TOYOTA Servicing......... Oh what a &^%$#!!! feeling!!!!!!

[flyology Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close flyology]

I am trying not to go off. I am trying to keep calm. But it is pretty hard when Toyota treat your vehicle like this......

I had the Turbo unit replaced under warranty back in June. Had code P0048 come up in September.... why? because whoever did the work didn’t clip the VNT motor cables back into place, causing the cable to sit on the exhaust/dump pipe..... eventually melted the cable shield and insulation and shorted the wires out. I found this two hours West of Charters Towers, luckily I was able to access it through the driver side wheel arch, cut all the burnt crap off and re insulate with tape and cable tie it back up. Also found a bolt missing from a bracket on the intercooling piping, that holds a bracket on for the wiring harness to clip into.

Had the Prado service when I was in the NT, told them about the issues and asked them to check the turbo and surrounds to make sure there were no other issues. Picked vehicle up, go for a drive and after 20 minutes it is shuddering like crazy, hand/park brake shoes incorrectly adjusted. (I have had another mechanic do this to my vehicle also) ring up, take it back and young mechanic meets me out the front full of attitude, insinuating I have no idea what I am talking about. The hand brake was so over adjusted the stench of burnt brakes filled the vehicle bay, and with the hand brake off it was impossible to move the car by on a level surface with one person pushing it
.
Was fixed quickly, but I have concerns if my rear discs or pads are now nearly shot.

Drive back from the NT (got back Tuesday 13th) and on Monday afternoon nearing Townsville I can hear a slight whooshing noise on acceleration. I baby it home (I have an idea it’s a boost leak) and this morning get a competent mechanic to look and take the turbo to intercooler pipe off and find the coupling is stuffed. Looking at it I am of the firm belief it was damaged when the turbo was replaced, why else would it fail?

Maybe this has something to do with the fixed price servicing, mechanics are probably being rushed as the dealership is not getting the big bucks.....


TOYOTA, get your act together.

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

I can understand why you'd be pissed off. I think it is not just a Toyota problem but an industry problem, particularly at dealers where everything is done with a stop watch. Its not helped by the "she'll" be right attitude that doesn't have a place in a mechanics workshop.

[Dusty74 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dusty74]

Mate just wondering which workshop you had the work done. Obviously Pacific here in Cairns is the dealer, but I've found the Smithfield one a bit better to deal with.

Cheers,
Dusty

[flyology Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close flyology]

Dusty, I should have pointed out that it was not Pacific that did the work, they did the 10K service on it, then I took it to a private (but qualified, for the 20K service) mechanical workshop who stuffed the hand brake up adjustment the first time (why F&^&%K with something if it is working fine???). I rang them (it was just after 5pm) left a message on the answering machine, and didn't even get a call back to see if I was ok. I was in Innisfail when the handbrake was burning the first time (just after the 20K service), took it to the dealer there (it was just after 5pm) young bloke stayed back to fix it, spent half and hour making sure it was ok and then would not take any money for his time. I think I need to specifically request him when I want any servicing or work done on the vehicle.......

[Anth120playdo Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Anth120playdo]

I can understand why you'd be pissed off. I think it is not just a Toyota problem but an industry problem, particularly at dealers where everything is done with a stop watch. Its not helped by the "she'll" be right attitude that doesn't have a place in a mechanics workshop.

Thats about right. rush rush rush. many of the kids in the back of dealerships like Toyota ones dont know and/or care about much.
Not much has changed there in the 20 years i have been in the industry.

Its hard to find people who can fix your car or anything, even harder to find people who dont stuff it or something/s else while they are trying.

very frustrating

Im enjoying not owning vehicles with warranty anymore......

[zzsstt Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zzsstt]

Some years ago I used to build racing and modified cars in a large workshop under my house (just for fun). A young partially deaf kid lived down the road, and after a few weekend "walk pasts" he plucked up courage and came in to see what was happening. At this point he was still at school, and became a fixture in our workshop helping out at weekends. When he left school, he got an apprenticeship at a local car dealership (not Toyota, but another major manufacturer). We didn't see him for a few weeks. When he next turned up at our workshop he was very pumped up about his new job. They were teaching him how to do basic service jobs, We asked him about it. He explained that the mechanics taught him how to do the jobs, and he also went to college and to the manufacturers training classes. Then he told us that all three (mechanic, college and manufacturer) taught him how to do the job "by the book". So, the example he gave, to change a fan belt you loosen the alternator, push it back against the block, replace the belt and then tension the new belt and tighten the alternator. However, once he had been taught to do this the mechanics taught him that most of that wasn't actually required. What you "really" do is to use the handle of a hammer to lever off the old belt, then use the same hammer to lever the new one on........ He was very proud that he, like the rest of the mechanics at his dealership, could change a fan belt in 30 seconds. He was quite sure there were many other such timesaving tricks he could teach us.

No, I'm not joking.

[gspy4u Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gspy4u]

Gotta love the pimple faced apprentices that do the work on your car. Alway had our prado serviced, but now it's older do it myself. Go to change front diff oil, no go drain plug buggered and impossible to get off. Had t be chiseled off. Checking oil leaks from transfer and guess what ! Some dork had over tightened the filler plug so now has a crack in it. Wonderful. Thank goodness for J.B. Weld at least.

Had a Ralliart, brand new drove it home to have a rattle in the exhaust. Finally convinced the dealership there was a problem, they kept the car for a couple of weeks, replaced the whole turbo system as a rivet in the wastegate had broken loose. In the process they had snapped a couple of bolts off the manifold so had to get a guy in the fix it.
get the car back, all fine for about 3mths except strange error whenever you thrashed it too much.

