THIS is Why Dealerships get Bad Reputations! Makes me Very UPSET!

hello and welcome to the car care nut channel folks today we have a 2008 toyota highlander now dealerships typically get a bad reputation even some automotive repair shops and in today's video i'm going to show you exactly why they do that to themselves but it's just the way they do things is how they gain that beautiful reputation that actually ruins it for everybody that does good work and tries their best to be as honest transparent and professional as possible the owner of this car bought this car used from a dealership that have maintained this car its entire life which is okay and then they tried to take it to a few shops and dealerships because they could never get straight answers let me read to you this is the a copy of the email that this viewer sent me and the owner of this car so this car was bought at the original selling dealership that sold this car to the original owner that same dealership maintained this car all its life and then he bought it from them because the original owner traded in then very shortly after that the oil cooler line exploded which is rubber very known there is not a single toyota technician in the planet that does not know about this problem you see that rubber line you recommend replacement it was never replaced the car had almost 120 000 miles now it has 137 000. the lion ruptured the the owner took this car to a independent shop they replaced the line they did a hundred and twenty thousand mile service when you do 120 000 mile service you you're supposed to check the entire car the customer at the time had a concern with a steering pop when you turn the wheel it makes a popping noise very known problem with these for the intermediate shaft this shop says found nothing causing the steering popping noise the customer is just hearing things that's the first problem you did a full service you replaced the line you did all this work to this car but you could not identify the source of the popping noise that's okay then come the dealership now this is another local dealership here actually very close to my house they did an alignment because the customer has just bought tires and they said found nothing causing the steering popping noise the independent shop maybe they are not specialists maybe they didn't know about this but this is a dealership now found nothing and then starts the headlight hiatus the customer says the headlight burns continuously six months only the driver's side headlight bulb burns over and over and over the dealership says replaced driver side headlight bulb with a 30 part cost driver side headlight burns out are common they blame the other dealership that originally sold the car while the blind game doesn't do anything the owner wants their car fixed they don't want the blame game that's okay they didn't fix it then come another dealership because at this point the customer looked at this leader who was like you guys are being like clowns you're not fixing my problems you're just blaming other people so come another dealership this dealership ignored everything that the customer said only told him you have a major oil leak from the rear main seal this is a life or death matter you have to fix it they made a giant deal about it there's no oil leak unless it's like the oil cooler line that's leaking that is that serious that's okay the the customer got upset with all these dealerships took it to an independent shop another one this independent shop is actually 15 minutes from my house they work on vintage muscle cars hardly the specialist or the expert in newer models let alone toyota but cars are cars and here's what this shop did they discovered that the steering popping noise was the middle steering shaft or intermediate steering shaft that was that had a tsb or a campaign well it's not a campaign it's a tsb and no work was done on the steering shaft since it was not deemed a safety issue [Applause] thank you for being honest for the first time all these other guys could not find it could not find it this is the first person that is honest that says hey we see the problem yes it is an intermediate shaft but by the way it's not a safety issue it's more of a bother which is correct but then here is the here's where things continue they removed the splash shield to inspect for a large oil leak according to the previous theater they found a slight oil seep between the engine transmission and no oil on the garage floor let's keep an eye on it now the customer is completely confused who do i trust do i trust the dealership or do i trust the independent mechanic or are they all just incorrect i don't blame them then they proceeded to replace the driver's side bulb again clean headlight connector aimed the headlights well you don't really need to aim the headlight when you replace a bulb whatever the case again we go back to the same thing because the customer brought this car in when he emailed me he said the bulb went out again that's square one but here's here's what i love about this replace serpentine belt this is the independent shop replacing serpentine belt idler pulley automatic belt tensioner clean the throttle body installed mass airflow sensor service kit okay and induction service kit so i'm assuming they cleaned the mass airflow which we're going to look at in a second i mean all this stuff and the customer brought me this car they want the full inspection and they have questions about the condition of the car how was the rust how are this how's the suspension how's everything going on i mean all of these shops they didn't look at this they didn't give this information to the customer they just kept bouncing the signing blame this is how dealerships get a bad name sorry for the long intro on the rent let's check this car out and we'll actually give the customer a full image of what's going on let's start from the beginning because one of the concerns the customer surprisingly all these dealerships never told them anything about you hear that noise that is from the door check so let's look at that one thing that is very common in these is the door check but before you recommend a door check check these nuts if they are loose or not and these are not loose so this needs a door check it's very simple not a safety concern not an issue it's an annoyance the customer this bothers him of course we should it would because every time you open the door it sounds like a an