Lester Lugnut
New member
Bought 2014 4 Runner 2WD SR5 from Cavender Toyota Mar. 2014 - Salesman - Mike Gonzalez. Polite and not too heavy with the usual sales BS.
Took vehicle in for 5K Toyota Care when it was time. Had an appointment. Waited 2.5 hrs. for a tire rotation. Noticed they were giving preference to customer-pay work vs. mine. Toyota Care is similar to warranty work - dealer gets less $$ than when customer is paying for the work. A dealer tech on this forum mentioned this in another thread.
When it came time for the 4 Runner's 10K Toyota care I decided to use a different dealer. Took it to Red McCombs. Had an appointment. This trip would include a tire rotation and an oil/filter change. I checked air pressure in tires before leaving and oil condition/level so I could get a feel for whether or not the oil was actually changed after verifying the work when done. I'm doing all of this because I can count the times I've let someone work on my cars and have fingers left over. Every time I did this, work was not done correctly. Wife insisted we use the "free" Toyota Care.
Arrived on time early in the morning. Service writers polite. They jump on it. 40 mins. later I'm told work is done. Before leaving I check oil and level. Looks like they changed it and level was on the dot.
Get home and let car sit for several hours to cool. Check tire pressure. Owners manual calls for 32 lb. Pressures varied from 36 lb - to 42 lb. Adjusted tire pressure. Looks like they rotated tires - I marked them. Check lug torque. 2 or more lugs on each wheel were way too loose. Not falling-off-loose, but loose. Torque lugs.
Decided to get underneath to see if they took oil filter housing off. It too was marked before going in. Looks like they did and when reinstalling they over tightened the oil filter housing...way over tightened. Had to loosen it up.
Sent email to McCombs service mgr. Never heard from him.
Better half once again understands why I am the only person who works on our vehicles.
Update - learned the other day from one of the senior parts counter guys at Red McCombs that they DO NOT use 0W-20 weight oil in the 5th Gen 4 Runners. He told me that they have a 200 gallon tank filled with Valvoline semi-synthetic 5W-30 and that EVERY vehicle that comes in the place gets this oil. I then said "you don't use 0W-20 oil in the 5th Gen 4 runners"? His reply...NOPE. Every vehicle gets the Valvoline 5W-30 semi-synthetic oil. The 0W-20 they have in the parts area is sold to customers who come in asking for it.
Change your own oil.
Took vehicle in for 5K Toyota Care when it was time. Had an appointment. Waited 2.5 hrs. for a tire rotation. Noticed they were giving preference to customer-pay work vs. mine. Toyota Care is similar to warranty work - dealer gets less $$ than when customer is paying for the work. A dealer tech on this forum mentioned this in another thread.
When it came time for the 4 Runner's 10K Toyota care I decided to use a different dealer. Took it to Red McCombs. Had an appointment. This trip would include a tire rotation and an oil/filter change. I checked air pressure in tires before leaving and oil condition/level so I could get a feel for whether or not the oil was actually changed after verifying the work when done. I'm doing all of this because I can count the times I've let someone work on my cars and have fingers left over. Every time I did this, work was not done correctly. Wife insisted we use the "free" Toyota Care.
Arrived on time early in the morning. Service writers polite. They jump on it. 40 mins. later I'm told work is done. Before leaving I check oil and level. Looks like they changed it and level was on the dot.
Get home and let car sit for several hours to cool. Check tire pressure. Owners manual calls for 32 lb. Pressures varied from 36 lb - to 42 lb. Adjusted tire pressure. Looks like they rotated tires - I marked them. Check lug torque. 2 or more lugs on each wheel were way too loose. Not falling-off-loose, but loose. Torque lugs.
Decided to get underneath to see if they took oil filter housing off. It too was marked before going in. Looks like they did and when reinstalling they over tightened the oil filter housing...way over tightened. Had to loosen it up.
Sent email to McCombs service mgr. Never heard from him.
Better half once again understands why I am the only person who works on our vehicles.
Update - learned the other day from one of the senior parts counter guys at Red McCombs that they DO NOT use 0W-20 weight oil in the 5th Gen 4 Runners. He told me that they have a 200 gallon tank filled with Valvoline semi-synthetic 5W-30 and that EVERY vehicle that comes in the place gets this oil. I then said "you don't use 0W-20 oil in the 5th Gen 4 runners"? His reply...NOPE. Every vehicle gets the Valvoline 5W-30 semi-synthetic oil. The 0W-20 they have in the parts area is sold to customers who come in asking for it.
Change your own oil.
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