Am I being Bamboozled?

if they charged you, yes.

 

I seem to recall seeing in the wiring diagram that, yes, in at least one of the Entune versions of headunit, there was something called an "extension module" that was a separate box mounted beneath the headunit and responsible for some of the apps; they might reasonably also call it an apps module. Sounds like a reasonable possibility it would be at fault. Too bad they may have lost time swapping the other part first, but as long as they haven't charged for either thing, that's probably about as good as it'll get at a dealer shop.

I'd like to think they could have had somebody find out which unit was at fault before just swapping stuff, but to hire people who have real diagnosis chops, dealer service departments have to compete with a lot of other career paths.

-Chap

 

Diagnostic time pays $0. Toyota pays warranty book time to swap parts.

 

Even worse for Toyota if so, because a lot of employers will value people with that skill.

-Chap

 

after thinking it over, i think you're being boozled. no bam involved.

 

The “don’t fix them” part, at least, is correct. There are no field-serviceable parts in the radio head unit, and they are repaired only on a return-to-depot basis.

Considering the outstanding troubleshooting skill you’ve seen so far from the dealer, would you really expect them to be able to diagnose or repair a printed-circuit board at the component level?

I wrote a bit more about the extension module in a Prius v thread, but I think the information probably also applies to liftback Prius cars of similar age.

This is exactly the problem. I expect it’s less costly for Toyota to absorb the cost of unnecessary parts exchanges than to authorize a warranty labor rate that would lure skilled technicians away from other fields.

Toyota’s Repair Manual could cover this area better, though. The Problem Symptoms Table, for example, doesn’t have an entry for “The radio works but APPS don’t.” Perhaps the authors assumed, in that case, that the technician would always find one of the extension module trouble codes (B1552, B158A, or B156C) and use the corresponding troubleshooting procedure.

 

The next time you take your car into the shop please remember to tell the Service Manager that you expect to be billed for the mechanic's time spent diagnosing the problem. As it is, the mechanic is being paid the book rate for the repair.

This is why there isn't a mechanic in the shop who wants to get assigned to the car with the "intermittent problem" or the repair that routinely takes longer to do properly than listed in the book. BTW, warranty work pays less than retail. Two cars come in needing the same work. One is out of warranty. Which one sits on the lot or in an unused bay?