UtahSooner
New member
I'd been wondering if spending the extra $$ on the 100,000 mile extended warranty was worth it or if I'd just thrown money away when I picked up my 2010 TE ~4.5 years ago. I knew that I'd roll over 100k on or before our Christmas road trip to AZ so when I took her in for an oil change before the trip I asked the tech to check over everything he could think of to make sure there weren't any issues that would be covered under warranty. She'd been driving fine but after reading the wheel bearing thread I was wondering if mine might be on their way out... Well, once the truck was on the lift I gave her my typical walk around to check the suspension, wheel bearings, etc (since the TRD wheel damage fiasco they've let me back in the service area to keep an eye on the wheels and do any of the lug removal/install work necessary). Once I made it to the passenger side front wheel to check the bearings, I noticed some oil spray residue in the wheel well -- it looked relatively fresh but there wasn't any oil on the tire so I knew they hadn't rolled it thru a fluid puddle on the trip from the drive in to the service bay. It had been a few weeks since I'd really looked at the passenger side closely (that side is against the wall in our garage so it's a bit out of sight, out of mind) but I definitely didn't have any oil on my garage floor to cause prior alarm. After pulling the skids we found a "tremendous buildup of gunk" on the bottom of the engine and surrouding hoses, etc and, after discussing with one of the senior techs they determined that the oil was coming from a leaky timing cover. It was a slow leak but it had obviously been going on for some time with the amount of gunk that had been building up. So, the service guy tells me that he'd guess ~20% of Toyota trucks have a timig cover problem at some point if the part isn't put on exactly right at the factory (apparently there's a small indentation that the gasket needs to fit into and if it's even a hair out of place it'll leak). Tells me the last time they had to replace a timing cover on a 4Runner it was a ~$1600 job, to which I replied "good thing I still have 148 miles left on my extended warranty!!!" Since the leak was very slight and she'd been holding oil just fine they said we'd be fine for the AZ road trip so we scheduled a date for the repair after we returned from the trip. Warranty repair was approved and as part of the work they'd have to do the coolant flush service that we were planning to do with the oil change -- so the upside is that I wasn't going to have to pay for the coolant flush service. Well, dropped her off yesterday and expected it would take a 1.5-2 days to get done...
Got a call this afternoon that they'd discovered that in order to get access to the timing cover they were going to have to pull the engine!!! The instructions apparently stated that engine removal wasn't required (I'm going to dig into the manual later and see if this is correct) and they'd been on the phone with Toyota to get direction on how to proceed. Toyota told them that since my VIN starts with a "JT" it was one of the early production runs and the engine will in fact need to be removed to gain access to the timing cover for the repair. Awesome. Happy New Year and 100k Birthday baby, your minor surgery just turned into a fairly major ordeal
Oh, and in the process of removing the radiator one of the hose nipples broke off so I'm getting a new radiator as well...
Good news is that all of this is going to be covered under warranty and the tech doing the work has 34 years experience and is their most meticulous guy (according to one of the other service guys I know there). Bad news is that my engine looks like she got scapled and started puking parts onto the floor!!! I had no intention of getting rid of her anytime soon but after seeing half my engine parts setting to the side I'm more than a little concerned that I might be set up for other problems down the road even the best service guy doing the work...
Please, somebody tell me I'm crazy and she'll be fine, maybe even better than brand new when they get her put back together!
I'm thinking of having them go ahead and change the plugs while they're in there since they're due at 120k anyway. Any other recommendations for service items I should have them do while everything is in pieces???
Got a call this afternoon that they'd discovered that in order to get access to the timing cover they were going to have to pull the engine!!! The instructions apparently stated that engine removal wasn't required (I'm going to dig into the manual later and see if this is correct) and they'd been on the phone with Toyota to get direction on how to proceed. Toyota told them that since my VIN starts with a "JT" it was one of the early production runs and the engine will in fact need to be removed to gain access to the timing cover for the repair. Awesome. Happy New Year and 100k Birthday baby, your minor surgery just turned into a fairly major ordeal
Oh, and in the process of removing the radiator one of the hose nipples broke off so I'm getting a new radiator as well...Good news is that all of this is going to be covered under warranty and the tech doing the work has 34 years experience and is their most meticulous guy (according to one of the other service guys I know there). Bad news is that my engine looks like she got scapled and started puking parts onto the floor!!! I had no intention of getting rid of her anytime soon but after seeing half my engine parts setting to the side I'm more than a little concerned that I might be set up for other problems down the road even the best service guy doing the work...
Please, somebody tell me I'm crazy and she'll be fine, maybe even better than brand new when they get her put back together!
I'm thinking of having them go ahead and change the plugs while they're in there since they're due at 120k anyway. Any other recommendations for service items I should have them do while everything is in pieces???