old hooptie but this car is actually extremely clean just look at this interior look how clean this interior is very well maintained very well taken care of i mean the interior is pristine look at this carpet you know in the salty land and this car originally came from ohio this is very clean carpet and the dash everything is very clean really like the first impressions of this car looks like a car that was taken care of let's look at the miles 137 428 that's actually nothing for these these are very common to go over 200 000 miles well let's start our inspection let's look under the hood all right well we have the beautiful 2gr fe let's pull the engine cover off all the grommets are there nothing is broken here that is really nice let's start let's do a quick inspection overall the customer did tell me that he had the brakes done recently which i can see brake fluids over max somebody topped it off at some point that's why it's over max not a big issue toyota truestart battery we'll get that tested looking at everything here i don't see anything standing out immediately let's look at this mount the dog bone month looks good i don't see any tears or issues there's no nest here the oil line for the bbt is metal on these and the oil cooler line is very hard to see from here but see the edge of it it is metal i can see some shiny idler and tensioner pulley i actually am curious to see if they actually replace the hole tensioner because i'm looking at the bolts for the alternator doesn't look like anybody's touched that ever and in order to replace the hole tensioner you actually have to remove the alternator so i wonder if they replace the hole tensioner or just the pulley radiator is good i don't see any leaks here actually i take that back we might have a small small radiator leak here see the pink crust right there very very small because i noticed the coolant is low and this car is warm and it's a little low we're going to continue to investigate let's look at the headlight here so the first thing i see is this is very very not nice see this what is this this is not original and then the connector i'm going to pop this connector out so you can see i already inspected this i know what's going on but so you can see it uh that is really not good this is very loose i have it's an aftermarket connector i have corrosion here and i have a melted connector you see that melted part right there this is this is why this bulb keeps burning you have bad contact i mean any of these shops would have seen this i know i don't know who to place this connector but whoever did it put the cheapest one possible and put this little mickey mouse cover on top of it that's this is what i call mr carcaron is laughing at it this is what i call mickey mouse car repair because if we look on the other side on the other headlight right here this is the original connector this is the original connector looks nothing like that the back of it is sealed and it looks right as rain this mickey mouse repair no good that's going to need to be replaced and that will solve the headlight issues another thing that i usually check is do we have moisture in the headlight and i did ask the customer they did say they have a little bit of moisture looking at the headlight i don't see a lot of staining and you know signs of a lot of moisture so i don't think that has to do with it i think our beautiful connector here has to do a lot with it so that took us five minutes to realize that this thing is melted and it's rusty and corroded and not good not very difficult now let's lift this car up and look underneath it to see the massive oil leak from the rear main seal or the small seepage from the rear main seal i don't know let's find out okay so let's start our inspection with the first problem remember that one shot that replaced the automatic belt tensioner like it's a 1955 chevy let's look at the tensioner i'm going to point it in the editing here pulley is new we know that fact you can see it right here but that tensioner looks like it has 2008 written all over it so they just replaced the pulley i hope they didn't charge this customer to replace the tensioner and it's just the pulley benefit of the doubt here but it's not looking good then control arm bushing has a few tears in it nothing that i am concerned about but we will note it to the customer because it's again their car not my car tray bar bushing is good rust wise there's a little bit of rust on this strut but nothing excessive nothing where it's peeling falling apart where it could be a concern brakes are new i can tell he did tell me that these were replaced recently they look newer so the rotor as well i think this rotor might have been replaced but let's go and look at the life-threatening oil leak which the first one is the front timing cover and it's not exactly what i call a massive oil leak it's definitely only leak it's not going to stop on its own but it's not massive you see it right there that's a classic front timing cover leaking on the 2gr but not excessive let's look underneath it and we'll see the rest if you remember that 200 000 mile camry we looked at it was all covered with oil here that was a leak where i would say okay well that needs to be fixed but i don't even have oil at the bottom of the oil pan you just have a little bit of the top of course it is a leak we're going to have to tell the customer hey your front cover is starting to leak my recommendation would be wait longer or if you want to do it it's your again it's your car your money your decision but then the rear main seal i mean are we really being serious right now because this is i wouldn't even call this a seep this is like very very minor look at this this is not even a leak this is like a smudge i am not even concerned about this at all and the transmission we have no leaks by the way i did remove a big cover that was here i'll show you that because we have something on that but i did want to look at the bottom of the radiator hopefully you can see it right there i don't see any leaks on it so it's just that a little bit at the top we're going to keep an eye on that but otherwise transmission has no leaks transfer case has no leaks i wouldn't call this a leak it's like a tiny little not even a seepage in the front here but rust wise this is very typical it's a cast iron transfer case so it's going to look a little rusty that's normal subframe does have a little bit of rust all surface just a