Tire shop installed a battery backwards after getting new tires and rims

Hi all! So on Friday I got done new rims and tires for my 2014 tundra sr5! I’m very excited about them but right after I paid I was told that a employee put a battery in my truck backwards after the other one died! So truck wouldn’t start and the electrical is all messed up. So now I’m waiting for a new power strip? I’m not sure what that is but I’m very frustrated and won’t get my truck till Wednesday now. Does anyone have and a idea on what kind of damage is done? They gave me a rental car until it’s finished but I’m really worried. Thanks for reading and what do you think about the new look??

 

Welcome from Ontario Canada , I’m not sure what a power strip is but I’ve heard that hooking up the battery backwards can do damage to main computer . Your truck looks awesome .

 

I might be able to help, I did this one time. Before you ask, alcohol was involved.

The main fuse most likely blew (120A, I think), this would protect most if not all other fuses. If you have a fusible link downstream of the battery, this was likely blown.

Newer vehicles have a lot of protection against this mistake, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. And besides that, it is their problem now, not yours. They are going to have to figure it out.

 

This

 

Thank you that’s the power strip?

 

Wheels look great!

Maybe I'm slow but why would a tire shop be messing with the battery? Something to do with TPMS? Do the 2014s have that?

 

Yeah dont know about your experiences with tire shops but mine have lead me to believe their expertise ends with putting air in my tires (and some shops cant even do that right). I would tell them to have a Toyota dealer handle the repairs at their financial responsibility.

 

The dealership where I got my last car couldn't even mount my tires correctly. I took it in because it had a recall on it around the time it was due for an oil change so I figured I'd let them do everything at once. When I got it back, it would shudder at highway speeds. I ended up taking each tire off and mounting it correctly and the shudder went away.

 

Yeah I know. A lot of the maintenance type stuff is done by helpers. Kids mostly. Only difference is with dealerships you usually have the weight of the vehicle manufacturer brand coming down on them to do the right thing.

 

When I got my wheels and tires put on at a local tire shop I had them change my oil because it was almost due - fast forward a week later and we were going to take a 2k driving trip so i did a walk around checking my tire pressure, air filter and oil even though I just had it done. Thank god I did - the damn shop drained my oil but never put new oil in. Thankfully I checked or I may have got a blown engine 1/2 way through my trip. I always double check work done by shops now.

 

I don't really like getting the dealerships to do work for me but I'm also paranoid about them not honouring my warranty if I do my own oil changes.

 

A little bit of both chewed their ass a new one and when the manager was somewhat disrespectful to me I called my fleet management guy at work and explained what happened. I work for the state of CA and we used this shop for all our state vehicles in our county probably 300+ cars and trucks- well we switched vendors so they lost a huge business— bet the manager had a hard time explaining that to his boss.

 

I had the same question! They said the battery died from the doors being open so they replaced with a new one then that’s when it happened

 

Thank you very much! Man I really hope it didn’t reach that far

 

That is the power strip? What does the power strip do??

 

I’m pretty sure this is what happened. The kid working on it looked younger than anyone. I heard the other employees in the warehouse say “you broke the truck” mocking him not knowing I was right there

 

Yeah I’ve been get angrier by the moment. We told them we wanted

Yeah my wife and I were discussing having Toyota be the people to do the repairs. The plan so far now is for them to put in power strip then have Toyota do a diagnostics after it’s installed. The Toyota dealership is right across the street from the tire shop. What a nightmare

 

They must have been open overnight or something. I had the same thing happen on my car but the battery is 8 years old.

 

It is a series of larger fuses for the fuse box. Without it, reversing polarity on the battery/jump start polarity reversal would blow every fuse off the main harness.

 

Get the tire shop to tow your truck to a Toyota dealership for repair and have the pay the entire towing and repairs. Sorry for the bad experience.

 

Thanks very much

 

As mentioned - I would be wary trusting the shop that broke it to fix it.

Let me be clear - shit happens in a shop. We all have made mistakes, and with young techs - it happens. Not inexcusable that this happened - but letting them fix it is hit or miss.

Maybe they are fine and it was a one off....or maybe the kid didn’t know any better because the tenured techs didn’t know and couldn’t teach him. Do you REALLY want to find out?

Personally, I’d file with my insurance - take to a dealer and tell shop - my insurance is fixing (this would be a comprehensive or other than collision claim, caused by a non insured person liability) and ask that they pay your deductible. Then insurance can pursue the shop.

 

Yep, and some of us even have power steering and electric windows, too!

 

Lmao

 

None of this even makes sense. Did they tell you they were changing the battery beforehand or they just decided to give you a free $200 battery? Did they buy the incorrect battery or just rotated it incorrectly? Because if the terminals were on the far side, the wires probably wouldn’t reach.

 

^ This.
They barely reach the stock battery.
I bought a 24F AGM battery earlier this year.
Bought a smaller battery tray for it, the stock was 27F.
The tray was just short of 1/2" taller, I had to bend the stock + cable connection to fit.
But come to find out the j-hooks were then too short and I put the stock tray back in..

Maybe they put a regular battery in it and not an F battery.
I learned on my last purchase the F designates terminal position.

 

I wasn't sure how long TPMS has been around or how long Toyota (historic late adopter of technology) has been offering it. Neither of my cars (2012 and 2013) have it.

 

I wouldn't trust them to do anything if they messed up installing a battery. There's a red plus on the battery terminal cover and a plus on the battery. Even a moron should be able figure it out.

 

From my experience when I helped someone jump start their car, The fool connected the jumper cables opposite on my truck. It blew a big fuse and that was that. But with new modern trucks im not sure.

 

Cant stand when anybody refuses to be accountable. It’s so much easier to just start with the truth. Hope it works out.