Rear end shot on a 2011

They had to get their factory rep to approve the warranty work. For everyone that wants to know exactly what the issue was, I will post it as soon as I get the paperwork. I'm interested to know also.

 

I enjoyed reading this episode of "what went wrong" .... Can't wait to hear WTF was the problem
Glad to hear it worked in your favor ... We'll .... All our favors !!
Happy to hear Toyota takes care of their customers... That's the way they'll keep them.
I really learned a few things here ... Thanks All !!

 

Absolutely the truth. For those who don't know, most techs are paid on what is known as the "flat rate". They aren't paid on the number of hours they actually work, but rather the number of hours "turning wrenches". So if the flat rate book says a water pump on a 1GR Taco pays 2.5 hours...that's what the tech gets paid, regardless of how much time is actually spent. If it takes you 2 hours, then you come out ahead. But if it takes you 4 hours....well, you just donated 1 1/2 hours of your time...for free.


The problem is this...the manufacturer usually has a separate flat rate book for warranty work that pays less per "wrench hour" than the normal flat rate book. In other words...they pay less time per repair. A good service advisor will always find a balance for his/her techs. If my tranny guy "took in the ass" that week on 5 R&R tranny jobs...getting paid 20 hours but actually turning 30 wrench hours...then I made sure I threw him a bunch of PDI's and 30K miles services that he could slam out and actually come out ahead at the end of the week!

 

OP, Glad they covered your truck. Saves you the trouble of finding a giant inflatable lemon, strapping it on your roof, and parking in front of the dealership.

Also, as information of anyone else reading, Toytec lifts are sold installed on brand new trucks by several dealers in the Denver area. Toytec is in Denver, and I'm assuming they actually do the installs at their shop. And of course, the Toyota dealers provide a warranty.

Lastly, OP, thank you for your service.

 

True mostly. If it's anything like GM, they get a lesser rate for warranty work per hr..and lose markup on parts. I found this out after a GM dealer who diagnosed my 06 Colorado with the famed head issue and 4 weeks later refused to fix it stating he didn't believe that was the issue after all.

Hence why I moved on after 20 yrs and came to Toyota.

Good news OP!

 

It's been fun having everyone on here and hopefully I can shed some light on what actually went wrong and what needed to be replaced. I really didn't want this to turn me away from Toyota at all, so I'm very glad it worked out. I spent a lot of time on here doing research on parts and mods before I did anything to my new truck. What it comes down to is just know what you put on your vehicle and know the laws. And like one other member said, stay cool and be respectful. No matter how much they push your buttons. Thanks for all the support and entertainment throughout this thread. And I'm hoping that I can make it to the Hurricane creek ride in March.

 

Not sure what all the mods are on your truck, but a lift shouldn't void your warranty. My dealer sells Tacoma's with lifts installed, so I'm pretty sure they come with the factory warranty.

 

yes, but thats only if the dealership sells and instlls the lift in most cases. sometimes they will warranty if you just get them to install

 

So this is all that's on the print out that I got from Toyota.

Carrier assembly, rear axle housing kit. So pretty much they had to replaceace everything in my rear diff

 

So a new 3rd member.

Cool.

 

I'm guessing.

 

Is there any chance that my diff and driveshaft could be at an angle that would be putting stress on the gears? I've got dakar leaf packs and extended travel 5100 billies on the rear.

 

How much lift is in the rear? I seriously doubt it, u-joint flexes more at the rear where it attaches to the rear end when it's lifted, but if it were extreme, then you may have blown that first. Most likely just a factory defect that could've happened to any of us.

 

There are a ton of people running Dakars, me being one of them, that haven't had any problems. Maybe I missed it, but did you say how many miles are on your truck?

 

Toyota replaces units they don't rebuild them you may never know just exactly what happened. They are sent back to Toyota in the sky for a rebuild and the dealer will not do a post mortem.

 

My wife had a leak in her Xterra's pinion seal. Warranty replaced the whole rearend, brakes included. I think it was just a drop in unit. Crazy that a $5 seal, and it was a $3000 repair.

 

Maybe 3"if lift at the most and I've got 50,000 miles in my truck. And the lift had been on there since about 18,000.

 

Any shims? Is your axle still in the same position? (Pinion pointing straight forward not upward) who did last gear oil change. Lift can possibly destroy third. It's unlikely but possible.

 

Partially correct. While this does sound strange to do it this way, The dealerships buy their parts from the manufacturer for whatever their cost is. After that they are allowed a minimal mark-up on the parts price for warranty work. (I know this because when I was looking at a promotion to service manager I was curious how this worked, so I talked to the parts manager) So the dealership still makes a profit (albeit a smaller one than customer pay parts) on the parts for warranty repairs. There is no way at all that a dealership service department could survive if there were no profit at all for them on warranty repairs for the parts. Labor alone does not cut it.

Not sure how the dealership there works, but the ones I have worked at I have actually seen warranty labor rate being pretty dang close to customer pay rate (sometimes as close as $10 per hour) For instance when I was at my dealership in Daytona, the warranty labor rate was $85 and customer pay labor rate was $98. Also, some dealerships use a system where the labor rate is scaled based on the number of hours for each specific job. For example a serpentine belt is an easy job, and may pay .7 hours to do the work, but the labor RATE for that job was only $40 per hour, but the same car getting an engine overhaul at 20 hours would be at the full price of $90 per hour. This was done at some locations to help reduce the price of "maintenance work" for the customers, but still allow the techs to make a decent wage.

Since you have a dual bearing pinion, the angle of the pinion gear in relation to the driveshaft will not cause any strain on the "spider gears" inside the carrier. It will however cause a strain on the universal joints.

 

Toyota's warranty prices for parts are higher than list prices so the dealer can make some profit . Also Toyota warranty time pay is not that bad.