Several months ago, my son't 2005 SCION tC developed a ticking noise in the engine. He took it to two dealers, one in Cleveland, TN - the other (Capital Toyota) in Chattanooga. They both told him it was valve train noise and not at all serious.
Recently, the noise got much worse, and I told him to take it back, as I was pretty sure it was a rod knocking. A private mechannic looked at it and confirmed that if he remove the plug wire on #2 cylinder, the noise went away.
He took it to Capital Toyota in Chattanooga where they re-diagnosed it as a rod knock and told him it would be approx. $400 + parts for repairs.
He called SCION and plead his case to them that this had been brought to their attention earlier while still under warranty, and now was out of warranty and probably going to get pretty expensive. They agreed, and offered him up to $750 toward the repairs if done by a Toyota/SCION dealership.
He took it to Capital and signed a contract authorizing repairs .. the JOB was described as : "KNOCK FROM ENGINE .. SCION TO HELP WITH REPAIR .. TAKE APART SEE WHATS NEEDED"
A week and a half later, the dealer called and said that #2, #3, #4 rod bearings were all "beat-up" and also that cam bearings were worn, and cylinder walls were scored,, etc, etc, etc. All told, they wanted almost $7,000 to completely rebuild his engine.
We told them that was not an option at this time, and that we would pick up the car and consider our options to locate a used engine and have that installed. Only then did the service rep. tell us they had REMOVED the engine from the car, and had TOTALLY DISASSEMBLED it. He said to be sure we brought a trailer, and lots of boxes for all the parts, and BY TE WAY .. .. OUR BILL WAS ALMOST $800 !! !! !!
When I got there to pick it up, we got into quite a shouting match when I questioned where they got the authority to do all of this,and the jerk service manager called the local Police, trying to have me arrested for calling him bad names. Cop came and said if I wanted the car, I'd have to pay the ransom and work it out in civil court if that's what I wanted to do.
Got the General Manager involved and he dropped the ransom to $704 but wouldn't budge. I repeatedly asked WHY they did the complete teardown, and why the process was charged at 8.00 hrs. He couldn't answer the first question, and stated (wrongly) that the 8.0 hrs was the "flat-rate" allowance. I asked to see the job ticket that the mechanic would have punched on/off and he refused, saying it doesn't exist.
According to Mitchell and Automotive Expert, the rate for ALL main & rod bearings should have been approx' $400 + parts.
Had an independant former Toypta mechanic look at the block & parts .. .. he said the scoring is so slight that a light honing would have taken it out, and said there was absolutely no reason for this engine to have been removed nor disassembled based on the original complaint.
I will be pleading my case soon to Toyota National Service Hotline, and also to the Tennessee State Licensing Board .. but whatever the outcome of this mess, I can assure you that after our current flock of Toyotas is gone, there will never be one in my garage ever again. The car might be great, but if this is the only dealer available .. I'M THROUGH !! !! !!
thanx for letting me vent .. .. ..