3rd Brake Light Safety Recall?

Hmm, same here. I took her in for her last free oil change and they called me the next day and told me the parts I ordered have arrived and they needed to schedule an appointment to install them. I was like WTF, I didn't order any parts. Then they told me about the 3rd brake light recall.

 

Well, I basically DIY'd it. I bought a new light and installed it. Mine had a broken bolt housing and of course the super thin gasket and now it's all good. I plan to submit my costs to Toyota under their reimbursement option so hopefully they pay up.

 

you can do that?

 

There is a link for reimbursement on the campaign page of the Toyota Owners site. I haven't gone through it yet, but the button says"Submit Reimbursement Request" so I'm hoping it works.

 

Is this gonna be a problem for me having a camper shell? They will not be able to acces my 3rd brake light from outside.

 

Funny this is finally an official "Safety Recall." Toyota replaced my 3rd brake light and headliner due to leaking back in '18 or '19. Dealer did a shitty job of reinstalling the headliner too.
I'm half tempted to schedule this repair just to see if they'll do a better job with reinstalling the headliner. I've had zero interest in spending any time fooling with it.

 

It will. They will not do the work until it is removed.

 

If this were indeed a “safety recall” then vehicles in Canada would have to be included. So far, no dice. Or, did they just upgrade to a recall? Toyota is calling it a limited service campaign and somehow vehicles built for the Canadian market either magically don’t have the issue or are excluded from the campaign for some other reason. Can’t even order the repair kit up here. I wish it was a recall.
[end rant ]

 

I've got mine scheduled this morning, I hope it goes well!

 

Took mine in this morning for the leaking third brake light, and they found one of the mounting bolts was broken, so no fix under the Limited Service Campaign. They quoted me $200 for parts and $300 labor to replace the broken light, and I said, "No thanks!"

 

That sounds strange. The campaign includes an option to replace the stop lamp. It sounds like they would only do it if you’d had water intrusion. Not very “Toyota” of them. Just the dealer, freelancing.

 

Just order a new light for $150 or less and swap it yourself. I can sympathize with you as my truck is 2017, under 11k miles, yet 2 months from being completely out of powertrain warranty. Today I noticed my windshield washer reservoir was cracked. $90 out of pocket and I get to swap it myself this weekend along with the new third brake light I ordered a while back.

 

Reading the Warranty Reimbursement flowchart, it seems that replacement is only for water damaged componentry. Physical damgage would not be covered.

 

Another member also reported the same broken bolt damage on his and he thought that the factory robot had over torqued that bolt causing the break. He repaired it himself but maybe there’s another defect that Toyota should be fixing.

 

Although I'd like to blame it on manufacturer defect, I have a vague memory of a mishap when loading a wet kayak a few years ago.

 

Before and after

 

Hey check this out. Just got my brake light replaced and I, too, noticed a dead bug in there while inspecting the repairs. I guess the trim ring kit doesn't call for blowing out the lens housing.

 

A souvenir!

 

Had mine done Friday. I have a cap, and didn’t have leakage. They were able to do the goop and trim ring without removing the cap (fold down front window). It can be done, might not be ideal for the work but mine looked good. They were going to remove my cap if necessary for free because I’ve bought several new vehicles there and they just had a really crappy time on a warranty repair to our Sienna. I bought a new bulb seal in case they needed to remove, but we were both glad they could get it done in the tight space. Looks fine to me, no silicone slopped around. Pretty sure changing that light bulb would be nearly impossible now, but I don’t use it anyway with a cap.

 

Update: Stealership would not cover the new light assembly. Said “Toyota said no”. I submitted my receipt and Toyota sent me a check.
For those who paid…you can submit your receipt and very likely get paid back.

small victory.