I Hate My Celica!

[CelTSp]

I need to vent some anger...

My Celica was serviced yesterday and to my horror they are suggesting i spend over £1250 on various things that need doing. These include new rear wheels as the two that are on there are "out of shape", new rear brakes as the current ones are "corroded", pollen filter change, air con service, and a fuel flush. They have also put forward £850 worth of repairs on the warranty, and on top of this it had £890 of new brakes, callipers and discs done in December all also on the warranty.

My problem is this... I’ve only owned the car for 6 months... Now am I being over dramatic or does this seem very unreasonable for a car that was brought from a Toyota dealer with a full service history?

Any advice would be welcome.

[edwardio]

First things first. What's the age & mileage of you car?

[CelTSp]

Its a 52 reg with 50,000 on the clock

[cabcurtains]

Bent Wheels are tricky as you could have done them thats what the dealer will say, get a tyre place to give their opinion, don't buy new ones from Mr T! Look on eBay

Rusty brakes are common, are they saying it would fail the MOT? They can't have changed a lot since you bought the car from them as there the rears!

If your Air Con smells then a pollen filter/air con service isn't unreasonable, depending on the quote, the filter should be changed every 2 yrs.

Fuel Flush -Never had that one!

It does sound like the dealer should have spotted most of these things when they were prepping the car for sale.....

[CelTSp]

Bent Wheels are tricky as you could have done them thats what the dealer will say, get a tyre place to give their opinion, don't buy new ones from Mr T! Look on Ebay

Rusty brakes are common, are they saying it would fail the MOT? They can't have changed a lot since you bought the car from them as there the rears!

If your Air Con smells then a pollen filter/air con service isn't unreasonable, depending on the quote, the filter should be changed every 2 yrs.

Fuel Flush -Never had that one!

It does sound like the dealer should have spotted most of these things when they were prepping the car for sale.....

Would wobbly wheels cause the car to drive dif? I would imagine it would but it drives like it did when i first picked it up.

They didnt say if it would pass an MOT with the brakes like they are... although the extended warranty states if the car fails an MOT then the warranty will cover any work needed to pass. Do you think the brakes are included?

The air-con doesnt smell and it honestly feels as cold as it ever has done, so i may just ignore this.

It does bother me that all this has happened within 6 months as im sure there should have been signs of this before they sold it.

[cabcurtains]

If the wheels are heavily buckled you expect to feel some vibration, thats why i would suggest getting a 2nd opinion.

Brakes and warranty typically don't go together due to them being "wear & tear" items.

Ignore the Air Con stuff if your happy with its performance.

It is disappointing when dealers sell used cars that aren't prepped to expected standard.

[CelTSp]

If the wheels are heavily buckled you expect to feel some vibration, thats why i would suggest getting a 2nd opinion.

Brakes and warranty typically don't go together due to them being "wear & tear" items.

Ignore the Air Con stuff if your happy with its performance.

It is disappointing when dealers sell used cars that aren't prepped to expected standard.

The wheels arent buckled. They said the tires are out of shape... but looking at them, they look fine

[Leeky]

Sounds like the dealership are trying to pull a fast one. I'd personally start using another dealership.

[EchoRange]

Sounds like the dealership are trying to pull a fast one. I'd personally start using another dealership.

There's a Celica driver who I work with how had almost exactly the same list of "problems" from a dealership in Swindon. As he's a bit of a good hand with the spanners, the filters he changed himself and took the car to Protyre who said that the wheels were fine. One of them did need an extra wheel weight. As for the tyres, they didn't need changing

[Scarlett Arrow]

Sorry to over simplify this but...don't use Toyota Dealers!

If you fancy an hours drive up the M1 I can put you in touch with a superb Mechanic near Nottingham.

The rear Tyres have been known to go "out of shape" on the rear of a Gen 7, especially if they're the OE Pirelli Assimetrico.

HTH.

[slothman87]

toyota told me they are prone to bald spots due to negative cambre on rear wheels to aid handling (i went in as i thought the wheel bearing was on it's way out) the guy in the garage said to just live with it as it's inevitable,

4 months after i'd changed all 4 discs and pads they told me they were corroded and needed replacing (reply **** off) and providing there not really bad and the contact surfaces are ok then i cant see it being an MOT fail, mine certainly wern't 6 months after they "needed replacing"

also never heard of a fuel system needing flushing (unless wrong fuel has been put in)

and finally unless the air con smell bothers you just leave it in (dont think the filter costs more than about £15 even from toyota tho)

[marty32]

same here thought bearing on way out, tyres were out of shape, when i had them changed the tread was worn unevenly

cheap tyres on the back were supplied with car, moral of story never put crap tyres on

[sjrainsford]

Yep, I'd go with a different dealer too.

The brakes ALWAYS corrode quite badly on these, but it doesn't mean that they don't work correctly - also it's certainly not an issue if the car is used daily.

The pollen filter is very easy to change yourself, it's literally a 5 minute job. Open the glove box, remove the clips so that the glove box opens all the way - then there it is! Pull it out, job nearly done!

If your tyres really are out of shape, then I'd suggest getting them changed but elsewhere. They're your only point of contact with the road so not worth taking too many risks on.

[GT Driver]

Sounds like the dealership are trying to pull a fast one. I'd personally start using another dealership.

There's a Celica driver who I work with how had almost exactly the same list of "problems" from a dealership in Swindon. As he's a bit of a good hand with the spanners, the filters he changed himself and took the car to Protyre who said that the wheels were fine. One of them did need an extra wheel weight. As for the tyres, they didn't need changing

Don't get me started on Toyota dealerships let alone the Swindon one :censor:

[marty32]

ive had pretty good service from toyota dealer but purely out of chance ive found an independant near work who specialises in toyota servicing and repair.

had some struts fitted last week he saved me 100 quid plus and even collected car from work and brought it back fixed.

needless to say im going there for my next service toyota want 260 for a 60k service he said half that amount and thats him getting genuine parts from the dealer

[TheIceman1980]

If you fancy an hours drive up the M1 I can put you in touch with a superb Mechanic near Nottingham.

HTH.

I'm in Burton, that could be handy info for me to know please, have been looking for a good Toyota Indy Mechanic :)