Dealer Forgot to Put Nut on Leaf Spring Bolt

Back in August I had my truck in at Cabe Toyota in Long Beach for the leaf spring recall. I was told to come in and they would see if my springs were up for the recall and I dropped my truck off first thing in the morning and took the shuttle to one of my two jobs in Long Beach / Lakewood (I'm a master's student and working para-educator jobs to gain experience and pay the bills). I only had to work one job that day and I was surprised to hear that my truck already had the new leaf springs installed a few hours later and that I had another recall for the spiral (airbag) cable that they took care of. I walked over to pick up my truck and was stoked. The level of customer service was way higher than the nearby mega-dealer that had given me the run-around on the recall.

The next week I got a call from the dealership saying that they had put in the wrong spiral cable and had to swap it for the proper one. By then I was working both jobs and I was back in school so getting over to them was going to be a challenge since I was working from 7:40am to 7pm and then working on homework. I got them to let me drop the truck off that Sunday and they would give me a rental car since I was busy the rest of the week taking care of necessities. Sunday got too busy so I couldn't bring it over. By that point, however I had noticed some loud squeaking from the back of my truck and I knew it wasn't the leaf's rubbing together because my old ones had done that. My neighbor took a look under my truck when I called him and asked him to try to suss it out with me and he found this.




They had installed the leaf spring bolt backwards in the shackle and it was clearancing itself into the shackle bucket. For reference here's the other one that was done correctly.



I was pretty disappointed that they would make such a careless mistake on my truck. They obviously didn't look at their work carefully or they would have seen this mistake - that or they didn't care about making the mistake. I brought the truck in the next morning and they were really nice about it - gave me a rental car since their loaners were already given out to other customers. I was a little bummed out about that because rental cars in my experience should be rented with rental insurance and so I paid the ~$30 for the one day that I would have the truck. I figured that much for a new set of installed leaf springs was a pretty good deal even if it was supposed to be free lol.

I had to ask my site director at my second job to let me out half an hour early so I could drive and pick up my truck at the end of the day. He was cool with it and I barely made it on time. The service writer had told me not to worry about keeping the rental for another day, but I wanted to be driving my truck, not a Nissan Frontier lol.

After that I was reading through a thread on u-bolt torque figures from the Toyota manual and some debate on whether they should be torqued to 37 or 73 lb-ft. I decided to take my torque wrench outside and check out what the dealership mechanics had left them at. To my disappointment I found a range of torques from less than 30 lb-ft to more than 70 lb-ft meaning they probably just air wrenched them on and called it good. I know that this might happen a lot at mom and pop mechanic shops. I figured that since I was being taken care of by a dealership then they would have at least hand torqued everything after it was on the ground as is suggested for installing leafs.

I was really stoked to have my truck back, but then the next week I got a call from the rental agency and they left a voicemail saying that they wanted to confirm a charge of ~$100 because I had kept the rental for 3 days. I was not stoked and called them back. Luckily they listened to my explanation and only charged me for one day. I figured it was pointless to call the dealership about it now that I was driving my truck with hand torqued u-bolts and wasn't being overcharged for rental insurance. That was in September.

Now more recently I've been hearing some creaking and knocking noises coming from the rear of the truck on take offs and slow articulations such as entering shopping centers, speed bumps, etc. I was concerned that maybe I had a driveshaft issue, exhaust issue, or some other issue since it couldn't be my suspension. I had new u-bolts and springs. I had them worked on twice by dealership mechanics. So tonight before I went to the gym I checked under my truck to inspect the driveshaft to see if any u-joints were bad or if the muffler was about to fall off etc. This is what I found.




Not only had the mechanics at the dealership put the shackle bolt in the wrong way, but they had not even put a nut on the passenger's side front leaf bushing bolt.

They didn't notice this after having a second chance to make everything right with my vehicle as well. This means they sure aren't torquing everything once it's on the ground or even taking consideration into what their work could do to someone's health and well-being.

Now the obvious range of responses to this situation can be from simply asking them to put a nut on the bolt, torquing it down and the rest of the suspension parts they installed to spec to a full blown negligence case in court with a lawyer. I'm opting for the first choice of action. However I'd like to ask if what they did could have affected anything that I should have them look into while they have my truck - such as the source of the knocking sound I've been hearing lately from the rear. It should be easy to determine if the missing nut is the culprit for this once one is installed. Other than that I'm not quite sure - the driveshaft looked fine - no grease being slung or damaged parts and the exhaust was too hot to shake it around to check for rattles while I was under my truck tonight. Well that's my story.

Hopefully this thread can revolved around helpful information - I know inevitably it will include some flaming of dealership mechanics / shared experiences, but I'd really like to know some *reasonable* things to ask to be inspected tomorrow.

