I need to be prepared to be screwed by the dealer?

nope, you're already screwed.

 

Now...why in the world would you want to take your car to this dealer?

There are some honest dealers out there. Check around before you decide. Otherwise, you may soon be needing some vaseline or K-Y Jelly.

 

Wear clean underwear.

 

Wth???? There isn't anything that they can do to make this happen. Now, on an older Honda, this is a definite possibility.

Have you tried Carson Toyota?

 

The Honda ECU flash to make it less of a hybrid and get the battery failures out of the warranty period is making hybrids in general look bad to everyone who doesn't know better, including prius owners apparently.

But there is anecdotal evidence that the 2004-2005 "stalling" ECU flash, mucks withe fuel economy on some vehicles. However this is more of a symptom of another problem that was masked by the stalling instead of being a direct cause of it.

As for the OP... Find a good dealer. The Honda dealership I go to has a very large work area and a big glass window. You can literally eat the free popcorn and watch the monkey take your car apart. I have not seen such a Toyota dealership around here, but the Lexus dealership has something similar. Perhaps your Toyota department is similar. Be prepared to stand there for 2-4 hours and stare intently.

Or you can just find a good dealer. Ask around. Shops that sabotage will eventually be had out. Or ask around and it is likely you will know someone who knows someone that works at a Toyota dealership as a tech and will let you babysit or just give you their word, or even just speak openly about their dealer. It is almost a 100% probability that you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone.

 

You might try asking around about decent dealers.

We have a local dealer that acts just like you describe... okay, so when we needed to take ours in for the recall, we drove 65 miles to a highly recommended dealer who treated us very, very well, and there has been no issue at all since then.

 

After I bought my new Prius I was talking to my brother who bought his Camry from another nearby dealer. He was gushing about their program in which they pick up and return his car for the complimentary routine maintenance during the first 25K miles. I called his dealer and they said sure give us a call....does not matter where you bought it, we want your business. 10K miles arrived, I called and they asked "me" to bring it in.
Well I went ahead and took the car in thinking they would not be any worse than where I bought the car. Guess what, my purchase dealer washes the car after maintenance checks, his does not. Went back to my original dealer.

 

You make your dealership decision based on a free car wash?

 

Come on folks, we are talking about an inverter coolant pump here. It should be a slam dunk for the tech, a 1 hour job, maybe 45 minutes if an AirLift is used. Assuming that the check engine light is not on, A SCAN TOOL IS NOT NECESSARY!!!

Dianne Whitmire is the fleet sales manager for Carson Toyota and regularly posts inventory here. You could try reaching out to her for a reference to someone trustworthy in that service department.

 

When I lived in south OC from 2000 - 2009, I received excellent warranty service from Rancho Santa Margarita Toyota. (I do non-warranty repairs myself.)

It is really easy for you to inspect the engine coolant pump. Look at the inside of the pulley, for signs of coolant weeping from the pump bearing. If you don't see pinkish or whitish coolant stains then the pump is good.

The inverter coolant pump is a critical component. A failure will quickly leave you stranded in hot summer weather and risks destroying the inverter. I recommend that you have this replaced soon, rather than waiting for it to fail.

 

What about Vtec Auto Repair in Irvine? Too far maybe? Well reviewed independent shop. Use the dealer for the recall and an indy for everything else.

Just a thought.

 

I need to be prepared to be screwed by the dealer? LOL I love the title of this thread. It's almost like a different type of "what lube do I need" question.

 

OP - when/if you do go to a dealer be sure to become familiar with the work you are requesting. If you are worried about being taken advantage of, you have a much better chance of a good experience if you present yourself as a knowledgeable customer so be sure to ask a couple of 200-level follow up questions.

 

Look for pink crusty residue on top of the A/C compressor. You could also feel it on the inside of the pulley. I'll post a picture later. As long as your coolant expansion tank is at the full cold mark in the morning, you probably do not have a problem, though.

 

That is a good photo to start with. Note the three pulleys on the front of the engine. The large pulley at the bottom is the crankshaft pulley, which provides the rotational force to spin the other pulleys. The small pulley at the top is the idler pulley. The purpose of that is to facilitate easy adjustment of the serpentine drive belt tension.

The last mid-sized pulley, located to the right with the shiny outer edge, is the engine coolant pump pulley. The outer edge is shiny because that surface is in contact with the outside of the serpentine drive belt.

Find the pulleys in your engine compartment, located adjacent to the passenger-side fender. Look inside the engine coolant pump pulley, using a flashlight if needed. If you see pinkish stains that is bad. In more extreme cases you will see coolant deposits on the AC compressor housing, as seilerts pointed out.