Hi! Hoping I can get some help. My car died at the end of January. Dealer diagnosed bad 12v battery. They installed a brand new one. Two days after I picked up my car, it died again. Dealer had it a week diagnosing and determined the radio assembly was drawing when car was off. Dealer disconnected and said I could drive while waiting for new assembly. Went to pick up car and it was dead. So…how long should it take to diagnose the problem. The dealer has now had my car for just under a month and I’m getting a little frustrated. I love my car and this is my first issue with it. I’ve gone in every 6 months for maintenance.
sorry to hear it. i would say something else is draining the battery, and in all lielyhood, they are not working on your car. did they give you a loaner?
They gave me a loaner, which I may or may not be paying for. I did get an update. After almost a week since I last spoke with them, they determined that the battery they put in was bad. They put in a new one and are letting my car sit for several days before starting it to see if there are any other drains. If this battery is good, they’ll hook up the radio and see what happens. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
That's a very funky way to test for excessive battery drain. Maybe they're just stringing you along. The direct way to check is to disconnect the neg cable from the battery, then reconnect with an ammeter in series, see how much electrical flow there is with the car "off".
I’m not sure what they’re doing, lol. I did call this morning and they stated the car started fine on Saturday so it was definitely a bad battery they installed the first time. Couldn’t they have put the battery on test equipment to determine that? Unless they thought something about the car was killing the battery? Anyway, it sounds like I’m paying for a new radio since they said it was drawing when the car was off. Although that was with the previous battery. I hope they’re not installing a new radio needlessly. The other thing that bugs me is the advisor giggles every time I call for an update, which so far has averaged once every 3 to 7 days. Maybe I need to start going to a different Toyota dealer for service.
yeah, sorry to hear about the radio. it would have been nice to see what happened with the new battery first. did they give you a price before proceeding?
I already knew that a new radio is $2200 installed. So that’s all they’re charging me. The loaner from the time of this last issue is comped. What’s funny is she keeps saying the newest battery replacement is covered under the first new battery’s warranty. I keep having to remind her that I didn’t even drive the car off the lot with that first battery so I shouldn’t be burning a warranty, lol. I get to pick up my car tomorrow, I’m so excited! I’ll have to post a picture.
