WDoherty

*Edit* standard (not stand) timing belt service


4 yrs. ago my mother hit a russian boar with her 98 camry and it needed body repair(still drivable). She took it to Hoy-Fox toyota of El Paso to have the body work done. Since the car had 76k on it I told her she should go ahead and have the timing belt service done while it was there (we live in a very rural area). She dropped of the car and it was there for a month or so, maybe two. She brings it back and of course the insurance paid for the minor body repair (a little over 2k, headlight, bumper cover and paint) and she said they charged her $750 to do the timing belt which i thought was high, but i figured it was all done and had a warranty on the work. There were some strange things about the car when we got it back. I noticed they changed the coolant hoses (i thought they were fine, but they had those cheap clamps that were non toyota and the hoses themselves also didn't look factory. The idle on the car was much higher than before, and it sounded slightly noisier. I asked her for the invoice and all it said was 3xx labor, 3xx tax and then some other fees totaling 40 for a total of $743.36. As time went on the sound got worse and worse and the last year the engine is making horrible noises/rattling. (less than 50k since the timing belt service, car has less than 130k) She took it to Midland and they told her it needed a timing belt service (haha), she then told them she already had with the other west texas toyota dealership. She finally got an appointment in El Paso to take it back and I told her to make sure to check out/replace the tensioners. She came back from the trip and the same service rep (Tony) only replaced her drive belt and acces. belt again (changed 4 yrs ago), for another $135 and told her everything was fine (that ticket said she complained of squealing, there was no squealing, no one said anything about "squealing". She did ask for a breakdown of the previous services though. I just looked at it. This guy did not change anything during the timing belt service, except the timing belt itself. No idlers/tensioners, seals, water pump...........nothing! Instead he changed those coolant hoses to a tune of $291! charged her 95.95 for a battery! (they let it drain while they did the body work) and $312.12 for the timing belt, drive belt, and access. belt! The car sounds like it is about to grenade and this guy screwed her on the timing belt job, and the other toyota dealership told her it would be $500 to replace the tensioner. Isn't it standard to replace the tensioner/idlers during that service? When she asked him he said "we don't do that anymore". I think they should replace the tensioner for free (she took 2 trips to el paso (250 miles) and hotel and day off work both times to have the work done) and replace waterpump for part cost. What should i do? What kind of idiot would pull such a trick?

RTIS250

iTrader: (9)

It really depends. Most dealerships offer the timing belt replacement as a t-belt only service, with the other items (seals, idlers, belts) and upsell items. They may not have deemed it necessary to replace those items at the time, and therefore didnt upsell them. Personally, i would never dig that far into an engine and NOT replace all of the related parts. While it sucks that your mom spent a lot of money and didnt get what she expected. I cant imagine her not looking at her invoice at some point to see that she was charged for hoses and a battery though. Im not saying that she would understand the invoice that well, but she was expecting a t-belt, and she got hoses and a battery. That would raise some questions...

WDoherty

Yes sir, it certainly has raised some questions. The problem is she only got this detailed invoice after going again this last week, the first time they gave a really vague invoice that only stated the parts,labor,fees,taxes and total which was really odd. This is the first time I or (she) has seen the detailed invoice which I told her to ask for with a break down of services from the first time because i suspected something fishy.......... The poor lady is a school teacher in her 60's, this guy sold her hoses and then drive belts twice!