Help, I think dealer is trying to take it to me

So I have a 2020 platinum and a month ago my window switches started flickering and I lost up down feature and door lock from the switch. Dealer replaced the entire switch under warranty. Sure enough last week the switches started acting up again. Today the dealer said it has to be something with my ECU and it’s not warrantied because I have a Garmin GPS hard wired into my truck and they are blaming it for a possible problem. They want over $800 to replace my ECU. The GPS was installed by a radio shop over a year ago and I’ve never had an issue with it. It was also installed on my 18 Tundra when I first got that one with no problems. Seems unlikely that that is the culprit but this isn’t my forte. Also about a month ago I installed VLed cargo lights and supposedly there was a malfunction with the lights for 2020 up. I ordered the ones with no RF thing but I guess they are having problems with those at the moment. Vled said there is no way their lights caused a problem and now I feel like I’m paddling up the river. Any ideas if either of these could of caused my problem

 

Magnuson moss warranty act, dealer has to prove your modification is causing the issue.
Can they prove it’s the Garmin gps causing the issue, if not then you’re still covered by warranty.

 

Well...... I for sure get your frustration. Electronics can be very finicky and annoying. I have completely stopped modding and doing stuff like you mentioned even though it is not a big deal. Only thing I will replace e is speakers. Even though I had it professionally installed, aftermarket radios, amps, etc.... have caused a ton of problems with past vehicles over time. I have completely learned to leave stuff stock as I had problems eventually for 20 years as I never left vehicles alone.

Here is what I would do. Not sure what is involved, but remove the Garmin from the truck and go back to stock. Also remove the Vled's. Then go to a different dealer and let them look at why you are having problems with the window switches.

My buddies are always adding leds and these special lights to their trucks. I do not know of one that does not have electrical problems of some kind.

My hunch is the lights or Garmin are probably not causing this, but U would remove those 2 variables and see if problem goes away and take to another dealer.

 

New battery?

 

They cut the wire out today so that I don’t know. My 18 had faulty issue with the TSS before it was a “known” problem that they tried blaming dealer installed aftermarket remote start on. Their solution at the time was to disconnect the starter but turned out that wasn’t the problem. Now they are saying it was too much load on ECU but I feel like they really don’t know what the problem is and this is one of the steps to fix it, but I have to pay for it. How can that be the issue if it’s been in there for a year

 

Didn’t replace the battery. The only thing lately was the lights but those were taken out before this just happened over the weekend. I don’t know if they caused the problem originally, but stock bulbs have been in for at least a week before the switches acted up again. If I did go to another dealer wouldn’t they see on computer what this dealer is saying. This is extremely frustrating. I don’t want to pay the money but if I did, I’m shit out of luck if a month from now this acts up again. I don’t see the dealer sending me a refund

 

Since you installed the VLEDs around the time you started having issues, maybe try swapping the stock lights back in to prove they're not the issue? Can't say much about the GPS but, given that's it's been in for a year, unlikely to have recently started causing issues.

The others are right about Magnusson Moss but that may or may not get you very far if Toyota calls your bluff and sets a couple lawyers on you.

 

I wouldn't worry about lawyers, warranty issues are generally handled by arbiters or someone from corporate hq.

If I were you I'd take it back and make them show you how the GPS is causing the problem. Just guessing or speculating is not good enough, they need to show you the why and how. If they can't, then they need to honor the warranty and fix the issue. If they can prove the GPS is the issue to your satisfaction then so be it, but anything short of that, don't give in.
They are basically being cheap and lazy... they already replaced the switch and the problem came back. Anything further the dealership is on the hook and they don't want to really diagnose or spend money on it any further, so they look for something to blame it on, and they are banking on the fact that you (not you specifically, but customers in general) don't know enough about electrical issues or ECUs to push back.

If they can't prove it and continue to balk then ask to speak to the general manager.
If the GM still gives you problems, then ask to speak to someone from Toyota Corporate and have them come to the dealership and discuss the issue with all parties. Usually the GM doesn't want corporate involved and usually does not want the problem to leave his dealership if he can help it, just in case he or his techs are in the wrong. If its a relatively small cost he'll just tell the shop to fix it and write it off under warranty and everyone goes about their day.

When you go back be professional and courteous, but be firm, and if they keep acting like they don't want to help you, then elevate the issue as high up as they are willing to go... you really have nothing to lose by doing this, except maybe your time. And make sure other customers can hear you without yelling or screaming. Nothing they want to avoid more than unhappy customers airing their grievances in front of other customers... especially on the sales floor.

 

I agree with OnespeedTRD, I have worked for Toyota as a parts and service director and 99.9 percent of the time I would help people out. When we didn't Toyota would get involved and take care of things and help the customer out. I would call Toyota and let them know what's going on and how you feel about it.

 

Intermittent electrical gremlins are often related to bad/dirty/corroded ground wire connections.

When that happens to one of my vehicles, I take it to the oldest, saltiest mechanic I can find.. usually in a ramshackle building that looks more auto junkyard than auto repair.

9 times out of 10 they can find and fix it for under $150.

something to consider if you're looking at a non-warranty repair.

