Anyone have dealer switch pink (SLLC) for the red (LLC)?

Been awhile since I've read or posted, but had an experience that I wanted to get people's thoughts on.

To make a long story short, got the water pump code and took the 2004 Prius in for the recall and to go ahead and change the engine coolant at the same time (just a few hundred shy of the 100K mark). I noticed some weirdness on the invoice and found out that the dealership (Midwest Toyota, Hutchinson, KS), did the recall, but put in the red, Long Life Coolant in both the inverter and engine. The kicker is that they put on the invoice they had put in the Super Long Life Coolant in the inverter or else "Toyota wouldn't pay for the recall work."

Come to find out, they also didn't just put in new red coolant, they replaced the pink coolant with "recycled" red coolant. I got in touch with Toyota corporate and verified the dealer should have stayed with the pink, yet the dealership service people contain to say that they didn't do anything wrong. I had two questions for the group.

Has anyone had these type of issues (red vs. pink & recycled vs new) when getting the coolants replaced? For now, I have no plans on going back to this dealer, asked for my money back, and filed a compliant with Toyota. Is this overkill or should I be concerned about having the red coolant in there for a month or so?

 

Thanks for all the feedback (not just this quote). To me the inverter coolant clearly looks red in comparison to what it looked like before, but harder to tell on the engine coolant. I'm glad you mentioned the money aspect, that has been my suspicion all along, that they are using to make money off the recycled coolant and the increased service intervals required for the LLC.

I did get a call yesterday from the service manager, but he fed me the same line as the other service guys when I picked it up. Things like "we always use the red; we've never had a customer come back with a problem because of it" and "that is what Toyota tells us to do." When I mentioned that I was more than a little concerned about my invoice saying they put in SLLC for the recall work, but they didn't, he said, "We have to put that so Toyota will pay us for the work." To which I replied, "That to me suggests it is important to put in the SLLC and doing what you did borders on fraud to me." He also threw in that most shops were using recycled coolant "because it's good for the environment."

After this conversation, he offered to change it for no cost, but I asked for a refund. He wanted to call and check on some things and get back with me today. No word today, so I am going to call Toyota corporate tomorrow to see about my options.

 

I certainly do agree with the idea of recycle coolant and I'm with you too on not getting the recycled for the Prius.

Midwest Toyota certainly won't be getting any more of my money in the future. After talking with Toyota corporate, the only way to get the inverter coolant changed back to pink without additional cost is to take it back to the dealer that did the service. After some deliberation I decided to go ahead and take it back for them to switch it back and put the right coolant in.

My hope is now that they know I'm not going to accept any BS story, they will be hesitant to do anything fishy (I'm considering taking the camcorder to record the conversations with the service people, but don't want to go overboard with my paranoia).