Thread: Toyota Hilux Servicing

I quit my 2017 Hilux back in the day as franchise charged $1300 for ‘big’ service. With the Isuzu, I now have a mates garage do oil changes every 10,000 Km (7.5 litres!) with other servicing according to schedule.

There's nothing to stop people going going else where and getting a cheap service with cheap oil and filters but you just get no warranty.
In five years time with more and electrics coming out your corner mechanic want be able to change a light bulb.
I know few years ago we had a big service coming up so they done a few things extra the service before and gave us a warning.

I have just bought a new landcruiser and from previous dealings I certainly won't be taking it for services at a dealer.
My previous experience is that they are fricken useless!
My specialist diesel mechanic has looked after my last cruiser for 9 ish years and I have had a dream run.
It's not about the cost for me I just want it done properly

I means inspect
they dont even change the gearbox oil
this is hardly a big service
most of the "I" inspections at dealerships are done with magic wands

find a mechanic you trust and dont instantly question when the bill is 1k no need to buy a toyota dealer another house on queenstowns lake front

Having the same issue as this (dealer service side having questionable behavior) with my hack. Specified on day 1 of the vehicle that I wanted the service schedule modified to have the fuel filter changed at every service not just the ones they thought it would be nice to do it at. Hopeless bastards didn't chuck it on the vehicle's file and now have an $8K bill to replace injectors, pipework and injection pump - and I'm told by people that know the breed the useless bastards havent sorted out the core problem that is likely to have created the damage in the first instance. That, and three counts of bonnet popping up to the safety hook after services, one screwdriver and lots of cable ties recovered after services, a couple of cases of incompetent work leaving the vehicle in basically an unsafe state. Not really happy - just too many ballsups including not being able to tell me who's actually running their outfits. Bloody hopeless.

Sounds like you should be going to mechanic No. 2 No. 3

I found a good mechanic a while ago who didn't try to charge me for everything he could. That was nearly 20 years ago and I still take my vehicles to him.

Originally Posted by rugerman

Sounds like you should be going to mechanic No. 2 No. 3

I found a good mechanic a while ago who didn't try to charge me for everything he could. That was nearly 20 years ago and I still take my vehicles to him.

Yup.

@No.3
I always put a secondary fuel filter on my new vehicles for that exact reason.

Originally Posted by No.3

Having the same issue as this (dealer service side having questionable behavior) with my hack. Specified on day 1 of the vehicle that I wanted the service schedule modified to have the fuel filter changed at every service not just the ones they thought it would be nice to do it at. Hopeless bastards didn't chuck it on the vehicle's file and now have an $8K bill to replace injectors, pipework and injection pump - and I'm told by people that know the breed the useless bastards havent sorted out the core problem that is likely to have created the damage in the first instance. That, and three counts of bonnet popping up to the safety hook after services, one screwdriver and lots of cable ties recovered after services, a couple of cases of incompetent work leaving the vehicle in basically an unsafe state. Not really happy - just too many ballsups including not being able to tell me who's actually running their outfits. Bloody hopeless.

stop taking your vehicle to fuck wits

in saying that my highly skilled mobile mechanic and offsider managed to service six of our picking machines and only fill 5 with oil
number 6 promptly seazed

human error is still a thing that exists but these guys have saved me a lot more than this one day/issue cost me

I also unseazed it and got it working again but its never been the same since

Originally Posted by Bill999

I means inspect
they dont even change the gearbox oil
this is hardly a big service
most of the "I" inspections at dealerships are done with magic wands

find a mechanic you trust and dont instantly question when the bill is 1k no need to buy a toyota dealer another house on queenstowns lake front

A family member had a 10 year old vehicle (200,000kms) they were having serviced with a dealer due to and extended warranty.
Had a big service coming up and asked when they recommend changing oil in diffs, xfer box and service the trans.
Apparently the oil never needs changing in any of these....

The only vehicle I have ever bought with service history was being serviced by a well known "specialist".
I guess servicing doesn't ever include checking the diff oil as it looked like CV grease and was barely less viscous than grease....

Originally Posted by Gkp

@No.3
I always put a secondary fuel filter on my new vehicles for that exact reason.

