Instrument Panel failed this morning, now works. Replace ASAP?

This morning the instrument panel failed to turn on, and the car was unable to calculate MPG on the MFU, while everything else seemed to work just fine. Is this ever a one-off problem, or a clear sign that the Panel is on it's way out? I have read that Toyota extended a warranty to 9 years for this problem, so I think it should be covered on my 2008 model with 138k. I'd like to nip this in the bud without having it fail on an upcoming road trip, but don't necessarily want to waste my time at a dealer unnecessarily either...

 

I'll probably take it in tomorrow just to get it over with. It's been fine for the reminder of the day on short trips, but total failure seems to be inevitable. Besides, having our only car in the shop is a good excuse to bike absolutely everywhere..

 

Well, this is unfortunate: the dealer has stated that they can only perform this service under a warranty claim if you bring the car in to the shop while the instrument cluster is not working. I told him that it was intermittent, and he said if I turn the car on and it is black, then I should drive directly to the dealer without turning the car off so that they can verify. Otherwise, they can't do the work under the warranty enhancement. This is really unfortunate, and I guess I'll just have to wait until the problem gets worse and worse before having it repaired.

 

VSkid3, I just got off the phone with Toyota Customer Service. At first the manager on the phone tried to tell me that the dealer had to visibly witness the failed combination meter firsthand. I pointed out the verbage on the document and we read it together. She then agreed that it should be repaired without problem. We live in a fairly remote town, and our local dealer is currently without a certified hybrid tech so they can't handle the warranty claim supposedly. Now I've got to drive 2 hrs to the next closest dealer, and these are the ones that were trying to fight me on it.

I was advised to drive to the dealer, escalate the situation to the manager there, and if necessary call Toyota Customer Service while on the spot. I'm not willing to drive 5 hrs to the next closest dealer to have this fixed. I'm really hoping that the rental car will be provided to me for free, and not at $35 like the bulletin suggests. I'll post back once I make the trip to the dealer in the next few days.

 

Just to post an update for anyone who has this problem in the future: Toyota did wind up fixing this free of charge. I was provided a rental vehicle (Camry) free of charge for the 5.5 days it took to receive the new instrument cluster and replace it. In the end I had no problems once they received the car. You definitely have to stick to your guns on this one and quote the Toyota documentation as needed.

The rep I spoke with at the dealer said they'd seen a handful of these in the past. If that is the case, I don't understand why I had such a hard time initially getting them to admit that it was covered under the warranty extension. My assumption is that they are doing lots of these repairs and actually charging customers for it, especially assuming most customers are unaware of the warranty extension. I'm grateful for this forum and finding that there was an option to have this covered by Toyota.