Austin Area TW Chapter (all gens welcome, even T4Rs; heck, just make it a Toyota and we're good)

True dat better service than any dealer.

 

Not too difficult

 

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Hope you don't have to cut those out if you do it.

 

If you cut out the cams because they're seized, then you have to go with Whiteline bushings. If the cams aren't seized, then you can go with ES or WL. ES reuses the metal parts from the old bushings.

 

Boom knowledge dropped.

 

I'm sure he enjoys being volunteered to work on my junk.

Don't be hiding.

The entire experience was quite frustrating. I'll throw y'all out a timeline on this mess.

Tuesday 10:45AM - Arrived at Toyota and drove into the service area. I told them that I need to get an oil change and that there was a clunking noise coming from the right front of the vehicle when I braked hard and I would like to see if they would tell me what it is and if my warranty covers it. I should also point out that going into this I KNEW what was wrong but I kind of played the dumb damsel in distress I guess because as a woman that's how they generally treat me and it's interesting to see the bullshit they try to feed you. I saw the service manager on the service drive and BS'd a minute about cars since he had a CTS-V until about a week ago and knows who I am and my car.

Tuesday 1:30PM - Yes, almost 3 hours after arriving the service advisor(who looked like Santa)calls me over to his desk and we have the following conversation:
Advisor: "Okay Ms. Haak we have the oil change all done but we haven't been able to figure out what the noise is as there are different noises coming from the front end. If you want us to keep poking around and looking at it you will have to pay the one time diagnostic fee of $130 which is not refundable if you do not decide to follow through with the repairs. However your brakes are really bad in the back. They're in the red zone which is bad but we can get that taken care of for you and have it out of here today if you want".
Random technician: "We may just need to retorque the whole front end, there's lots of noises".
Me: "So...why should I pay the diagnostic fee if they've had it 3 hours and couldn't figure out that the passenger side lower control arm bushing was in need of replacement?"

At this point the technician bails out and just walks away and the service advisor gets pissy.

Advisor: "Regardess of what you THINK you know is wrong, without you paying the diagnostic fee I can't have them spend any more time on it".
ME: "Okay. So you can't call the warranty company and ask them to replace the part I am telling you is broken to see if it's even covered?"
Advisor: "I don't know who your warranty company is but you would have to call them and ask them to contact us once the problem is diagnosed".
Me: "Well, Toyota is who the warranty is through, it's not a third party company so I would think you would have a number for them".
Advisor: "You need to pay the diagnostic fee if you want us to continue. Do you want us to do the brake repairs?".
Me: "No thanks. I can do at home and not have to lose use of my vehicle without a loaner".
Advisor: "Your vehicle is in wash. It will be out shortly".

I guessed I was being dismissed at this point so I walked outside and called the BF to give him the update on what's going on and he asked who I spoke with and told me he was going to call the Service Manager. My BF also knows him really well and his dealership uses them for parts and service on Toyota vehicles that they do repaors on and they used to be part of their dealership but were sold off. So the Service Manager says he will look into it and comes and grabs my file and comes to talk to me. He checks it out and asks me to have my BF drop it off in the morning and he will have a technician spend some time on it without charging the diagnostic fee and apologized for the advisor's attitude.

Tuesday 3:15PM - Runner FINALLY comes out of wash and the advisor comes to find me and take me to check out. He apologizes for them being so busy and takes off as the cashier checks me out.

Wednesday 7AM - Runner gets dropped off by my boyfriend. The service advisor is there who helped me and so my BF being friendly says "Hey man how's it going?" and the advisor takes my keys and throws them on the desk and says "I'm busy with shit i'm actually getting paid for" and then walks off.

Wednesday 1PM - The service manager contacts us and says that they will be covering the LCA under warranty and parts won't be in until Thursday though. I said that's fine and make arrangements to go pick up the BF from work.

Wednesday 5PM - The service manager calls back and says that they noticed the other LCA bushing looked kind of rough and there was an issue with the drivers side UCA so they added it to the claim and now they're sending an adjustor to check it out.

Thursday 6PM - I get a call that the adjustor denied the claim and that they will hold the Runner overnight for me since they are closed already. I called the BF and he took a porter and went and picked it up so I could ride with him to work and get it this morning really early.

I think I covered it all. I'm not upset too much about the warranty not covering it as I expected that might happen. The advisor being a dick wasn't fun and I really wanted to tear his throat out at one point because I felt like he was talking to me like crap because I didn't just say "Oh no" and hand over my credit card.

 

My take from being involved in this forum for the last month is that he's our unofficial mechanic. I don't even have a Tacoma and I go to him when I want something done.

 

that would've pissed me off, and i would've been done. my patience for mechanics and service writers is very, very low. having been a mechanic of other sorts, i hold them and service writers up to the same standards i was held to.

 

Yeah he wanted to move on to other people so he could make his paper...what a chode...I wish service advisors weren't so heavily influenced on the commission from big jobs, what ever happened to quality service? I had a misdiagnosed AC pulley that they told me 100% was the compressor going out. So when they replaced my compressor and the noise from the pulley going out was still there...I told them immediately when I picked it up that I would be returning it the next day because they didn't fix the issue. Long story short I bitched at the service advisor for trying to fuck me over and got a call from the manager saying they would fully refund me for the new AC compressor. I got a free AC compressor out of the deal so it wasn't all that bad. But left me with a bad taste in my mouth about them after that.

 

This is the part that took every ounce of self control I had not to just fuck him up, but I was even more livid when he was rude to my BF. He's one of my people. You don't fuck with my people. I was ready to drive down there and kick that advisor's office door down and beat him with it.

 

Well, for things I can't handle I usually ask the BF for help. He's a shop forman for a collision center and has done everything from mechanical to body work so he is a great resource. Our friends joke that I have the "Timmy warranty" since if I need anything done I can't figure out he will help me.

 

He won't be there long I bet...people like that get found out eventually. I'd let the service manager know and hopefully he gets canned or at least on some kind of "Toyota" probation.

 

He was butthurt because he got his ass chewed for being a dick. I just really hate it because I wonder how many people he's turned away or screwed over because they didn't know better or didn't think to ask for his boss.

 

I did mine, the only issue was those two long ass bolts...

 

Yeah this sounds about right