little bit here where it's starting to get a little uh rusty land but that's typical for these this is again not a new car something that is common in these highlanders are leaks from here it actually goes through the drive shaft and leaks through the yoke this one is not leaking so that's good going back hard to do this with one hand but i'm gonna kind of check the u-joints they're also somewhat common they're good i'll check the rest of them off camera it's really hard to hold the camera and do this and hold the light at the same time but the rest levels on this car i mean this car is covered underneath so it's not as susceptible we do have a little bit in the back there but nothing excessive and the exhaust is okay this typical rust on the exhaust these clamps are notorious to see if i can do this at the same time this one is about actually it's gone so we're going to want to replace this clamp because otherwise this whole thing will start rattle same thing with this one no this one is good and that one is good as well so this is a typical again a very common problem with this but i'm still trying to wrap my mind around this leak that's not a leak folks you have this clean it and you won't see it for a long time front cover is leaking but it's not as bad this is you know when you get all the way over the subframe that's when i would call it bad but this is not let's go take a quick peek at the back and we'll continue let's look at the back here and for some this will be extremely rusty but that is very normal for the age of this car in this area here's the differential i don't have any leaks they were not as common for leaks but we've seen some of them leak axle seals and whatnot this one is completely dry nothing really stands out in the suspension yes it does look rusty but again that is normal here is spare tire i don't see anything of concern there's one thing i want to show you you see a little bit of rust form in there on the body and look at what we have the body plug is missing that's see this is that original selling dealer where is your body plug that you're supposed to install when you sold this car that side is missing as well this is not good this is how dealerships you see all that rust around it that's all from that missing plug that's really the biggest thrust on the body itself otherwise the body is like completely covered so you don't really have big rough spots on it and this is that shield underneath the car this door where the oil filter is there's a small cover here with two bolts it's missing i don't know what point this is gone missing but it is missing at the end of the world and these two bolts are broken they're notorious to seize and break very simple to fix but you know we'll bring it to the customer's attention i mean there's enough bolts to hold this shield on but still i want to give them the full picture of this car one more concern that the owner of this beautiful 2008 highlander had was the rear wiper something very common with these i mean you notice how it's sitting it's already not sitting right let's observe what the wiper does i will go turn it on you look at the wiper did you see that this is a very very common problem with these it's just like a lazy wiper most people will look at this and run to buy a motor oh the motor is just dead and it's that but watch this the highlander in case you didn't know this if you push this button this glass actually opens and the way this works is the motor is actually here right here and then there's this little arm that when you close the glass it connects here so now i'm gonna go to the car and turn on the wipers i want you to watch the motor what it does [Music] is working perfectly fine so the problem is i'm not going to close this class all the way because actually that's the resting position of this motor when the car is off so this should be more like this but when i turn this this is i'm putting a lot of force into this to move it what happens with these is this mechanism right here that just connects this part of the wiper into the motor seizes with rust and now it the motor doesn't have enough force to move this i mean this is i am putting serious force here folks at some point if you're ever doing this to your car got to be careful because you could snap the glass or break the wiper this is completely seized so this is one of toyota technicians know about this this is one of the scariest jobs to do because everything is seized here behind the wiper arm there's a 24 millimeter nut right here that never comes off and you put force into it you're forcing the glass and you just snap it in half and now all the glass is in your face very dangerous job so what we found with this is you got to cut this little piece of metal right here you got to literally cut it to open it and then everything just comes off very dangerous because now you're cutting right next to the glass very dangerous job but very common one i've done a lot of these this is just the way it is but if you ever have this don't run by a motor it's always this arm i don't think i've ever replaced the motor on a highlander it's always this mechanism right here and then sometimes the wiper arm never comes off i mean if you look how rusty this is just look how rusty this thing is sometimes you take this off and you can't get the wiper off so you need a puller it turns into a little mess but that's uh highlander land for you this is a very common problem with these one last thing we're going to look at is the sunroof train because there's also something highlander special with this so the owner also asked me about the sunroof trains there's something notorious with these highlanders the sunroof trains come down all the way here and then they stop at the kick panel there's like a little funnel underneath this is where the drain comes and there's a funnel and a very small opening and that's where the water drains don't know why this hose doesn't go all the way out like most other models this is the only model that has this and i've seen so many highlanders flood with water not because the center of drain itself is clogged it's because that little funnel is clogged so we're going to take a look at it real quick and if you own one of these you have to do this this is super important nothing else floods these cars more than this little funnel thing so let's pop the little panel here and i'm going to pop this panel as well there we go this sits this is gonna be