Please help, worst night of my life, I need advice.

[Bisan]

Well here is a run down, I have a 2007 FJ Cruiser with 8k miles on it, purchased it new and stock. I've installed a Rough Country 3 inch lift, roughly 1k miles ago. It was installed by a independent company X, ***I have not spoke them yet about what they'll do for me so I don't want them to get any negative feedback,***. Just in case they are not at fault, or if they will cover the repairs, won't know until 8/25.

I have aftermarket wheels and tires also on the vehicle, which rub under full turn.

I got the lift about 27 days ago, paid 314.00 dollars to get it installed. They wanted $380 including a alignment. I opted out of the alignment since it was cheaper at my dealer. Well they included an alignment for free, which I didn't complain about, but did make me a lil weary that maybe something went wrong and to make matters right they had to align the car, but nevertheless no one complains about free parts or labor.

Ok to the problem, i was in sarasota, fl last night about 400 miles from jacksonville, fl. I was on a residential rode at very minimal mphs there was no place to park, at the park we went too, so i parked on the grass, as I was coming over the soft curb, steering wheel turned to a very aggressive manner.

Well the front was tilted in such an aggressive manner that it looked like had 5 degrees of negative camber. Long story short, I drove two miles and found a tire kingdom, they were nice enough to lift the truck where we noticed that the upper control arm came out of place.

The bolt was backing out of its position, the guy told me I should get it towed, I agreed. I am very lucky i got two miles down the road in its condition. After 3 hours of giving me a run around AAA finally towed my car up to tampa, where my parents live, since jacksonville was tooo far, and they wanted $5.00 dollars a mile.

This morinng toyota said they wont' repair the damages, since the aftermarket suspension voided my warranty. After I called them back to speak to a manager to tell them that the aftermarket suspension did not entail new UCAs, and that shouldn't void the warranty of a cars suspension, but he never called me back. A advisor called saying the car needs a new bolt which won't be here til monday, and its it will be $360 dollars to repair.

This morning I had to take the MCATs which I've been studying for 2 months, after a not so relaxing evening, my father than had to leave work early to drive to sarasota to come pick me up, now I am carless til monday at the earliest and out $360 dollars, not including the price of taxis around last night and this morning, including the additional gas mileage for my dad to drive down to pick me up.

I really don't feel that I should pay anymore cash to get this repaired, and sacrifice anymore for the sake of this situation.

I need advice on if I can get toyota to pay for this??? If the independent will likely pay toyota to get this repaired??? Since the car is 300 miles away from the independent store.

Any hints to get the dealer to pay for the job??? When in turn, if its just a lose nut that came off the bolt, why do I need to wait for a new bolt on monday? IS the bolt itself defective to which should be covered underwarranty???

I am not looking to cheat anyone, I feel horrible on my performace on this exam, it was crazy hard to keep my mind of my car, luckily I did as much as possobile. Ruined my night and put me in a very poor mood for this very important exam.

Well any help would be great, thanks for taking the time to read me ramble and vent at the same time.

Below are pics before AAA pickd up the car.

[JRE56]

I sorry to say but I see no way of getting the dealer to service your vehicle for free.To me your real fight is with the independent company X who did the lift which caused the problem.Get a letter from the dealer stating the cause of the problem was a direct result of an improper install of the lift and forward a copy of the bill to the independent company X.If that don't work then you may need to file a lawsuit but it's very important to get that letter from the dealer. GoodLuck !!

[DunesRunner08]

This is my .02 and take it as such. This is exactly why you shouldn't skimp on suspension parts. If you are going to do it, save up and get a good setup....DR/Icon is a great kit, Fabtech is a great kit, and AME is a decent kit....

As for your issue, talk to other dealers....some will cover it some will not.... if more than 5 or 6 dealers tell you to pound sand, then go to the company that did the install....they for sure will do the repair, they have to or its a lawsuit waiting to happen....

One more word of advice.....its called a re-torque.....after the 1st thousand miles and every oil change there after and you will never have a problem....my rant is done....

