Land Cruiser Warranty

[Marinna]

Does anybody know what exactly is the service coverage for our warranty?

I am taking my LC to a Toyota dealer in Washington do run some diagnosis of the P0171 code issue. The service advisor told me that if they can't find anything wrong with the car they will have to charge me the 1 .5 hour labor, even with the code present in the ECM. It sounds to me very unreasonable and I told them that is between Toyota and them, don't try to get me to foot the operating cost. I start to check online to see what can I use against the dealership right now in case they want to charge me to diagnose the engine code issue.

I already find weird enough that my LC has an engine code in just 3000 miles, and now I even have to pay for diagnostics for the dealer to find out what goes wrong?

 

[Proyota]

Was the code shown but not cleared, or is your truck still showing a fault?

 

[Marinna]

Was the code shown but not cleared, or is your truck still showing a fault?

I have to clear the code since it disabled a lot of systems on my car (even hybrid system was disabled)
But When I use a code reader it seems the P0171 code is hard burned into the ECM in an area that can't be erased.

 

[Nuke]

Under warranty, threw a lean air/fuel code, and they want to charge you? Sounds unreasonable. Any mods on it? You are in CA with a strong Lemon Law, so be sure the issue is logged in the Toyota database, and you have a hard copy.

 

[HammerTheWall]

I had a similar issue with my JLU not long before I got rid of it. An electrical connector behind the glove box that was the "master" connector for the engine info to the dash "corroded" and randomly took out power steering, power brakes, dash info, etc. I took it to the Jeep dealership and they read the codes, kept the car for 5 working days, and found nothing. They tried to charge me and I said for what? You had the codes, you had the vehicle, you didn't fix anything, so what am I paying for? I told them this is the worst parking lot fee in the whole area. They ended up waiving the diagnostic cost. The next time I took it in while it was happening and a different service advisor knew what was wrong within 15 minutes.

If they try to charge you and don't find anything, fight it. If they can't diagnose a problem with the codes then that's an issue between them and Toyota, and with no service rendered I'd pay nothing.

 

[Marinna]

Under warranty, threw a lean air/fuel code, and they want to charge you? Sounds unreasonable. Any mods on it? You are in CA with a strong Lemon Law, so be sure the issue is logged in the Toyota database, and you have a hard copy.

nope. it's all factory. I am worried that they might just said "we can't reproduce the issue, everything is fine, you probably just forget the tighten the cap, and here is the bill"

 

[Nuke]

Not a tech, but I would think a loose fuel cap would result in a code specific to the EVAP system, not a lean code. I would fight it.

 

[bennettlo]

I asked Toyota of Seattle about my squeaky brakes and was also told they'd charge me (something like $150) if they didn't find anything wrong. It was an effective deterrent, because you know they were going to say it's nothing...even though it's something.

 

[Roonie]

Interesting. I am going in for them to look at my squeeky brakes and a loud drivers vent that whistles (only one vent) and of course the seat heaters not heating great. All that is covered and they don't charge to look at the issues? Keeping it overnight. Toyota of Renton. Getting oil change at that time as well.

 

[Marinna]

I asked Toyota of Seattle about my squeaky brakes and was also told they'd charge me (something like $150) if they didn't find anything wrong. It was an effective deterrent, because you know they were going to say it's nothing...even though it's something.

I think brake squeaking is a bit tricky (I have that too, not significant though) given they can argue that it is fully functional and won't affect how you use the car. But I was thinking how to argue with an engine code. I can claim it happened (I can prove it) and it significantly affect the functionalities of the car. Then is "not being able to reproduce and/or root cause" the issue a justification for "nothing is wrong"?

Reading the warranty, it did only say that Toyota warranty only covers the case for repair, in which case diagnostics is part of the work. They did not define the situation when issue can't be reproduced so it seems to me that it is a gray area that Toyota leave it to the dealers and customers to foot the bill.

 

[bennettlo]

I agree, your scenario is a lot more convincing. I mostly wanted Toyota as a whole to recognize the brakes thing, so I backed off quickly.

You can try another dealership too, there are a ton of them with different policies.

 

[Marinna]

I agree, your scenario is a lot more convincing. I mostly wanted Toyota as a whole to recognize the brakes thing, so I backed off quickly.

You can try another dealership too, there are a ton of them with different policies.

I replaced a set of 10 years old braking pad on my old SUV and the problem is immediately gone. My understanding is that the squeaky noise from the brakes could be caused by improper installation of the breaks, or in my case the rubber aged/stiff. It wouldn't affect its function though, just very very annoying. It is very weird that it would happened on brand new vehicle. Perhaps Toyota has a minor design flaw that makes the brakes to scream? Perhaps it is also caused by the winter as well? I did not hear this until very recently on my car.

