Friday, February 24, 2012

Took the truck to the Toyota servcie dept and came out with a different problem

I'm pretty adamant about not taking my truck in to get serviced if I can do the work myself.   I think people usually get ripped off by dealerships and it kills me to take it in.

Well, I've had a clunking sound in my front left suspension for several months now and I couldn't figure out what the issue was.  I called up Orland Toyota and scheduled a service appointment for them to figure it out for me.  Brought it in, and they think they figured it out as being worn out end Sway Bar Links.  It made sense to me that that could be the problem since I couldn't find anything loose in the suspension and the truck is 12 years old now days.

They wanted about $354 for new links and to install them, so I said I'd call them if I needed to have them order the parts and install them.  I got home and pulled the wheel off to see that links and it does seem to be loose, so I looked them up and found aftermarket links for $60 shipped to my door.  I intend to put them on tomorrow to see if this was the problem.

Now the other problem... I picked up my truck and when driving home I immediately noticed my brake pedal was soft.  What the heck!  I just had brakes done about 4 months ago and figured they shouldn't even have touched my brakes.  I sent them an email and got a call back.  They said that the service tech noticed the brake adjuster for the parking brake was seized up, so he loosened it up.  In doing that it may have made it so the brakes are now out of adjustment.  I asked how much it would take to fix it and he quoted me about $60.

I then went to one of the several Toyota forums that I browse around on and read that I could put the truck in reverse, roll back at about 3-5 mph and pull the e-brake.  This should adjust the rear brakes.  We'll see, as I intend to try that before I have anyone else work on my truck.

Since I may put a lift on my truck I would have to buy an extended rear brake line, so I may wait to have another inspection for when I take it in to have them put them on and bleed the brakes.  I could do that myself, but I hate doing brake work and I feel safer when pro shops do it.



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