Morning All,

So I have spent the last two days on the phone with Toyota Care and at the Dealer (who is on my side) about my soon to be purchase of a TRD Suspension. When I was buying all of my parts for the front & rear bumber conversion I asked the parts guy Karl (another great guy) for a price on the TRD Suspension. He checked pricing and it was fair and the Service guy know that I have been changing up my truck and mentioned that it's a good thing that your buying this kit because if you use an aftermarket kit it voids your drivetrain warranty.

We talked a little bit and I told him I was buying a 100 mile TRD Pro Suspension off another guys truck and having them put it on. He said that a great ideas that shouldn't be a problem. He then suggested that I call Toyota Care and get there take on it. So I did and they said that the suspension had to be purchased new from Toyota and installed by a Toyota dealer in order for me to keep my 100,000 mile (Purchased an additional warranty from Toyota full service in North America) warranty on my drivetrain.

Anyone have any experience with fighting a warranty for coverage down the road as I tend to keep my cars 10 year and I would hate to have wasted a huge chunk of money on a warranty.

In the end this truck is my daily driver and mtb hauler so if I have to spend the additional money (about $250) to keep my warranty I will but I really hate wasting money.

You'll need to read the fine print on your warranty.

However, get familiar with the following as what you describe should be ok, pending the fine print of your warranty you describe.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magn...s_Warranty_Act
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/article...intenance#will

Of course they said that they want you to spend an insane amount of money on their crap. Adding and after market (or in your case used) suspension will NOT void your warranty. "IF" they can prove that they modification caused damage they can refuse warranty work.... but burden of proof is on the dealership and holder of the warranty. They will say "Not Covered" because 99.9% of people will accept that answer and tuck tail. Lift your shit and don't listen to them

So the service guy is on my side and is going to pull up a copy of the warranty this morning and read the fine print for me and then give me a call this morning.

On a side not the difference in cost is only about $125 plus $100 in sales tax.

Which may not be worth the fight years from now


Marty-MJ

Do you have platinum service agreement? Springs and shocks aren't covered under the gold or limited plans anyways

as far as it impacting other parts that are covered, they would have a hell of a time showing that it was the cause of other damage considering that its equipment that they have on another trim level of the same vehicle

It's funny but I honestly have no clue. I am finally at my office and of course I can't find the dam thing. The warranty cover a rental car, towing and pretty much anything that I would need if something were to go wrong with the truck. The only reason I bought it was my previous truck was a Land Rover Evoque (was suppose to be my wife's) and in the 22 months we owned it the dealer had it for just shy of 11 months. I can tell you getting rid of that vehicle was the happiest day of my car owner existence.

So when we bought the 4Runner with bought the best extended warranty possible since they gave us such a great deal on the truck.

[QUOTE=The only reason I bought it was my previous truck was a Land Rover Evoque (was suppose to be my wife's) and in the 22 months we owned it the dealer had it for just shy of 11 months.

^^^^HOLY SHIOTE... I’d be in jail for trying to (literally) cram an LR Evoque up a manager’s a$$....

Trust me I was exhuasted and heard every excuse in the books. The only plus was the fact that they kept giving me a new car to drive and my neighbors seriously started to wonder if I was losing it as almost ever month I had a new car. When the wanted to give me a Jag convertible I told them it wouldn't work as there was no where for me to put my bike. Finally the service guy agreed with me and gave me an LR2.

It was crazy.

Are they trying to suggest that the entire extended warranty is voided if you replace the suspension? That's totally bogus, and I'm thinking the person you spoke with is either misinformed or misunderstood the question. They could try and ague no longer covering things directly affected by the suspension (CV joints, etc.), but they'd have difficulty as it's an actual Toyota part that is being installed at a Toyota dealer.

Or are they only voiding the warranty over the modified parts themselves? Of course they won't cover the actual modified parts, that's a no-brainer. Even actual Toyota parts wouldn't be covered if bought used from a third party and installed by a non-Toyota mechanic.

Okay so after talking with the Toyota Care rep here is where we stand. It looks like I will be buying the TRD Suspension kit directly from Toyota who has to order the kit direct from Toyota (not the parts division) and yes it will be associated with my Vin for warranty purposes. What this does is if anything were to go wrong with the shocks, steering or alignment post install they will cover it under my warranty. It looks like the dealer is going to take care of me on the install and alignment which is great. It may cost me a couple more bucks but my additional warranty will still be fully intact and I won't have to worry about any issue.

What I can say is that since I bought the Extended Toyota full North America service, car rental and towing I really don't want to screw that up in any way since I am planning to drive to Canada (Squamish & BC) to ride with friends. Being honest I doubt anything will ever go wrong with the truck but since everything is covered including regular maintenance. I would really hate to give that up.

Thanks again guys for all of your help I really appreciate it.

I almost forgot the color of your truck is one of my favorites.

they would cover any of the other parts that are under warranty anyway, the only thing that buying through them adds is that the TRD Pro components themselves would be covered.

and that's assuming that they are covered under your service agreement anyways (it sounds like maybe you have the platinum service agreement)

Yep, I can finally confirm I have the platinum warranty or as the service guys said, "You got the best one we offer so if I were you I wouldn't screw it up".

Heck so far they have cover 4 oil changes, 4 tire rotations and they give me a 25% discounts on parts and since I purchase a complete all the parts to do trail front and rear cover conversion including the TRD parts I would have to say this is the best dealer that I have ever purchased a car from and purchased parts from.

I have the platinum warranty, after market lifted suspension and I had a CV boot replaced UNDER WARRANTY..... dont drink the koolaid

umm, I got 10 oil changes and life time rotations, and our local toyota club gets us 15% of parts and service. No extended warranty required.

I really don't understand all this undue stress and worry over warranties. I mean sure, the OP had trouble with a previous vehicle. but that was a Land Rover, you're in a Toyota now, the headaches are over.

The onus is on the dealer to prove that any modifications caused parts to fail. upgraded suspension is not going to cause your engine to explode, or all the paint to peel off. at most, you're probably looking at CV's and possibly wheel bearings down the road. these parts are cheap and easy to replace, and definitely not worth the expense of any kind of extended warranty. I run a '12 with a 3" Radflo lift (previous to that I had Bilstein 5100s and OME springs). in the 4 years since I installed the lift (my self, not at the dealer), the only issues I have had are one leaky CV (again, replaced myself in a little over an hour), and I had to have a zero point calibration done at the dealer because I couldn't get the procedure to work myself.

if the extended warranty helps you sleep better at night, fine, but don't stress out at the small stuff. if your cv's go and they refuse warranty service based on your lift, you're out a couple hundred bucks and a couple hours of your time. so what?