Going to the dealership for my first service

How would you be able to tell on an internal filter? Did they give you the sheet of what was done that said the filter was or wasn’t replaced?

 

I was thinking you could use one of those yellow marking pen they use at the auto salvage and some place use them to draw a line on a bolt to the mount point so they know if someone unbolted the item. You could draw a line across the filter and the base. Then they could just tighten it so the line did not line up. So that may not work.

 

Ask for lube

 

Oh damn, OP just got toasted cause he was trying to be all passive aggressive.

Although something doesn’t pass the smell test. How can someone do all those “upgrades” and not be able to rotate their own tires or change their own oil as the 1st service asks for? I mean it’s not like the first service requires a complete tear down of the transmission or something. Hmmmm

 

I took off the shield under the engine and marked the filter housing when i did the cosmoline rust proofing awhile back. Took a look again after they did the service...from what i could tell that housing was never removed.

 

Man head fresh oily handprints on it so I assumed they changed it. I did check my cabin filter and it wasn't changed though despite it being on the invoice and them billing Toyota for it. Went back and had them change it.

 

Yeah I guess that might work, but if it was torqued to spec factory and at the dealer the lines would match or be pretty close. I am not too concerned as I only have 6k miles, but would obviously rather have it done than not...I'll be servicing everything after the Toyota care anyway. My dealer service dept has been okay so far. I've bought a few vehicles at the dealership and still ave them service our Sienna because with a coupon its about the same price as any other place. Maybe a tamper indicating seal would work best to see if the filter housing was removed.

 

And this is, at least part, of why I'm the one who takes my fiance's 4Runner in for service. We also always opt to get the oil change done. Just because you can go 10k miles, doesn't mean you should. It's cheap maintenance and not to mention that has pretty much every caveat under the sun listed to make it to 10k.

 

Sure. They'll probably add some trail rash to 'em too.

 

no way would it ever match up.

 

Why, would the threads change, housing flex more etc?

 

the chances they torque a plastic housing the exact same as the factory would be highly unlikely.

 

Yeah I guess most report they torque them to Thor level in the service dept.

Unless the tech just uses the line as a witness mark lol.

 

havent had any "bad" experiences with the dealer but i have noticed no matter what dealer i bring it to in my area, and no matter what service is getting done it always seems to be at the minimum an hour and a half ordeal at best. even on the 5 and 15k visits where they dont actually change the oil i was waiting there for almost 2 hours. had an '11 ranger prior to the tacoma and i never spent more than 45minutes at the dealer for any basic service. i have one more free toyotacare appointment for 25k then i hope to never step foot in another dealership unless im buying a new truck

 

Pretty sure they ARE obligated to change the filter, since the receipt shows they are charging Toyota for it.

 

I usually do my own oil and fluid changes but decided to try the dealership when I received some free oil change coupon with tire rotation. Long story short, I got the truck back and noticed oil leaking from the oil filter. That’s when I noticed they cross threaded the screws to that little hatch on the skid plate to access the oil filter. The screws were literally hanging by a thread. Most likely would have fell off eventually and the metal plate would have went flying into traffic. Took truck back to dealership and showed the leak and cross threaded screws. Service mgr took the truck back and brought it back out. He said the crush washer was pinched causing the oil to leak and didn’t have a good explanation of the cross threaded a screws.

Fast forward about 5K miles later and I changed the oil myself. I found the dealership had over torqued the filter housing to where I broke the plastic trying to get it off. The bolt for the oil drain was also over torqued. I think they just over torqued everything to address the leak rather than fix the problem. To say I was pissed was an understatement. I was going to take it back to them and complain but other than a bs apology or some excuse what else where they going to do?

Not saying this happens everywhere but I am weary of taking my truck to the dealership.

 

I took the free services on my 4R...they stripped the skid plate bolts which are known to be easily stripped to the point I had to retap the holes. One time on another vehicle the dealer tech put about 7 quarts of oil in a car that required a little over 5. Another time on my ‘04 Tacoma, I popped the hood after a couple thousand miles and found their socket wrench. They were actually thrilled to have it back, like a mystery was solved.

I think, like others have said, it may just be the minimum wage dude doing things like oil changes. Who knows. But the more significant services that need to be done, I’ve never had a real issue.

 

They never gave me or sent any receipt to this day. I can only rely on what the service writer told me upon release of the truck. When i asked a buddy about what was done on his 2019 taco for toyotacare...said the same..unless 10k for an oil change toyota doesn't have to replace the oil filter cartridge.

 

Its just as bad at other manufactures dealerships. One of the guys in our sled crew had a trail blazer and had it in for tire rotation, oil change plus some other routine maintenance. Long story short...their new apprentice stripped the oil pan drain bolt. At least they admitted it. His trail blazer was down for a few days till they ordered a new pan.

 

I see that there is not a lot of really good motivated workers aka mechanics young that want to do that job . I work at a dealership and I just got hired after working at one shop for 12.5 years and it took them year and half to find a tech. There just isn’t enough out there that want to do this job anymore. And to be honest it’s a crappy job now. Dealers do not pay much at all anymore to techs . And a lot of techs hop around a lot now . The master tech I work with. Been there for three years. He is now leaving . Has not gotten a raise in over a year. But the owners complain they can’t find workers. Good workers need to be paid fairly of course and if not goodbye.