This site’s value was reinforced by yesterday’s advance call and then visit to my FL dealer. My TCH: Silver Shadow (2007 Georgetown build delivered November 2006) no NAV.

Visit was 15K Service/Oil Change/Tire Rotation and to check the noted warranty issues. I know there are threads on oil, radio and squeaks/rattles and traction battery drain after service as well as tire brand and pressure/dealer reactions, so forgive me for posting this narrative just once. Results:

1.Oil & Tire Rotation (Bridgestones) By my advance call the parts/service guys told me “the tank” for oil was 10/30W and were surprised (but very accommodating), when I told them I wanted 5/20 W and pointed out the manual’s recommended viscosity for typical FL driving. Since all my oil changes have been done there, to date, I now assume that my two prior changes (and other typical hybrid owner oil changes) were 10/30W. Who knows what oil viscosity Toyota or the Southeast Toyota distributor actually put in new vehicles? Cost for oil/filter change and tire rotation for total cost of $42.96. They told me that they’d checked other possible 15K items like the air filter and saved me money as those items did not need to be replaced.

2.Since the 10K service I’d noticed and isolated a persistent squeak/rattle that emanates from the plastic shifter plate. They gladly assessed it and have a part on order. I’ll try and post specific part/results when known.

3.Intermittent AM Radio Cut Out – Weak Signal. I’ve had the occasional and not really reproducible AM radio cut out issue which has been a rare, minor annoyance. It was always correctable in the car by cycling through the modes or radio on/off. I told them ahead of the visit that I thought there were one or more TSB’s on the non-Nav JBL system and to check them. Result: New Radio on Order. While they could not reproduce the cut-out, they tested and found a weak AM signal and also found an AM radio “Weak Signal” TSB. No argument: a new Radio is on order for warranty replacement. I’ll try and follow up on the TSB # and whether replacement = fix.

4.When I left the dealer, the Dash Display for the traction battery showed as low a level as I ever recall. I doubt that this is anything to be concerned about as this probably resulted from their putting 6-8 miles on the car for warranty issue diagnosis and rack time on the radio issue.

5.Tire Pressure: From testing prompted by these forums, I’ve settled on 40 PSI or the last 3-4K miles. As the database shows, my MPG increased since this change. The dealer didn’t hesitate in any way to check and inflate to 40 psi.

Final notes while waiting on service I walked there extensive lot and noticed that all Kentucky TCH’s have the Bridgestone’s and the Japanese builds have the Michelins. For Prius lovers, I also noticed a $3K mark-up on the 6 or 7 new vehicles on the lot.

Hope all this helps other TCH/Hybrid enthusiasts.

Silver Shadow

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."