Bad oil change experience

My brother had his 2020 4Runner TRD Pro back to the Toyota dealer 3 times for an oil leak following an oil change. He finally told the dealer to give him the parts including an oil filter, oil filter housing and oil so he could do it himself. The service manager asked him “ how do you know you need the oil filter housing.” My brother told him if he didn’t need it he would return it. I wish I would have saved the photos of the plastic oil filter housing that they had demolished during their three attempts at an oil change. It looked like they had used large channel locks to remove and install it. He sent pictures of it to the service manager and didn’t even get an apology.

 

I’m convinced most of the lower level service industry staff are micro-dosing edibles. Hope you get something out of that stealership to make this less terrible, OP.

 

I had a very similar experience. They pinched the oring when putting the housing back on. Dealer is 30 minutes away. When I got home, oil was all over the bottom of the truck and dip stick was dry. Service manager brought 6qts and a new filter to the house. I changed it all out myself in front of him. Gave him the bad oring after taking pictures. My next visit I verified that was all documented on my vin in case anything happens in the future. It was all there as well as all employee numbers of who touched the truck that day. No issues in the 16,000 after that.

 

These free oil changes should include the option to take the oil and filter to do it yourself.

 

The old saying stands true: You get what you pay for

I’m sure there are experiences that are fine with the free oil changes, but do you really want to risk your $40k purchase to a tech whose job is to get through as many oil changes as they can per hour?

 

Will your shop introduce you to the master, allow you to verify his credentials and then watch that he's the one that actually does the work?

I'll go out on a limb here and vote not a chance.

Save this for one of the never ending weekly oil threads. Bring your favorite brand, viscosity and filter too.

 

Mine actually does! But it’s a two week in advance appointment. You can always stand by the garage door and watch them work.

 

I used to take my new Toyotas in for the free oil change at 10K and 20K. I would still change the oil myself at 5K and 15K. I never thought anyone could forget the oil filter element. After reading the No Oil Filter TW thread, I will do all oil changes myself. Sometimes Free is Not a every good price.

 

He checked the oil with the engine RUNNING?
The problem with dealerships right now is they want to pay a minimum wage to change oil. Mc Donalds in my area are starting at 16.00 an hour, but the dealer pays 10.00 for a lube tech. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys. I was a dealership tech and later a service manager for 34 years. I had to leave in 2018, I couldn't take the bullshit dealing with dealer principals wanting huge gross profits with no losses (or policy work). ONE MISTAKE that a 10.00 an hour tech can cost a service dept big, not to mention jepordizing safety.
My buddy and I opened our own shop, collision AND mechanical repairs. We are both 30 years experience as well as our two employees being very experienced. The dealerships are giving us a lot of money.....people are flocking from dealership service departments in droves. I get people every week who come in with 4000.00 estimates from an oil change and a multipoint inspection and they leave my shop only needing a fraction of that estimate.
There are still SOME good dealers left but dwindling fast. The last dealer franchise I managed had trouble understanding why they retained only 28% of service customers after the warranty expires.....and we had a great crew.

 

They fucked up your Taco for sure, how bad is unfortunately an unknown at this point. Only the future knows. Engines cannot be ran with no oil and be expected to be ''just fine after ''. If that were the case ask the dealer to pick a new taco, and drain its oil, and you both can take it for a ride. That dealership should be ashamed . Assholes for sure.

 

You had issues back in August in regards to vibration. See how good the trade in offer is. You may come out ahead in this bag of shit.

 

The problem here is that most don’t know how an o-ring works.

A lot of people think tighter is better.
It’s not. Plus too tight gets the housing stuck.

And a select few obviously think the o-rings aren’t needed.

 

I learned years ago when dealing with the dealership you need to have an advocate on the inside. I’ve always tried to form and cultivate a working relationship with long term competent employees. When you take the vehicle in do a complete walk around inspection noting any known scratches or defects, look inside and under hood as well. I once drove from Oklahoma to Florida in a brand new T Bird that dealership had left parts cleaner and rags inside engine compartment, they fixed a leaking injector and that was my last new ford.
If Toyota can’t help on local level go higher up.

 

Those free oil changes are built in to the price of the vehicle so they're not really free at all, just pre-paid. I do all my own oil changes generally (except when I'm getting the valves adjusted on the 911 and you have to drain the oil first just to do the job) but my truck was at Culver Toyota for something else and it was about the time for an oil change so I let them do it. Ugh. When I went to change the oil last spring I discovered that they had cross threaded the bolts to the under engine pan - the part they call a skid plate but isn't. Yeah, sometimes it IS a pain to get those in straight while holding that in place so they just hit the bolts with an impact wrench and said done. How is it so easy for them to screw up such a simple job.

On my wife's Forester, they had the same two free oil change offer so I dropped it off twice - once a year as it was barely being driven during the pandemic. When it came time to change the oil last month, and kudos to Subaru for putting the oil filter on the top of the engine, when I went to undo the drain plug, even with a breaker bar I could not remove it. Then about 45 seconds with my Makita impact driver and still nothing. Then the breaker bar again and it finally came loose. For a plug that has a torque spec of 31 lb/ft they seemed to think something well north of 100 was adequate. I'm surprised they didn't strip it out. That car will never go back to Santa Monica Subaru for anything - ever. When I called them on it, they did not seem to even understand what I was talking about.

 

Yes with it running and on an incline at that. Guy was tragic, he even hopped in my seat after rolling around on the dirty ground under my truck.

 

There ARE cars like my aforementioned vintage 911 where you have to read the dipstick with the engine fully warmed up on level ground and the engine running but that's because the cars uses an external oil reservoir for most of its oil capacity. Maybe your idiot used to work for Porsche. Just kidding.

 

For sure. I've never used the free service in large part to keep my OCD in check. I like doing the work and seeing my hands put everything back as it should be. Also a good way to keep an eye on things with one of the biggest spends a person makes in their life.

Sorry to the op.

I suggest to everyone, do as much of your own maintenance as possible. It really isn't hard especially with forums like this and the youtubes.

Only good things come from being more self reliant.

 

I saw in here someone said when they go to a dealership they specify that a mechanic does their oil changes and not the oil lube flunkies. Odds are that will not happen unless a mechanic doesn't have any other work. If you do get a mechanic it will be a newbie who takes the scraps senior mechanics pass on. I worked in a Ford service department and watched this happen. Our lube guys were mostly kids but once they figured it out they did pretty good. Our dealership had 2 service buildings. Senior mechanics filled the one which is where rebuilds and labor extensive repairs were made. The other building was referred to as the zoo. Mostly filled with young guys taking what they could get for work.

 

most of the time, the guys they have changing the oil, is the only thing they know how to do. it's kind of absurd.

 

This is how a lemon was created.