Dealer tech permanently disabled my 'maintenance reminder'

The maintenance required light never comes on anymore, even during start up. Basically I had a problem with the kid the dealer had doing oil changes so I started doing my own along with other basic maintenance. Now I get all kinds of attitude from the service technician apparently because most of the maintenance is done by myself now and I only bring the truck in if I want something checked /done that may be warranty related or that I don't want to or can't do myself. This awful service guy went out of his way to dis my choice of options and after market additions with a level of contempt that really caught me off guard, refused to check the balance of my summer alloys, wouldn't acknowledge a rough shift between 1st & 2nd gear and had the gall to give me attitude because my tpms sensors were not working! " I hate tpms, you shouldn't even bother with them" As if I'm the one who designed the Tacoma and added tpms? Wtf?

Sure enough, since then, my maintenance reminder light no longer comes on.. ever. I checked the fuses and they seem fine so I think the light is disabled from behind the dash/instrument cluster. I don't know how much it matters now with my warranty soon to expire anyway but since the light hasn't been coming on I've got nothing to reset after an oil change. Not sure if the truck keeps track of resets or not but if it does then it will appear as though I haven't been changing my oil if you go by the maintenance required light reset. Is this some kind of backlash from that arrogant SOB of a service tech that gave me so much attitude or is this particular problem with the maintenance light not coming on a known issue? I can't find anything on it. Also wondering how difficult it would be to get my hand up under the dash and fix this light, is it just a simple plug in thats been pulled out? Never had to fix a light in the instrument cluster before and I don't want to leave it not working for when ever I decide to trade/sell it.

 

There's an idiot light for Maintenance Req on these trucks ?

 

2010 here .....I have never had any lights pop up on mine .

 

Maintenance required light comes on at 5k miles after reset. You've drivin the full 5k and it hasn't come on?

 

*psst , that's cause only the American trucks have the light , snicker

 

Idiot light on mine. "Maint. Req." light briefly illuminates during the dash light test at start up.


The light continues to flash after starting when close to a 5k interval and goes solid when 5k is reached.

 

They get all the fancy bells and whistles and stick us with a 4 leaf pack to hold more snow in the box of the truck

 

I think you guys up there have a light on the dash that flashes "Sorry" ... no?

 

More features, less money. snicker

 

^^^

 

I have a yellow sticky reminder stuck to the dash to remind when to change the oil next

 

If you call an idiot light a feature , haha

 

OP, did you disable the TPMS on the dash, or is it broken?

Why wouldn't they check the balance of your tires?

Where is this wonderful dealership located?

 

Sounds to me like OP has a 2nd set of "Summer" tires that the dealership is not helping him with

 

The light has nothing to do with anything being wrong with the truck at all. It is totally related to miles driven. With you changing the oil yourself, my guess is you keep track of when you have to do it, so the maintenance required light is of no significance to you. You just don't have to bother with reseting it anymore.

 

I can't speak to your light issue, but I can say something about the dealer, drop him like the stinking pile that he is. I bought a new GMC (big mistake) and in the 18 months I owned it it was in the shop 20+ times for warranty issues. Sounds like your dealer has hired those service guys. They were gouchy, technically incompetent, excuse making jerks. I dealt with them for a while, then one day they pissed me off one time too many. I called an other dealer and was surprised when they would do the warranty work as well, and they were a huge improvement. So, the moral of the story is don't stay with a bad dealer.

 

The lights in the dash are LEDs soldered on a circuit board in the dash cluster. There's absolutely no way to get you hand up under the dash to get to it. The gauge cluster would need removed and disassembled to get to the LEDs.

Are you absolutely sure you've gone the 4500 miles or so (when the light is triggered) since your last maintenance reset?

 

That's what I do. I reset trip A for every gas fill up and trip B is reset at every OC.

 

If you're having such a difficult time and displeasure with your current dealership - its time to take the truck to another dealership.

You're still under warranty. You have every right to have everything (bumper to bumper) working on the truck.

If you can't drive to another dealership - then, its time to seek management and voice your displeasure with Billy Bob Tech. Request a different tech.....period.

Until you have absolute proof that Billy Bob is playing tricks on you - don't even try to go that route. Just keep taking the truck in for warranty work and keep EVERYTHING documented.

 

Yep this ^^^^