Thanks Rajesh. In my case they are telling at the most they can give me 20% discount. :-(

 

I have a 2010 Camry - bought new. Have taken it to the dealership regularly for all scheduled oil changes and service. We replaced new Michelin tires (rated for 80,000 miles) at just 35,000 miles that wore out unevenly. My husband noted that our vans which have more roll than a car usually go at least 60,000 before there is noticeable wear and that they wear more evenly. Since the dealership was checking everything, it did not occur to us that there was a problem with the struts since the car was so new and the service department never alerted us to any problem. Suddenly, at 50,000 mile check up, we were informed all 4 struts are at #2 and must all be replaced. This is a very lightly driven car. (We have 2 drivers and 3 vehicles.) These are mainly highway miles in Southern California and we never had this problem with any other vehicles. We never load it and rarely have more than 1 person in the car. We have never even needed a brake job and have 70% left on our brake pads. After looking on line I noticed that this is a problem with Camrys after 2007. I contacted Toyota about this problem and after much discussion, they offered $750 discount if we have it serviced at a Toyota dealership. I contend that since Toyota does not recommend anything be done with leaking struts until they are totally shot, they did not tell us that anything was wrong while it was still under warranty. Why would all 4 struts suddenly fail if these were not poor quality or defective parts. Why would Toyota say that struts that leak at all are normal? I believe, since there is a known issue, that Toyota needs to stand behind their products. This is not a standard maintenance issue - it is a defective part. We are looking at purchasing a new vehicle in the near future and this issue is making us question whether Toyota is lowering their quality if they consider this normal.

 

Others have complained about very short tire life, common issue.

Must assume money is a factor in reframing the term "normal" as it costs money to do warranty repairs.

The struts didn't just suddenly "fail" but per Toyota the oil leak exceeded their specifications. One could ask why low mileage struts leak oil and how convenient the struts "failed" after the warranty ended.

For the 2AZ-FE engine prone to excessive oil consumption due to piston design. Toyota redefined normal oil consumption to allow engines that burned a lot of oil to be deemed "normal". It appears a class action lawsuit by owners indicates they think otherwise.

Toyota quality stated to slip in early 2000. For a time their reputation for quality preceded the reality of quality but this caught up to them big time. Books have been writing on this subject.

Toyota is not the only car company (or company by far!) to have redefined normal, shaved quality and tried to live off its past reputation in doing so, or just lost its way. Toyota just started at a higher plane (reputation for quality) and had a longer way to fall.

But back to struts. What final price is the dealer offering to replace all 4 struts?

Struts are a money maker for auto repair shops, that's why they push them. The internet has posts and video on checking strut operation, something you can easily do. Bad struts are not going to cause catastrophic failure in that you don't need to replace them this minute. Shop around for prices.

 

We are still calling around for prices, and the original dealership said it would be about $1400, but I do not know if that included all mounts, bushings and alignment. They were supposed to get back to me, but have not yet done so. The other dealerships and independents were all $1800 and up. Apparently it requires pulling out the rear seat so labor is high.

 

The rear deck needs to be removed. To remove this requires taking out the seat, but this is a straight forward, easy job.

Is the dealers $1400 price already minus the $750 discount?

Did you try a smaller shop and not a chain store shop operation?

Most struts are replaced if leaking oil but since leaking is OK per Toyota might test struts as in video below the replace when they fail test.


If your thinking about trading in the car in the near future, skip strut replacement as you will not get your money back.

 

We had the work done a couple of days ago and the local dealership discounted it so our total out of pocket was a little under $400. I can live with that, but still think these struts are defective or under designed. I hope this does not happen again and will be on the lookout for additional problems with them. The warranty on these is only 1 year, so I will at least make sure there is no leaking at all before the 1-year warranty is up. Thanks for everyone's input.

 

The struts should not leak at low miles or need a chart to determine how much leaking is "normal."

$400 is a great price. The discounted retail price on the 4 struts is around $500.

Good job in getting the price down!

 

Very nice, good deal for $400.