I have 15.000 miles on my 2007 Toyota 4 runner. The dealer wants to clean the fuel injectors, the throttle body and change the cab AC filter. The book does not say anything about injectors or throttle body. Total cost with oil change and tire rotation is about $250. What do I do?
Just do what it says in the manufacturer’s 15k-mile service requirements, not the dealer’s, in order to maintain your warranty. Unless you’re noticing a decrease in performance (like a sticky throttle or declining gas mileage), I wouldn’t bother with the throttle body, injectors, or filter until the manufacturer recommends servicing them per the maintenance schedule in the manual. The dealer will often recommend all sorts of services prematurely, under their “extreme driving conditions” service schedule.
Many dealers, yours included, try to sell services that are not necessary. Unless you are having specific driveability problems, there is no reason to clean the injectors or the throttle body.
As to the cabin air filter, this sounds a bit early to me. Your best resource for accurate information on maintenance is sitting in your glove compartment. Check the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule for the mileage and elapsed time guidelines for the cabin air filter, as well as all other maintenance procedures, and use the information in that booklet as your guide over the years in order to keep that truck in good condition.
While you have the glove compartment open and reading the owner’s manual, look at the section on changing the cabin filter. If it is like our 2003 Toyota 4Runner, you’ll see that this is an easy job that will take less than 5 minutes. You should be able to get the filter at an auto parts store for much less than what the dealers charge. If you can change your furnace filter, you can change this filter. It does the same thing. The cabin air filter doesn’t affect anything except the comfort of you and your passengers by removing pollen from the air. I have my 4Runner maintained by an independent shop and have been quite satisfied.
Change the filter and forget the other. Have the tires rotated.
“The cabin air filter doesn’t affect anything except the comfort of you and your passengers by removing pollen from the air”
Actually, if a cabin air filter becomes overly laden with “stuff”, the result can be a fogged windshield as a result of impeded air flow. And, since that is a safety issue, I think that it is important to emphasize that this filter does more than just remove pollen from the air.
Do only the maintenence listed in your owner’s manual and tell the dealer to find some other sucker to sell the fuel injector cleaning service to.
There is no reason what-so-ever to do a fuel injector cleaning on a vehicle this new…and with so few miles.
Since this dealer is very sleezy…find a good local mechanic to have ALL your scheduled maintenance done. It does NOT have to be preformed by the dealer.
Replacing the cabin is probably a good idea…and on this vehicle can be preformed in under 5 minutes with a philips screwdriver. Very very simple job.
Thanks a lot guys, You all confirmed my thoughts. Oil change and tire rotation are very cheap at that dealership, plus I get coupons and 30 minutes service. I’ll just have to be careful with the rest.
Oil change and tire rotation are very cheap at that dealership, plus I get coupons and 30 minutes service.
Of course. They make there money on the add on’s.
You’re supposed to sign or initial the work you authorize.
Make sure you read carefully what they want you to sign.
I took the car in today and asked the guy why they are recommending stuff that’s not in the book. His reply was: The book does not tell you everything, we ARE Toyota and we are the ones to tell you what your car needs.
Needless to say, I just got the oil change, tire rotation and re-torque the propeller shaft (whatever that is).
You did well. In case the dealer misses a fine point, THE DEALER IS NOT TOYOTA. The manufacturer will always maintain that the dealer is “AN INDEPENDENT BUSINESSMAN”. In any court case, the manufacturer has always won where a screwup was due to the dealer’s incompetence, or a dealer overcharged a customer. If the manufacturer pays it is because the product is truly defective or the there is a need to maintain goodwill.
They are the unwashed part of Toyota, the people that know that your money doesn’t do them any good just sitting in your bank account. I was Toyota once as a salesman and I had no idea what I was doing. I only wish I was healthy enough to fix cars for a living. Anybody can get hired. I’ll bet you noticed.
The service writer (I assume that’s who you were dealing with) is right only to this extent: it is perfectly plausible that in the course of doing the manufacturer-stipulated maintenance they may come across something else that needs to be done…and perhaps sooner than recommended by the manufacturer. But to tell you that you need your throttle body and injectors cleaned…or anything else for that matter…without some reason (like the aforementioned degradation of performance/driveability) is pure b.s.