Dealership Service: Never Trust, Always Verify

[cbreze]

I have to trust the dealer I bought from as I'm to damn old to do my own underneath work anymore. Now if I had a lift, ah, sweet, but digressing.
What I can do is pop the hood and check all fluids and do an over all inspection. I can look for drips underneath but cannot crawl completely underneath even tho the truck is lifted and plenty of room for someone more agile.
I have found a pretty good shop tho where I have had some icons rebuilt and they did good so I'd go back there. So far I've had no mechanical issues with Toyota OEM stuff and is mainly the reason I bought another Toyota for the reliability.
To the OP, that would piss me off majorly and I doubt I'd have left the place without crawling around if able to do so underneath especially after finding the engine bay a mess.

 

[catrains]

I understand all of this dealership damage .. it does happen. low skilled workers floor sweepers do the oil changes ..

my family member has the T4R serviced at Tewksbury , ma toyota .. all the oil changes and servicing.. she for some reason asked me to check out the work.. NOW I always tell them before they drive off make sure they did the work check vehicle out...

so what happened was they spilled oil all over the intake manifold a big mess injectors etc and the oil not filled.. then they did not top off the fluids as this is the job.. pays over $100 for the work;;.

so I talked to the service manager , showed all the screw ups and he had it all cleaned up and the next oil change for free...

now IMO never do I have a person do my oil changes .. even if they the dealership payed me to have then do the oil changes..

looking at your picture they over cranked the filter cap one full turn ..

the O ring does the seal not the cranking ... 10 ft lbs is all required as it was @3K miles on my 2016...

must bring it back they must fix all the damage and make sure all the pan screws also.. they use power tools to put hardware on then its all messed up..

SOME CAN NOT DO OIL CHANGES I UNDERSTAND THAT...CONDO TOO OLD HANDICAP ...

 

[Quebec]

Update:

I'm posting now on my mobile from the same dealership so excuse my brevity.

I'd like to thank everyone expressing their concern and sharing their advice and experiences in this thread. Feels better knowing you're not alone and your experience not unique.

This morning I called back to the dealer's service dept. Neither the original service manager, the secondary SM, or their managers were in. I calmly explained my concerns over the phone to a new SM and we agreed it was best to have it towed in.

Unexpectantly, it was already pulled into one of the bays when I arrived 20 minutes later in the girlfriend-mobile. They have reduced hours on the weekend and the lobby is packed compared to midweek.

The service manager I'm working with now is being helpful. He acknowledges that the filter housing is cracked and they will be replacing it. They are also going to replace the oil again and then run some sort of diagnostic to ensure there are no other issues. I'm grateful that they are trying to fix that obviously damaged part without any further prompting on my behalf.

Mid-update-update:hey've brought it out once so far to show me the new filter housing installed. He said I had already lost a half quart of the 6.6 the engine requires. They are buttoning up the skid plates now and I should be on my way.

Hopefully this story ends here, but the lessons remain. Inspect and verify. Trust your gut. I was supposed to be 700 miles from here exactly at this time, but I'm glad I didn't.

 

[4FL]

Wow, thanks for sharing. I just got my oil changed at the dealer, so a bit paranoid, lol. But there are no oil spots and the engine compartment looks clean.

I have no way to change my own oil, live in a condo.

 

[wsgoat]

Toyota could offer me free oil changes for life and I wouldn't take it. Kudos to the OP for checking the vehicle after the work was performed...what a bunch of hacks.

 

[nb rob]

Update:

I'm posting now on my mobile from the same dealership so excuse my brevity.

I'd like to thank everyone expressing their concern and sharing their advice and experiences in this thread. Feels better knowing you're not alone and your experience not unique.

This morning I called back to the dealer's service dept. Neither the original service manager, the secondary SM, or their managers were in. I calmly explained my concerns over the phone to a new SM and we agreed it was best to have it towed in.

Unexpectantly, it was already pulled into one of the bays when I arrived 20 minutes later in the girlfriend-mobile. They have reduced hours on the weekend and the lobby is packed compared to midweek.

The service manager I'm working with now is being helpful. He acknowledges that the filter housing is cracked and they will be replacing it. They are also going to replace the oil again and then run some sort of diagnostic to ensure there are no other issues. I'm grateful that they are trying to fix that obviously damaged part without any further prompting on my behalf.

Mid-update-update:hey've brought it out once so far to show me the new filter housing installed. He said I had already lost a half quart of the 6.6 the engine requires. They are buttoning up the skid plates now and I should be on my way.

Hopefully this story ends here, but the lessons remain. Inspect and verify. Trust your gut. I was supposed to be 700 miles from here exactly at this time, but I'm glad I didn't.

best case scenario follow-up. Thanks for the update!
Thank goodness you didn't take that trip.

I hope all is well.

 

[12Mk6gti]

I use the same tech each time whom I have know from back when he worked at the Lexus dealer next door when I had one. I text him my appt time and the service advisors and manager know how particular I am and only let him touch my vehicle and that includes driving it to and from the service dept to the shop. If I didn't have that ability I would service my own vehicle each time.

That is just unacceptable and shows how some dealers hire people who have no experience to make a quick profit off of a customer. Hopefully they can resolve the issue for you.

Ditto!

 

[Senorlechero]

Gah! That's terrible!

It's an unfortunate reality that most of the "service techs" at dealerships that handle stuff like oil changes are essentially HS grads that can turn a wrench.

Not saying they're all bad, but you know how it goes.

Sounds like they were pretty quick and decisive in correcting it, wish it never had to be corrected in the first place.

 

[catsponchovia]

Jeez! A good thing that you double checked their work. It sounds like you were happy with their remedy for the situation and I am glad they did not give you a hard time. Nevertheless, it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

 

[DougR]

Kudos to the OP for checking the vehicle after the work was performed...what a bunch of hacks.

This post led me to check on the service my wife recently received.

Tech did not adjust engine coolant level. It's well below the low level when engine is cold.

I checked the drive shaft and found the spider joints and yoke have never been greased because some excess grease would have been thrown onto the underbody. I lubed it myself after reading other posts about it (if the techs don't routinely do this service, then they don't know how to do it properly).

The front drive shaft was OK, as the 4-wheel drive is engaged on a one mile gravel road at ~2000 mile intervals. I didn't expect those joints to be dry.

The rear drive shaft spiders were dry. The first pump was easy, no pressure on the grease gun handle. Second pump was a little harder and finally on the third pump, grease started to ribbon out of the seals. The yoke slides receive no more than two pumps to avoid a hydraulic lock.

Edit: Toyota has three levels of service, Yellow, Green and Blue. Blue Service, recommended every 30,000 miles or 24 months includes lubrication of propeller shaft, re-torque of bolts and other items for $300. My wife didn't know to ask for it and it wasn't recommended to her.

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