Tune as well

3. Not sure about this.

1) You can't. There is really nothing that scream track toy over lightly street modded to me.


2) Would need more info for the tuning gurus to help but beyond the 7,800 redline a similar tune is probably on half the cars out there. The mods are very common and not even remotely extreme.


3) The price is about right. The only reason I would return it is if you can't get over the concerns. I will say again none of that list is an issue and most certainly in no way confirmation the car has ever seen a track.


4) Reddit is the WORST place to get info on these cars. Well, Facebook is close. I am not going to go read it but predict it is full of "experts" with all sorts of hogwash speculation and outright bullshit.


Relax, drop the redline, fill up with 93 and enjoy the small gains in HP all those base mods get you.

I agree with Tcoat, none of you have posted about the car is a bad sign for return. Just keep driving and enjoy.

Thank you for your reply. I am very (actually clinically) OCD and this is my first major car purchase so the thought of relaxing is actually quite pleasing, haha.

I suppose to point one, you're saying he could have trailered it to every track day available for 3 years, or kept it completely on the street - so those 11.5k miles could be either way. If these cars are as intended for the track as my research suggests, perhaps it will make 150k anyway. Eh?

so you are just assuming that it was a track toy because it is modified? I am pretty lost how you came to that conclusion with no real evidence.

Those mods don't really sound like a heavily tracked car to me. Normal indicators for a track car:

- dedicated track wheels and tires (200 tw, rcomps or slicks)
- filthy BBK and track pads
- track suspension
- oil cooler
- wing/splitter/aero/vents
- rock/gravel damage to paint

And then if heavily tracked:

- aftermarket seats and harness
- gutted/fire suppression
- roll cage
- sponsor stickers

From what you're saying, it sounds like the oil cooler is the only indication it had been tracked. Even if it saw some light track use, I wouldn't worry about it. Just drive and enjoy!

I am saying that it has probably never seen a track at all not that it was trailed there. Hell at that mileage even if tracked there would be little to worry about.

CEL *with* a pro tune is a big red flag to me. Maybe confirm the code? You said "I think". FYI cruise control doesn't work if there's any CEL. Most if not all pro tunes eliminate the cat code first thing, so it almost sounds like the guy removed the tune before trading the car in.

Ya the CEL was not included in his original post and was edited in later. I would also check to make sure that the tune is actually in place.

Sounds like he removed the tune if you're still getting a P0420 with an aftermarket header.

I had the same issue with my previous FR-S. Previous owner didn't bother tuning it and it would throw a P0420 for cat efficiency, which made it no fun to road trip back to GA from NJ since cruise control wouldn't work when the CEL was on.

Once I tuned it and disabled the cat codes, everything was good again.

Oil cooler suggests that the previous owner wanted to preserve the engine on track. I did a light track day in my stock BRZ w/ PP and even driving 3/10ths the oil temps were too high to be comfortable with.

Drive it like you stole it.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

In my opinion just the full clear wrap alone is a good indication it wasn't thrashed by the previous owner.
Not many people would spend the big money to protect the paint with PPF to keep it in new condition only
to then not take care of the engine. Some people may disagree but I think the paints condition is a good
gauge of how the car's health was kept. As said, CEL probably from putting stock tune back in.

For a few reasons, I'd return the car for a full refund of the purchase price, fees, and service contract. I realize this is contrary to everyone else's advice because:


--In order to qualify for a Toyota Extra Care Extended Warranty, the used vehicle must be certified. There's no way a Toyota flagged for warranty cancellation can be certified. Is it an Extra Care Warranty or 3rd party? If 3rd party, I honestly wouldn't count on their help if needed.



--There's no way to disprove a negative so you'll always be wondering "what if" and with your clinical OCD diagnosis, every unusual sound (and thin skinned 86's have plenty) may become stressful.


--Look up the vehicle sales and service history to verify if it's ever been dealer serviced. Independents or owner services aren't logged but it's a start since you'd think with two free services from new that the owner has returned to a dealer for service and maybe that's when it was flagged for some reason you need to know.


Start here, enter your VIN and let us know what you found:


https://www.toyota.com/owners/


--Depending on your state of residence, can you even get it through DEQ? In my state it would fail with a CEL making registration impossible until the car is fixed.


Good luck, just wanted to offer a contrary opinion based on sketchy available information.