Is the Toyota dealership a good place to have your truck serviced?

That warranty only lasts for a year and you might not realize something they screwed up until after that time period has expired. For instance, if a mechanic cross-threaded a bolt doing a timing belt job, you're not going to know about it until it's time to go back in for another timing belt replacement or for something else. Then you or the next mechanic is going to have to deal with it. I've seen mistakes like this on people's rigs but don't know if it was the previous owner who screwed up or it was a previous mechanic. Since I've worked on a fair amount of people's rigs, i've seen the janky things owners/mechanics have done.

My local Toyota dealer screwed up a rear axle seal job for me around 4 years ago and luckily I caught it fairly soon. I had them fix it and then told myself never again would I bring one of my vehicles there for service. This botched repair is what actually got me off my ass to start turning more wrenches and doing most of my own work, and basically help launch the Timmy the Toolman YouTube channel I started with my buddy Sean. I figured with the internet age and so much information available, if I was willing to invest in more tools, I could handle most of my own work. And, it has held true. We now have over 100 videos on our channel and a high percentage of these jobs were us learning as we were filming. We had no experience with the job before but we went for it with the knowledge we gained from the factory service manual, from existing write-ups and from existing videos on the subject matter. What I'm trying to say is if we can do it, you can do it. You just have to have a willingness to learn and a willingness to invest in some tools, which by the way end up paying for themselves many times over.

So, if you're at all interested in auto mechanics, take up the challenge and start turning wrenches. You will learn a valuable skill, you'll save yourself a bunch of money and you'll get a great sense of accomplishment every time you successfully perform a job.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

please stay on the soapbox, its most informative

janky is a word i would use as well lol

 

I agree, I do as much as I can including taking the bed off my truck to replace the fuel pump as my last project.

The clutch part was defective and I would have been upset if I did it myself and have to do it all over again. So the dealership was a god choice.
That’s also why I have a master mechanic that is old school that knows these trucks inside and out.

 

These European cars have to have a warranty, once past that it’s a dangerous road,
I had an Audi turbo and right after warranty 10,000 miles the next year it needed 10,000 worth of repairs. The repairs are insane and that’s why a used Audi, BMW, Mercedes with over 100k miles
are dam cheap

 

I've got the skills just not the place. One of the reasons I got the truck to get rid of the junk so I can get my garage back. That could take a while. ;P

 

i honestly wonder how much they are going to quote me to pull my dash to find all these new squeaks and rattles and possibly re-foam cushion all the vents, if that is where these constant nerve racking pops and cracks are coming from with change in temps and bumpy roads, or maybe they will find something else loose and getting ready to break back behind there
dealer rate here is $135 and an indie master tech Toyota/Lexus is $103

 

Yeppers I get it. Same here. No room to expand so just have to make do.

 

a thousand dollars.

 

damn, that is rich!
i may have to turn the radio up a bit louder and risk not hearing emergency vehicles' sirens

 

I'm sure they'd look at it like a heater core. Not exactly a job that's in the Mitchell's estimates.
Might would have a hard time even finding a shop to do it or worse, it comes back rattling more from something they break taking it apart.

It's not worth it, it's barely worth it to fix a heater core.

ALTHOUGH: If you do it yourself, it's really not as bad as it seems....or maybe it seems as bad as it is....something like that.

 

i am sure i could probably get stuff out ok, I practiced at a salvage yard a few months ago, but there is one part i have looked at on TW that is a real pain and would hate to break it
the part i would have difficulty with (most likely) is putting it all back together properly!

 

yea....they would too. Difficult is difficult no matter who's doing it and you'll be hard pressed to find a guy who's replaced a whole '97 dash before.

As far as saying well, they do dashes very often. Maybe. Maybe they put Boogereater on it to keep him busy.

 

All depends. I have a friend that use to go to my church that works as a master mechanic for Toyota. He’s always hooked me up as best he can. I’ve had work done in other dealerships and wasn’t that impressed.

 

Oh no doubt they have some fantastic mechanics. So can indy shops.

I was really only referring to ok'ing a fishing expedition into a dashboard for 'squeaks'.

 

the squeaks are real i tell ya!
only thing i really know that changed is the loss of foam cushioning that connect the pieces this past year
but it could be something else unbeknownst to me at this point until something breaks and stops working
perhaps the speedometer cable? sometimes that gets screwy and wobbly on the needle

 

I'm sure they are. It's almost 25 yrs. old.

 

I haven't read the whole thread but I will say that most of the techs working at Toyota dealerships now, are trained to work on newer cars/trucks and most don't have much experience working on 1st gen Tacomas anymore. Sure, there are a lot of 1st gens still around but most people take them to independent mechanic's shops or do their own work on them.

For that reason, my vote goes toward finding a reliable, well rated independent shop and have them work on your truck rather than going through Toyota. Having it be "Toyota serviced" sounds good on paper, but in reality I think you will get better service and results from your local old school mechanic that sees and works on other older Toyotas much more regularly than a Toyota dealership does.

 

I ECHO THIS..LOL ITS A GIVEN..IT DOES GET OLD...GEE I WONDER HOW MANY TONS OF TRASH THIS ADDS TO OUR LAND FILLS

 

1/2 of it. New car flyers and water bottles are all that's in a landfill.

 

yes, and it should be nearing its end of the road if my several prior Toyotas over the past 30 years serve any purpose at all anymore
my truck still handles and drives basically near excellent and i feel is nowhere near kicking the bucket! ... i know a thing or two because i've seen a thing or two
it seems like a 1st gen phenomenon, does it not?