Would this make you mad?

A few weeks ago I noticed my tailgate would slam down when opening it. I made an appointment with Toyota to look into the issue. They said the soft open and close was not working and they needed to change the tailgate hinge assembly. I authorized the work and they ordered the parts “2 weeks this took”.
Went to pick up truck yesterday tailgate still slams down and now the hinges on the tailgate are exposed metal and not white like they came from the factory. See pictures below.
Went back to toyota and now they are saying they need to replace the tailgate strut assembly witch is inside the bed that allows the tailgate to open softly.
My question is would you be ok with these tailgate hinges? Are they going to rust out faster? I know it’s a small issue but I think they look bad exposed metal. Also should I have to pay for the tailgate hinges if that was not the issue and they replaced them anyways.

 

I would not be OK with that. I would also be surprised that they did not know that the tailgate damper is located behind the drivers side taillight and that the damper is responsible for slowing down the tailgate, not the hinges.

 

If I'm looking at the pic right, they don't look bare. Painted would look better but they appear to have a zinc coating or something similar. I wouldn't think rust would be a major issue. As far as paying for a fix that didn't fix anything. . . I'd have a hard time doing that. . .

 

Since they didn't fix the problem I would be. You should not pay if they didn't fix it.

 

I was also thinking they look like they're stainless or coated with something so I wouldn't be concerned with rust.

I'd be on the fence about getting Toyota to replace with painted ones. On the one hand, you can't see them when the tailgate is closed so who really cares? On the other hand, they're taking your tailgate off again to fix the soft close anyway so why not get them to replace those with matching parts? If they weren't going to be doing more work on it, I'd probably be willing to live with it rather than letting them touch my truck again.

 

If you paid for white hinges, they should give you white hinges. Personally, I'd contest them replacing the hinges when they should realize they have nothing to do with how fast the tailgate comes down. I'd tell them I wanted my money and my original hinges back, and then I'd order the strut and install it myself.

 

Since you paid for them did they give you the old ones?

 

I'd go back and insist on color matched hinges and that they fix the problem if it was done under warranty. Did you have to pay for this repair ? If so, I'd want a refund and I'd take my truck somewhere else.

 

Straight garbage. Walk them out to the lot and show them the matching colored hinges. Have them return yours to what is was and then actually fix the issue which is not the hinges at all.

 

Well, considering I am not a toyota tech, and I still knew a soft open malfunction would be caused by the damper and not the hinge...I would be upset at this misdiagnosis and change out of the matched painted parts. You should not have to pay for their mistake, so the payment for the hinges and labor $ should come back to you.

 

Thanks for all the great responses. I left the truck there and they stated they will resolve the issue. They also said they threw out the old hinges. I insisted they put color hinges back on the vehicle. They want me to pay $280 for the first repair on the wrong item.

 

I would start a conversation with Toyota. This is borderline criminal but definitely incompetent.

 

Dealer Name???

 

Freeman Toyota in Northern California. I’ve had great experiences with them before this has been the first time having issues.

 

Escalate it to a manager

I've gotten $650 in parts/service credits (offered to me, not asked for) by talking calming, emailing and documenting and explaining time wasted and exposing shennigans during my signing and first service.

Stand firm and don't let them sweet talk you or accept just an apology. They screwed up and threw out your parts. At minimum, ask for an extra set of parts that they claimed they threw out. Time is money, we are in a Pandemic so visiting dealers for their mistakes is not acceptable.

 

That’s where I purchased my ‘21 from. Seems like squared away dealership. It’s better than the one in Petaluma.

Yeah it looks shotty with the work they did on your truck. That dealership has its own collision and paint shop on site.

 

That is some hack work. You owe them nothing. They threw away your perfectly good painted hinge and gave you an unpainted hinge that didn’t solve any problems. They need to paint that hinge just to get back to $0. Then you can start talking about the cost of the actual repair.

 

Escalate this to at least the regional, if not national office. No one at the dealer is competent enough to resolve the issue. When they offer a resolution, take it to a different dealer. You don't need them doing something to your truck as an act of retribution for causing them problems.

 

Sales and parts are two totally different groups of people as are the mechanics. The OP needs to go straight to the manager or owner or whoever. Walk them to the Tundras on the lot and say show me these garbage ass hinges on any other truck on your lot from the port? And there is no way you are paying that money for a problem they caused. That’s like me charging you for the hinges while I fixed the tail lights.

 

All true. But this dealership is so wrong we are at the level of them admitting and resolving the issue. If he doesn’t do it then the next person gets the same treatment etc etc.

 

I never said pay for thier mistake and aware sales and parts dept are different. The dealer could have taken the hinge part to thier own paint shop to match the OEM white paint code.

 

Yes I see that sir. I apologize for my poor wording as a response to your comment. They could have done that and they didn’t. Either way you and I both agree that place is trying to screw him over and with an inferior part. Sorry about that.

 

No worrries, all good!

 

Yeah I was thinking about doing this. Yours turned out great!

 

Totally agree with this

 

Yes it’s better then the one in Petaluma agree. I’ve never had a issue with them until now.

 

Well loving all the feed back on this post. They said the truck will be ready on Monday so I will let you guys know what happens. I asked them to paint these and to fix the actual issue that was originally broken. Have you guys heard of these hinges going bad? When I pick my truck up I want to know why the technician thought these needed to be replaced and I’m surprised he didn’t know that the issue was the strut.

 

As a former tech myself i can tell you that jobs like this are always assigned to the lowest techs on the totem pole. This simple problem was obvious and misdiagnosed from the beginning, and you should ask them how replacing hinges has anything to do with how fast or slow the tailgate drops considering it has a strut to accomplish this. I bet the service manager will be unable to answer this question if he's honest about it.