Integration Relay

[disckid]

Greetings: I posted a message a few weeks back regarding a headlight problem I was having with my 98 Toyota Sienna. Just thought I'd give everyone an update on the nightmare.

Initially, I having problems with my headlights in that they were not working on low beam but the high beams worked. I took it to my local Toyota dealership and they diagnosed a burnt headlight switch as well as a short in the harness where the wires were melted together. Rather than replace the harness, they decided to repair the existing harness. All together this cost me $434.05. This breaks down to $71.93 for the HeadLamp Switch Assembly and the rest is labor and taxes.

Here's where the story goes South. After the above repairs were made, the dealership called me up and told me they had some unfortunate news. My headlights are still not working 100%. The manual lights do not work but the auto lights do. Apparently, the integration relay is burnt also (at least that's what they said) and they were not able to diagnose that initially.

Truthfully, I'm p%ssed! They are asking for an additional $243.07 to replace the integration relay.

Had anyone got any suggestions on what I should do? As I said the headlights work fine on auto.

[Bigshoguns]

i would go back and ask them to give u a Very Nice Discount or a Free Job. b/c it's their fault for not finding that problem b4. Because it coulda been that relay to begin wiht, so it could only cost u 300 or 350 instead of 434.

But i would def. complain and ask for a free job or a extremely reduced pice.

[myconid]

Because it coulda been that relay to begin wiht, so it could only cost u 300 or 350 instead of 434.

burnt headlight switch as well as a short in the harness where the wires were melted together

I think the problem was probably the burn't harness! Even if there were no spanked parts, it was still $350 in labor. Im not sure how it could possibly only cost $300.

IMHO your sol. It isn't their fault that the auto headlights were not diagnosed as bad. You didn't say that they were bad, and it isn't their job to specifically check over every other car system. They noticed the problem and notified you. Nothing wrong with what they did.

However, going to a dealership on an out of warenty vehicle is asking for large bills. Do yourself a favor and find a reputable local garage that charges 1/2 the price in labor. Cars are cars. For non-critical work it doesn't really matter. Even then, ive seem some dealers botch some easy jobs.

As for the automatic headlights not working, and worked before, I would ask for an explanation of why this is happening. If they worked fine before and not now, it sounds like something they forgot to hook up, or damaged (did they incorrectly fix the wiring harness?).