Dealership Lied on Transmission Fluid Service on CPO Sale

1. Bought Used CPO 2017 Tacoma SR5 with 20,000 miles. First drive home noticed transmission problems.
   
   
2. Found this forum that night and the huge thread on low transmission fluid and that dealerships, due to time, do not actually check ATF. Printed out transmission fill procedure, painted overfill plug same night I bought the truck as suggested on thread and got ready for a fight.
   
   
3. Told service manager about issue and I wanted the fluid checked and topped off properly. I got the "sealed system" doesn't need to be checked until 100K line, asked them to do it anyways since I'm having problems. Promised they would.
   
   
4. Service Manager calls me to pickup, saying it was less than 1/4 quart low, I drive home, still having same transmission problems. Check plastidip paint on plug at home, not touched at all!!!! What in the F! Kick myself for not checking while at the dealership.
   
   
5. Next morning, raise hell at dealership and threaten to invoke 5 day return policy on deal and show them proof (picture of plug with paint) that I was lied to. Turned out they just did a software update/system reset, no fluid was touched as was promised. I request full transmission flush and fill, service manager says he is on top of it.
   
   
6. Minutes ago I get a call from the service manager, says he was lied to by tech, tranny was OVER a full quart low, he watched the whole procedure from start to finish, knows now how to do it himself and apologies for the ordeal. Going to go pick it up now.

I'm brand new here and I really want to thank everyone for their participation in this forum and for the excellent writeups here! You have a very grateful new member!

GearCruncher, thank you most of all, you saved me a major headache and really got me interested in servicing my own vehicle in the future. Not being informed of these basics could have really screwed me in the long run! I really appreciate what you do.

If there is anything else like this I should look into, I'm welcome to suggestions.

Cheers!

 

Welcome!
That’s what we’re here for
Oh, and to spend money

 

What were the problems?

 

Shuddering at low speeds during gear changes around 30/40/50 and when going uphill.

Even if there were no issues, knowing what I know now, I'd force them to check the transmission fluid the proper way even on a brand new factory vehicle. Too many reports/threads of trucks with low fluid even brand new from the manufacturing plant.

Dealerships simply DO NOT want to check the fluid the proper way, even if it says to in black and white on the pre-delivery checklist and sometimes when you ask them to point blank to their faces.

This thread should be further proof of that.

Now that I know everything is flushed and full, I'll do it myself every 40 to 50k. I plan on having this truck for quite awhile!

 

Welcome!

Yeah, stealerships suck donkey balls sometimes. Well, most of the time. But like mesojdm said, we are here to spend your money! Now go and buy me some aftermarket rims and tires! Thanks in advance!

 

@gearcruncher

 

Welcome. Glad you were insistant and they finally got you taken care of.

G.

 

I have a saying....

Fuck The Dealership

 

Ok, but if I did and we had babies, would those babies be the buy here/pay here places that we have?

 

Update: Picked it up, transmission is now much better. Huge and noticeable difference. Service manager apologized up and down, said today was the last day for the tech that worked on my truck and that having a solid reputation was very important to him.

They used 2 quarts and about half a quart dripped out of the overfill tube, so it really needed the fluid. I'm just glad it got fixed and that used CPO's already come with a 7 year, 100,000 mile power train warranty.

Thanks guys!

 

Well that transmission will crap out at a 102,000 miles!

 

This happened to me. Bought a used 2016 Tacoma OR from DCH Toyota of Oxnard here in CA. I knew about this low transmission fluid dilemma, thanks to TW. Asked them to check it and they denied it cause it’s sealed and they “can’t”.

So I begged a local dealership in my area to check it. Shop Foreman said ATF was a little over 1/4 of what it should be. Had it documented and took it to cooperate.

I guess cooperate spoke to the dealership. They denied that they sold the vehicle with 1/4 ATF fluid when I bought it.

Dealer decided to take the truck back. Glad they did. Ended up with a new truck from a different dealership and awesome enough to have it checked the following day after purchase.

 

Oh wow. Is there anything I should be doing to follow up with Toyota corporate? How did your conversation with them go, @G-Dawgg?

Apparently I have 5 years and 80,000 miles left on the limited power train warranty.

 

I don't understand the logic behind making the fluid such a chore to check.

 

I would call and at least make them aware of what happened. Fixed or not this type of trust breaking activity should not be tolerated. Your transmission is the victim and they just brushed you off with lies until you provided proof. A call to corporate takes minutes and it will be on the record if anything ever does go wrong.

They need to be aware of the shady business practices that they are allowing their customers to endure. By allowing I mean that they need to keep tighter reigns on the people that represent and fix their product.

 

My last trip to a Toyota "service center" was for '14 Camry purge valve. They let me walk at EIGHT HUNDRED dollars on the valve. I googled it pulling out of the dealership and had an OEM in my mailbox 48 hours later for $29.99 shipped.
Yea, Fuk the dealership..

No mas.

 

Glad it all worked out.............Enjoy your new truck!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Was his name Jerry Lundegaard

 

Good on you for not taking any bs, glad you got it sorted.

I anticipated the dealer giving me a hard time with the fluid check on a new truck, so I just bought a fluid pump and two quarts of Toyota ATF from wally world and did the check myself. Was easy enough and I knew it was done right.