My dealer tells me I need over $1000 worth of repairs

HV Battery Service = clean fan


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Yes, that's what I was thinking also Wabbit.

They seem to be quite non-transparent with their naming of services.

 

Like everyone has said the MAF doesn't sound right. I had a van that throw a check engine light. The codes came back as a bad o2 sensor. Turns out it had a leaf stuck in front of the MAF, which throw the computer off, causing it to adjust the fuel-air mixture. Which is why the o2 code popped up. With all that said, the van started and ran fine. The diagnostic of the dealer is suspect.

I am not sure I would let a suspect mechanic work on my car. If they are willing to lie or they are flat out incompetent, or if I simply don't like the way they do business, do I really want them under my hood. I would cut my losses, pay the $229.00 and walk away. I would not have any work done on my car. Look at the money spent, as education. I spent money to learn to not go to that dealer. If you don't trust the quote and the diagnostics, why trust them to go any further. You don't know if they will "find" something else, do what they said, or have a "mistake". You have to be able to trust the mechanic.

 

Bottom line on all of this. There is no question you need a new 12V battery. If you ran the battery down and it wouldn't jump, then your battery has suffered damage. And that is definitely why your car wouldn't start. I have seen over and over that dealers don't have the ability to diagnose a weak 12v battery on a Prius. As many others have said, whatever service they perform will not fix the real problem (which is your 12v battery) and you will bring the car back to them and say, "I'm having the no start problem again" and they will say, its your 12V battery and that will be another $250+ to replace it. All of these other services are bogus and not required. The transaxle drain is something you should do ASAP but not at that price and not at that dealer.

My advice to you is to tell them you want them to replace the 12v and that it. No more, no less. Then get in your car and never go back. I do agree that you may try what ETCSS said to do as well to get your price down some. This is sheer incompetency on this dealer and def trying to rip you off.

 

sounds like it was your battery.

i'm still confused by your/their description of the car not being able to start. you originally said the green light wouldn't come on. that indicates the 12v battery.
then they told you the battery was good, and the maf was preventing the engine from starting. that statement indicates the battery was good and they got the green light, which you didn't, but the engine wouldn't start for them, and it was the maf.
now, they say the battery was dead and they had to jump it? it's like the twilight zone in there.

 

Can you apply the $229 diagnostic fee to a replacement 12V battery? Be firm about that, and see where that goes.

 

Give the GM a chance to fix this.

I can sympathize with the Service Manager, since they're out on the sharp end of the stick but a polite conversation with his or her boss may make all of this go away for a reasonable cost.

You need a aux (12v) battery nearly immediately.
I'd also get a pocket booster, and an explanation from somebody smarter than me about how a dirty MAFS can keep a car from starting.

Remember....you don't crank engines in Priuses with the 12v battery, but rather you boot the car up.
That doesn't take much current.....but you DO need a good 12v battery to keep the car running.

Fix that first.
Then?
Go after these creeps.

After you've been on this forum for a little while you will find that service departments are getting to be a very weak link in Toyota's Customer Care chain.
Your particular story may not be worth 20-minutes on a Sunday news magazine, but the overarching trend MIGHT be.

The hardest part of tearing down a wall is wiggling that first brick out.

Show the GM this thread.

Good Luck!

 

GM = General Manager = Dealership Owner?

 

Generally speaking owners don't run their dealerships, but rather they get a GM to do it.
With this dealership that might be THE WHOLE problem.....but generally speaking (pun unintended) the GM will farm out the day to day ops of the service department to the Service Manager and just hold THAT person accountable for that department's bottom line.

Things are different state-by-state, and dealership by dealership but generally the service departments, used car side, and new car side (and sometimes admin) are run as semi-autonomous departments.
You're almost certainly dealing with a bent dealer, but there's a possibility that you just have a bent Service Manager and a myopic GM...or the problem may go all the way up to the owner.

I'm a hopeless optimist at heart.
I don't think that Toyota is incentivizing their dealership network to be crooks, but rather I believe that they're just clueless about those that are coloring outside the lines.

 

Don't hold your breath waiting for the call. They know what they did (the Service Writer and possibly the Service Manager's policy) and are probably just expecting you will go away quietly now that you called them on it. Everything on their list is considered routine-preventative maintenance, none of which would cause the problem you "described". A 7-8 year old original 12vdc battery (assuming it is the original) is not unheard of, but well past normal service life and "likely" the original issue. Obviously you're out the tow fee. Diagnostic fee...well, you might be screwed there too...unless you can prove this fee schedule was not provided or posted before hand...and good luck proving that. If you do eventually get a hold of someone in charge, I would not take anything but money back...or a free "NEW" battery hand delivered to be installed by yourself or elsewhere. Any credit towards free future services with this Dealership is just asking to be raped. Wish you the best.

 

I'm always very suspicious whenever expensive work is presented in terms as vague as being a "service".
What exactly does that service include, what am I getting for my money spent?
As well as why is it determined I need that service?

Without that information? I wouldn't give them a penny.

 

As I stated before, testing the 12V battery on a Prius is not something I've seen any competence on. It is indeed tricky because it is not like a normal battery with cold cranking amps but rather Amp hours. When a Prius battery goes dead, it is evidenced by the exact symptoms you listed above. This will become a trend and will happen again. Cold weather exacerbates the problem. I don't care how many people say your 12v is good, that doesn't mean it is. Your choices are to replace it now when you can schedule it or, wait for this to happen again at the most inconvenient time and replace it then.

I say all of this to try to help you avoid the latter.

 

Lesson Learned Brother.

You know now to avoid that POS dealer like the plague.

I would put a trickle charger on that battery or remove and have it charged at a Orielys or Autozone, it is free then have it load tested to confirm it was charged adequately. Wow "driving around" does very little, they are supposed to let it sit for about 60-90 minutes in READY to charge that battery. Did they just get the SAE license or something? Geez.

Gosh If you paid by card, I would dispute it. Let him sue you and then they can tell it to the judge, I am sure the judge has been ripped by a mechanic once or twice like us mortals.

 

That is why they call dealerships = Stealership

Also, it seems a lot of people don't know this, the service writer makes a percentage on what they can squeeze out of you.

It is not unheard of the service writer (depending on the type of car), an example, a VW service writer makes at least $50k on commissions. (How do i know, I had 2 friends who were service writers).

That is why they push so hard to get you into doing unnecessary work, either calling it needed routine maintenance or preventative maintenance.

If dealership didn't always try to ripoff consumers, we would have competition from independent mechanics.


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When I bought my car used last year they did a car check at the dealer and said that battery was good but I their experience could need changing soon. It was 4 years old car and 2 weeks later I had to replace it because it started towing errors. Now on the printout it said that 12v was good - and I have to agree - it was good. Those things even when apparently dead always have some life in them which makes them hard to diagnose in the long run.

 

the line between good and bad is razor thin. that's why it's with replacing it when it's static below 12.4 volts.

 

One way to test this is removing it from the vehicle, charging it up and seeing how fast the voltage drops. After it's been sitting for a few seconds there should be no more drop. If it's creeping down - let's say 13.76, 13.74, 13.72 - with no load, that's a dead battery.

 

The car is 7 or 8 years old....if you've never replaced the battery, it's probably time. Forget all the testing and thinking about it, and just do it. If the car still acts weird, you've at least eliminated the battery as a possible cause.


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