Upper oil pan leak

[Jo_Vincent]

The MFD in my wife's 2004 prius went out and since we have the extended warranty, I took it to the toyota dealer so they can have a looksee. Well the dealer confirmed the MFD was bad and ordered a rebuilt MFD. Then the service manager told me over the phone that the seal on the oil pan was leaking and it had to be fixed. I was very very surprised because I check the car every week and never noticed any leaking oil. (I change my own oil). I also assumed the oil pan leak was on the lower (number 2) oil pan. The dealer said he would fix it under the warranty.
When I got the receipt I read it and noticed that the labor to fix the seal on the upper oil pan was $1200 (labor for about 13 hours). When I got the car back I looked under the vehicle and saw that the seal around the lower oil pan was redone (looked like the black sealer was coated on 1/8 inch thick). I could not tell if anyone had done anything to the upper section. Since the dealer only had the car for about 7 hours, I don't feel like they really replaced the seal on the upper oil pan and now I am wondering about the honesty of the dealer. What do you think?

[Bill Merchant]

That's certainly strange, though 2 people x 7 hours is > 13. Maybe the dealer needs income...

[Bear68]

::sad sigh:: I hate to say it... but I would guess that your dealer is stealing from Toyota's warranty. Toyota tells dealers that we can only "upsell" warranty work if it is a safety issue or if further damage will occur thereby increasing the cost of the repair in the future. If a tech discovers a broken glovebox latch that the customer did not mention, he cannot repair it under warranty. If he finds an oil leak, it may be fixed since the result could be a blown engine. Similarly, a brake fluid leak is a safety issue and can be fixed immediately.
From your description, I would bet the dealer resealed the lower pan and wrote up the job as having resealed the upper half to get more money. The lower pan can be resealed in an hour's time. And yes, we tend to get a little heavy handed with the FIPG. (Form In Place Gasket material)

[Bob64]

Yikes.
Care to name this dealer?

I hope they're not pulling this type of treachery on people that don't have warranty coverage.

[Bear68]

I would find it unlikely, but certainly possible that tricks such as listed above might be pulled on non warranty customer jobs... Most techs and service advisers alike seem to feel that "warranty has deep pockets and owes them a little extra now and then". I will grant that, quite often, warranty jobs are big time losers. Most warranty jobs pay barely enough to cover the actual amount of time the tech spends. Warranty also is notorious for paying little or nothing for diagnostic time. After spending hours driving a car multiple times and studying scan tool data and testing sensors and actuators, only to find one sensor reading slightly out of spec, a tech will find the job reduced to paying .3 or .4 hours. Imagine working half a day to be paid less than half an hour? I am not trying to justify their actions. Merely explaining the reasoning behind them.

[Bear68]

I shall now step quietly down from my soapbox.