Dealer Service gaslighting transmission slip

Took my 2020 Tundra 2wd for a transmission fluid service at 90,000 miles. Last drain and fill at same place at 53,000 miles. They flushed it and it started slipping. Frustrated with them I took it to another dealer who knew what a drain and fill was. They checked it and said it was a quart low and topped it off.

I got it back and it slipped even worse than before. 3000rpm for several seconds before engaging gears. Definitely not normal.

I dropped it back off after having their shop foreman test drive it with me and he saw what I saw. He weasel worded "I'll have to hook up the scan tool and see the data."

Have a loaner for the weekend. Called to check in and the Service advisor said "It's not sli-" stopped and said "We're not seeing any issues with it. I'll talk to the foreman and check in in 2 hours."


How do I move forward with this BS? Take it to an independent shop? I've kept it in the Toyota dealer pipeline to give me some sort of protection by keeping liability on them. Once an independent shop touches it they'll claim it's their fault.

P.S. I try not to call out dealers specifically but if they try to eff me on this I'll tell you guys which one. Maybe some of ya'll used them too and can vouch.

 

Did you ask for a flush or a D&F when you brought it to the first place? My dealer won't even do a D&F, they tell me the fluid is "lifetime." What a load of bull

 

I figured they would just do the drain and fill when I brought it in. I said I wanted the coolant, transmission and brake fluid changed. Coolant was never changed yet, brakes were squishy and I just wanted basic transmission maintenance done all at once. I didn't think they'd flush it. I saw it on the bill when I picked it up and winced but hoped for the best. Can't anyone just do the work properly? I paid money to save myself some time and headache, not gain a bigger one.

 

Get documentation from the 2nd dealer showing the low fluid level. That combined with the bill from the flush should be enough to place pretty solid blame on dealer #1.

 

Taking your car to the dealer for service to avoid a headache is an oxymoron.

 

Unfortunately flushing is standard procedure; I know we do stuff differently here on the forum but most practices when it comes to tranny’s is flush. Only time at the shop we wouldn’t rec one is because of high mileage. Personally I only rec D&F’s to customers but the older gen is used to flushes

with it being the AB60, there is potential you have a solenoid issue that flared up do to the flush. You could try a slip additive if the dealer won’t do anything (if it’s a clutch issue); if it’s a line pressure issue that won’t help

 

Doesn't seem like a flush would hurt it since you serviced the transmission recently before the actual flush. 37k miles between services. I did a flush on our Sequoia at 120k miles and it didn't hiccup.

 

Could it be just a coincidence with stuff going bad. You had consistent good experience at this dealership? Is really hard to say who is at fault.

 

I've only ever been to the first dealership at 53000 to have the fluids changed after I bought it used. Didn't know the history. Drove fine. This same dealer then flushed it and left it a quart low (or 2 depending who i talked to) according to the second dealership.

I've done all oil changes and maintenance myself otherwise. It was only a matter if personal time limitations that made me decide to have dealer service. I needed trans, brake bleed, coolant replacement and new front pads installed, too much for me to do on my own at the moment.

The first dealer flushed it and it was a quart low. They failed to replace the coolant and bleed the brakes (they're still soft and I remember them being very firm after the first time I had them bled at 53,000). They blatantly practice the "if the customer can't see it, they can't verify if we did the work or not" bs that they pull on all the people who don't know anything about cars.

I came into the second dealer and asked them to check my coolant without telling them the first dealer supposedly just changed it. They said it was old or mixed with a different coolant. If I went to another dealer and told them to evaluate my transmission I bet they'd say its slipping.

I'm sick to death of this lying merry-go-round. I paid my hard earned money, I deserve honest service! If you screw it up, own up and make it right. Hire better mechanics who do it right and are honest!

 

unfortunately, if you don't specify drain, filter and fill they will perform a flush. since you were following flush intervals, they assumed you wanted the flush. In my opinion a flush isn't going to grenade you transmission. I would do a Google review, explain everything in the review. I guarantee you will be receiving a call the very next day from the dealerships GM.

 

Are they hooking up a flushing machine or utilizing the ab60 to push fluid out the line? If they used a power flush they could of pushed clutch debri in a valve body solenoid, relay or check ball preventing a clutch or brake lockup. They should be able to tell with an oscilloscope to see where it's not engaging.

 

Finding a good, honest, reliable service shop is a bitch now days. The Group 1 Toyota Fort Bend | Toyota Dealer in Richmond, TX focked up my 2013 Tundra so many times that I don't have enough time nor patience to list it here. I found a good indy mechanic in the Tundra community in Houston and I take it there now. I will probably take my 2010 RCSB there as well.

For my 2021 since is still under extended warranty I drive all the way to Huntsville Toyota since I've developed a nice relationship there and I really trust them. They worked on my 2021 since brand new with 100 miles on it and they also installed my supercharger.

if you are close with Huntsville I can connect you with them for sure

 

I'll talk to them tomorrow about those diagnostic options. I'm supposed to meet up for another test drive of my truck tomorrow. Wondering if I should take it to yet another Toyota dealer and have them independently test the transmission and then when they say "its obviously slipping, you need..yada yada", take that back to the 1st and 2nd dealerships.
Not that I'd trust any of them to fix it at this point but at the very least get a refund for everything I paid and a new transmission if it is damaged. I'd have documented proof from Toyota techs to use against them.

i had driven the truck for about 3 weeks before visiting the second dealer. Not only because of the massive headache entailed in going to one but because I wanted to be sure it was actually an issue and not my imagination. In the several hundred miles of driving in that time, I'm wondering if being a quart (or two) low could've damage the internal parts and made it worse for slipping when "topped off" by the second dealer.

 

I was going to post this on my threads, something I may chase, later. He's not do e, since issue appears to be beyond the valve body.

https://youtu.be/XuWciULZBVc?si=FBApyXPNLu88bWyI

 

If it was low enough it will cause the clutches to slip from loss of line pressure exasperating the situation. Why I always opt to overfill by a 1/2 to quart after the trickle check. Better to be over than under filledbto prevent loss of suction.

 

Has anyone tried just doing an ECU reset? Trans could very well be fine and it's just using new fluid on old data.

 

You can try. Find a shop that will reset the transmission adaptive learned values.

 

Can it be done in TIS? If in Houston I could do it for him.

 

Possibly. I don't use TIS.

 

Techstream will do it, as well as certain scanners with full functionality

 

A simple 20-30 min battery disconnect might do the trick, but yeah that technically won't reset long term transmission data. I've experienced this personally though after a trans flush, and a battery disconnect did resolve it. Be sure to "take it easy" for the first few hundred miles after resetting, to help it learn with stable data. Nowadays I have an Autel that can reset long term data, good to have I guess but there are probably cheaper options that can do it.

 

Does loading a new HPT tune reset the values?

 

Unfortunately it doesn't.