My 2011 Toyota Sienna's check engine light was winking occasionally. My wife had Auto Zone hook it up to their reader when she was getting windshield wipers. They said the battery was looking a little puny, but not bad ... but the alternator must be shot. Want to buy one now?
My wife is as smart as she is good looking (that is to say: very very), so she hired me to take it to a mechanic. Since we only own Toyotas, we don't HAVE a mechanic - the cars just don't need 'em. But there's 150k miles on the van. Thinking we need to find a good shop for future use that isn't the competent-but-expensive dealer. So I looked at Yelp, talked to a few friends, polled a couple of other sites and decided on Larry's.
Larry did some sleuthing and decided that my battery isn't quite puny, yet not quite new, either - but not time for a new one. And the alternator is FINE. Don't get me wrong - AZ is great in its place, but so glad we got a second, more learned opinion.
Larry's shop cleaned the battery terminals and the throttle body and did a couple of other possibly-related things. He said all that stuff was related to remedying whatever was behind the check-engine code, but couldn't guarantee for absolute sure he'd solved the problem. He said the code isn't critical and probably not even useful for my trim level and engine, and his little tweaks likely solved the problem. But we should keep an eyebone peeled for future flashes. And since my visit, no more check engine light, even for a sec. Believe I win.
$60. And peace of mind. And I got to play tug-o-war with his dog. Wins all around.
The Team a. from Rainbow City Car Repair responded on 01/10/2025 12:43 PM
Thank you for affording us the opportunity to serve you and for the great review.
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My wife is as smart as she is good looking (that is to say: very very), so she hired me to take it to a mechanic. Since we only own Toyotas, we don't HAVE a mechanic - the cars just don't need 'em. But there's 150k miles on the van. Thinking we need to find a good shop for future use that isn't the competent-but-expensive dealer. So I looked at Yelp, talked to a few friends, polled a couple of other sites and decided on Larry's.
Larry did some sleuthing and decided that my battery isn't quite puny, yet not quite new, either - but not time for a new one. And the alternator is FINE. Don't get me wrong - AZ is great in its place, but so glad we got a second, more learned opinion.
Larry's shop cleaned the battery terminals and the throttle body and did a couple of other possibly-related things. He said all that stuff was related to remedying whatever was behind the check-engine code, but couldn't guarantee for absolute sure he'd solved the problem. He said the code isn't critical and probably not even useful for my trim level and engine, and his little tweaks likely solved the problem. But we should keep an eyebone peeled for future flashes. And since my visit, no more check engine light, even for a sec. Believe I win.
$60. And peace of mind. And I got to play tug-o-war with his dog. Wins all around.