Dealership refusing to cover under warranty due to offroad abuse

A few months back, I had a full brake failure on my way to work. I was driving about 45mph down the road when all of the suddenly the truck starts beeping repeatedly (same sound as seatbelt warning) and I look down at my dash to see ABS, traction control, and BRAKE lights on. I put my foot down on my brake pedal and push it to the floor... nothing.

I managed to pull over using the hand brake to slow down, and then decided to go ahead and drive her slowly in the right lane to the dealership which is about 5 miles away. After waiting nearly 2 hours for an answer as to what happened, the service adviser comes out and tells me the rear right drum brake failed, as in all the components (cylinder, shoes, springs, clips) were completely knocked out of place and all the brake fluid in the truck's braking system was able to leak out of this drum causing full loss of braking. When she began to look at her monitor and add up prices for all the required parts and labor (totaling close to $1,200) I said "and where does my warranty come into play?" (truck had about 14k miles). She responded with "it doesn't." and proceeded to pull full size printed out photos she had just previously taken of the inside of my drum brake that showed some dried up/caked mud. She said that due to my offroad use, the dried mud inside the drum brake caused the brake failure and therefore repairs would not be covered under warranty.

I argued with her, as well as the service manager who not only was rude to me, but the best he could come up with was to reach out to a corporate field technician to make the final call, but after making a call came back and said "they are not at their desk and quite frankly may not even be in at work today... you are welcome to sit here until we have a response from them"

I had them push my truck out to the parking lot where I had it towed to a shop a few miles down the road whom I paid just over $900 to do the repairs.

At one point while the service adviser was showing me photos of my truck, she said to me YOUR TRUCK IS FALLING APART and showed me pictures of both CV boots torn open, and a missing rear bumper cap.

Has anyone had experience with this? Doesn't the dealership have to prove that your off road use (ON A GOD DAMN TRUCK LABELED 'TRD OFF ROAD') is the culprit for something before denying you warranty repairs?

 

Subbed to learn more. That sucks. Sounds like Toyota should man up and pay.

 

I just wanted to point out, didn’t Toyota justify the rear drums on the 3rd gen by saying they were better for off roading? That’s ironic.

 

That was their bullshit response because they were cheaping out. But I do recall them saying that. Rear drum brakes are so good they put them on their Landcruisers, right?

 

eff'd up for sure. Makes no sense. Sorry OP.

 

Are you still trying to get a hold of corporate for reimbursement?

 

Land cruisers don’t have drums

 

Mention that you’ll be getting in touch with a lawyer for false advertisement. The off-road is advertised to be a “non-mall cralwler” Toyota itself made a commercial about how the Tacoma is an off-road vehicle vs a Colorado which is a mall crawler.

 

I considered that money a loss. Though if I can still pursue reimbursement, I would love to. This happened back in December I believe.

 

Not the 200 series but I assume the 70series Cruisers sold in Australia and most other world markets does.

 

They (Toyota) only have to prove anything when you sue Toyota Corp.

Until you lawyer up, no. No proof needed outside what is clearly visible.

The dealership is not involved in burden of proof as they don’t underwrite the warranty, and are just a contracted service company.

 

I'm not trying to be a jerk but I kind of side with the dealership on this one. Sure, you can go off-roading and stuff but if you do and it screws your truck up, that's on you. Again I'm not trying to blame anyone or point fingers. I'm just stating that while the truck is capable of going off road, if there is damage to it because of it, that's the responsibility of the owner, I would think.

 

I know. that is my (failed) attempt at sarcasm.

 

Sounds like some asshole dealers. Maybe their actions are not representative of the Toyota corporation. Raise the issue with the Toyota Corporate directly.

 

Um, guys...
Of course you can use the truck off road. Toyota advertises using it off road and it does fine off road.

HOWEVER

You must maintain shit (cleaning mud caked parts is a start) and any damage ( CV boots, etc) is always on you.
This is no different than the guy awhile back whose truck overheated and cost him the top end. Turns out his radiator fins and tubes were caked with superfine silt from off roading. He sprayed off the truck but neglected to pressure wash the radiator.

OP, sorry about your situation but you gotta pay to play. Countless times over the years after being off road I have went home and first thing checked the diffs for water, thoroughly hosed out the radiator, taken lenses off to drain water out of the light, taken electrical connections apart and blew them out and used contact cleaner. Pretty much standard if you go hard off road. And of course that includes pulling apart your drums and either blowing them out if dusty or hosing them out if muddy.
Part of the deal.

 

Used to have all kinda kids come in on Mondays trying to warranty shit after they spent the weekend in the desert playing Mickey Thompson with their glassed out prerunners

 

I guess Ill play devils advocate here but just because the truck is marketed for “off road” does not mean you get off road it (aka trash it) and then go back to Toyota and demand repairs.

If YOUR style of driving has already torn your cv boots, rear bumper and caked your drum brakes with mud (causing a failure), why should Toyota pony up?

 

Thank God. Was starting to think I was the only one...

 

All those guys up above who are blaming Toyota and the dealer is the reason we have to pay extra for stuff in life. Personal responsibility.