Well, wife and I went to OKC this week to visit her sister and we took the 01 4runner we bought in Feb. The check engine light came on when we got there so I took it in and the Mass Air Flow sensor was out ($320) so they replaced that. I did a search and found that I could have tried cleaning it, but the dealership there had me over a barrel as they charge $95 to hook up a diagnostic computer to it that supposedly is taken off of any repairs done there so even had I done it myself I would have been in about the same shape $ wise. The guy there also brought out a list of other things that "should be done". I bought this car as a Toyota certified used car with 63K on it (it's got 67K now) and it had a completed service packet to that point showing all maint. had been performed with Toyota service stamped on almost every page. This included the big 60K service and showed that it was performed. The dealer in OKC said the tranny fluid needed to be changed, the plugs needed to be changed, and the coolant and PS steering fluid should be changed, along with cleaning the injectors. Supposedly at the 60K service all of this was performed, so one of two things has happened. The OKC guy figured since I was from out of town he'd take me for all he could, OR someone fudged the service records at some point and the 60K service never happened. I did check the car over before buying, but I have never (believe it!) owned a vehicle with an automatic tranny, so I have no idea what it should look like with 7K on it. It is not perfectly clear and does not smell burned, but it a little on the dark side (not real dark, but not new looking either). I haven't pulled the plugs yet to check them, but coolant looks fine and I've never heard of changing PS fluid. Wouldn't Toyota change the fluids etc when the car was marked to be sold as a certified used car? That makes sense to me, but again, anyone can check the little "change transmission fluid" box and that doesn't mean it was done. I'm not real keen on just going in and having a bunch of unneeded work done, but I don't want to neglect the vehicle if it wasn't done when the records say. The local dealership changed the oil last monday and checked green boxes all the way down, and the OKC guy said "your battery is going bad" (batteries are either bad or they aren't, so the fact that the guy tried to sell me on that one tells my gut that he's out to sell me the proverbial unneeded work). I think the guy in OKC was yanking my chain, but was wanting some outside input. Will Toyota certify a used car without having proof that the vehicle was maintained (as in receipts that the work was done)? Anybody can fill out the service records, but since all but a couple of them are stamped with "toyota service" I would think I could pull up records of service that has been performed. Thanks!
Serviced at 60K or not?
- Thread starter wm69
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lee
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its bad enough you got fudged on the MAF, dont let that guy touch your truck ever again.
take it back to the dealer who sold it as certified and ask to speak to the service manager, and ONLY the service manager. if hes out, come back later.
tell him your story, making sure to indicate it was another toy dealer who told you all of this.
then demand he looks it over. theyll usually bite the bullet and look it over and be honest. if you feel theyre not, take it for a 3rd opinion.
i highly doubt you need new plugs, to say the least.
take it back to the dealer who sold it as certified and ask to speak to the service manager, and ONLY the service manager. if hes out, come back later.
tell him your story, making sure to indicate it was another toy dealer who told you all of this.
then demand he looks it over. theyll usually bite the bullet and look it over and be honest. if you feel theyre not, take it for a 3rd opinion.
i highly doubt you need new plugs, to say the least.
Re: Re: Serviced at 60K or not?
yep, don't you love it when you're out of town and the car messes up? 10 min on a computer would have told me all I needed to know to do the thing myself. I contacted Toyota to find out if I can get service records from the dealership where the maint was probaby performed (some boxes have the dealers name written it, and some are just stamped with "toyota dealer service" in them. Thanks for the reply. I'll contact the dealership I bought the car from, but they're about 75 miles away and with my accord getting wrecked we're down to the 4runner and an old jeep CJ to get us around. Wife can't drive the jeep and I can't leave her without a vehicle if I were to take the runner to the dealer where I bought it.
lee said:
yep, don't you love it when you're out of town and the car messes up? 10 min on a computer would have told me all I needed to know to do the thing myself. I contacted Toyota to find out if I can get service records from the dealership where the maint was probaby performed (some boxes have the dealers name written it, and some are just stamped with "toyota dealer service" in them. Thanks for the reply. I'll contact the dealership I bought the car from, but they're about 75 miles away and with my accord getting wrecked we're down to the 4runner and an old jeep CJ to get us around. Wife can't drive the jeep and I can't leave her without a vehicle if I were to take the runner to the dealer where I bought it.
