What the Actual F@*! (Mystery bumper damage)

You would be surprised how many cars are damaged in transit from the factory, or being unloaded off the car carrier, or being jockeyed by 16 year olds around the dealer's lot.

An awful lot of silent repairs are made by the dealer before the vehicle is given to the customer, who is never aware.

 

i can tell you what i dont do... i dont go around making post about someone hitting my bumper when there are no signs of impact or paint damage.

 

You're concerned on the gap on the left. There's also a misalignment on the right here.



Would be a surprise if it wasn't that way from the factory, mine looks about the same. Depending on the angle you're parked at, that's also just kinda how the bumped sits. Welcome to the third gen - still pretty damn reliable, but definitely a down-grade in some of the workmanship quality Toyota has been known for all these years.

 

Just misaligned. My bed sits about a 1/2" over on the driver side. Meh, as long as I don't stare at it, it doesn't bother me.

 

Push the dealer for the hood fix. Mine was shaky as a result of glue failure, dealership sent to their bodyshop and fixed it under warranty.

 

I had a similar issue with my 2020 OR. Noticed it about 2 months after purchasing while walking towards the back of the truck. One of those things that once you notice it your (nobody else’s) eyes keep going to it. Plus you pay your hard earned money and want things right. Took it to the dealer and they simply adjusted the bumper. No hassles or questions asked as it was obvious it was not hit. They said it was just misaligned from the factory.

 

Dealer won't notice a damn thing when you go to trade it in...

 

I’d rather do this option, I’ll give it a go today. Thanks.

 

Please remember these are full frame vehicles. They are put together with nuts and bolts. They are going to have different gap tolerances than the average car. A unibody Camry may have a tolerance of +/- 3mm on a frame rail. The bumper on the truck may be +/- 3 inches when they bolt up a bumper. Temper your expectations accordingly.

 

some of the tacomas come this way. It’s just a small issue with the frame tabs not being bent exactly the same. My 2016 came with it. A couple washers and it’s cherry

 

I just replaced my bumper with an aftermarket one this past weekend. I agree with a majority of folks and suggest you loosen the 5 bolts on the left side, have someone hold the bumper up, and then retighten. I cant remember if the stock bumper had some play you could use but the aftermarket one for sure did. You can probably do it in less than 5 minutes.

Heres a pic of the bolts I'm talking about. You don't have to touch the two located where his extension is going. Those are for a bracket that the bottom two of the five bolt on to. I believe the torque specs are 70lbs pounds for retightening.

 

Looks like UFO damage. Get a metal bumper if you are going to take the time to realign it.

 

That thin little plastic "bumper" is beauty trim and under it is a really really thin piece of metal to support it. Fart on it and it will bend. You can disassemble the covers and then tug on the thin-assed piece of metal to level it out, then put the beauty covers back on. Your actual collision absorbing bumper is under all of that and is just fine.

 

They are at fault and know this. My issue is the damage was so minor (completely buffed out) and the gap is only 1/4". I don't want a carfax filed as it will caused diminished value later on. I am talking to a bodyshop now about the fix for the minor 1/4" gap.

 

100% correct, I clipped the side of my garage and broke one of the 'beauty covers off so I disassembled the "bumper" to fix. I was amazed at how flimsy the construction is.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/damn-that-plastic-bumper-is-expensive.613281/

 

It was always a very small percentage of cars that I saw when working as a lot attendant in my younger days and when I worked in management/sales, but it does happen unfortunately. Most of the stuff I saw was related to used cars that were reconditioned and repaired before being sold on the lot. Most people would be shocked to see how well a used turd polishes up on the used car lot.

Out of the thousands of cars that were sold when I was there only a handful had issues related to paint and body and of those only a few were really bad. Most were superficial like small scratches or dents that were able to be buffed out or fixed with pointless dent repair.

Every dealer is different though.

However, I don't get the impression that this applies to this situation. I think this is something that happened on the assembly line at the factory. Especially, given the amount of trucks on this forum that have had very similar issues. This one appears to have a lot more fit and finish issues than the others I've seen, but that doesn't mean the truck is ruined. Toyota really ramped up production on Tacoma's after 2017 to meet consumer demand.

https://www.autoblog.com/2016/09/15/toyota-tacoma-production-increasing/
https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/toyota-tacoma-sales-figures/