09 Tacoma 4x4 - Warranty Coverage Denied

Tell them they need to prove that the vehicle was abused. Mention the federal and state laws. Bring in printed copies and say your lawyer gave them to you, and if need be you will bring a lawsuit against them for failure to honor a written contract. Threaten to report them to the BBB as well. They should repair the truck at this point. If you do actually go to court you should be able to get legal fees out of them as well. I would look into the warranty and see if you can take it to other dealers in case of future incidents.

 

The Toyota salesperson I deal with is married to a Subaru tech, from what I hear, when vetting a suspicious warranty claim Subaru will search the ‘net of any evidence of racing, autocrossing, drifting or anything else like posting all the mods on the car (that somehow magically disappear when it is towed into the dealer).

I heard tell of a WRX that came in with a melted down motor with everything stock. A quick search came up with pictures and posts of the modified ECU, larger turbo and high flow fuel injectors. Needless to say that was a quick denial.

Folks need to be careful about what goes up on the websites, because manufactures have people looking at that stuff, much like employers screening social networking sites of prospective employees.

I want to make it clear, I am not suggesting any abnormal use on the part of the OP.

 

Ummm, I don't think dealerships have the time or resources to search over 1hundreds and hundreds of pages of posts to find a specific vehicle on an automotive enthusiast website just to find speculative evidence someone abused their vehicle. I'm not saying it's never happened, I'm saying the chances are minimal at best. For one, most members don't use their real names as their handles. Second, at least on TW, you can't search for a member by their real name. With that in mind, we have plenty of members here who refuse to use the search parameters to find a specific topic, I highly doubt a dealership is paying anyone to do the same. The difference between TW and say a Social Engineering site like Facebook, is you can search a person by name, location and workplace. A dealer is more likely to deny your claim because they don't want t odo the work, not becasue they saw a post on TTORA. This seems more like a case of paranoia at best.

 

Why?,,, ring exploding affects only TRD Offroad trucks.
We should start a thread " Do you regret buying TRD offroad?"

 

I’ll agree with the point that members do not use real names on the forum sites and that would make searching an “enthusiast site” for a specific owner very difficult.

SCCA Autocross and Pro Solo and other “competition event” results are published online and those do use real names. If a vehicle ends up in a prepared class for an event, it’s a pretty good clue that it isn’t stock.

A google of my name pops up Ice Solo events from over a decade ago.

Not paranoia on my part, just cautious. I don’t think there has been full explanation of what exactly the “outside influence” was in this particular case.

 

Lesson learned...always wash the mud off before you take it in for warranty work.

 

Most of the folks here who do extreme off-roading or have thier trucks heavily modded will most likely do their own work and bypass the dealership for any maintenance all together. Most folks here and at TTORA know that a modded vehicle is going to be a liability getting warranty work done at the dealership. Quite a few folks who do need the dealership will put their trucks back to stock before going that route.

Back on topic, the OP already stated his truck is stock, so therefore the dealership cannot blame his issues on any sort of modding. Lesson learned here is to clean your truck up beofre taking it ot hte dealership; not only is this common sense, it's professional courtesy. Mechanics hate working on a dirty truck as it makes thier job more difficult, and I'm sure most of us DIY'ers do too. Anyways, this thread has some holes. If the OP was able to get a claim submitted via Toyota corporate, something tells me the dealership never opened a warranty claim....they most likely didn't want to do the work. Second, I'd like to give the OP the benefit of the doubt that he was harmlessly driving on a muddy famr road; therefore a receipt from a tow truck driver can validate that claim. The dealership should provide a sound explanation as to why the think "outside influences" caused the issue, like extreme rubbing on the bumpstops, lack of lubrication in the driveshaft, low flui in the differential....etc..etc

 

Thanks. PCV is working.

I used to be able to work on cars. Changed a fuel pump on a 62 Falcon on the side of the road...replaced a 4BBL carb on a T Bird in Pep Boys Parking Lot. Had a Barracuda with Dual Point Distributor PIA to adjust. Did a lot myself mostly due to finances.

I gave up on fixing cars when they became to complicated and I could afford to leave it to the pros. I won't even change plugs anymore and take my interval oil changes to the dealer (when still under factory warranty) and change once in between myself.

I think every brand has their horror stories and buying a new vehicle today is just as much a crapshoot as buying used. Reading reviews and issues on Edmunds forums would lead one to come to the conclusion there is no vehicle worth taking a chance on. People will complain out loud and rarely compliment with the same intensity so that has to be considered.

That's why I decided to shop service departments around here. Toyota service is terrible here with only one dealer and the next few 100 miles away. I would rather take my chances with another lesser brand that has an inviting service dept than a great brand with an attitude and confrontational service.

When I read of guys dropping their trucks off for no questions asked Spring TSB fixes I know they have a great dealer. Others are getting flack and giving up.

 

rear locker was not activated when rear end busted

 

The same story as with many others. I am sure by now Toyota knows that 8" ring is too wimpy for 2gen trucks but they have no fix solution either. They will not do anything until there is class lawsuit.
Simply get'tem
I have a feeling next TRD will not get locker at all. They will do the same thing as with LC's they will just let you use ATRAC and thats it.

