Not very deep water but…

qs933 said:

My bet would be that the dealer and Toyota would push back on a warranty claim, but it’s worth a try.

On one hand, I’m sure these vehicles are designed and tested under various adverse conditions and this is an unlucky fluke.

On the other hand…a four month recall after production started because the wheels fell off…so…

Click to expand...

They didn't really push back hard. They did say they couldn't tell if it was defect or user error and felt Toyota may decline the warranty.... they did mention i could call corporate and discuss the issue and that they take things case by case... and that they could give me a freebee.... but typically that is limited to ONE freebee per car.

I had already known this because i spoke with them about what their releationship to the customer was a couple weeks ago.

I will still call them, so its a reported issue, but i won't take my freebee on this.... All and All the parts cost me about $900 and My brother-in-law and i are doing the work today... (i'll report back on how it goes).


PS: by the way, from all the things we were able to see, its a defect of some sort... there is no way that water passing through should have caused these parts to come loose and push under the wheels (which resulted in the full rip-off)... I have now reviewed closely what it looks like fully attached, have reviewed what came off the car, and we definitely didn't hit anything... result was from water pressure, pushing up against the FELT wheel wells allowing for some fasteners to pop-off, and allowing the wheel to catch the felt and yank it under the car, resulting with it yanking the under carriage splash guard completely off (which is only held by very thin tabs at the front). anyway....

wanted to write up a separate post of what we had to do...

1) Jacked car up (of course ). Removed Wheels (noted in new manual the torque specs so that when we put them back on they were correct.
2) removed any left over clips that we could use
3) removed any left over screws (in the old under cover)
4) because all of the plastic flaps that were screwed into the front grill had busted off. We had to replace the Front Grill as well. The grill was the hard part to remove. Lots of clips up underneath, stretching to reach and there were a couple silver screws on each side that attached to the Black Fenders (along with several clips). Once this was removed, popping the new grill on was fast and easy... slipped right in and clips popped together We still had to reach into some hard places to replace a few clips and screws.
5) Then attached the Fender liners (felt stuff) to the front under cover (plastic part).
6) we then attached the under cover to the chassis and the front grill (all screws hold this in place).
7) wrapped the Fender liners up into the fender areas and started popping the clips back into to place. there were about 4 or 5 screws on each side as well.
5) in the end, we had all the clips except about three on each side (picked up some extra clips from Harbor Freight). There was ONE specialized clip/retainer with a hook shape that attached to the Black Fender, these were gone and we had to order one for each side (not critical but would like it all put back to like new).

It took us about 4 hours to complete the job. And yes, it was a two man job in several areas to hold and peal back some things so we could get to screws and clips to remove stuff. Glad i happened to be in California to do the work, as my brother-in-law had two floor jacks and a few extra tools i wouldn't have had at home. In fact, i don't think my Torque wrench at home goes up to 103 ft./lbs to torque those Lug Bolts properly.