Dealership charging with bad mechanic diagnosis recommendations are close to criminal

I have a 2017 TRD Sport, 4 door, 4 wheel drive. 130K miles on it. We had a sudden hail/rain storm about a month ago. Outside of the truck took a beating but everything was fixed with no issues externally. Mechanically, the next day, before body repairs, the truck would turn over strong but not start every time. I had a check engine light come on, with Trac Off also on under 30MPH. I also noticed that the fan was blowing water and really made noise in a left hand turn and breaking. Like water being cut by the fan spinning. The body shop finished their stuff in about a month and instructed me that I should go to Toyota for mechanical repairs. I took it in thinking insurance would cover this. It must be storm damage.

Look what Toyota was going to charge me. haha Let's just look at the water in the blower box. They were ready to gut the system, just to analyze everything and make possible repairs. And I mean replace everything in the system but the compressor. haha I happen to be mechanically inclined, so I took my truck home after a 10K estimate and started with the blower. Within 10 minutes, no joke, .....I dropped my blower motor, emptied the glove box, and folded the carpet back about 4 inches. I didn't even need to take the glove box apart or remove the blower motor. Under the carpet, very accessible, was my drain line. I looked at where it went through the fire wall, grabbed my shop vac and pulled a vacuum on it for about 2 seconds. Honest. I then watched as all of that water slowly drained out like it's supposed to. Under 10 minutes....And they are ready to gut the system. A good mechanic and/or repair shop would see this, do the same thing and say "no charge, the drain was just blocked. haha At least they only charged me 3 hours of diagnostics for everything, and no labor. I forgot that this is why when I was married, I had to take my wife's car in for her. They were relentless on her with BS. I feel bad for the less mechanically inclined or those who were sitting around me being told a bunch of crap. This was so basic.

 

You must be kidding. That stealer at its best. Not sure what you can do except spread the word. Drop a note to Toyota, it’s won’t matter but why not. I have had to always fight for the dealer to do the right think. A local mechanic might be better but they too sometimes steal. I saw several postings about dealers might be a thing of the past. We can only hope

 

So what caused your CEL and Trac off?

Wasn't the AC

 

Not surprised, what about your other issues?

 

I working on the other issues now. I have the p/n's for the solenoid and valve for replacements, but I'm currently trying to figure out if the 3rd Gen 3.5 has OCV filters or not. Everything leads me to 2nd gen info and pics. I'd like to change those filters first. if I have them.