Toyota recalling 228,000 Tacoma's due to oil leaks and possible loss of control of vehicle

I called the service guy today and said Hey I've heard 0 updates and 0 progress has been made and it's been 3 weeks. That's a little ridiculous to me. Of course I heard nothing back. Pretty soon I'm going to be calling Toyota USA.

 

Exactly, Toyota could care less. Tacoma are flying of the shelves based on past reliability reports. What is interesting, when you look closely they are not all that reliable. 2nd Gens had all kinds of issues. But Toyota's marketing machine always spewing out how reliable they are and great they are. Non Toyota owners will tell you how great Toyota's reliability is. Yet they have never owned one.

Toyota today is not the same company they once were. They are no different than any other greedy publicly held company, and they won't change until sales start tanking due to these issues.

There is no parts shortage period for this recall or vendor issue. Toyota simply is taking their sweet time to make extra. These are the same exact parts that are used in the current trucks being manufactured, and there is no shortage on those.

When a truck comes in, the dealer places orders for the parts. Then Toyota orders them from the supplier, the supplier makes these parts on a time permitting schedule meaning they are not a priority. Only the parts for manufacturing are a priority and everything beyond that is not.

 

Toyota knows the carriers weren't torqued properly, which means the minor seeping can and most likley will get worse and cause all the oil to drain and then have the rear end lockup and destroy itself. We have seen on this forum alone at least 4 cases of this. So this most likely has happened numerous times for a recall to be voluntarily issued.

Also it is not just a cover like on US trucks, it is the entire carrier which is always under torque loads when driving, this helps contribute to leaks because if the carrier is not tight and loose, it moves creating more issues.

 

Received a call yesterday to come pick my truck up today. Been impounded since July 29. I spoke to the dealer last week and got a new Tacoma to drive instead of the rental Frontier I had so long. I emailed the CEO of Toyota North America and received phone calls and emails from his admin. I told them how upset I was with how this issue was being handled. They told me my truck would get moved to the front of the line last week once the parts came in this week. I figured they were full of crap since my truck was # 89 or 90 out of 95 Tacomas at my dealer. Looks like they told the truth because last week the dealer told me it could be another month before they got around to fixing my truck once the parts arrived.

 

In the philosophy community these arguments are called the Jeremy Clarkson and James May, respectively.

 

If your vehicle is subject to a recall, you will receive a notice from Toyota. The media goes absolutely CRAZY over recalls - adding their own exaggerated conclusions and clueless BS, attempting to set off maximum shock and awe. You just unknowingly participated in the spreading of it to the community.
One example of the bloated conclusions they draw is their imagination of events to follow the potential issue:

Problem - Diff seals found to leak on a certain model's build block, during a certain production run, etc.

THEREFORE: ASSUMING that owner/customers do not notice any oil spots on the surfaces where they park - EVER!

AND..... the entire volume of oil eventually leaks out....
AND.....the driver continues to drive with no lube in the differential - not noticing the severe noises as they get louder
AND.....the grinding turns into clunking as the spider and/or pinion gears snap off until the vehicle stops
AND.....instead of just stopping, a piece of those gears were to somehow wedge itself to lock the two spinning assemblies together and THEN.....
THAT could cause loss of or perhaps "difficulty" in controlling the vehicle.

We are talking about a brand new truck here. So if owners site any of these "abnormalities", the repair of such is free of charge under warranty. So there is no reason to ignore the suspected issue or delay in having it checked out. Therefore, as with most media headlines - the news being reported is way over-hyped - and meant primarily to generate readers for that media.

 

Fun fact: never heard a peep from the media about this recall.

 

I totally agree there... I did not realize that this was a complete redesign when I bought it. Shame on me. If I had done more research, I probably would have held off a bit or gone used, but needed a small truck for working around the house and niece and her hubby needed a good used car, so we helped them out w/ my old SUV.

