Any Comments from Dealers on your EV?

i'm also curious about the relationship between installing an EV switch (in the USA) and the warranty...

 

Dealer had no comments on my EV button. They did make me remove the can view for the big code update. It interfered with the car going into "sleep mode". Also they removed my radiator block, but made no comment, just put the carpet inside the car.

 

No mention about my EV switch when I was in for the recall. After all they installed the EV mod.

 

I don't have one (at least yet), but I feel that it will be rare for it to cause a problem with warranty. First there'd have to be a battery problem and then the service tech would have to know about the mod. After that they'd have to put two and two together. Unless there's a sign in the shop that says, "If you see this modification, the battery warranty is void!" I don't see a problem.

Now, if a particular dealer wants to put the blame on a problem on the mod simply because they couldn't find the real problem, that's another matter.

 

techs at the dealership here are more curious than anything. i don't think they really care.

you could just cover the button up with some electrical tape and they probably wouldn't notice it. they're not out searching for these things to be able to point a finger, they're just there to fix the car. unless the button is directly in their way or they have to do something with the dimmer switch right next to it, chances are it will go unnoticed.

but, every place is different- as we have seen in the varied service reports in this forum alone.

 

Can you provide details - did you order parts (what, from where). What was the dealer's cost to you of the install? Any issues at all? Thanks.

 

Don-RI, TonyPSchaefer,
Actually they installed both! I had a stock switch that I got from Japan as well as the Coastal mod. It was all in an envelope along with instructions. The Toyota Tech. who did it had done several of both types. When he noticed both mods he came looking for me to see which I wanted. I had gone down the street for a cup of coffee so he just decided to install both. He quoted 1.5 hours labor which included a road test with me, it came to $127.50.

One comment on Warranty work. Dealers love it and will fight to get it done under warranty. I have never had any warranty work turned down by a dealer, if it is really extensive they have to get approval from Toyota. Most warranty work is a moneymaker for them. The latest recall was quoted at 3.5 hours and in most cases took much less.

 

interesting.

the manager at my dealer here in portland, oregon suggested that i not install the ev mod. he said he wasn't sure of anything, but "it sounds like that would interfere with the warranty."

huh.

 

Don't see how it could really be much of a warranty issue since it is standard everywhere but North America. They didn't include it here because EPA couldn't figure out how to rate a car with this feature.

 

Why don't you ask the dealer what mods you can install? I've never seen a dealer give permission to do anything to a car that they don't supply themselves.

 

Why do you need both?

 

He did not need both, but as he said, I was not sure whitch of the 2 he wanted, and since he was not here to ask I installed them both and charged him for one. Seemed like the right thing to do.
Every dealer has a bit of wiggle room as to what is or is not warranty. You have to ballance customer satisfaction and repeat business (& referals) with what is the root cause. Regionally there are lots of tacomas around here. Someone goes down the steet and gets a suspension lift. Now the angle of the front cv boots are excessive. The boots poped off because of the angle. We call the customer and tell them their lift caused the problem not the boot. We recomend appropriate modifications to prevent it, and then warranty the boot one time. That is the ballance we try to find.
The only way I think anyone will get into trouble with an EV is if you bend a terminal on the ecu somehow, or damage the connector getting a pin in 27. The ECU would be hard to get thru warranty, no problem on a connector.
Regards, Mike

 

I was just wondering why he would buy another one if he already had one.

 

My dealer didn't say anything. Probably didn't notice. After all, that red button could be anything. They never had to get behind the dash, so there's nothing to question about a wire going from one end of the dash to the other tapped into the ECU.

Only problem I could see is if the ECU has to be replaced. I snapped the release tab to the connector that holds the connector to the ECU so it is more difficult to remove the plug. Didn't take much force to snap it either. Them plugs are HARD to pull out.

 

My son-in-law makes frequent trips to Japan and picked up the factory switch for me while I was waiting for the Coastal Mod. (they have a history of long delivery times) That’s how I ended up with both. Both work without conflict and I can chose which to use depending on conditions.