How has the dealership tried to screw you?

[bayaz]

My friend runs a Mercedes shop but doesn’t have a locksmith license. Towed a Benz to the dealer to remove the wheel lock suck in an open position, which requires a locksmith license and 1hr of labor according to Mercedes official repair manual. Dealer took two days to just estimate a quote, and asked for about $2k. They are just knowingly overcharging.

 

[BadTrainDriver]

the $1900 charge for rear struts is great. remove wheel, 2 bolts, replace with another generic $50 shock.

Pay attention or shut up. You're only making yourself look stupid.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

It's always insulting the number they give you on trades. Take whatever blue book you see and it will be 50-60% of that.

They're trade in values are supposedly based on a mild profit over the bare minimum they can be sold at dealer auction. Which I always thought was a bit annoying given the KBB and such is they don't seem to account for that? At least no dealer I've ever dealt with used any of those websites/systems for trade-ins. But I agree, the values can be insulting given what they'll turn around and sell them for with minimal work invested in them and an "as is" tag (fielded the used car repair section of my old dealer with my coworker for years, far too versed in that bullshit... :/ )

My friend runs a Mercedes shop but doesnÂ’t have a locksmith license. Towed a Benz to the dealer to remove the wheel lock suck in an open position, which requires a locksmith license and 1hr of labor according to Mercedes official repair manual. Dealer took two days to just estimate a quote, and asked for about $2k. They are just knowingly overcharging.

Wait... do they actually have a locking mechanism in them? It has been a while since I did any work on a Mercedes. I'll have to ask the Mercedes guys next door when I have time, that's fascinating.

 

[mmeuli]

What's the mileage on your 2016 mmeuli? ..just out of curiosity?

BTW: Happy to hear you found the $40 fix to remedy Toyota's $9000 estimate.

175,000. Commuted from Charleston to Savannah for a few years.

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[mmeuli]

Would have liked to see pictures of the rear main seal area... Usually they leak because the oil gets baked and forms a hard ring on the crankshaft and allows it to seep by the seal (highly recommend lightly scrubbing the crankshaft before you reinstall the new seal). The other thing, that is a bit more rare but I just dealt with it on a 2019 a while back was that the oil galley plug above the rear main seal will seep oil and look like a traditional rear main seal plate leak. There's no "official" fix for this beyond a short block, but it can be fixed with some creative thinking if you're willing to risk it.

As for the timing cover leak, again would have been nice to see pictures (does this dealership not do that?), but you might still have an actual timing cover leak. Though I would be shocked to find one pissing a quart a day, if I noticed the cover was actively dripping like that, it would be a red flag for sure. I have seen a few Toyota Oil Pressure Switches/Sensors leaking badly, something about the crimp seal or something, they'll literally pour out of the connector housing. We had a rash of them years ago, a bad batch from the supplier I guess? But haven't seen it as often in the last two-three years.

Judging roughly by the vehicle you own and the estimates I am going to guess you have an XREAS system. Generally speaking, if the vehicle is high mileage and you're showing signs of a decent leak on the shock, it's recommended by Toyota to replace the companion shock, center dampener, and associated lines. Also standard practice is to replace shocks in axle pairs, which because it's XREAS, ends up meaning all 4 shocks, center dampeners, and lines. So that's not out of the ordinary, though pictures of the leak would have been nice to see as if it wasn't too bad a leak and you have relatively low mileage you could probably try getting away with just 1 shock.

I can't say they weren't trying to screw you, I have heard some horror stories both on the forum and from others in the industry about dealerships on the East Coast and Southern Regions (not just Toyota ones). But depending on the age/mileage/condition of your vehicle and the actual condition of the leaks when they recommended it, it's possible that whoever looked at the vehicle just didn't catch the signs of a leaking oil pressure sender (again, it's uncommon... but I have seen it happen a few times) and just recommended what they are used to seeing. That being said, they are a business; what would have been truly sleazy is to charge you $4k for a timing cover reseal and then make you pay for the oil sender replacement even though it'd be their incorrect diagnosis on your active oil leak.

It was 100% the oil switch. It's been over a week since I finished the repairs and no oil has leaked.

This is what I think: the oil pressure switch on the 5th Gen is right under the belt by the water pump. If it's leaking and you're moving, oil gets slung around by the belt, including down the block and bell housing, and flows down the transmission cooler lines. Basically gets everywhere. If I'm leaking a quart a day, it's going to be everywhere, which it was.

So either they thought I, having seen all the oil and dirt/sludge that resulted, would simply take their word for it that the only likely cause were both the RMS and timing cover failing at the exact same time, or they were just downright lazy, didn't clean off the old oil or even try to actually diagnose the issue. Either way, it's funny how they still recommended what they did.

As for the struts, the only one with a little oil on it (caked on) has had that stain for about 100,000 miles. Never had an issue and it's always ridden perfectly fine. Nothing about it suggests it's an active or new leak.

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[mmeuli]

I have mostly avoided the local dealers since purchase in 2019. Last month I needed a zero point calibration, the "service consultant" had no idea what I was talking about, and when she returned from a discussion with someone more senior, she quoted three hours of labor. I drove off and fixed it myself with a paper clip in 15 minutes.

The first mod I did after purchasing the vehicle was to remove the dealer name from the tailgate. The second mod was to swap out the license plate frame.

Now that's awesome! These are the stories I was searching for [emoji1787]

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[Sonoran_Desert]

Bought 2017 SR5 new and had a rattle squeak on or around glove box. After a few months of the squeak I progressed to the all familiar "time to drive my new truck off a cliff" frame of mind.

Precision Toyota in Tucson (not where I bought) took the situation seriously and put a Master Tech on my rattle issue. This tech traced it back to a squeak around the airbag install behind dash passenger side. He had to take most of the dash apart. Nobody could have done what this tech did for me. Truck squeak and rattle free since.

 

[supermark]

not service dept but this. That spray can paint job was like next level no shame. Talk to the manager joking you can at least take off the masking tape, and no fucckk was given, he dont even care....

There are tons of west coast salt belt rental 4runer hitting the used market in southern CA.

 

[214RUNNER]

I felt the screw starting to turn soon as I stepped on the propety in front of the dealership