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GGRAV4000

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I just had brought my 2021 RAV4 hybrid for 40,000 miles service and only had them perform oil change, tire rotate only. Looking at recommended maintenance schedule from factory (toyota) that comes with new car, i am increasingly starting to notice lot more items for service and usually it does not match.
For example, service advisor recommended two items which I declined temporarily at least till next service:
  • mass airflow service
  • fuel injection service.
Then I also notice previous service included following:
- Engine crankcase fuel system clearning service.
All these jargons makes me head spinning.
 
Those last items on your list are money makers for the dealership. When a dealer starts the hard sell with me on additional service items, I just get out the maintenance schedule from the owners manual and politely (or not so politely if it is a really hard sell service advisor) ask who is smarter, the engineers that designed the car and wrote the service schedule, or the tech school worker at the dealer.

Seldom do they press further.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
That is a good one: who is smarter :)))).
As for fuel injection, obviously it is nice to have but not necessary. What are chances fuel system gets clogged or dirty or those below gets bad at 2 years mark? Almost zilch.
"During a fuel injection service, your mechanic will typically inspect all connections, the fuel and vacuum lines, the fuel rail, and the pressure regulator. They will then clean the fuel injectors and throttle body air intake. "
Obviously just for fuel injector, if you get something, you wanted to have it looked at but my car being 2 yr old far from experiencing that:

During a fuel injection service, your mechanic will typically inspect all connections, the fuel and vacuum lines, the fuel rail, and the pressure regulator. They will then clean the fuel injectors and throttle body air intake. "

Oh yeah, I also rejected the hybrid bater filter cleaning which was pretty reasonable at 60$ but what i found is it is so easy to replace, you just take out from passenger seat one plastic screw and clean yourself. In my case, the filter looked so clean, I just puffed few times and put back. Whole thing was about 5 min. That costs $0.
 
Similar thread here - with similar comments.
 
Toyota will rip most customers off with so called needed service at certain intervals. These cars can easily go 50k or more without needing anything changed on them.

I checked the cabin air filter, engine air filter, looked at throttle body and brake fluid right before taking the vehicle in for a oil change at 25k (not my car I just look after it for family member). I was in the lobby waiting for the oil change should be done and the service guy came and told me all the previous things I just mentioned needed to be changed as they were dirty, I said no they do not he said yes everything mentioned is very dirty and needed the service I declined and they brought the car around, I brought the service manager out and I pulled and showed him the air filters the brake fluid even pulled hose of the throttle body and showed him that none of the stuff was even close to needing to be done.
They're $50 tire rotations are a rip off when most people can get them done for free wherever they bought their tires from and certainly do not need to be done every 5,000 miles and that is exactly why the service engine light comes on every 5,000 mi is for the tire rotation... Absolutely ridiculous.

Know exactly what you want what the vehicle might need and look at stuff yourself before you take it in to do a dealership especially if it's close or at a certain mileage for a service, chances are your vehicle isn't going to need a darn thing except regular oil changes and that's it.
 
As soon as my free oil changes and inspections are done, I'll do all further maintenance myself.
I recommend you start now, at least you'll know that the filter/washer is actually getting changed. It's also only changed twice with the 2 year free service, so if you want it done every 6 months you'll have to pay unless you drive a ton of miles...Might as well start sooner than later IMO. As for the inspections, well you can just look at posts like the one above to see the quality of those dealership 'inspections'.
 
Any and ALL dealerships will take unwise/no car knowledge people to the cleaners. It amazes me the pure BS they constantly feed customers what they must do.

I've gotten in some pretty heavyweight arguments with service writers, service managers even dealer head honcho face to face accusing them of outright deception, lying and bait and switch. Toyota last few years in particular looking after my daughters hybrid as well as son in laws has become an all out verbal war with them.
Long list all of which I won the arguments, got a few people fired and threatened to sue the dealership over.

For most people they get taken for unnecessary items to buy, repair, adjust etc..

I love a challenge when someone thinks they know more about car mechanics especially engines than I do and I shut em down quickly.
It's customer beware at dealerships you will get taken advantage of simple as that.
 
I just had brought my 2021 RAV4 hybrid for 40,000 miles service and only had them perform oil change, tire rotate only. Looking at recommended maintenance schedule from factory (Toyota) that comes with new car, i am increasingly starting to notice lot more items for service and usually it does not match.
For example, service advisor recommended two items which I declined temporarily at least till next service:
  • mass airflow service
  • fuel injection service.
Then I also notice previous service included following:
- Engine crankcase fuel system cleaning service.
All these jargon's makes me head spinning.
Renue rubber and brakes as needed, and have the brake caliper pins greased yearly or do it yourself.
Last week there was one with 500,000 miles that had been in the ocean a year, on top of a mt a year and whatever else, that started right up, cockroaches don't need much, rubber and brakes and lube.
Toyota aren't really cockroaches, they just never die /s
 
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