extremely hard to see i can use a mirror but i'm gonna actually use my inspection camera here to show you i'll put that you just gotta pop this electrical box here you're just going to pop this enough just to get your camera in there there we go so there's a little bit of mud there do you see it in this picture in this video right here but the hole which is right there it's open there's not a lot of stuff collected sometimes you'll see this and it'll have mud all over it and leaves here's you see where the drain comes in you see how clean that funnel is sometimes you'll have that all plugged up with stuff there's one on the driver's side and there's one on the passenger side i'm not going to show you the one on the driver's side to make this video easier but i checked that it's clean but you have to check these if you have one of these highlanders because you just cannot believe how many highlanders i've seen flood completely because of this funnel so that is the inspection of the highlander the problem with the headlight we need a new socket preferably an oem one an original one so we wouldn't have these issues again the door check needs to be replaced there's nothing it's not loose nothing is damaged otherwise it just needs a door check not a safety concern this however the headlight is a problem the oil leaks i mean if we want to call them that the front timing cover is leaking it's not going to stop leaking but it's not really bad enough where i would say yeah let's get this taken care of or at least clean and see how bad it progresses the rear main seal is a joke there's no leak there at all the radiator has a very very small leak i say my recommendation is the customer let's keep an eye on it see how it goes we'll top off the coolant if they want to replace it that's up to them the whole car in general in my opinion is in good shape folks this is a 14 year old car the rust that you've seen on it that is typical with these cars nothing that i'm too concerned about i've seen a lot worse rarely do i see better but i've seen a lot worse so this car overall is in good shape there are a few things but the main thing is when you take your car to a mechanic or a technician or whoever is gonna who's a professional working in cars they need to give you the full picture they can't hide things from you the leak is there i have to tell you about it everything else the rust the bushing that has a few cracks i have to tell you about it but then in the end i will come and tell you if i were you this is the priority list and at this point in my book the only thing that is high in priority is that headlight the headlight keeps burning at night that is a safety concern we have wires melting that is not good that's really the only thing that's immediate in this car the door check the steering shaft the steering shaft is another one i didn't mention these are not safety concerns these are annoyances these are things that bother the driver because you're always going to open the driver's store you're always going to be turning the wheel they're annoyances they're not really safety concerns and the oil leak we're going to need to keep an eye on same thing with the coolant eventually it's going to get to be a very big league same thing with the coolant but what is that eventually one month from now or 10 years from now we're going to have to find out and you're going to have i'm going to have to advise this customer if they want to fix it i can fix anything you want but is it a good idea i'm going to say no in my recommendation because i'd rather you keep an eye on this leak than just dump a whole bunch of money in this and then we have something more immediate all of a sudden happens this car is in really good shape it sees it shows that it was maintained well and one last thing i forgot to show you in our initial inspection that one independent shop that did not replace the whole tensioner they just replaced the pulley they said mass airflow service kit this is an original toyota mass airflow there is uh i don't know if they meant they cleaned it or why did they call out a kit i don't know but this language used in shops is very important because you said a kit was the kit involved new oring new bolt what was the kit it's actually just cleaning but this language is a problem and last but not least is a wiper situation this is a standard highlander issue we're going to need to get get him a parts list for this because this is also somewhat of a safety concern you know you want your wipers to work especially the back one so i'll give them an estimate this can get a little expensive because there's a lot of small parts involved and this does add up there's a little bit of labor involved dangerous labor that is you're cutting right next to the glass and i've done this job a lot it's not really difficult if the owner decides to do it we'll actually film it and show you how it's done but otherwise in my opinion this is definitely a keeper folks this car is in great shape i drove it actually drives very smooth very nice and the little issues that it have they're nothing for a 14 year old car with 130 37 000 miles folks i hope this video was helpful informative i hope you never find yourself in these situations where you're jumping between leaderships and shops and everybody says something different you're all confused it is your car your decision your money professionals need to give you the full picture they might make a recommendation but ultimately you are the only one that should be deciding whether something needs to be done or not because you're it's your car your money you're the one driving it folks if you like this video consider giving it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing to the channel check out some of my other videos and until the next video folks may the lord bless you and keep you and you have yourself a wonderful day

Channel: The Car Care Nut

Views: 316,444

Keywords: THIS is why dealerships get bad reputations, dealership scam, car dealership caught on camera, toyota highlander, toyota highlander problems, car mechanic, car repair gone wrong, bad dealership, bad mechanic, the car care nut, car care nut, scotty kilmer, car wizard, chrisfix, toyota dealership, toyota dealership problems, car owner, here's why, should you trust a dealership, mechanic scam, shop scam, car repair scam

Id: Km-cKNl3AOs

Length: 29min 32sec (1772 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 19 2022