South Carolina BS thread under new MANAGEMENT and lives in SC

Ok, opinion time.

Do I have a legitimate gripe?

Dropped the GX off at a well known and respected Toyota/Lexus specific shop here in town to have the timing belt job done while I was out of town. I asked on 3 separate occasions what parts they were using and all 3 times the answer was "We only use OEM parts at this store."

I picked it up this morning and upon looking over the invoice, which was right around $900 I only see a timing belt, water pump, coolant and serpentine belt listed in the parts column. This was a bit concerning as any time I have sold these jobs when I worked at dealers or otherwise we sold the whole setup, including bearings and tensioner.

I popped the hood to look around and see the serpentine belt has no Toyota or Lexus markings and is made by "Bando" and the timing belt sticker says "Mitsuboki Timing Belt". Upon doing some research apparently these are two of the suppliers that Toyota uses but the true OEM stuff is marked accordingly.

So, am I in the right to gripe that they aren't in actuality OEM parts and that the job wasn't done in its entirety as there were no bearings nor tensioner replaced?

 

I haven’t seen this stuff in so long I’m not sure what it is.






PS. I really though I posted this in a different thread..... oh well it doesn’t really matter.

 

I'm in Warrenville technically between Pine Log and 421!.

 

Nice. I’m right up the road off Storm Branch near Boyd Pond.

 

@Schwartz there’s a guy in my neighborhood that has a dark grey one similar to you thought it may have been you for a minute lol.

this is what I have now. Just started trying to figure out what all I want to do to it. Just put the grille on and getting rid of chrome at the moment.

 

no that's called cocaine

 

Nice! Yea definitely kill the chrome! haha! The black grille looks so much better! You'll know if you see me around... I stick out like with this Overlander rig! Make sure to honk!!

 

Lex Tech? I’d be annoyed. I’d ask why they didn’t replace them and see what they said.

 

I’m very picky about parts I put on my truck. Some OEM parts are garbage. The stock pulleys don’t have a sealed bearing. Replaced all of them myself on the old taco... new taco will be done soon. I will also order spare pulleys and a spare serpentine belt to keep in the truck.

 

Yep, LexTech. The parts are the same as the branded parts, but I feel misled with the verbiage and like I got a partial job due to lack of rollers/bearing and tensioner not being replaced.

They said they never see the bearings or rollers fail, same with the tensioners so they just don't do it to save the customer costs on unnecessary repairs. I said that in my opinion its a half ass job. I told them I wasn't very happy and I would call them back later to discuss when I wasn't so heated.

 

I think with quality aftermarket, especially since the parts are what Toyota sources from, I'd let that slide since it's kind of a "I say potato, you say potawto" thing. At least it's not AutoZone or PepBoys parts.

Now on the bearings and rollers I'd be more inclined to be upset as they didn't give you the option and just assumed you didn't want them changed. On the flip side, were you specific in what you wanted done and they just ignored your instruction? Maybe a compromise would be to have them "guarantee" the bearings and rollers won't fail until it's time to change the timing belt again...

I've got no experience with LexTech but have heard good things about them from my time on IH8MUD. I still take my vehicles all the way to Stokes Brown Toyota in Beaufort for service since I trust both my mechanic and service writer there...so there's that.

 

In my experience; again, just my own having been a tech, a service advisor and a service manager I always performed, recommended and sold the entire job. I guess I assumed that everyone else does as well which may have been what burned me here.

Knowing what I know now and knowing the entire oem supplier setup can be bought for $200 on Amazon I would have just had Adam do this and not only have saved money, but had everything replaced and put some change in my mans pocket.

Frustrating to say the least. I was going to be taking it back on Monday to have the OEM hitch installed on it but am second guessing even that at this point. I may wait until tomorrow to call back and see what they're willing to do in relation to replacing the rest of the (in my opinion) critical parts of the timing belt job.

 

Do they make a TRD Sequoa?
One just passed me on 385.

 

Get you a haircut and some glasses like this and go back and ask em wtf there problem is.

 

My man!

 

That's what I'm saying!

Doesn't matter if you want breakfast or lunch, OEM or aftermarket. The customer is always right!!

 

Bando make the majority of OE belts I wouldn't worry with it unless they charged more like OE. You essentially got OE for 1/2 the cost.

I would gripe about not getting new tensioner pulley, tensioner, idler etc. As if those go bad can be just as bad as the belt snapping. When I was a tech we always did the whole shebang unless the customer didn't want to then we noted it.

 

Does this look like 1G3 or 4T3 to you guys? I'm having a hard time telling and the seller doesn't know for sure.