Dealer shocked me! Not sure what to think.

D

DC runner

New member
This is just a gripe. I am here with everyone on doing most of your own work. I have in the last 15 years never taken a car I owned to a dealer, except to physically pick a part up.

I finally broke down and allowed the dealer to do a fluid exchange on my 2004 v8. It has 110k on it and I wanted it done.

They call me and tell me 1. my brakes are down to the metal and 2. my caliper is frozen.

This is irritating to say the least. I have had 0 braking issue and when I bought the truck in august, I had a full vehicle inspection done by the nearest toyota dealership. It was not the dealership that sold me the truck.


I am about to go pick it up and will take a look myself. I am trying to think if I have noticed any braking issues? Worn pads I get and thanked them for checking.

In anyone's experience. Can the calipers seize up without any physical evidence? I am the guy that checks every rim when I get gas or after a long trip to see if the rims are hot. A seized up caliper will usually heat up the rims.

Anyway. None of that. Oh well. I have changed calipers many times, I just wasn't expecting to do it.. NOW.. in WINTER... in D.C. where I don't have access to a garage. I will be driving down to TN where I have a house with a large two bay garage, so if it is serious I will just do some brake work while I am down.
 
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anytime ive experienced that on previous vehicles, you can always tell/feel it. Could be them yanking your chain
 
Update on this.

Picked my truck up. They changed their story. They still say my pads are close to needing to be changed which I am fine with.

But now, instead of saying my calipers are totally frozen they said they might freeze up on me and that they appeared to be working.

I just smiled. You shifty a-holes. They met someone who knew about cars and backed off, real quick.

She drove great home. I had the transmission fluid exchanged and had 0 problems.
 
That's awful! :( I'm sorry to hear about this. My family are good friends with the Barker's who owns quite a few of dealerships here in VB, and we never have problems being causedby the dealership we visit when we need our vehicles serviced. But then that could be because of the fact that we know the owners of the dealership & the employees doesn't want to get in trouble if they try hustle us :(
 
Brakes may freeze up? Well I guess the motor is about to blow and the tires are about to disenegrate as well. Be careful next time you hit the brakes the body mounts might brake and off you go.
 
There's a Nissan dealer near me that I went to years ago to get an exhaust looked at on my then 1990 Pathfinder. I went to a local muffler shop..but he said the part I needed was dealer only and it would take him a couple days. So off to the dealer I went.

Of course when you bring it in they check everything.

They came back with an estimate of $2500. One was the timing belt (which I had just replaced 2 weeks earlier). And cam seals (which I also replaced). I asked them how they could possible think the cam seals needed replacing. The mechanic showed me some oil on the engine (which I probably had spilled a little when I did an oil change the day before). He concluded that it MUST have been from the cam seal. I guess that for many people who don't know the first things about cars they would have said yes to the $2500 service.

Not only did I NOT get the service...I also drove 30 miles PAST this dealership to another Nissan dealership when I bought my next pathfinder. This dealer is still in business ripping people off daily. I guess ignorance is bliss.
 
I went threw something similar, dealers always change their tone when you have someone that knows cars. I'm glad to hear the fluid exchange went well for you. You have sealed trans right?
 
Yes. I have a sealed transmission. I have always done my own fluid maintenance, but I just couldn't do this. I live on the Hill in D.C., and it is against city ordinance to do that work on the street. For pretty good reason. You see people who don't care just dump crap on the street.

I do manage to do my own oil changes. I drop 0 oil on the ground and it is pretty quick job. To do the transmission job right it was going to be complex. Apparently you have to do it at certain temps.. etc, etc. So, yea, I broke down and paid the dealer. For that part they were spot on and very open with me.

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I am driving to TN in 2 weeks where I have a house with a HUGE 2 bay garage and a couple of close buddies and I are going to work on stuff. They have some jobs they want to do, and my garage is the largest and best place to work in the winter. So, we are going to pull the calipers and see what is up.

The combination of them changing their story and me noticing 0 driving issues has me suspicious. My truck has no adverse braking issues at all. It stops on a dime, always. It doesn't pull. There isn't a rumble in the steering when I brake. My rims are never hot when I stop, even after a lot of city start and go driving. They are barely warm honestly. Exactly what you would expect in winter, with a functioning brake system.

So. Who knows.


Anyway. The fluid exchange. I was a bit nervous. 110k miles and no fluid change before, that I could find documentation of when I bought the truck 6 months ago... but no problems.

My transmission doesn't work "better" and it worked great before. I had them show me the fluid color. About what you would expect. Pink... but not pristine. So, nothing at all.

If you haven't had it done, and your tranny is working great; I recommend you do it. As has been noted... a fluid change won't damage a healthy tranny.
 
You will get several different responses, depending on who you ask. I think the general rule of thumb I have been told is 100k. Either a fluid exchange or several drain and fills.

I think there is some debate by dealers and toyota proper about what the phrase "life" means on the fluid. The WS standard fluid is marketed as "life" of the transmission fluid, but I don't know for sure.
 
According to my dealer and my owners manual the fluid NEVER needs to be changed..

But it's cheap insurance to change it periodically. I have mine changed every 50k miles. I tend to keep my vehicles a long time (usually past 300k miles). Far cheaper to change every 50k miles then to replace a tranny.
 
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