So the mother fffers at Toyota in Toronto during my last oil change quoted me $6000 to replace my exhaust. They said, from the manifolds, to the Y pipe all the way needing three cats and a muffler....so I was like nope. Even said the engine must be lifted out.

During my ongoing summer of repairs, I left my 4Runner 12 days ago at our independent for a power steering fluid change as well a frayed line I needed repairing. I finally just said, let’s get the exhaust done...it’s been noisy since Xmas 2017 and keeps getting louder and louder.

They called me back, the exhaust is not as bad as we thought when we first saw it mid summer. It will be $350.....I ask why? Your Y pipe has rotted out, we can fabricate a new part and weld it in....and you are good.

I finally got it back tonight, oh my...my 4Runner is silent....like it’s brand new again....the 4.7 V8 is an amazing motor. Such great quality. I truly cannot believe how quiet it is.

Will be sending a registered letter to the Toyota dealer exhausting (haha pun) my displeasure.

Thought I’d share....

 

You say that you first noticed exhaust noise at the end of 2017. Does your jurisdiction in Toronto have yearly safety-inspections? Here, in Virginia, you would not have made it this long without getting written up. State safety-inspections are required every year, and emissions inspections every other year in the part of Virginia near D.C. The state inspection would have failed your vehicle for any detectible hole in the exhaust system forward of the outlet itself, and, of course, having exhaust come out of two different holes on the same pipe would fail the emissions test, too.

 

The emissions test has been scrapped in Ont. it would of passed until this year 2019, as the CEL finally came on. But the test is scrapped

 

A dealer quoting a ridiculous repair number on an out of warranty vehicle? Shocking.

 

Sometimes they do that to try and get you into a new vehicle.....from their dealership, of course. But it is also no secret that the average dealership makes the bulk of their profits from service and repairs.

 

mmmm. I have 30 years experience with this dealer. 30 years of buying Toyota or Lexus cars from them. My father and mother started going there as well because of me. My sister too. They lost two customers IMO as I have been bringing two cars there for 20+ years. They should of known better. Word of mouth is very powerful too. I have lots of clients and customers who get newsletters form my company, would hate to use them as a bad customer experience example They have taken care of me many times before.

And finally, actions speak louder than words....I am glad I have moved on.

 

In a busy affluent TO postal code, you are but one customer for overworked service advisors who wouldn't know you from a brand new customer unless you've dealt with them over many years. They're going to look up a parts quote for OEM exhaust and charge full on labor costs.

When this happened what did you do? Did you contact the service manager, dealer principle? Surely over all this time you formed some sort of relationship with this dealership? If they don't know what your experience was, how are they going to be able to fix it?

And as a side note: it's Canada, everything is about nepotism and who knows who.

 

Sounds like your sarcasm detector may need servicing..

If you want your experience to make a difference, I'd suggest making a copy of that letter and sending it to Toyota Canada HQ (which also happens to be in Toronto) as well. No guarantee that Toyota will follow up on it, but it's better than only sending it to the dealer, who is likely to just toss it in the recycling bin.

 

dealer service dept isnt actually very smart, all they know to do is replace stuff not repair, there is a difference

 

Sounds like your comparing apples and oranges.

The indy shop fabricated a part while Toyota dealer would have used OEM parts plus replace full exhaust etc.

Also why wait 2yrs to fix your car?

 

no more like overkill replacement vs an actual repair. Did the 3 cats really need replacing or was it because you cant buy the Y pipe seperate

 

What I described has happened before, and will probably happen again. Some dealer service shops are honest, and some aren't. And Jill doesn't seem very happy with this one.

4TehNguyen's comment about apples and oranges (new vs. rebuilt) parts is partly true, but, IMO, does not totally account for the vast difference between the two estimates. At the risk of another pun, something there did not add up.

 

Thanks. I will definitely send the letter to Toyota Canada as well.

Agreed. However, they have made repairs vs replacement in the past.
Wait two years because the noise was so minor at first. Just got very loud. When I took it to the Indy early this year, they said on first glance very likely 1 cat needs to change, but that was quick diagnosis when I was getting my brake line done, just using a scan tool. This time around when I said, lets explore fixing it completely, they really looked into it.

No. You can buy the Y pipe. On my quote from Toyota it shows just the Y pipe. Toyota 4Runner exhausts are multi piece.

 

I suspect a good chunk of it is the shop's labour rate. Jill mentioned that they wanted to lift the engine out, on top of removing the old exhaust system and replacing it. I'm not familiar with the 4runner, but on some vehicles, the service manual calls for suspension components and/or subframes to be unbolted to access/remove the exhaust components. It probably also includes things like new O2 sensor(s), maybe even extra busy work like rewelding new exhaust hangers when the old ones are perfectly fine.

Something that I've been advised to do in the past is to establish (before the car goes in the shop for an inspection or diagnosis) that you would like the mechanic to show you evidence that a part needs to be repaired while they are doing their diagnosis. Ideally, the mechanic would call you into the shop, show you the problem and give you the opportunity to ask questions. This way, you can make an informed decision, and they are forced to be able to prove to you that everything they intend to replace, actually needs to be replaced.

Best of luck with the letter. I really hope Toyota steps up.

 

I will have to look at the quote paperwork. I think the parts are about $4000 I remember. Cats are something like $1000 each. And the Y pipe is not cheap. Toyota did build the 4.7 V8 with cats that are built into the exhaust manifold, they apparently did this to be cheap and for EPA reasons. Anyways, with speaking to the Indy, he said very, very rarely does the exhaust manifold need to come off. They also can very easily cut and weld an aftermarket manifold into place.