Thanks, I'm glad SOMEONE noticed my attempt at actually providing real, firsthand information.
Also: the dealership specifically gave me a copy of the work order, with the comments about Toyota, the regional tech rep, etc. in writing, and I am quite confident after this experience that they (the dealership AND Toyota) have my back on this.
Another item: He said specifically that while he wouldn't go abusing the vehicle too hard with the cracks, it WAS safe to drive, an that, as a liability issue, they wouldn't LET me drive it if it wasn't safe. So my upcoming trip to AZ will happen after all, just no crawling or serious bumps.
I can say this is consistant with what Toyota reps, and my service manager, have told me. When I brought it in due to an intermittant VSC Off light coming on (replaced Transfer case sensor - problem gone), they would not release the car to me until they repaired the problem, as they felt it involved safety systems on the vehicle, and might affect safety of the vehicle. They gave me a rental right away - no charge / no arguement. On the other hand, they have said they do not feel the crush zone cracks wouold significantly affect the vehicle's performance in an accident, and had no problem giving me my FJC back while we wait for a solution...
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" I'm not aware of too many things, but I know what I know, if you know what I mean..."
"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes... that way when you do criticize them, you're a mile away, and you have their shoes..."
I took my FJ in for routine service last week. Even though I don’t have any cracks and bulges I did notify them about this issue and referred them to our website. They had never heard of this issue before. The service manager and a few service employees asked me to take them to the web site and show them. They were quite interested and simply told me that if that should ever happen to my vehicle they would take care of it. I’ve got nothing to say but good things about my local dealership and their service department. They have been great. Since I don’t have the problem I really can’t file a complaint but I at least made my local dealer aware of it…..just in case.
__________________ Shark
Vehicles are not the only thing recalled by their Maker.
Did they say they would fix it AFTER the warranty period? If so, I'd go back and (try to) get it in writing. What is the build date, miles, type of usage (off-road, rock crawling, etc.), and mods (if any) on your vehicle?
Opened up my hood last night to make a check. I now can see a dimple in the passenger side apron that I have never seen before. Its in the locations that the very first pics in this thread show problems.
Is this how it starts?? Approx 16,000 miles. July 06 Delivery Date.
Opened up my hood last night to make a check. I now can see a dimple in the passenger side apron that I have never seen before. Its in the locations that the very first pics in this thread show problems.
Is this how it starts?? Approx 16,000 miles. July 06 Delivery Date.
I have not voted in the poll yet since I want to confirm or deny what I may have. Pics coming tonight.
Most likely the start.Hard to tell without a photo or seeing it in person. Take it to your dealer and have them look at it. Have them document it and wait for it to get worse. Hopefully by then there will be a fix.Please post a pic with a straight edge.Thank you and sorry to hear about the bulge
Did they say they would fix it AFTER the warranty period? If so, I'd go back and (try to) get it in writing. What is the build date, miles, type of usage (off-road, rock crawling, etc.), and mods (if any) on your vehicle?
I'm sure that won't put it writing at this time. The local dealership won't fund the repairs, only Toyota will do that. At this stage Toyota seems to have no answer as to a permanent solution to this problem. I have a great relationship with this dealership and many of their employees and believe they would step up on my behalf against Toyota if that was necessary. FWIW, I will follow-up more aggressively once there is a known permanent solution and I get closer to my warranty expiring. I simply wanted them to be aware of the issue.
I don't have the problem so at this point. My FJ's build date is 06/07, only 3k miles, no off-road use or mods.
__________________ Shark
Vehicles are not the only thing recalled by their Maker.
Got my vehicle back on Friday, the body shop only replace the part that was cracking, compared to replacing the whole apron. That is they just replaced the "Rail" on both sides. Toyota said that was fine, Toyota paid the bill which came out to $1200 and some change. I told the service rep. that I had heard that the repair hadn't held up on other vehicles. He assure me that they would waranty the work for the remainder of my 3 yr. 36,000 mile warranty. He also stated to "come to him" if anything appeared after my warranty. I will keep everyone posted on how my repair holds up, I do "wheel" so I will be testing it in the near future.
Got my vehicle back on Friday, the body shop only replace the part that was cracking, compared to replacing the whole apron. That is they just replaced the "Rail" on both sides.
Do you know if they had to yank everything out of the dashboard like they did with bernd's?? Where did you have it done and what was the total "down time??"
Hey guys, I haven't been online in a while. Finally Toyota admitted to fix the cracks in my fender rail. I had a bodyshop doing the job - the truck was out for over a month. Just got it back and took if off road for one day. You can already see the miss-alignment between hood and fender again. The fender rail shows some slight bending. No cracks yet - but I guess this is just a matter of time. Not a big surprise that this happens again, since the root cause did not get fixed. So far I have not got any feedback from Toyota of how it can be fixed. I was considering to exchange the 6 body mounts under the Cabin with very stiff mounts in order to limit the flex of the frame. But Toyota would void the warranty if I would do that. So I just kept using my truck as is....
At one point I will just try to lemon the truck - sad enough, but I wanna off road, not just drive it back and forth to the bodyshop...
I assume you guys have also not get any feedback on a possible fix?
/ WPOK492 
Bernd
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