Chirping, stuttering sound coming from my rear end....

Not sure what it is. Went to the dealership today for an oil change and gave them a heads up on it. Turns out the u-joints are going bad. To make matters worse, the guy tells me i just can't replace the u-joints, i have to replace the entire drive shaft assembly. A $1300 value! What gives? I only have 75k miles on my '10 dbl cab.

 

1) U joints need regular maintenance. I beat the crap out of my 08' and have over 90k on my truck with original U-joints in great condition. Take care of them and they will take care of you. Neglect them and well.... now you know.

2) Dealer is taking you for a fool. U joints can easily be swapped out. Search and you will learn. I carry spares in my truck at all times.

3) If the dealer is lying to you about the u joints how can you trust that their assessment is correct?

I would report the service writer who lied to you to Toyota corporate.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tJWEVGqP6s

 

How to you take care of u-joints?

 

I agree except for the fact the the service writer "lied". Yes we/a shop can change the u-joints but the dealership might only provide replacing the whole shaft. Yes it's shitty and they are probably giving you the shaft.
Steven Toyota told me that they could not get the leaf spring isolator separately from the entire leaf pack...

 

Pick up one of these as a reference to "how to" take care of your truck



and do it with one of these

 

Dealer told him they couldn't replace the u-joints.

They can.

Seems like a lie to me

Just because they choose not to do something doesn't change what they said. Dealer could of told him "you can change your U joints, but we don't replace them so you would have to get a new drive shaft".

 

The guy at the dealership told me that it would be better to replace the whole shaft cause they have to "balance the drive shaft."

 

Total bullshit. Just keep it aligned properly when you put it back in and no need to "re-balance" anything.

Dealerships = stealerships

 

I thought there was more to it.

^^this

 

Seems most dealerships now-days go with remove and replace instead of repairing... it's faster and they make more money in parts. Look at the temp/compass fix. Instead of resoldering a wire they replace the whole fricken unit. Another thing... why can't they rebalance the original driveshaft if need be instead of dropping in a new one?

 

If I were you I would take it to a different mechanic. Honestly though it would be better to just replace the u-joints and keep them greased from now on PR get a custom one piece driveshaft made.

 

They do the same for LCA's.....if your BJ goes bad....get a new LCA. If the bushing or cam goes bad....just get a new LCA.

Dealerships earn their shitty reputations.

 

This is what i was referring to as they did not "lie" to OP they just don't do the job the way it could be done.. It makes them more money.

 

The U joint can absolutely be replaced without replacing the whole drive shaft.... my buddy did his a few months ago....

Make sure you grease them up in the future. Couple of the zerks are a pain to get to though....

 

Remember that dealerships are asked to back all of their repairs. Sure, we CAN soldier a wire, and it will most likely work just fine, but for the sake of quality of repair, that includes a 100% guarantee, the proper PROCEDURE according to the manufacturer is to replace the whole unit. Same goes for the universal joints. Toyota procedure states that universal joints are not a replaceable unit. So if a dealership were to go ahead and replace them, and a problem crops up, it is on them, and not Toyota to honour the repair. I say this a lot, but sometimes you have to look at things from their angle. Of course to you and me, the best thing to do would be to soldier the wire. It is quick and simple.

Think though, if the wire were to break, we would have to go back in and do the repair again. Not a big deal to US, but to a dealership it IS a big deal. That is a comeback, and comebacks HURT when it comes to a service department's Customer Service Index, which trickles down to manager's pay and bonus checks. ANY deviation from what Toyota lists as proper repair procedure means the dealership does not get paid for the repair, and if the repair ever fails, it is on the dealership itself to cover the cost of the repair, NOT Toyota. So when a dealership says a universal joint cannot be replaced, then it means that Toyota Corporate has said "no".

Also, specific to the temp/compass issue, sometimes when a common failure comes up, like a broken internal wire, parts review will find that it is common enough to cause an alteration in manufacturing so that the NEW unit will not have this failure occur. What this means is that the entire part gets replaced so you won't have that wire break again.


I SOOOO wanted to make a joke with the title of this thread....lmfao

 

On the contrary.....
U-joints can easily be replaced. YES

However, if they've been neglected long enough.... The u-joint will begin to wear away at the 'ears' of the driveshaft. When the ears are worn, new Ujoints won't seat properly -that could ultimately result in needing a new driveshaft.

 

Excellent info and insight here as always

thanks, I learned something today!

 

Sounds like corporate greed bullshit to me. Not bashing you - just the system. It is clearly corrupt as you have explained it IMO.

Why not just render all parts non-serviceable that way they can sell a whole new car when anything small goes wrong? Laugh but the way Toyota is going it may not be far off

$50 ball joints bad - pay us $575 for a new LCA and another $300 to install it... instead of $100 for the labor and $50 for the BJ. LMAO such crooks.

 

It is not just Toyota. EVERY manufacturer has some sort of identical situation where instead of a repair by a small replacement part, the entire part has to be replaced. Again you have to look at the entire process. Sometimes the cost of manufacturing a full part plus the labor of swapping said part out is cheaper in total cost versus the cost of the smaller part plus the increase in labor cost to remove large part, swap out small part, then reinstall. Its a numbers game. It takes less work, and thus less labor time for a tech to swap out the whole assembly. This results in less time per vehicle for a tech to spend doing a repair. THIS results in returning the vehicle to a customer faster, and freeing up that tech for the next job. I can have my crew turning out larger numbers of cars faster with assembly swaps. Overall I can actually increase reliability in a repair since the tech is simply swapping out a part that has been fully assembled and tested elsewhere. This increases average customer satisfaction. Again, it's a numbers game.

Now OUTSIDE the dealership, at an independent shop like mine, things can be done easier because I don't have a corporate office breathing down my neck. I can take care of my customers individually.