Howdy - my 4Runner experience has not gone according to plan (so far)

Howdy! First time 4Runner owner, bought not quite a month ago with 24k thousand miles from a Chevrolet dealer, the original owner had traded it in. LOVE the vehicle, hands down.

And then the drama started, LOL.

About a week and a half after we bought it, on a Sunday afternoon I ran it through an car wash, and discovered it had a massive leak in the upper left part of the windshield. While I was trying to figure out what was happening/where the flood of water was coming from, the vehicle shuts off with check engine light, all kinds of error messages, the works. Get to the end of car wash, and a few helpful people helped me push it out of the way so there wasn’t a pileup coming out of the car wash. Vehicle would not crank at all, but after about 20 minutes, I was able to get it started but it was in safe mode, so I limped it to the local Toyota dealership so they could deal with it first thing Monday morning. I go back up there early Monday morning, explain what happened, should be under warranty, and they say they’ll figure it out.

Later that morning I get a call from them, asking me to come in to discuss (never a good sign). I go up there, where I am informed that the windshield is not OEM, and therefore Toyota will not perform warranty work on anything related to damage from the leak, which apparently has been ongoing, and water had run down the A-pillar into the deep dark recesses of the vehicle, and caused shorts and corrosion in a lot of very expensive wiring harnesses, and repair estimate is $11,500. I immediately call the Chevy house we bought the vehicle from, and tell them they have a problem. Their initial response is that Toyota should fix under warranty. The dealership’s owner gets involved, calls the Toyota dealership trying to get them to agree to repair, but they won’t budge. The dealership’s owner gets owner personally knows the people who traded it in (relatively small town) and they say they’ve never had windshield replaced, that is is OEM (they bought it brand new at the Toyota dealership I brought it to.) Chevy dealership (that we bought from) says they will not buy it back, but they will fix… so they’ve had it 14 days and counting, waiting on on I think 2 more wiring harnesses to come in. The other day they did give us a loaner, so we're not short a vehicle anymore.

Honestly I think I have limited options here - I 100% love the truck, not sure I will keep this exact one long term since I've always heard electrical and water problems are never fixed, they only get worse, but if I don't keep it, it will be another 5th gen that I replace it with. If they can't get parts in, at some point we will need to have that conversation with them about buying it back again (IMO that's the best solution for me).

Anyways - happy to be here, already have a stack of parts and fun stuff sitting here, just waiting, Pablo-Ecobar meme style, to get my truck back.

 

Welcome.
Yeah that's a lot. Every manufacturer has a lemon now and then. Why I loathe Ford and Chevy. Your experience is why i left samsung and switched to Apple with a warranty refusal on my fold 3. Different scale but the premise is the same.

You have to do you. Give it another stab on a different 4runner but I would say let this one go. Just my opinion. Sounds like stuff was hidden by the used Chevy stealership and just expected Toyota to warranty it.

 

Welcome from Arizona!
I'm feeling your pain.

 

The windshields of all 5 Toyota models I have owned have "Toyota" on the glass. If it has anything else it would not be OEM. Someone didn't put the windshield in properly would be my guess. If the car came from your small town I'd think it would be easy to track down the installer. There can't be that many glass installers there.

 

It’s a matter of finding out who is lying. Because someone is.

1) The dealership is lying to you, so you have to pay for the repairs and not them. (This is kind of unlikely because they’d get re-imbursed by Toyota directly and made whole again.

2) The original owner is lying and was lying when he traded it in. Maybe he thought it would show up on the CarFax report (But windshield replacements never do) and he thought that he would get less money trading it in. This is probably the most likely scenario.

Like it was mentioned, the glass should show an “OEM” logo on it somewhere. If it does not, then it was replaced at some point during its lifetime.

 

I actually think the Chevy dealership didn't know about the glass or corrosion in the wiring harnesses; they're all stealerships, but this one actually has a very good reputation locally and if they knew about it they likely would have made an effort to at least reseal the windshield. My money is on the original owner replacing the glass. When I get it back I'll check to see if it says Toyota or not.

Any recommendations on how long is too long, to get it back? I know they don't want to buy it back and I'd likely have to get a lawyer involved, but if it's 2 months and still not fixed, that's not acceptable, there has to be a end of the line somewhere, especially since I'm about to start making payments on it, LOL.

 

Previous owner traded it in for a Chevy and thought it was an upgrade, so that would've been the first red flag

 

Note to self: While on test drive, run thru a carwash. Seriously, sorry you are going through this ordeal. Hope it gets fixed right.

 

Man, reading your post was tough. Although it does sound like the Chevy dealership wants to make it right. I do believe that thorough documentation is in order. I’ll be watching for your follow up posts regarding this issue. Best of luck and welcome to the forum.

 

I am so sorry, I spent months some years back trying to track down a leak in my previous car.

The original installer came back and blamed the roof rails. Hunted for a pinhole leak, hit it with flex seal, RTV, etc.

Insurance (other party as the windshield was replaced due to some box tipping over in a pickup bed) paid for a reseal and ultimately a new windshield so I was made whole that way but not before hours of labor dehumidifying, sealing (unnecessarily), poking around, trying to get shops to look at it, wasting money at a dealer, making it rain with a hose, replacing a fuse when it blew the overhead lighting fuse, yuck.

When it came out, turns out the windshield was installed improperly.

 

Sorry for your situation! Welcome!

 

Welcome from Wisconsin! Borracho Loco is right! Someone is lying, or should I say "not disclosing the truth and history" behind this vehicle. The original owner never had the vehicle in a car wash? Betcha he knew about the leak, since it was corroded already, you know like it happened before you got it. Just a crappy situation to be in, good luck with this.

 

That is honestly not a horrible idea.

 

No, it's a not a bad idea, it'll cost you $10, but will prevent some unanswered questions, and the dealership will like you for it... maybe?