Shifting from Park ....brake not required?

ok so here is the result... they pulled apart the assembly and found traces of spilled coffee on the electronics inside the console.... this shorted out the electrical part that locks the brake and the shifter together... NOT COVERED under Warranty so they have to charge for diagnostics ....if I want to have the mod replaced then it would cost me $1200 or if I just want them to just put everything back without fixing it the diagnostic will cost me $300.00 They took pictures of the part that had coffee spilled on it... I think its a design flaw... anyone who has the Automatic transmission should be wary of putting drinks in the cupholder because of this. Lesson learned... I can't get it fixed right now so it will have to just be the way it is... can't justify $1200 because the brake pedal doesn't lock the tranny in park... It functions as it does and I will have to live with it for now...

In other news this past weekend I was helping my friend move a 300 pound sculptor of a turtle... didn't think it would move at all since it was heavy... I had to put on my brake while in traffic because some lady stopped short and the turtle slid forward... his head went right through my back window.... so dealing with that too...it's been a rough week

 

Complain about the design flaw to Toyota and see if Toyota will pick up the cost. Its not in the best interest of the dealer to push for warranty repair if they will get more money from you.

 

Great idea but where do I even start

 

Just noticed that when you park at home on an incline , hopefully you are using the emergency brake before selecting park . Let the rear brakes hold the weight of the truck overnight rather than the transmission parking mechanism

 

Doh! Tough lesson to learn, but a valuable one. I won't haul anything unless it is properly secured. Too many things that could go wrong, as you just found out.

 

exactly but that's yet another story

 

I see a power slider in your future. I did the same thing with my Tundra. Wife claimed I broke it out on purpose. Truck came with solid glass and I hated it. it was a win for me...mostly, It takes a long time before you get all the glass out of the carpet.

 

That's pretty rough, and I'm sorry to hear that OP. Seems like a serious design flaw. Do you remember spilling coffee there?

 

I don't get how this is not covered by the warranty. Coffee or no coffee, the part failed and it should be replaced. Tell the dealership/service department that this should be warranty covered.

Take it to another dealership. Also call the Toyota 800 number and start a case file complaint. Tell your dealership their dealership rating is about to hit rock bottom. Your review of them is not going to be even remotely good and it will be posted Everywhere.

That's absolutely BS. A good dealership will do everything within its power to keep the customer satisfied. They have FAILED.

 

Somebody has to pay for the replacements and labor. Don't see why the dealership should have to swallow those costs.

 

Can it be Proven that the coffee caused the failure? If yes, then the customer should have to pay labor and Toyota cover parts, then Toyota needs to revise the location/covered area of the part.
If no, then Toyota should cover everything. I have gotten some parts covered for my customers ATVs and they paid labor, even when the ATV manufacturer was aware it could have been customer at fault.
Its all in the way the dealer presents itself and the relationship they have with Tech support. Toyota being a multi billion dollar company can surely cover this to appease the customer, especially if something such as a spilled drink caused failure. If that's the case, then Toyota should not put cup holders in the vehicle, then they can say it is not recommended to have a drink in the vehicle, but as we all know, right now they encourage you to have a drink with all the cup holders molded into their vehicles. So, sounds like a design flaw to me.

 

It definitely should NOT be the customer. It's a design flaw, placement of Cupholders, or a design flaw that the part wasn't properly protected/covered from a possible leak/spill being next to Cupholders.

Under warranty the dealership is paid by Toyota corporate.

Number one rule for all dealerships should be Customer Satisfaction.

I just had a slow leak in my rear passenger side tire on my muscle car. I purchased the Tire & Wheel warranty when I bought the car. 900 miles on the car and I got a nail in one of the rear tires. Service Manager said no problem.

Warranty states, in the fine print (you need a magnifying glass to read it) that the hole has to be of a certain diameter. Turns out the hole has to be about the size of a pencil. Manager said no problem, we'll replace it. We just ream out the hole to make it meet warranty criteria.

So he puts his best kid on it. Car comes back and I'm all happy, but the Service Manager looks at the wheel/tire and sees this small scratch, about an inch long, on the edge of the rim. He asks the kid if the bar slipped, and it did in fact do so. I didn't even notice it.

Service Manager tells me that I'll have to come back, because now they have to order me a new wheel. That cost well over 2K for the tire and wheel. Sure enough they replaced the wheel as well as the tire.

Now three years later, another nail/screw in the rear tire. New Service Manager, he said no problem, we'll take care of that for you. This time I mentioned what happened last time, and they told me it definitely won't happen this time. They just got a new computerized tire machine that it's virtually impossible to scratch the wheel.

Service Managee said, "come on over and watch how this thing works" so they let me on the service floor to watch the entire process. That new machine, which cost 35K, did a perfect job. Then they balanced the tire on another new machine that the kid said is dead on accurate.

Once again, the tiny screw that punctured the tire did not meet the warranty criteria, but they took care of it. Now that's Outstanding Customer Service!

My review write up gave them the Best possible rating!

 

I agree with everyone on this... I think that the dealer should eat the cost of replacing a part for a customer to appease them. Unfortunately they try to look at things from every angle to try to justify the non coverage by the warranty. The very first reaction that the dealership gave me was the aftermarket keyless entry system I had installed a year ago... and how it could be feeding back to the computer...blah blah blah... then when I removed the keyless entry they found yet another reason why they wouldn't cover it ... apparently there was some liquid spilled on internal electronics of the tranny. Long story short ... I am not going to replace my shifter assembly because of an electronic part that can be damaged again by a design flaw... I can't justify $865 dollars just because I am now able to shift from park to drive without hitting the brake... BIG DEAL... I hit the brake regardless anyway out of habit and I use my "park brake" anyway so really it's a non issue for me at this point. I know I have purchased 5 cars from this dealership... since 2007 and my future vehicle will not be purchased through them again...

 

Op totally agree , to bad they won't and don't care if you ever come back. If they did things would be different. Remember we live in the bizarro world now.