Friendly Reminder: Inspect your truck after Toyota service or lose your skid plate filter door! PICS

Took my 17 in for first service at 5k and requested an oil/filter change. I'm usually reluctant to let anyone else work on my truck, but it's hard to argue with FREE. Never again...

Lube monkeys didn't tighten the four bolts holding the oil filter access panel on to the factory TRD aluminum skid plate!







By the way, this was Camelback Toyota in Phoenix. I pointed out the problem to two different service advisers and the service manager before I took delivery. I have no problem letting other people know about the poor work coming out of their service department. No excuse for this!






------UPDATE------

THE SAGA CONTINUES - THE OIL CHANGE THAT NEVER ENDS! PART 2:

Upon further investigation, it turns out they had the skid plate access panel installed backwards. The curved edge should face forward towards the front of the truck.



Oh, and now I get to deal with this...





Awesome!




--------UPDATE--------

PART 3: TORQUE WRENCH? AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!

Service manager put my truck on a lift to inspect oil seepage with me present. Dropped the skid plate to find a nice pool of residual oil from what appeared to be the main drain plug. Dropped cartridge filter to find that it had been replaced during the oil change. Whew! Installed new cartridge and o-ring for peace of mind. Had to request for mechanic to use torque wrench on skid plate bolts as he openly admitted that most guys only use impact wrench. Doh! (33ft-lbs,21ft-lbs main skid bolts, 18ft-lbs access panel) Every bolt needed extra tightening.

 

I guess you can put a positive spin on it and be happy they put the drain plug back in and filled it up with oil.

 

That sucks! I think there is a guy on TW that works at that location. I remember him posting in a OEM bed mat thread or something...don't know if he can do anything about it but maybe he'll spread the word to his service dept LOL

 

Yeah camelbak toyota is a vendor here. But yeah that sucks it happend but most lube techs are newbies starting out

 

But did they remember to put an O-ring on the filter housing cap?

 

There are some good mechanics working at Camelback, but it blows my mind how any respectable "tech" could let a truck go out like this. What's equally alarming is that they claim to use a sign-off routine as well. Where were the extra set of eyes on this one?

I'm just glad I caught it before a rock sheared the bolts off or the plate ended up flying around on the highway at 80mph.

 

Did he check?

 

Great....now I won't be able to sleep!

 

I went to see these guys at Camelback. They told me my howling rear end was "normal"

Two weeks later I took it to Riverview and the Service manager admitted it was definitely not normal and should not be considered acceptable for a nearly new truck. He said it reminded him of his old Lincoln beater... within 3 days they ordered and replaced my rear diff (carrier assembly). They've also addressed multiple TSBs upon request and have set up several meetings for me with the Regional Tech folks (Toyota FTS) to research and work on solving other issues with my turd gen.

Highly recommend Riverview.

 

Good call. Bought the truck from Chris at Riverview! Camelback was closer since I live in N Phx. I guess I figured, "how could they possibly fuck up an oil change?". Well now I know...

 

Lube techs are not licensed mechanics. They are also under cut-throat time pressure because oil changes don't make money for the dealership. Loose trapdoor bolts, missing center caps when wheels come off for tire rotation, etc. are unfortunately common, because the lube tech's job performance is measured by doing the oil change in 9 minutes instead of 10 (and next year the bar will be 8 minutes...). It's Toyota kaizen perverted by accountants.

 

Yeah plus you can always walk over to Bass Pro and kill an hour or two while they service your vehicle. Not sure if that place is "your kinda thing" but I can easily spend a couple hours over there.

 

Funny you should mention this. Took my truck in for its first oil change, ran some errands and when I got home I inspected the dealers not so handy, handy work. Lo and behold there was oil dripping from the skid plate. Took it in the next morning and the oil leak was blamed on a faulty O ring. Now it makes me wonder if they even put the O ring in.

 

I would question any man who couldn't spend 2 hours in Bass Pro...

 

That Kaizen shit constant improvement does just that, they have to figure out a faster way every year to cut cycle time. I am waiting for them to replace the oil pan with a removable jug that they can pop in and out.

 

yep, when I was in manufacturing, our boss's big thing was mistake proofing. It got to the point where we were mistake proofing other mistake proofing ideas. We finally said, our mistake proof was not coming to work so we couldn't screw up anything. I finally mistake proofed myself from that place.

Do it right, faster than last time, better than last time but do not cut any corners.

 

Yikes! I didn't know they were under such intense time constraints. I guess that also explains why they left a nice size pool of oil on the top of the skid plate as well. No time to clean up! I'd have a real hard time trying to get an oil change done myself in 9 minutes. Takes me that long to set my torque wrench and open a beer.

 

This happened to me. I was out of town for an extended period and needed and oil/filter change. I started the car once it was "complete" to find low oil pressure. I shut if off right away. They had forgot to install the drain plug so when they serviced the oil, it drained out (of course). It wasn't at a dealer.

 

just don't spend any money in that over priced tourist trap. I go to BassPro as a last resort and it is a simple on off the hwy on my drive home.

 

Never assume. Might be water in there.