Toyota "Care" Nightmare

Between damaged lug nuts and oil on your skid plates there could be plenty wrong OP. Call Toyotacare and or the service manager and ask them how they'd prefer to make it right. Then let them make it right.

Then never go back to that service department.....start doing basic service yourself or find another dealer to get your (few) basic services free. Even then you'll always wonder if it was done right.

 

Unfortunately this is becoming an all too familiar occurrence. First off the “free 2 year Toyota care” is a joke. There are too many instances in this forum alone of Tacoma owners having similar experiences at the dealership. After being a TW member for over 10yrs and reading stories like this too many times, there is no way in hell I’d take my $50k truck in and let some “Toyota Certified” mechanic wrench on my truck for an oil change I can do myself. When I purchased my PRO, I decided then to never take my truck in for the “free” service and possibly have to worry about getting into a pissing match with a service manager because some “Toyota Certified” tech screwed up something. Save yourself the time and hassle and learn how to do a simple oil change on your own.

 

You need to get that car endurance plan....who else replaces a trans-a-mission, engine, transfer case and to two rear ends at no cost?

 

The issue is the Toyota certified mechanic is not changing the oil or rotating tires. It’s some kid who may or may not have graduated tech school. One summer I worked at a Dodge dealership as a lot boy. I checked the cars in on delivery, did it have hub caps, spare tire, half tank of gas, noted dings and scratches (Etc). From what I could tell I was dealer prep.

Picture of an oil catch can left in my engine bay after one of my free oil changes. You can see rub marks from the serpentine belt.

 

While I normally do not do dealer servicing either, when I bought my 2019 Tacoma TRD Sport, it of course, came with the 2yr/25000mile free service, so I have been taking it in. Although they were recommending service at 5000 mile intervals, as we all know, that service is basically just a tire rotation with NO oil change until 10,000 miles. So quite frankly, in this case although I DO hear you regarding wanting to change the oil at 5000 miles, if they did that and did not charge you for it, that alone was a gift, as that is NOT included at 5000 miles. That being said, as others have mentioned, i would definitely take it back, as I would NOT want oil all over the place, and especially, a NEW truck should not leak, and neither should an old one if it has been taken care of properly. I bought my last tacoma, a 96 xtracab, brand new, and drove it for over 23 years before I sold it in April of 2019 when I ordered my current truck. that 96 NEVER leaked oil because it was taken care of properly. Now though, since the crazy wife of mine has had me driving my truck all over the place since I bought it, and she LOVES it, I now have almost 27000 miles on it in just over a year, and so, I am out of the free maintenance. So I will be taking my truck to my old trusty local mechanic who is totally honest and has been taking care of our cars for over 20 years. Having said all of this though, I DO have to give kudos to the dealer where I bought my truck, One Toyota of Oakland CA! Their service department and in fact, the whole dang dealership, have all be super nice and have done an excellent job all the way around! They all know me, from the girl they have out front you greets me at the service department, to the girl greeters who greet people who pull into the parking lot! And just a couple of weeks ago, I saw the totally hot sales lady who sold me the truck in the first place, as I wanted to show off my "mods" that I have done to my truck! She was blown away by my total interior makeover with the faux leather door and dash panels!

 

If you check the oil level again and it is still fine, I wouldn't worry too much about driving it in, but I would still call them first.

That whole "free" maintenance thing is just to get you in the habit of going to the dealer. Just like any lube place, they will look to sell you extra stuff (not covered) that you may or may not need while you are there. As others have mentioned, the actual techs are doing real mechanic work, not oil changes (unless they are really slow and they need to flag the hours). I personally don't take advantage of the free maintenance and just do it myself. I hate sitting around waiting.

On my 2012, I would let them rotate the tires and give me the new oil filter, but that was it. One time they used that alignment checker machine in the service drop-off bay (some kid did it, not a tech) and it said I needed an alignment. Paid them to do an alignment and got the sheet back from the actual alignment rack and didn't check it until I got home -- starting point was well within spec. Called them and let them know they owed me another alignment down the road. This is just another reason I have trust issues.