Lesson learned: always torque bolts after getting any major components worked on by someone else

 

Legit

 

Dang, stuff like this would have made me furious. At the end of the day though, as much as your in the right and they deserve to compensate you for all your trouble, I have learned that sometimes fighting an uphill battle isnt worth it. they are bigger and more powerful with much deeper pockets. As hard as it is to do, I would go back and show a manager what i found. id explain that im not here to make a big fuss about it and yell and scream BUT i do expect that it be fixed and i am assured that everything will be torqued to spec and its safe to drive. id consider filling a formal complaint on the dealership as well. but a lawer isnt going to get you anywhere. neither is a complaint really, buy at least itll make you feel better. its just not a battle worth fighting imo.

But to answer your ultimate question, no it won't affect any other parts or could have caused other peoblems. ive had my same exact bolt come loose and almost fall off as well. it could have been catastrophic, but just be thankful it wasnt.

 

Yeah the people that work in the part of the dealership that I talk to are helpful and they didn't mess anything up on my truck. Glad to know it's not affecting anything - I hope it's the cause of that noise in the rear though - I'm much happier when my truck isn't making weird rattles lol. I was thinking of asking to talk with the service manager and explain to him what has been happening though - work like that could get someone hurt.

 

Agreed, and that's exactly why someone should be made aware of what has happened because its now more then and inconvenience, its a serious safety issue that could get someone killed. if the same tech did the work the second time around, your likely not the only person having issues, snd if thats the case, maybe that guy shouldn't be a tech. its not the time to do things half fast. A manager needs to know, but i think he will be more receptive and have a genuine concern of the situation if you approach him in an adult way. people get defensive back and brush you off when you get aggressive with them. taking the high ground is the best option in my opinion

 

Agreed, thank you for the advice - basically what I wanted to hear. Hopefully it's the last time I go there lol.

 

One more question - does anyone know what thread and size this bolt is incase I can't make it over there tomorrow and want to throw one on for piece of mind as a temporary fix?

 

Is the bolt the factory bolt or a bolt that came with the springs? If no one here chimes in you could call a different dealer and get the parts dept to get the bolt info. If it came with the springs the supplier should be able to get that info.

Personally I would take care of the problem myself, as the dealership obviously is incapable. Document everything first, and then get a hold of Toyota corporate. Tell them the whole situation and what you found. This isn't a little customer service issue, this is a safety issue. They obviously do not care about their work, and people shouldn't be going to that dealer and paying for unsafe work. Dealers don't like people calling corporate about their issues. Some times its the only way to get something changed.

 

Why am I not surprised by things like this? Don't know why they installed that shackle bolt backwards as it is easier to tighten the nut from the other side (which is the way it was designed.) That driver side fuel tank, front shackle bolt IS a mofo to get to without a dog bone wrench.. so they were probably like f' it.
This is the reason I did my own lift. To include not getting the TSB leaf pack done, knowing those clowns at the stealership, they would have punctured my fuel tank or f'd something up. Dakar over that POS.

 

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...^^^... As moondeath said ... this is a safety issue ... not just a C/S issue.

I would document this with Toyota Corp. and the dealer GM.

Good luck OP and keep us posted.

 

Make sure you get some paint on that spring mount where it was gouged to prevent premature corrosion

 

Called the dealership this morning and explained what happened. The service (assistant manager?) person that I spoke with said they could get to me between jobs so that sounded good. He lived up to his word and I was in and out of there in 15 minutes. I wanted to talk to him about who I should bring my issue up with, but there were other customers around and I didn't want to make it awkward so I went to work and called him later. He said to talk to the service manager. That was the guy I dealt with the second time when they flipped the shackle bolt around the right way so I figure it's probably better to go up to the next level and talk to the manager of the dealership.

I'm glad that the strange noises from the rear are gone (as bad as that sounds). I'm happy to be driving my truck again with the last of the issues from that place behind me. Thanks for all of the good advice and info.

 

This is from Toyota's internal dealer "Safety Recall Remedy Notice", dated 01/27/2016. If in fact a qualified tech worked on the truck both times, it seems they failed Toyota's extremely important repair quality. Here's an excerpt from the notice,

Technician Training Requirements
The repair quality of covered vehicles is extremely important to Toyota. All dealership technicians performing this
repair are required to successfully complete the most current version of the E-Learning course “Safety Recall and
Service Campaign Essentials”. To ensure that all vehicles have the repair performed correctly; technicians performing
this repair are required to currently hold at least one of the following certification levels:
• Certified Technician (Chassis)
• Expert Technician (Chassis)
• Master Technician
• Master Diagnostic Technician
It is the dealership’s responsibility to select technicians with the above certification level or greater to perform this
repair. Carefully review your resources, the technician skill level, and ability before assigning technicians to this repair.
It is important to consider technician days off and vacation schedules to ensure there are properly trained technicians
available to perform this repair at all times.

 

You just cured my cracking sound from my rear. The nut on my rear shock came off I reckon and was making the worse cracking sound. I thought I broke something haha