warranty issuse's

I'm not sure if I'm right or wrong but my airbag light on the dash come on at 44000 mile's so I take it in to toyota they tell me it's a bad coil on the air bag and told me it's not under Warranty WTF I thought in the warranty paper work it said if it has to do with the air bag system your vehile is covered until 60k and info would be great.

 

I would think/hope a safety issue would be covered by the warranty, wouldn't Toyota be liable if you where to get into an accident with your new truck and the airbag did not deploy? I would take a read into the warranty for this one. Also I would call the toyota 1-800 number and confirm its not covered.

 

it's got 44k on it...not a new truck. And unless spelled out in a warranty that you agree'd to, then no, it is not covered. There IS personal responsibility taken when making any purchase.

 

If you remember seeing it somewhere in your paperwork...FIND IT and take it back to them.

I know I got a pleasant surprise when they replaced my scion catalytic @ 54K cause it's covered 8 years or 80K miles.... So I believe that you might have additional warranty on your air bag- but you gotta find that paperwork

 

According to Toyota, it's covered under the 6yr/60k mi powertrain warranty.

http://www.toyotaownersonline.com/warranty/index.html#vehicles

 

i thought the samething they tell me that it's not cover but when i look in to the warranty and say's what not is covered the coil is not there my compalint is that it's 6 yr 60k for the air bag system that part is part of the air bag system i'm thinking about getting a lawyer i belive this could be won in court.

 

Based on what I just looked up about clock springs (if that is the coil you are talking about)- They are probably telling you it's not covered as it is normal wear and tear as opposed to a defect in materials.

The clock spring allows the electrical connection between the airbag and other electrical components in the steering wheel, even while turning. You might have a harder time winning a court case then you think....It also seems that clock springs are fairly easy to replace.

::shrug::

 

I'd just talk to corporate first, or try another dealer or two before taking legal action. Chances are corp will probably work with you to get it done.

 

That's exactly the problem with this stuff, it isn't made for the layman to easily understand. If someone says my airbag system is covred 6/60, I expect my airbag system to be covered 6/60 and not be told that some associated minor part is not covered because its a "wear item". I don't understand how an airbag part could be considered a wear item anyway if the airbags weren't used. But putting that aside, if it's a part that allows usage of the airbag, it should be covered. I'd fight it.

 

The spring wraps around the steering column and winds and unwinds as the wheel is turned to keep the power connection between the dash and the wheel controls/airbag parts. So it's constantly getting torqued and unloaded...

I'm not saying this is THE answer...but I wouldn't be surprised to see them say that it's expected for this part to wear....I would also agree that if it's needed for the airbag to do it's airbag thing...It needs to be replaced.

 

^Aha, that makes sense then. I wouldn't at all be surprised if they blamed it on that.

 

I have to share my airbag light/defective, overpriced clock spring/gee, sorry, we forgot to mention that's under a different warranty fiasco. I'll apologize up front if this gets too lengthy.

My airbag light came on at 36,238 miles. That's right, kiddies, 238 miles out of full warranty. But guess what? The books says the airbag system is covered under the 5/60 warranty. So off I go to my friendly neighborhood Toyo delearship where I've bought my last four vehicles. Here, fix this. You know the answer I got...$100 diagnostic fee for the $467 non-covered repair.

Now I'm no spring chicken, and I sure know how warranties work, and I don't demand unreasonable treatment from companies. But let's just say that I'm in management for a global manufacturing corporation, and when we warrant safety devices it's for the lifetime of the appliance. Certainly, if we engineered a safety system to be dependent on a subsystem component, that component inherently falls under the safety-related system's coverage regardless of the subsystem's warranty period if it causes the safety system to become inoperative. This is not only ethical business practice but wise prototcol to avoid product liability in a litigation-happy society. Expecting customers to accept such things as their personal responsibility is a great way to create ex-customers, and in today's economy no one can afford ex-customers.

We no longer live in 1972 when a vehicle cost $3000 and we didn't expect it to last more than a few years. My family and I routinely keep our Toyotas for 10-12 years and I've exceeded 300,000 miles on a few, so I consider 17 months and 38,000 miles still fairly "new" in the grand scheme of the 21st century, close tolerance, high-tech vehicle.

Kudos for my dealer though...my very attractive service manager told me she refused to charge me the diagnostic fee and subtly recommended I call Toyota and complain. This is a very small dealership, and she claimed they had already replaced several clock springs under 50,000 miles. She also said she expected to see at least a TSB disseminated if not a recall. My call to Toyota's Customer Experience was an extremely negative experience. Their response (in poor English, naturally) was that it was out of warranty...tough luck. My attempt at rational discussion on the subject was rewarded with a hang up. BOO TOYOTA. Had this been my first, it would most assuredly have been my last.

Kudos again for my dealership's GM...after offering the issue to him for consideration, and after he contacted Toyota himself with the same response I received, he offered me the part at cost and installation at no charge. He also offered me a ridiculously good deal on a new truck after giving me what I paid for my '08 in trade, so that's what I wound up doing.

Research here told me I most definitely was not the only one with this issue, so I'm shouting from the rooftop here: if you have/have had this defect, don't just roll over and pay for it and accept it every 40K-50K miles...COMPLAIN. This is how issues get resolved. I still call the experience center every day to ask if they've reconsidered their position, in just as friendly a manner as they receive my call (which usually isn't very), and will continue to.

 

Mine was fixed after my uncle got in to it with them He's a car whole saler for chevy and toyota, cost me nothing they said they would fix it as good will. I think toyota need's to tsb this before some one start's a class action law suit.

 

It's not really a TSB or lawsuit kinda thing. TSBs cover hard to diagnose problems- They clearly knew what was wrong.

They also should have fixed it under warranty if you had the paperwork to show that-so nothing really to sue over.

 

TSB's can cover all sorts of things. Revised service procedures, new special tools, corrections to the printed documents...any tech info the factory wants the dealers to have.

Dealer service instructions to replace a part that routinely fails prematurely and creates a safety issue or emissions issue on any car that comes in for service is a typical case where they don't think it necessary to perform a public recall, but want to do a "silent recall". This might well be handled on a TSB.

 

I put a clock spring in a tundra at 55K miles and we covered it under warranty. He is a long time customer though so maybe your dealership just doesn't wanna deal with it. The one for that tundra was almost $300 too so its not the cheapest thing in the world. But to what you said earlier, yes they are faily easy to put in if you've done it before. You just have to make sure its not spun to far to one side or you'll break the new one.

 

Mine was the spirl cable it just needs to be addressed better in the warrenty paper work if it affect's the airbag system and the air bag system is coverd then it need's to be fixed under warrenty

 

Exactly. The spiral cable, also known as the clock spring, has been proven to be a weak, defective design. Since Toyota decided to make an extended warranty system dependent on it, they need to man up and cover them as part of the warranted system.

 

Agree completely. This is no different than when my axle seals leaked & were covered by drivetrain warranty. The brakes shoes aren't drivetrain but the drivetrain covered part failing ruined them so guess what, free brakes too. Why this would be any different is puzzling & retarded.

 

x2 that's been my whole issue all along