Toyota won't perform a recall because my vehicle is modified

Excellent post.

 

Lol companies worth $200B+ do things differently than companies worth $40B. Just sayin'.

 

The vertical range when calibrating is -0.4 deg to 0.4 deg.

 

Take a close look (google is your friend but you have to dig deep) at where each company makes their money. Toyota makes it on their new vehicle sales. Several of their competitors sell their vehicles at near cost, preferring to make their money on the service and parts side. There's a reason Toyota does not offer those $10K discounts on new vehicles like Ford and GM. Jeep is unusual because they make money up front and on the back end as well. But, Jeep has to carry the water for their whole company.
No, business models are much different.

 

So Toyota has to rewrite their calibration software for each person that modifies their truck?

 

Just took mine to Toyota Carlsbad and they did the recall without any issues. I have aftermarket larger wheels/tires and pro grille.

 

Sounds about right for Toyota Carlsbad

 

Figured I'd add my experience today being denied the fix on mine. My truck is stock except for tires, Cooper ST Maxx 235/85r16. My grill, suspension, rims, and everything where it really matters is stock, but the tire size.

I find it extremely disappointing that Toyota has such a hard line on this whole thing for some foam tape and a software patch. If the software patch is that sensitive, then the product has bigger issues. Makes me regret getting the TSS to begin with

In addition to all this, I was also denied an alignment under warranty (has 9k and is less than a year old) due to my tires as well. I'd noticed my truck was pulling slightly to the right, and has most likely been this way since I bought it. That was a shock and an additional frustration to the whole thing. Oh well.

 

She must have been texting the 16 year old girl who rear ended my BMW a while back. Was just sitting there at a stop light.

 

Whoa, is this a Toyota Corp policy or your local dealership, that's crazy!

 

I think I could understand the distant logic of denying the alignment due to non-stock tires. Denying the TSS fix though? I get it if you have a big lift and it changes the geometry of the radar alignment. At least it’s an argument that sounds decent on paper. Just different tires though? Unless it causes the truck to sit significantly higher I don’t really get it.

 

I just got denied yesterday to do the recall because of the pro grill with garnish. I changed the grill last Saturday and I got the notice on Monday. The advisor said that they are working with Toyota to have a solution for lifted trucks and pro grills. They can’t even serve the modified trucks they sell there. They asked me to install the original grill back and they will service it. I told him I wasn’t going to do that.

 

Was that at Econdido?

 

Yes

 

Toyota escondido makes a killing putting spacer lifts, sema wheels and pro grilles on their trucks thru their TEM division. They just put a tundra front end on a sequoia and are trying to sell it for 75k.
They do a lot with Toyota, and their action sports show even runs all the events in the booth at sema every year.

But Toyota sees zero of all that markup they are making modifying vehicles, so I don’t see them sending engineers from japan to “work with them”, or even invest any resources to develop customized specs for the sensors and cameras on their vehicles that are being modified.

 

Yeah, I know the guy was just trying to be nice to get out of it. I am not expecting them to look into it about this issue. I had a feeling something like this was going to happen after I got the letter from Toyota.

 

When I was at the dealer for the 25k service I heard the guy in front being asked if his Tacoma was modified in any way. It looked totally stock.

Oddly she didn’t ask me and I’m sure that the all pro sliders are pretty obvious. If it became an issue I was going to argue that they are just bolt on.....another selling point for sliders that don’t require drilling.

 

I know of a Toyota dealership actively promoting TRD grill sales in their parts dept:


Another dealership is actively installing 3" lift kits with 33" tires, the window sticker reads:

 

When I bought my 2018 Taco, first thing I ask the Service mgr if I do own lift would my warranty be void? Answer was, what ever you OEM parts you remove and replace it non OEM parts will not be covered, everything else is. I also ask about the pro grill they installed and sensor after the lift if I need to recalibrate,he said if I don't go over 3" lift I'll be fine.Same dealer also sells lifted Taco's and Tundra's

 

I had same issue with 2" lift and 285's.
Couldnt do recall because of it... yet they are selling brand new lifted trucks.