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The AISIN timing belt kit finally arrived today and I'm all excited to swap out the belt. Its after dark so I start shining a light to closely inspect the various existing seals for potential leaks to mentally prepare myself for tomorrow's work when I notice one of the exhaust valves is discolored around its guide. Hmm, that's odd for 90,000 miles...
So I look more closely at things and notice the engine has a VIN plate which I compare against the VIN on my paperwork for the 90,000 mile engine. They're not even close (so not a transcription error). I run this vin and it is also from a 2007 highlander hybrid, but it was auctioned in November 2021 with 168,000 miles. The VIN on the paperwork was from a 2007 highlander hybrid salvaged in November 2017 with 90,000 miles. WTF!!!
When I first called the shop asking if they had a highlander hybrid engine, they offered a 168,000 mile engine for $500. I told them I was looking for under 100,000 miles, did they have anything else? I heard him typing for a bit and he said they had a 90,000 mile engine in "the warehouse" and would need 30 minutes to bring it to the yard. He wanted $830 for it. So they sold me the original 168,000 mile engine for an extra $330 with a lower mile vin on the paperwork...
So now I start looking up reviews of this place (obviously belatedly) and they do have mostly 5 star reviews, but also more than a few 1 star complaints of fraud and bait & switch. It looks like when they are caught lying (er "selling the wrong parts") they offer in store credit. That won't work for me.
Hopefully I'm blowing things out of proportion and they just made an honest mistake and have the correct engine on hand. Or issue a refund. Heck, at this point I'd accept a substitute engine with <120,000 miles. But I'm not going to float them $800+ when I only buy something of that magnitude once a decade from a junkyard...
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