I just took my 04 to Stafford Toyota for its 15K service. Had the tires rotated and balanced (good choice) and the rear brakes cleaned and adjusted (probably a $49.95 mistake). I checked to see if my car was eligible for the fuel gage replacement (VIN JTKB20U840046506) - it is. Interestingly enough the technician said that the recall entails replacing the entire gage package including the odometer. He said that the package must be ordered from Toyota with the odometer already set to the same existing mileage which means leaving the car there for an unknown period while the new stuff gets there or - as I did - opted to add 400 miles to the current reading as a SWAG assuming that I could take the car back the following Friday to get it fixed. Has anyone else come across this rather strange procedure? Seems to me it could be an opportunity for fraud if a dishonest dealer wanted to reset the odometer to a lower reading for a car he is selling. By-the-way, this Package 9 car has been absolutely flawless since I bought it in March. Long term average is 50mpg (mostly freeway commute) and tire wear seems very reasonable. Unlike some posts, I have never seen any real problem with stability other than one might expect from a relatively light car. A 1500 mile trip to Indy and back along "truck alley" - US 70 - didn't provide any scary moments. I believe most cars with a low drag coefficient can be subject to getting pushed about by crosswinds. My last car was a Jaguar XJ8 - big low-drag sucker with very wide tires - and I occasionally had stability problems at high speed - read 120mph+ on the autobahn. The Prius is certainly no worse at US freeway speeds around 70mph. I have the OEM tires set at 38F, 36R. Nothing but praise for this fantastic car .
The Service Tech is Correct. It does require an Odometer Replacement. The Dealer doesn't do it. It comes pre-set from the factory, which minimizes their ability to tamper with it. Some dealers will not let you move the car once they've recorded the Odometer Reading. Mine was like that. I thought that was legally requirecd. However, some seem to be a little more lax.
It actually isn't a recall. It is a TSB or Technical Service Bulletin. According to my service dealer, there are many TSB's and there is no way that Toyota could contact every person with that car to have the service done. A TSB is only done when the customer has complained about the car not working correctly. As for me, I am going to leave mine alone as I am ok with going 400 miles instead of 500 per tank. Dr. Fusco has a thread about the problems he encountered when he had his service tone to correct the gauge problem.