 

[bennettlo]

I suspect it is some minor flaw in the brakes that doesn't appear to affect the usability. I have had mine since May and have now heard it through a number of seasons.

 

[PACruiser]

I believe the Toyota policy is you only have to pay for the diagnostic fee if it turns out the cause is something not covered by warranty. E.g. normal wear and tear, maintenance, damage, mods etc.

Since you have a valid error code (P0171 - System too lean) you can ask them what the typical problems are like disfunctional mass airflow sensors and whether those repairs would be covered by warranty before taking it in for diagnostics.

For example, if it is a faulty sensor it is likely covered. If a rock somehow bounced up and damaged a sensor then it is not covered. Even more ambiguous, road dirt built up and the sensor works after cleaning so maybe not. I suggest you just give them some specific scenarios until you are confident in what is and is not covered.

 

[Marinna]

I believe the Toyota policy is you only have to pay for the diagnostic fee if it turns out the cause is something not covered by warranty. E.g. normal wear and tear, maintenance, damage, mods etc.

Since you have a valid error code (P0171 - System too lean) you can ask them what the typical problems are like disfunctional mass airflow sensors and whether those repairs would be covered by warranty before taking it in for diagnostics.

For example, if it is a faulty sensor it is likely covered. If a rock somehow bounced up and damaged a sensor then it is not covered. Even more ambiguous, road dirt built up and the sensor works after cleaning so maybe not. I suggest you just give them some specific scenarios until you are confident in what is and is not covered.

So it turns out that they decide to go easy on me and not charging me anything.

In most situations these guys would just give a reasonable effort to reproduce the issue the way they could, if the effort fail they will just tell you that they couldn’t reproduce it and call it the day. They told me they enable a self diagnostic mode and drive my LC for over 10 miles and everything turns out to be fine, but they do see the code in my system, that is probably why they did not bother to charge me I assume. At least that policy is reasonable for me.

 

[qberg]

I wonder if the code was set by fuel quality or something like that. A bad bit of fuel that doesn't burn correctly can cause a lean code. Could have also been some contamination in the fuel line or injectors that was eventually pushed through (this is less likely, IMO, as the ports on the injectors are very small and typically the needle seized in the injector locking it open and you get a totally different failure mode). IMO, I'd probably have the dealer reset the code and monitor to see if it comes back since the car isn't currently flagging the code and drives normally. If there is something truly broken, the code will return.

 

[Marinna]

I wonder if the code was set by fuel quality or something like that. A bad bit of fuel that doesn't burn correctly can cause a lean code. Could have also been some contamination in the fuel line or injectors that was eventually pushed through (this is less likely, IMO, as the ports on the injectors are very small and typically the needle seized in the injector locking it open and you get a totally different failure mode). IMO, I'd probably have the dealer reset the code and monitor to see if it comes back since the car isn't currently flagging the code and drives normally. If there is something truly broken, the code will return.

Try six times. The code comes back six times after I exhausted all the possible means to check on the car. My gas efficiency on this tank also dropped from an average of 22 to 16 mpg. But that is not the point for this post.

I basically just start to question what is the "Warranty" these automakers trying to sell you. If they are not willing to include terms like "diagnostics of issues related to covered components" into the warranty coverage (in reality this cost Toyota almost nothing to include diagnostics), these warranties offer very little value by itself, especially to a brand name called "Toyota" and let alone "Land Cruiser".

 

[cvx5832LC]

You're up against the dealer, not Toyota. It's the dealer franchise that's stonewalling you, not the manufacturer. If you let them get away with it, which you didn't, then they would have. Same with buying the car. If you don't ask for a discount, you don't get one.

 

[Marinna]

You're up against the dealer, not Toyota. It's the dealer franchise that's stonewalling you, not the manufacturer. If you let them get away with it, which you didn't, then they would have. Same with buying the car. If you don't ask for a discount, you don't get one.

In general I would say I agree. But the issue is that if you read through the Toyota warranty Guide they only talk about repair. The liability of inspection and diagnostics are not mentioned in these documents. So a bad dealer (which many dealers are) would argue with you and legally they are not wrong (not right neither as it is uncharted) We all know that Toyota is not the type of company who put dealer on a tight leash.

I think it might be possible that I was looking in the wrong place and this type of stuff is regulated by local consumer laws. I am not lawyer so that is as far as I can go

 

[mountaindesert]

Sometimes it's under warranty, but the dealership tries to charge you for a $200 diagnostic.

At least they tried to charge me that. Pretty unethical.