The Navel of Narcissus

I took my RAV4 down to the local Jiffy Lube yesterday for an oil change and discovered two things. First, that the hood would not unlatch, and second, that the vehicle was leaking some sort of fluid at a noticeable rate. Noticeable, that is, when the helpful Jiffy Lube employee pointed it out for which I'm very thankful.

Jiffy Lube sent me on my way since they could do nothing for me. Luckily, I was on the Automile--a stretch of Rt. 1 south of Boston famous for having a car dealership for pretty much every make of car on the market. The Toyota dealership was just a mile or so down the road (the Automile these days stretches for considerably more than a mile.)

I had to wait about two hours for a diagnosis, which isn't great, but they were busy and I dropped in unannounced, so I'm certainly not complaining.

They got the hood latch unjammed without a problem. The fluid was transmission fluid. There's a leak in the pan and the hoses are all rotted out. Yesterday, they were inituially hopeful they could get the parts for today, but found that one of the parts wasn't even in the country and would have to be ordered. They told me they'd have a better idea on Monday how long it would take to get the repair done.

This morning, I received eight email messages from Toyota, each titled SPECIAL ORDER PART ARRIVED. So far, they've received:

The remaining part is on back-order. While it's frustrating to not have the vehicle, I do appreciate the email notifications as a way of keeping me informed about forward progress.

Comments:

Why did Toyota's famed regular preventative maintenance not find these issues before they became a problem? Hmm, or did you skip a few (like 4 or 5?) of those 7K5 mile maintenances?

Posted by 192.18.43.10 on November 22, 2006 at 12:00 PM EST #

Excellent question. I bought this used and haven't been taking very good care of it, so this is my own fault to be sure. My fault and the used car dealer's---given the way this vehicle has worn over time, I think they sold me one of those cars with a questionable history and some hidden problems.

Posted by Josh Simons on November 22, 2006 at 12:40 PM EST #

At least your service and parts people are working with you. I'm on my second Tacoma, deliver papers for a living, and have a few issues with Toyota service policies. Does anyone out there have a loud ticking from their 4.0 V6? My dealer service manager told me that they are "noisy" motors. It's getting worse now and and exaust smoke is evident at start-up. My sales person has the same vehicle but he hears no noise with his Tacoma. Who in Toyota Mgt. can verify wether it is a noisy motor or a lazy service department, or a Toyota policy to try to make these problems go away through ignorance and denial? Someone out there must know something.

Posted by David Berry on April 22, 2007 at 08:46 AM EDT #