All in all, I love the truck, just frustrated about the way all these issues have been handled. It would have been on thing to have an issue, but the problems I've had at the dealership and the way Toyota rolled these out is what really burns me.

 

Hey, genius... try looking at the first post. There are two there and I read about it on FoxNews.

 

It doesn't seem like you had the requisite fun with my fact. Please try to read it again but with more fun this time.

 

I had to use google to determine who they were, I have not watched more than 10 minutes of that show--it was in a bar IIRC. My impression from that and a few promo ads causes me to agree: they would seem to be the automotive world's poster children for chronological snobbery...

 

Gotcha... long day here, didn't catch the sarcasm.

 

Godamnit they got me.

1-6 weeks waiting on that gasket for my seeping rear diff. At least I got a new 4 runner instead of the corolla. I don't know why people like it so much, feels slower than my tacoma, outdated interior (even though its a 2016) and handles like a pig.

 

I agree. They feel like boats with nice but dated interiors.

 

I'm so furious! My truck has been at the Toyota Carlsbad Service Center since July 11. I get a call today saying the truck is ready. I say, "Great! I'll be there in a little bit." I get there and talk to the cashier. I tell her that I have some of my belongings in the rental that I need to transfer to the truck, so I'll drop off the rental after they pull my truck around. She says, no, you have to drop off the rental before I give you your paperwork to get the truck. I drop off the rental and take my stuff out and sit and wait for the truck. I look at the paperwork and it says that they replaced the rear differential seal and bolts and refilled the diff fluid. I had an issue with a popping sound and on the paperwork it said that the front passenger cab mount was installed incorrectly and it was reinstalled. They test drove it and the noise wasn't there anymore.

So I wait... 15 minutes go by, no truck. I ask the service guy where my truck is. He says they're looking for it, and they'll bring it around when they find it. Half hour goes by, no truck. 45 minutes go by, no truck. Ok, now I'm getting a little worried. The service guy finally comes and tells me, "Sir, there's been a mistake. Your truck isn't ready and in fact, it's up on the lift, taken apart. That's the reason they couldn't find it." OK, now I'm pissed. First off, why the heck did you call me and say my truck is ready when it isn't. Second, why couldn't you FIND the truck for so long when I get there. Third, and MOST IMPORTANTLY(!), why did you say on the paperwork that you replaced the seal and bolts and refilled the diff fluid, when clearly it hasn't been done yet?!?!? How can a service center say something was completed when it hasn't! This is FRAUD! If I did this at my job, I'd be fired. Now I can't trust this service center. How do I even know that they put diff fluid in it?

Anyway, so now I had to go through the whole rental car check out procedure again, taking up more of my time. All in all, it cost me an hour and a half of being away from work. Unacceptable!

 

Hey, at least you can trust that the paperwork accurately reflects the work that was completed and isn't just lip service. /S

 

Here's what I think. Some Toyota dealers (which are just franchisees like Jiffy-Lube and McDonald's)--some not all--are in it only for the money, and for some years selling Toyotas has been providing them plenty of it. Now it seems Toyota has not been sufficiently diligent in separating the "wheat from the chaff"; and there are good, bad, and just plain ugly¹ dealerships out there. This is what damned near killed European car sales in the US in the late-70s/early 80s--dealer support sucked big time.

History does repeat itself...

-----------------------------------
¹ - They are all "franchised" dealerships--but, you know what you call a doctor who graduated last in his class?

"Doctor"...

 

Bummer!

Welcome to TW

Also bummer this is your first post but I feel you...

 

Here is a little food for thought. My 2002 Harley Davidson Sportster, (the company with a reputation for oil leaks from the factory,) has over 100,000 miles on it and has never had a drop of oil under it. Should we not expect the same from a 2016 truck with less then 7,000 miles?

 

You have one in a million, HD is notorious for leaks. Yes, from Toyota we should expect the same, unfortunately it's not the case.