Toyota Warns Scion Dealers Of Ill-Fitting FR-S Body Panels

Not long after its spring debut, the Scion FR-S is already facing quality issues. Last month, Scion issed two "tech tips" for the Scion FR-S: one for tail lamps with moisture in them and the other for potentially ill-fitting body panels.

Wait, didn't they just start selling these?

The tech tips, dated May 2012, read as follows:

• Some 2013 Scion FR-S vehicles may exhibit a condition where the rear combination lamps appear to have moisture on the inside of the plastic lens.

• Some 2013 Scion FR-S vehicles may exhibit a condition where body panel fitting may not meet customer expectations.

So far, there's not much information available about the two tech tips, although some chatter has begun to pop up on FT86club.com, a forum dedicated to the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT 86. There's one post taking note of the body panel tech tip bulletin, but no one there reported any body panel problems.

The moisture-in-tail lamps issue seems to be ongoing as multiple owners reported it on the forum.

We reached out to Craig Taguchi from Scion's PR Department, and he told us that the company's L.A. customer call center hasn't received any complaints. He said that about 1,000 FR-S cars, which are built at a Fuji Heavy Industries factory in Gunma, Japan, have been sold since they officially went on sale June 1.

"We just want to be ahead of anything that might be an issue," he said. "So far, so good. Everyone seems to be happy with their FR-S."

A poster on FT86Club says he let the chief engineer know about the problem and got a note back saying it was fixed.

Just 48 hours after I send the Chief Engineer Tada, about the mild condensation issue.

He has stopped whatever he was doing in Abu Dahbi, called the plant to investigate and had them find the issue, corrected it on the production line, and reported back to me for all of you.

"The slight issue was in the assembly process, and has been corrected and recorded.
There is no issue with the lamp assembly housing itself, and if there are indications of this on some cars already delivered, please contact your Scion dealers/Subaru dealer for a simple remedy."
<—my translation, not exact Japanese words verbatim.

All new products go through a teething period, but not all new cars have such anxious and well-connected fanboys as the Toyobaru.

Photo Credit: rbrtndws