What do I do now?
Okay now that someone has told you that the smoking you have been seeing or the reason for the low oil is engine sludge then quoted a price that equals the national debt what can you do. If you read the My Opinion page you have more of an idea of the cause and some of the things Toyota is looking for from you. If you have no maintenance records you probably will not get too far with a warranty repair or even a good argument. If you have been faithful and have had the dealer, an independent garage, national chain of service companies or even yourself doing the work and you have records you at least can make an argument. I mentioned that Toyota gives you a maintenance schedule when you purchase the vehicle and all you have to do is to follow the A or B schedule. Their argument of poor quality of parts or oils doesn't work since they don't list any acceptable parts other than their own which blocks free trade and they left this giant loophole in their argument. What cannot be impressed enough is the record keeping or being able to produce somewhat detailed records to substantiate the work done. If you have those and they deny the repair you need to contact the national 800 line and open a complaint. They have to follow up and you may wind up meeting with the local factory representative. He/She may be receptive to repair or splitting the repair, or they may say no and hope you will go away. You then can file for an arbitration hearing in your state which will force Toyota to demonstrate that you were enlightenment in maintenance of your vehicle. If you have those detailed records and have stayed within the guidelines stated by Toyota you should win. Remember you need those records and using the loophole mentioned will force Toyota to be defenseless in the poor quality of material used in servicing. I am building an data base for Toyota owners who have this problem and if you want to be included go the Join the Club section and answer a couple of questions.