[mustang67408]

You need to call the independant company and play stupid with them (I KNOW YOUR NOT STUPID). Tell them your inquiring about getting a lift and ask what it entales. Do they remove any suspension comonenets to do the lift? and things like that. Ask them how hard it is to do and if it can be done at home or why it cant be done at home,

The control arm looks like it has some clean spots on it from maybe someone hands removing them. When lifting a truck with spacers or even a ICON kit (awesome kit) there is no need to remove the upper control arms.
I have been with Toyota a long time and have never seen an upper control arm bolt come loose, except when I removed my own upper arms and changed them for Camburgs, but thats not to say it can not happen. I forgot to go back and retorque them as DUNESRUNNER pointed out should be done after everylift. We advise customers to come back after 500 miles for a free retorque, and the alignment is included when we do the lift.
I doubt you'll find a dealership to cover this, since the aftermarket company was the last one to touch it, but call around, you never know.
That bolt and nut is $18 + shipping, you could install it yourself with a floor jack and some small tools.
Then go have it aligned and proceed from there.

[scottnmos]

I would follow mustangs advice. That bolt is cheap and you can fix it yourself. Instead of another 300+ spend the 18 and get it done yourself. Put a little dab of red thredlocker on it before you torque it to proper ft/lbs and you are good to go. Toyota will not do anything and I dont blame them. It is the brand x company that needs to rectify the situation.

[DavidTaylor9]

Should of done the lift yourself. would of saved $300 and you would have known it was done right.

[Bisan]

Originally Posted by DavidTaylor9

Should of done the lift yourself. would of saved $300 and you would have known it was done right.

thanks for the advice. That really doesn't help me at all.

For the rest of the posts, thanks guys.

I spoke to the dealership yesterday, there is a good chance they are picking up the tab, I'll keep you guys updated after I speak to them tomorrow.

thanks again TS

[larsdennert]

I'm betting it was 4 wheel parts... In any case they didn't tighten everything back up. It's an easy fix to put the bolt back through.

[JBK23]

Up date please !

[Bisan]

Well I finally got my car back but not until I called my damn lawyer, its got incredibly nasty between us.

here is what went down. The s. manager called me tuesday morning, after I spoke to him monday after 6 phone calls. Starting at 8 am, he finally answers and apologizes to me because he has been in meetings all day since noon. About there customer service complaints. LOLOLOL.

He says there is no way they would fix it under warranty, I told him to not fix my car and I'd be there in 1 hour to pick it up.

When I get there to pick up my car, the very nice old lady at the cashiers office says your car is not ready, I stated that is quite alright, I didn't want the work to be done.

She says ok well its been noted that you have to speak to the manager, I go and speak to the manager he won't release my car to be until I pay $434.00 dollars to them, since the work has been completed.

I raise hell, he states my dad already authorized the work last week, so they have to do it, the car is in my name, the only reason my dad got involved because I put his number down, so they wouldn't bother me the morning of my test, since the test was 6 hours long.

I say fine let me see my car, he says I can't show it to you now, after 1 hour of waiting there he says my lug nuts were damaged, and it won't be ready until tomorrow.

Lug nuts???? I never authorized lug nuts, nor did my dad, he said well your dad said fix it no matter what it costs!

I asked him to save himself the troulbe and just give me my car, he refused.

My dad calls our lawyer, and they call me with my new tab of $213.00 dollars, I am still livid at this point, but just wanted my car away from those people since the indie said they'd reimburse me for something reasonable, I get there, and they replaced all 24 of my lug nuts, with chrome nuts, and left my PERFECTLY FINE other 24 in a box in the truck.

I call the customers relations guy who kept treating me like i was a 16 year old punk, by the way I am 25 years old, lol. And he says are you sure the originals are black, I show him, and then ask why they were replaced to start with, he said they felt like the threads were bad.

Needless to say they reimbursed me the $40.00 dollars for bolts.

CLEARWATER TOYOTA
WORSE SERVICE EVER!!!!!!!!!

Don't ever go there, and tell your friends. Give them my email and I'll give them the jist.

Biggest headache, to make matters worse I couldn't find any more test centers with open tests dates again until January in the entire southeast.

[JBK23]

That's a of trouble you went through luckly that wasn't your tundra won't ever go to that dealer if my car or truck breaks down near them !