More Dealer Butchery

I had the frame on my '06 Access Cab replaced under warranty about five years ago. After getting the truck back I found a number of areas where the work was either shoddy or worse than shoddy. Most of it had to do with missing clips, foreign (non-Toyota) clips, dangling wire support brackets, etc.

It seems that almost every time I start working in a different area, I find another instance of what, in this case can only be described as butchery.

Here is a photo what this particular dealer did in the area of the gas tank fill pipe. It looks like they stuck a muffler hanger doughnut in there and maybe turned the metal bracket inside out, judging from the little position tab on the end of the bracket!

It's particularly galling because the dealer had the truck for about 10 days and either has the parts or can readily order the parts to do the job correctly.

 

Looks like a shady/lazy technician for sure. I would document everything and at the very least inform the dealership that performed the work — if not insist they fix it.

 

For work that is now 5 yrs old? On what is now a 19 y.o. vehicle?

Not sure how that would be useful.

 

They probably had trouble with an employee not showing up to work and had to use a salesman to fill in as needed.

 

I get where you’re coming from — it's definitely an older vehicle and the work was done a while ago. My thinking is more about principle than practicality at this point. Even if they don't do anything, documenting it and informing them could help establish a pattern if others have had similar issues. Worst case, nothing changes — but best case, it might highlight a problem they need to address. The passage of time doesn’t excuse poor workmanship.

 

I agree. But the odds are the answers will follow the pattern of defensiveness...

The employees who did the work are no longer here.

Since the work was done we have no clue who else touched the vehicle. Maybe they messed things up.

My point is it's a futile exercise. When work is done, any examination of the work needs to be done promptly and issues resolved then. Not try to drag it out 5 years later.

It's a shame the quality wast higher. But at this point life is simpler if you just treat it like a just bought used vehicle and fix things you find that need fixing as you go along.

 

"My point is it's a futile exercise. When work is done, any examination of the work needs to be done promptly and issues resolved then. Not try to drag it out 5 years later."

100% correct. To be accurate...if you have a 2006 your frame would have been replaced by the end of 2018. Toyota extended the 12 year period for all 2005 and 2006 models to the end of 2018. After that you were SOL if you were ONE DAY past 12 years from your in service date. So I'm estimating that your frame replacement was done 7 years ago.....just like my 2006.

 

Yea I dealt with the same thing on my frame replacement last year. Pretty much all the clips that hold the wiring loom to the frame back to the rear of the truck were broken and the loom was left hanging. The bolt that attaches the ABS wire to the UCA was sheared off and the wire left hanging. They replaced the power steering rack while they were there (which I paid for the part of course) and forgot to refill the fluid reservoir. The dealer tried to make me pay for a lot of the covered ancillary parts to the tune of about $600 plus labor until I argued it. I also paid for a new AC condenser? They said they snapped a piece off the old one upon removal and there was no way they could cover that part after dealing with Toyota corporate, I call BS. At that point I was so done with dealing with the dealership that I fixed all of the issues I could see on my own. They also didn’t realize that I had extended the rear differential breather and snapped the hose in half and pieced it together when they were separating the frame from the cab, I can’t blame them for this one though. Makes me wonder if I can trust all the other work they put in being that they took the entire truck apart and put it back together. Oh well, I got rid of the rotted out frame.

 

You are correct, sir!

I went back and looked at my records and the actual date of the frame replacement was December 3, 2018.

 

"...
Makes me wonder if I can trust all the other work they put in being that they took the entire truck apart and put it back together. Oh well, I got rid of the rotted out frame...."

My sentiments exactly. I was grateful that Toyota replaced my entire frame and did inspect the truck on a lift at my client's body shop immediately after picking up the truck. A number of the things that I found were pure sloppiness and/or evidence that the mechanic (and maybe the dealer too) couldn't care less about replacing everything correctly. For example, numerous clips and brackets left out or incorrectly installed, etc...

There was one glaring thing that I found when the truck was up on the lift. They had sliced (about 5 inches) into the transmission tunnel with a Sawzall or some similar tool. I called the dealer to let them know what had been done and they asked me to bring the truck back and "they would see what they could do". I declined the dealer's offer because I did not trust that they would would anything correctly. Since that time, I've been repairing or replacing each of those little parts, one by one, as I discover them. This rubber doughnut was only discovered last week when I was under the truck removing brackets to sandblast them and treat them with POR-15, a few at a time. I still have to figure out what part was originally there to hold the fuel filler pipe in place so that I can replace it.

The advice given above by Clearwater Bill is invaluable: Inspect every job and every part touched by a dealer or other mechanic as soon as you can after the repair and deal with it at that time.

 

i had a rear bumper collision a few years back... had the work repair done at a body shop owned by the local Toyota dealership right next door... noticed they called for an aftermarket look-alike replacement rear bumper... not an oem Toyota part... they finally agreed on a factory rear bumper... taking short cuts as usual...

 

A not uncommon practice among body shops (at least here in New York) is to get reimbursed by the insurance company for the OEM part and then to install either an aftermarket part or a part from a salvage yard.

Can't blame them totally (aside from the unethical nature of that practice) but insurance companies around here are constantly squeezing the body shops and literally cheating them out of their labor and expenses at every turn. To make matters worse, the insurance companies never stop and are never satisfied until the shops are working for them.