10,000 mile free oil change incident!!

You can't just make a blanket statement like that unless you have been to every dealership in the US. I have worked at several, and the only ones I have ever stayed working for were the ones with strong ethic. I have been in dealerships where a tech makes a mistake, and the FIRST thing we do before we touch the vehicle is contact the customer and let them know what happened, and what we are going to do to take care of it. My team that I ran all had pride in their work, and we even went the extra mile to keep our customers happy. Hell, we even vacuumed the interior and cleaned all of the windows of every vehicle we touched.

 

The only idiots I see are in statements like this.

 

No offense, but I dealt with 5 local dealerships, and many out of state before purchasing my tacoma. MOST of them lied to me to get a sale! I literally got the run around for almost 4 weeks until I located an out of state dealer who had the truck I wanted.

I love toyotas, but dealing with them has been piss poor in my opionion.

Their quality in vehicles and people have decreased in my opinion over the past years.

This incident was just one more straw to add to the camels back.

 

Not trying to inflame anything here, but what I am getting here is that you dealt with 5 local dealership SALESMEN, and are trash talking the service department because of this? Or am I off-base here?

 

I was a service advisor for some time at a large dealership. My team took pride in what they did as well. In the end, though, we are all human and from time to time a mistake were made. I had to walk away from it after a few years. Dealing with the public is a brutal business.

 

I was one of these shop techs. Im human I forgot to even put oil in a truck one time. I was 17 fresh out of High school and well at least it wasn't my truck. Don't judge Im just being Honest. DO NOT LET ANYONE WORK ON YOUR TRUCK THAT YOU DO NOT TRUST WITH YOUR CHILDREN.

 

That is a bit much. I wouldn't trust my children around ANYONE that I don't know personally. Lol.

I just suggest if you are looking for a reputable shop, ask around. Get some personal references and some research. Never a bad idea either to just go back and double check things when you DO get service work done.

 

Bill I totally agree on finding a reputable shop or doing it yourself. I would just like the service dept to be truthful if something was incorrectly done.

 

THAT I can agree with.

 

I have taken my truck to the dealership twice and they over filled it twice, even though I told them to double check the oil levels, and each time I had to tell them redo the oil change. 1 quart over may not sound like much, but it could raise the oil level to a point where the crank starts slapping it and robbing one of power and fuel mileage.

 

AAA that bad boy back to the dealership! Why you even checking your dipstick in the first place? When you under warranty let Toyota get their hands dirty.

Kidding.. That sucks.

 

I'll chime in to add to the good dealership experiences out there. I take my Tacoma in for free service since I'm up at college and have no other choice. They've had me out in less than an hour both times with a moderate crowd of customers for my 5 and 10k intervals thus far. I checked afterwards to make sure work was done right...oil level perfect on stick and tires rotated (I marked beforehand). No loose crap left behind in engine bay either. Now the dealership local to my home town is a whole other story.

 

... ^^^ ... BINGO ... Yes Sir ... This is "exactly the reason" that I do not go back o the dealership for my free oil changes and the small stuff.

I trust the "Certified Guys" like you ... but not the inexperienced rookies

You have some good common sense write ups with your years of experience ...
.

 

Yowza!

 

Weird. I reluctantly let dealership do my 15k oil change on my '12 tacoma 4cyl.. it's had a pretty loud chatter under the hood to the point that I've checked my oil level every other day, on level ground, cool engine, in good light, understanding how shitty the dipstick measures anyway.. and it's full. Purred like a kitten up until this oil change, almost the same intensity of rattle as the A/C diesel noise many of us have, but it's 100% under the hood and no A/C on :|

 

I have heard some nightmares but you have to take them with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, not many people go on line to praise the great service they receive from these same dealerships.

My brother has the V6 Tundra with the same engine as my Taco. The dealership tech drained his transmission fluid thinking it was engine oil and overfilled his engine with more oil. Although he had to deal with a major screw up on their part, they owned up to it and took good care of him. Now he has a brand new transmission on a 4year old truck.

I have been lucky with my service reps but I always do an inspection when they finish the service. I go to Toyota/Scion meets because I usually meet a tech that is proud of what he does and he fully embraces the brand. IMO, They usually make the best techs.

 

Have you checked the AC clutch? They will make a noise regardless of activation if the bearings are bad. Weird it would do this with such low miles though.

 

It could do a lot more than that if the oil foams and the oil pump is sucking air...

Maybe I am just lucky, but I have always been treated excellently by the dealerships that I have used, and so has my wife....

 

Just had my free 5000 mile oil change on Saturday. I need to check level. Glad to hear I am not only one paranoid about dealer work. Sounds like they did not put enough oil back in. It would be difficult to misread dipstick as much as you describe. I would go back and talk to service manager or threaten to call Toyota rep. This is a big deal to dealers these days.

 

jeez, sorry to hear OP. i feel confident when changing my own oil, but it sucks that so many cant trust the dealer with their trucks. we should start a thread in the regional forums with dealer experiences to at least get some idea of the common experiences in our areas. like a tw yelp review of service only.