Then on the way to work one day miss's rings and says there is steam and beeping coming from the car. Pulls over, blown coolant hose.
Took it to a different dealer (good one this time) and they had to strip the turbo off, machine the manifold as it was warped and replace 3 studs as the other place had just used bolts for the broken ones. Also the coolant hose from the turbo wasn't mounted properly and hence had rubbed enough to break. Also manifold not bolted on correctly (hence warped) and has been leaking. Explained why it went into limp mode every now and then.

Goota love the great service some places give you.

[Riv39 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Riv39]

Had my oil and filter changed and they managed to stuff up the seal on the new filter as I found out the next morning when I backed the car out of my garage. At least I know the filter was changed......

[BobTheMonkey Member Find all posts View Profile Close BobTheMonkey]

10k service, tailpipe is now bashing on the body at 900rpm.. 1k+ it's ok. This is the 2nd time I put my car in since the 10k service. First time they put one of my tyres on backwards.

[Bear63 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bear63]

You have directional tyres on your Prado?

[BobTheMonkey Member Find all posts View Profile Close BobTheMonkey]

You have directional tyres on your Prado?

No but when 1 out of 4 tires now had the white writing the opposite way it's just poor, makes you realise how much attention to detail do they pay?

I didn't really give a shit what way they faced as long as they rotated them evenly, how can you be confident they even rotated them at all?

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

It's not just Toyota. My off-sider put his transit van into Ford for a fixed price service. Goes to pick it up and he's expecting to pay $300 but the bill is almost $700. They've done a carbon clean and cleaned out the inlet manifold (it's a diesel) and want nearly $400 for the work that he didn't authorise. The service rep offers to take $50 off the bill to make him feel better!

[BobTheMonkey Member Find all posts View Profile Close BobTheMonkey]

Have to agree service in general is poor across the board in this country, I'm also interstate so I'm sure they just looked at the plates and did a half assed job. It's seems unless you buy your car from them your 2nd rate.

[brogers Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close brogers]

Have to agree service in general is poor across the board in this country, I'm also interstate so I'm sure they just looked at the plates and did a half assed job. It's seems unless you buy your car from them your 2nd rate.

Even if you did purchase your car from them its no different,,,,its not actually "Toyota Servicing:...its dealerships, yes I know Toyota accredit them, but some dealerships are just hopeless. My wife has a Mazda, and we go to the lcoal Mazda Dealership, and they are absolutely fantastic (and we tell them so)...they area very reasonably priced, we have never had to "ask" for any warranty repairs, they in fact have found things and let us know that the have arranged to have it reapiaired under warranty...such as a small CV joint leak, etc. With the Toyota dealership, they seem to not even want to anything under warranty, in fact just the opposite. I will NOT use a Toyota dealership regularly once out of warranty. I know you don't have to use a Toyota dealership even whilst in warranty, but from experience over teh years, its not worth the hassel if something goes wrong during the warranty and you have used another mechanic. In fact, I am am thinking of even using the Mazda dealership to service the Toyota they are currently so effienient and do such a good job....but anyway, the local toyota dealerships seem to be using young apprentices and many don't seem to be terribly capable of experienced, and it shows.....arghhhh

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

My wife's family have been using the same mechanic in Toowoomba for years and when I took the Prado to them two times to do to a few things here and there that I wasn't confident in doing myself I realised they were pretty shonky. They are very cheap and replaced my alternator for $450 but didn't fit the bracket holding the two batteries down properly and had I not checked it the batteries would've bounced out of the battery trays on a rough track. They replaced my timing belt, all other belts, radiator hoses, flushed the radiator and changed the water pump for close to $800 but didn't screw some bolts back in after their work and I noticed them sticking out when I got home and lifted the bonnet. I wound them in by hand before tightening them properly. It was a joke. They also didn't fit the bottom radiator hose to the engine block properly as it was just covering the very edge of the pipe it slips over. The bracket was tightened but it was not something you could trust. Their workshop is full of "kids" and I'm thinking with the radiator hose the kid who fitted it wasn't strong enough to wriggle it all the way on properly and didn't want to ask for help for some reason. The owner of the business and his wife are flat out in the office on the phones and doing the paperwork all day long and obviously don't double check all of the work prior to the client being called.

6 months prior my wife had the coolant replaced in her car as part of the service schedule and a week later when she was halfway between driving from Brisbane to Toowoomba on a Sunday night she suddenly smelt the engine burning. Steam/smoke started to bellow out from the gaps around the bonnet and then the engine seized at 80km/h. She lost steering and nearly ended up in a 2m deep roadside gully while trying to pull the car over safely. The tow truck driver who arrived looked around the radiator and saw the bottom hose had popped off the radiator and the clamp that was supposed to hold it on was missing. The workshop replaced the engine under warranty with a used one that had done 30,000km less and reimbursed her for the towing. They admitted they had problems with the work done by that particular mechanic and that they had sacked him since.

I refuse to take my car to them ever again. I'm now servicing my wife's car as well and also her parent's car with all the fluid changes, etc and let the mechanic do anything else. They had been servicing the in-laws X-Trail for a couple of years, and all their cars prior to that for many years. When I lifted the bonnet on the X-Trail and checked the power steering fluid, etc, before buying the oils required it was so black. I was blown away. These mongrels had never changed the power steering fluid. It takes years for the power steering fluid to get that dark in colour. The level was just below the minimum line too. It's now got nice bright red fluid in it but it makes me wonder what else have they neglected. Not good. I'm yet to try Toyota in Toowoomba but will give them a go soon for some propellor shaft and steering knuckle greasing. Hopefully they don't make a dog's breakfast of that.