 

I highly doubt it’s the GPS that caused any problems cause it’s been in there for a year and the gps was working fine. I am however skeptical about the VLed lights. I installed the reverse bulbs which work great but I also installed the cargo lights and the Vled company said they were faulty. One of the two kept flickering on and off and they wanted me to take them out, destroy, and they would send me the new ones that are supposed to be ok. It could be coincidence but this all happened around the time that my initial problem happened. Could faulty cargo lights mess up my ECU? I don’t even really know if the ECU is even broken or if this is one of the steps the dealership is trying to use as a troubleshooting tool

 

Sooo... If replacing the switch fixed the problem before, doesn't that mean that the switch was broken? If they are now saying that the ECU needs replacing, did they replace along with the switch the first time around? Maybe I am missing something from the OP.

 

They replaced the switch and literally 3 weeks later it acted up again. I went to hit the auto down and it didn’t go auto down and then the lights on the switch started flickering and having the exact same problems as the first time around. First time around they only replaced the switch and they don’t think the new one they put in was faulty, although it could be but everything worked fine for 3 weeks. They are saying it has to be something else. I think it has something to possibly do with the passenger window. My wife uses the window all the time and occasionally she has said the auto up/down doesn’t always do what she wants it to do. I did tell the dealer that and they didn’t replace that switch but who knows why. Right now her switch seems to work fine although it is flickering. My side has no auto up/down control, I can’t open passenger window with my switch and the door lock button doesn’t work although it does work with car off???

 

The chances of the original switch and the replacement switch both going out is pretty slim. Let's look at what happened just before the replacement switch starting working for 3 weeks; they had to unplug the old and plug in the new switch. I'd take the suspect switch out and inspect the plug and wires. Sometimes you have to a little leg work for the dealer.

 

Definitely try this. a bad connection or pinched wire seems much more likely than a damaged ECU.

I think I'd pull out those LED's first though. There are plenty of complaints of the cargo light LED's interfering with the factory stereo. Other interactions are possible I suppose, and it seems like a simple thing to try.

 

Omg this is crazy, my truck is at dealer as we speak and for two weeks the switches weren’t working. They worked for a day during that stretch, then stopped working, and of course I bring the truck in yesterday and they started working the day before I dropped it off. The dealer has the truck and they don’t know what to do because they can’t get it to replicate, but yet they know there is a problem. GPS has been disconnected, LED’s have been removed. Would a damaged ECU work occasionally? Again they originally replaced the whole switch thing on my door, worked great for a few weeks, shit the bed, and now it just started working again???? I do a ton of driving and of course I’m at 37K, I did bring it in before my warranty expired, but I feel like I’ll be dealing with this until it’s solved with the hopes that Toyota will eventually figure it out and cover it on their dime

 

How was your gps hardwired? Can you explain more on that? Also as others have said, leds have caused issues in some trucks. Did you switch them all back to stock, even any ext ones? It sounds like a bad short somewhere. Any other mods?

 

What issue was the factory radio having with cargo led's?

 

Poor reception - especially for satellite radio, I think. I didn't pay that much attention, just made a note to not mess with LED's in the cargo lamp.

 

I have Vleds in mine and an aftermarket Pioneer and the FM is horrible. I have the switch off, but I may pull them out and see if anything changes. I'm stumped on what would cause an led to create an issue like that.

 

Not sure on the technical causes of it, but some LEDs create some sort of RF interference and wreak havoc on nearby electronics.
I haven't heard of them effecting radios in the Tundra, but read lots of stuff about the cargo lights specifically effecting the key fobs in Tundras. I guess the antenna for the fob is right there under the cargo lights.

 

I have had the VLED footwell front and back interior LED kit for a few years and haven't noticed any issues. Each led light bar has bunch of little LEDs but the LED light bars are not anywhere near the dome.

They have also been very quick and nice every time I had a question.

 

btw I never switched the dome and map lights to LED because I read here that the light bulbs are not easy to access and you can damage the housing, etc. I didn't want any headache dealing with that maybe I got lucky by being cautious and lazy.
I've also read that LEDs can cause interference in the car and even in the house garage door opener. I still run old style light bulbs in my garage door opener and don't want to risk it till the technology advances a little more.

 

Someone else mentioned a possible bad ground. That sounds like the issue to me as well - or a bad connection in one of the wiring connectors. Flickering lights, intermittent function - all of that sounds like a connection shorting out. I know that the switch lights feed from different circuits than the actual function of the switches... the illumination circuit comes from the center gage cluster (the reason the switches dim if you dim the gage cluster) but makes several stops in lots of junction connectors along the way. But unless ALL your dash lights are flickering, I would lean toward it being a faulty connection somewhere.

Hit the wiring diagram post in my signature and spend some time digging through the circuits for:
Power Windows
Door Locks
Smart Key (if you have it)
Illumination

 

The cargo light is so close to the "shark fin" that contains the radio antenna, any EMI coming out o the lights could certainly affect the radio reception.

 

Even though I had the switch off, I took the bulbs out and there was no change at all.