 

I'm another for DIY. Its my first brand new truck and I trust myself to do the work vs a tech. Good luck sorting this out.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

I called the dealer first thing this morning. Went through the menu options to "speak to a service advisor". Got a snarky lady in scheduling who was wondering if I wanted to schedule a service appointment (this is a different menu option) who then routed me to the receptionist so she could find someone in service I could talk to. Receptionist couldn't find anyone so just took down my info and will find someone to call me back. I plan on calling on the hour every hour.

I don't want to name/shame the dealer yet. If you're in the Denver area, PM me for the name. I will say that the sales experience was awesome. They had the exact truck I wanted (ok, I might have wanted cement, but MGM was a close second) and agreed to a great price with little haggling. It was probably the best sales experience I've had to date for any vehicle.

Going to check for drips now. Based on what I've seen so far, I think I should be fine making the trip.

 

No mess under the truck as of this morning. Last night I wiped the skids, but purposely left the bead coming off of the oil filter. Plan is to to warm up the engine for 20 minutes (idle in driveway) and check things over again in detail before setting off (assuming I ever get a call back).

 

Funny thing, my really bad experience for the dealer service was when I lived in CO. I’m way south now, but the dealer was.....

“ G “ Toyota.

 

Groove Toyota?

 

Finally got through. Had to call again and went through the menu options again and got the scheduling person, instead of a service advisor. She forwarded me to the voicemail box of the service advisor who I was interacting with yesterday. Left a voicemail.

Minutes later I got a call from someone in management. Things I learned:

1. Not all of their mechanics are Toyota certified.
   
2. They have "three sets of eyes" check the work. I nearly lost it when I heard this. There's no way three people missed this leak unless there's a huge amount of incompetence going on.
3. They "take a lot of pride" in Toyota Care service since they know the customer just spent a ton of money on their vehicle and want to make a good impression.

With all that said, I'm expecting a call back soon to discuss when they are coming to pick up the truck. Sounds like they are sending a driver out to take it in. Looks like they are doing everything they can to get the truck back to me ASAP.

 

Dealerships really suck and there's one thing I've learned over the years, there's often very little value in something that's free.

 

Wait...you bought the extended warranty

 

Unfortunately Toyota Care is NOT free but built into the price you paid for your vehicle believe it.

 

Took my Tacoma in for its 5k service and they went Nascar on my brand new after market wheels chowdering every lug hole with the air gun. Needless to say that was an expensive tire rotation for them. Yes they replaced my wheels but only after two months of going back and forth did they finally decided to do the right thing. I've never let them touch it or the 2019 Rav I recently purchased from them. Toyota care is a waste of time and money. Yes you paid for TC and really it only amount to rotations and oil changes because what else is there to do the first two years on a Toyota? Besides any work done is done by their least experienced and lowest paid shop monkeys who maybe just graduated from being lot attendents. Unless its warrentee work the only thing you should do at the dealership is buy said vehicle and then RUN and never look back.

 

My cousin has a 2019 TRD Off Road and lives in Cabo San Lucas. It is under Toyota Care in the US. There were a few oil leaks and the Cabo Toyota dealer said they couldn't repair it under Toyota Care because the car was in Mexico but they would tow it to the closest US based Toyota dealer... ahh, thats 1000 miles up the peninsula. It took a number of phone calls to various Toyota people to get them to understand... I will pay the Toyota dealer in cabo and Toyota you reimburse me.

 

Update: Dealer is making it right. Service manager and shop foreman were just at my house. They changed the filter in my driveway and topped off the oil. Foreman seems to think the oil change was just messy (what I was hoping is the case). The plastic filter housing looked good. Current best guess is that the drain plug for the filter (thing you put in there to drain the filter housing) sprayed a bunch of oil all over my skids and the filter housing itself. They are taking it back to the shop to re-inspect everything and clean off the oil mess.

Both guys looked genuinely concerned and assured me this will be used as a training opportunity.

Overall, read a lot of stories here that make me think I should be doing this myself. I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most mechanically inclined, but I think I can watch a video or two and figure this out. Even though I know I'm not a master mechanic (FAR from it) I'm starting to realize I can trust myself more than someone random.

 

Metaphorical free

 

This. You’ll never have to sit there and wait for an oil change. Also have some peace of mind. My 19 has 25k on it never went back to the dealer after it left. No one is gonna care to make sure it’s done right more than you.