There's a bit of a debate about that with the CAV-type rotary lobe pumps - seems they might take an intense dislike to extra restriction on the suction side and shitting one of the piston return springs or the SCV valve is a risk factor. After those die it would seem the injectors are effectively toast just because they are toast at anything past the 1st km travelled. Cost more than replacement to get them tested... I haven't been able to find a confirmed media rating for the factory filter as well, I've seen anything from 30micron (which is basically useless) to 5micron rated which shouldn't need replacing. I suspect the biggest issue with the AC Delco factory filter on these vehicles is that it filters the fuel return to tank as well as the fresh draw. That strikes me as fully counter-productive trying to do this with one filter as the return flow (around 80% of primary draw) is heated to something near 80degC as it comes back off the injector rail.

That does two things, heats the incoming draw of fuel which reduces the density and calorific value and requires the pump to move more fuel and the injectors to fire longer to compensate and also basically halves the effective filtration volume of the filter which isn't flash to begin with. The point of filtering the return flow would appear to be removal of any metallic particles from the far-to-common CAV pump piston return spring failure and trying to prevent them from contaminating the entire bloody system.

I would think it would be far more effective to replace the dual path AC Delco filter and set up one filter for the inlet flow and one for the return path and separating the fuel flows completely. The current generation vehicles appear to have gone back to a single flow-path filter with a direct return to the tank so obviously the AC Delco design was a bit of a failed concept and was good for more bloody problems than it solved.

Originally Posted by Bill999

stop taking your vehicle to fuck wits

in saying that my highly skilled mobile mechanic and offsider managed to service six of our picking machines and only fill 5 with oil
number 6 promptly seazed

human error is still a thing that exists but these guys have saved me a lot more than this one day/issue cost me

I also unseazed it and got it working again but its never been the same since

A sage comment - both for the first line and the second observation...

If the dealer proves to be hopeless, who the heck do you go to next? It's almost worth pirate importing the factory computer and doing it yourself when you consider the cost incurred from staying with dealer servicing in this case. It's not just consequential damage it's the vehicle down time and fart arsing about getting the thing in which is an entire cost far in excess of the basic 'cost of service'. We seem to seriously struggle with competent mechanical support in NZ - I know of several occasions recently where professional mechanics have started into a job and got to a position of 'oh fu*k' where the job just trippled in labour costs and an extra factor of parts etc etc.

I had one recently on a little Tiida, WOF fail on lower arm bushes top hats and something I can't recall. Quote $2K. Ended up saying stuff it, got my mate who's a mechanic to do the thing at my place for a bit of labour, food and use all my gear and ended up all the WOF parts, servicing the CVT, replacing the plugs, and additionally doing front struts belt and a couple of joints for about $1400. I realise that the commercial boys have overheads and bricks and mortar to fund but jey-sus, their markup on labour and parts is frightening. Getting that job done by them who failed the thing would have been probably $3500 at the end of it on a $3000 car.

One place where the bigger boys like the dealers can beat me is at cost of lubricants - the dealer charge for oil for my vehicle is $1.20 less than I can buy it for and to be honest I get it at a reasonable sharp rate (well under retail).

When doing a self service an oil change every 5000
Filter as well but if tight every 10000
Fuel Filters every 80-100000 just remember every time u open the fuel system is more of a chance for shit/ contamination to get into the system

Originally Posted by 260rem

When doing a self service an oil change every 5000
Filter as well but if tight every 10000
Fuel Filters every 80-100000 just remember every time u open the fuel system is more of a chance for shit/ contamination to get into the system

Biggest chance for shit getting into the fuel system is when you fill up. Seriously, some of the commercial suppliers don't even run catcher filters between the tank and the pump - any crap that gets stirred up off the bottom of the tank gets sent straight out the delivery gun. I don't know what the answer is to this issue, one of the worst times to fill up is on the fuel company promo or discount days where the throughput and flow out of the tank is much much higher than any other time and the trucks have to drop two or three times a day.

I know a couple of guys that fill a 5L can every time they fill up and keep it to settle the content out just to check if any crap comes through with the fuel. I don't know how worth it that is - I think what they are thinking is if the can shows bug or water settling out of the fuel they go back and claim off the company for any clean out costs or damage but I am really not sure how easy that would be.

You lot do know most delivery trucks only have two hoses for 3 fuels right, also if you are in chch Mobil has the only pipe over the hill , jet is all ways the first over, the other little secret is npds “100+” which is 95 with a booster , which said booster took 2 days to destroy the hose so god knows what it’s doing to your fuel systems