Suggestions before 36 month warranty ends in 3 weeks?

[bluemavrick5510]

Hi, is there anything I should do or have done to my 2010 yaris before its 36month warranty ends soon (now with 28,600 miles on it)? I've never taken it to my dealer for anything since having them do its first and only free oil/filter change. And, all I've ever done to it since then is change the oil/filter as scheduled. Should I for example take it to my dealer and ask them to check and complete any possible TSB's (been looking through those on here but geeezz -not sure what all that means)? Any suggestions? Thanks.

[brg88tx]

check your water pump and make sure it's not leaking. if it is i would suggest getting it replaced with a non toyota one because they seem to fail often.

[DebbyM46227]

I wouldn't worry about the water pump; it's supposed to be covered for 5 years/60K miles. In June before my warranty expires, I plan on having an independent mechanic look at it and check the exhaust, etc. I'd hate to have some holes that Toyota never told me about.

[CoryM]

I would suggest having an independent mechanic look at the car before warranty expires. Typically the manufacturer will only pay warranty if the customer brought the car in with X as the complaint. If the dealer mechanic notices something that is warranty (and wants to get paid to do the job) he has to get it signed off by the service manager saying that it actually needs it. Recalls are different of course (but not TSBs).

That being said, the Yaris seem pretty solid (hence me owning one) so probably not going to find much.

[Absolutely Red 12]

I would suggest having an independent mechanic look at the car before warranty expires. Typically the manufacturer will only pay warranty if the customer brought the car in with X as the complaint. If the dealer mechanic notices something that is warranty (and wants to get paid to do the job) he has to get it signed off by the service manager saying that it actually needs it. Recalls are different of course (but not TSBs).

That being said, the Yaris seem pretty solid (hence me owning one) so probably not going to find much.

Its not that way anymore. Warranty repairs are their (dealerships') primary income. The tech will advise the service advisor if he/she sees an issue, the advisor will call the customer to add it to the work order.

[CoryM]

Its not that way anymore. Warranty repairs are their (dealerships') primary income. The tech will advise the service advisor if he/she sees an issue, the advisor will call the customer to add it to the work order.

Correct, except the service manager needs to sign off on it first. At least at GM and Nissan that's how it is. The manufacturer is the dealer's biggest client (warranty work), but they do anything to reduce the amount of warranty work they pay for. So if the service manager is signing off on an unusual amount of warranty work, they get yelled at. I witnessed that at Nissan :wink: Also keep in mind that the techs want to make more money, so why waste time doing poor paying warranty work when you can be doing retail instead? Dealer guys aren't going to be calling warranty they should if there is better work to do elsewhere.

[bluemavrick5510]

Thanks everyone. Checking with an independent service center sounds good to me. If I knew of one I could trust I'd do it. :-)

[tk1971]

I wouldn't be so quick to bring a car in for a groping by any mechanic (dealership or otherwise). If nothing is wrong, then great.

In my experience (cause I'm picky and notice very minor details), every time I bring my car in for something, I either notice a minor scratch that I'd swear wasn't there before, or my A/C has been set to full blast, or that they really did a number in screwing with my seating position (even messing with the lumbar support).

And good luck if fasteners needed to be removed and put back. I've seen a 70%-90% rate of return for the various under carriage/fender fasteners. Yes, I actually look underneath my car to check.

Even if the car has free maintenance, I tend to do it myself. That way, I'll have no one to blame by myself.