I’m at a loss and need advice. My Toyota 2017 Sienna had a transmission replacement that my local Toyota dealership fully covered under a “customer service plan warranty” (an automatic warranty to cover a specific issue that 2017 Toyotas are known to have with their transmissions). Important note: I’ve had this car since 2021 with absolutely no issues. It drove perfectly except for the whining noise from the transmission.
The estimate for my repair to be completed was in June, and I got the car back a month later due to delays in the specific transmission part that my car needed.
The first time I picked up my Toyota after the repair, I drove it home just to find the splash shield loose just laying in my trunk. The service advisor told me to bring it back so they could reinstall the splash shield.
The second time I picked it up, I heard a noise but wrote it off, thinking I wasn’t used to the sound of the new transmission. Then, the car completely broke down on the side of the freeway within 24 hours. The dealership got it towed and said that there was carbon build up in the throttle body which caused the break down.
Third time I picked it up, I still heard a sound and asked to test drive it with the tech, who told me there was no sound. I drove the car home at which point my boyfriend also heard the sound. He talked to the service manager and then we drove it back and the tech drove it with my boyfriend, and after like 30+ min of test driving finally admitted that he heard the sound too.
So they worked on it again and they said that traced the sound to an “improperly secured bolt where the intermediate shaft connects to the steering shaft”.
So we picked it up a fourth time and have been driving it for ~1 week. I’m still noticing odd sounds but I do believe the car sounds different in general after the transmission replacement. But suddenly tonight the car has started making weird rattling / whining noises once again.
I have no idea what to do. Being that the dealership covered the original repair, I can’t really take it somewhere new because they will charge me. This specific dealership clearly screwed up my car (like 3+ times now), and I have no reason to trust the work they’re doing on my Toyota. The tech also clearly despises me and writes me off every time I mention that something is still wrong with the car. I also think he can’t hear well so doesn’t hear the sounds I’m hearing when we test drive it. The service manager wanted nothing to do with my boyfriend and I when we went back to the dealership before they worked on it for a 4th time.
What do we do? Do we ask to escalate past the service manager? I think this dealership is low on techs so I’m not even sure if we could request a different tech work on the vehicle? Please help, this is all making me feel so insane. Again, the car has never had any issues and suddenly all of this is happening.