I am opposite, more car companies tried to stop me workign on my car the more I am doing it. All service dept are cuting costs so more and more kids with no experience are working on your car, here in northeast smart kids dont want to be mechanics they want to be "Managers" etc. So most of the kids ending up in service can't read manual properly. There are of course odd cases that somebody with love for cars and brains ends up as the mechanic, buts that's very rare now.
I know some of the techs in my Toy service and when they talk I always have big urge to simply say. "Look you dumb, $hit this is how you do it". I also know some Toyota mechanics that are truly awesome. But they getting crap for being very good.
Currently bringing car to service will more likely shorten its life.

 

All I can say is good luck, OP, hope you win.

 

Clean it up and take it to another dealer.

 

I would say the dealership ripping you off... I would pick the truck up and take it to another dealer. On another note. I seen couple saying about toyota ant made same anymore. Gota be cuz they left US start building them oops did I just say that. Lol. Good luck OP

 

You are fortunately in the elite minority there.
Unfortunately there are millions of us who are worse than the worst kid mechanic and we are at the mercy of them. That's one of the reasons I am shopping service departments and long warranties on her next vehicle.
Until then, Thankfully I have an OCD ASE mechanic who worked in dealerships his entire life as a neighbor. He does most of the work like brakes, (checked PCV) plugs etc on our cars (and that of the neighbors.

 

Dumb question but do you know for sure they even talked to Toyota much less sent them pictures? I think I would find some one at Toyota that will listen to your story and if they balk have them show you the pictures that were sent to them and tell you why they denied your claim with out even seeing the parts. I some how have this feeling Toyota has not been involved.

 

hmm. Google. One search. Not time consuming. They have a claims department.

And these assholes get incentives for denied claims, so they will do it when push comes to shove. Especially in these down economic times.


I was denied a warranty claim by Mitsubishi. Long story short, they totally screwed me over. I hate vehicle manufacturers.
After tearing down my transmission and denying my claim, it came down to me having to take them to court. I ended up eating the loss because it all became too time consuming and I did not want to take the risk of being counter-sued for lawyer fees by a multi-billion-dollar corporation.
This is what they are hoping for.


My advice from experience: Skip the BBB and go straight to the Bureau of Automotive Repair and file a complaint. http://www.autorepair.ca.gov

They will contact the stealership and even send a guy out to investigate. The BAR gives and takes licenses away. The dealers are terrified of these guys.

Good Luck.

 

Ha ha true, I know person who got denied warranty because video on youtube. Video is still there of his truck sunken in mud pit.
On side note if anybody from Toyota finds this thread....
Google works both ways, which means denied claims on crappy differentials will put dent on sales. Not for nothing but Toyota has been falling short on sales since last year acceleration mash-up. Power of Google and social sites. Small vehicle problems are getting world wide audience. Before nobody would know OP broke his diff. Now millions of people who will search 2gen trucks will have opportunity to learn about that failure. Lets guess how many will turn to other manufactures.

 

Anyway, let me tell you how this works:

Toyota Motor Corporation loses money every time a warranty claim is approved and the dealerships make very little money if any at all for fulfilling service for warranty claims. Also, it takes man hours and time away from them that they could have spent performing other services which they would have got paid a lot more for i.e $350.00 "15k mile service inspections". They have a very good reason to deny warranty claims

It's not the dealerships that deny the claims, it's the Toyota Corporation that denies warranty claims.

1) You bring your truck into the dealership for a warranty claim.

2) The dealership then might request your permission to tear down the engine or transmission or 3rd member, whatever (now they have leverage over you because your vehicle is in pieces).

3) The mechanic looks it over and embellishes whatever he can in favor of a warranty claim denial.

4)The claims department takes the information given to them by the dealership (which is embellished and incorrect) and reviews it.

5) The claims department then goes over their 1000 page manual on how to deny warranty claims and adds their own reasons for a claim denial.

6) The Corporation sends the denial information back to the dealership to pass on to you banking on the fact that 99% of warranty denials are not challenged. With this strategy, the odds are very good for them.

7) Now, your vehicle is in pieces and the dealership informs you that it will cost you x,xxx.xx amount of dollars for the tear-down that was already performed and x,xxx.xx amount of dollars to complete the repair.

8) Toyota just made money on off their broken crap instead of losing money on their broken crap.

It's business. That's all. They don't give a shit about you after you sign on the dotted line.

The only time a warranty claim is granted is when they have no floor to stand on.

Right now, they have a floor to stand on, and the floor is the mud on your truck. Very weak if you ask me.

I will bet they will come back with a different reason if you challenge the muddy truck defense. They probably have at least 4 different reasons in their back pocket.

That's why I say skip straight to the BAR. The sooner you get them involved the better.

Also, from now on, keep a copy of all documents they show you or give you. Document everything. Document very conversation.: Who, What, When, and Where. And if you can, get permission to record every conversation you have with them.

 

not true they replaced my lca's without a peep.......
among my diff seals 3 times......
ect.ect.ect..

oh hell no......f that have u had the skinny pedal tsb done yet
if not have a pedel sticking issue in their dealership
have it replaced privately get the reciepts and take them to court
this way u have your truck and hopefully you will get some money back.....

 

Exactly if no one makes a stink. ......they will continue to. Screw people