Alright im just curious....I went down to my dealership today for my free oil change. They saw my rims and FREAKED out! The guy just started saying "No way I wont ever touch aftermarket rims" he started going on and on about how it messes up the warranty and crap! Then he told me...stock tires are better anyways u can get about 55k miles out of those... I laughed SOO hard! Anyways is it true that it does mess w/ the warranty? Ive never heard this....so I was just wondering. Thx
~Donny

 

Umm no... why the hell would that even mess with any warranty unless you had your stock rims covered some how.

 

yah thats what i told the guy! I was so freakin ____ed off cause i sure it wasnt true. Anyways they said they would never EVER rotate my tires or fix any problems I could ever have.... so WTF?

 

wow, BS

 

dealers suck!

 

go talk to a manager and let them know whats going on, if they still give you bs say youll have your lawyer call them up if anything happens and they wont cover it under warranty when they know the wheels had nothing to do with it

 

Well I would suggest finding a new dealer in your area if you can... normally there are atleast two toyota dealers per town. Especially in dallas. I've had similar experiences though... Apparents short shifters go under e-brake modifications if you want work done on one.

 

Wow.. i would laugh in his face if he was being blatently idiotic with his comments... As was suggested, talk with the manager. Drop in the lawyer angle...

As for a shifter, if u'r tranny had issues, they can blame it on a modification to the shifter assembly. I know its something that should be a issue, though some dealership are great, there are those out there that will do what ever they can to keep from performing warranty work.

 

i'm not saying what was told to you was at all correct (although aftermarket wheels and tires can affect your warranty), as someone who works at a dealership, take my word for it when i tell you that the dealership staff sees things you would not believe. every **** up people modding cars can come up with gets brought to the dealer to try and get it fixed under warranty. and it happens that sometimes the guys in the front aren't necessarily the most well informed people on the planet. people need to ease up because when you see it from the otherside, you'll see that modders break way more crap than they really want to admit to and the dealership is trying to cover it's **** from making repairs it shouldn't have to cover. like any other business in america.

and just so you know, i've actually seen an xa brought in with 20's with serious damage to the suspension that was caused as a direct result of the wheels, and the guy had the nerve to ask why it wouldn't be fixed under warranty. once you start modding a car, don't be surprised if you get hassled a little bit. it's part of the game.

 

yah i can understand that...20 inch rims is def excessive....but im on 225/40/18.... same size as optional ones...exactly, so i dont see why they freaked? .... o well i wont ever go back to that damn dealership...

 

well put

 

some dealerships pay their mechanics to not do work customers pay for

 

I don't doubt that one bit.

 

always go to a mechanic you know.... always...

 

lmfao, i had my dealer install my rims when i went for an oil change, had no problems doing it, my dealer rocks!!!

 

donny.. i think that dealership did you a favor. They sound like they're jealous you didn't pay them to put larger wheels/tires on the car. I wouldn't doubt if such a place wouldn't harm your car, because they're acting like children. Yeah glad you're going to another dealer. I think a lot of these Toyota/Scion dealers are a joke, their workmanship is terrible, and then on top of that they just give excuses when it's bad.

Over on the xB forum there was a guy who had a steering problem. When he went back to the original dealer they claimed nothing was wrong, everything was fine. But he still had the steering lag, and vibration. Guy took it to another dealer where it was found the first dealer didn't even tighten the lug nuts down on the car! ouch! I can see why JD Powers has ranked Toyota at the bottom of the list for service. There are a lot of bad dealers out there. Luckily for us, there are some GOOD ones out there too who actually don't lie and do good work! Find one of those!! Lots of trial n error..

What we need on SL is not only a dealer review area (we have that) but one that seperates dealer service and dealer sales. That way we could see if a place is a good service dealership, that does good work..

 

which toyota dealer was it in dallas?

 

This is very true, and many folks just don't get how warranty claims work, and how changes to your vehicle will actually affect it. I find it very funny on here how many folks just install 18" and larger tires, and change the offset of the wheels to push them out towards the body. Well, in about a year or two, the most popular post is going to be "my wheel bearings are shot and the dealer won't warranty it."

And people think the dealers are out to "screw you" by not allowing the claim to be fixed under warranty. It has nothing to do with the dealer, it has to do with Toyota. The dealer either gets paid by you (the customer), or by Toyota (when the warranty claim is approved by them). When a dealer warranties something, the defective parts go back to the manufacture. If the manufacture finds out the car has been modified and the damages were caused by them, they will not pay the dealer, aka the dealer did the work, warrantied it, and won't get paid, and can get in alot of trouble.

It is true some dealers will be more "strict" about what they think can/can't be warrantied, and I myself have had to say "you can't deny my warranty for an oil leak because I have rims on my car". So, you just need to be educated about what parts on your car effect what, and be semi-knowledgeable about how things work.

To the original poster, what the dealer told you is actually true, just not 100% true. If you have larger, heavier, wheels with a different offset than the factory, then they sure can effect your warranty, but most likely suspension and or wheel bearings, etc.. only. Maybe even the entire car since the overall wheel diameter can be different, throwing off your actual mileage, etc..

It all depends on how far they want to push things.

Paul G.

 

aftermarket rims wont mess with your warranty unless you have the tires for life option.

 

That is not true. Any modification to your vehicle can effect your warranty.