Toyota "Care" Nightmare

Are they replacing your lugs too?
I got a flat camping after I bought my 2nd gen. Brought it to the dealer I purchased it from to have it repaired. When I got it home and washed it , I found a huge gouge in the rim on the outer surface. Went back to the dealer and told them they screwed up my brand new trucks rim. Dealer at first tried to deny it was them. Then it hit me as to what happened and I called them out on it. The kid removing my tire on the machine didn't remove the balancing weight and the machine pushed the weight around the rim when they broke the bead. Got a new rim, but never went back to that dealer for service again.

 

Hopefully final update: Truck is back. Looks like they cleaned my skids and made sure everything is nice and tight.

I got under the truck and noticed the same bead of oil on the filter housing that I did last night. I think what's happening here is that the housing itself (on the outside) gets well lubed when it gets removed. As the engine warms up, so does the oil on the housing so I end up with a small drop. I'm talking a drop the size of a dime. I took a shop towel and wiped off the exterior really well so I should know if I have an actual leak or not. My money is on the fact that I don't, but it's something that takes a minute to check.

 

After my warranty was up on my Tacoma I changed the crappy plastic oil filter cover to an aluminum oil filter cover no leak since!!!!!

 

I made my deal with BFG A/Ts and after the dealership botched that install that's the last time I've been there. Terrible experience... I also never planned to let them change my oil even tho I had a year of service for free. After the nice lady called me to schedule my first one I politely declined and told her that she could just delete my number. I have one local mechanic that I take my vehicles to if it's something I don't want to do. I trust him to do it right, dealerships not so much...

 

Neither my 1996 or my 2018 Tacomas have been back to the dealer since they initially left the lots when purchased new.
They can keep their FREE (really free, after all the aggravation you go through?) oil changes.

 

Gullo Toyota in Conroe TX is an excellent dealership. We've bought 3 vehicles from them. They've never tried to up-sale me on anything when servicing my truck. I did notice they have the aluminum oil filter housings for sale in their bling room.

 

When I changed mine over the weekend, first one since the dealer free ones. There was no oring on the drain plug portion and it was torqued down beyond spec x10. The housing was also super tight.
That's what the kids at the dealer do. Forget mornings and over tighten.

 

+1 on the skip Toyota Care...they ring my phone off the hook for me to bring it in because my free service is “overdue.” The dealer you take it to is paid by Toyota when you bring it in.

The first service (tire rotation) convinced me. I got home and found a lug missing and 2 on the same wheel barely tight where a flick of the wrist literally started it turning. I was stunned they didn’t fall off getting home, checked the others and most of them were so tight I needed my 24” breaker to get them loose. They clearly put them on with an impact and couldn’t care less how tight they were. I got out my torque wrench and set them all to 82 and drove to the dealer. Talking to the svc manager I told him to give me a new lug nut, I put it on right in front of him with my torque wrench and drove off. Never went back. Truck is serviced in my garage now unless it’s something broken under warranty, I then check it right in the parking lot.

They do so many of these scheduled services that it’s not cost effective for a better paid mechanic to do them, they save them for the expensive stuff that they are trained to do. At my dealer they have an army of local college kids getting min wage doing these. All that stuff it says to check in the manual, I’d be surprised if they knew where to look for it.

 

This kit is pretty handy for changing oil. And Walmart has oil, filters, cabin filters so it’s easy to pick up while shopping.

 

Torque on lug nuts 83 ft lbs. I would not let you work on my truck..

 

And if you think that would make a difference or your torque wrench is that accurate, I suggest you not work on yours either.

 

I do. But for totally other reason..

 

You didn't mention the dealer but I had some of my Toyota Care done at Stevinson West in Lakewood. No problems with their work. I ended up having my instrument cluster replaced at Big Horn Toyota in Glenwood Springs. Another good shop but a bit far for you methinks. My Toyota Care has expired and so I do all of the maintenance myself. I give the Motovix kit 2 thumbs up. The machined parts are very well made and should last through lots of oil changes. The rubber tubing just hangs vertically instead of maintaining a bend like tygon and/or hardware-store tubing.

 

My black Pro wheels got scratched on the 5k change. Not terribly bad, but clearly the mechanic did not care as much as I do. It's a bummer that the first scratch on the truck came from the dealer, which is what I told them in the review. Not going back.