Grill warp

Good morning everyone!

First post here, but I've been on the forum a while and gained plenty of awesome information from everyone which I really appreciate. I own a 2016 DCSB OR 4x4 in MGM.

The only issue I'm having is with the top of the grill assembly. It's not the grill itself, its the plastic painted part around the grill that holds it. It seems to be warping and the paint begins to "bubble up" along the sides. The first time I noticed it was around 4000 miles (back in April). When I took the truck in for the 5000 mile service, I let them know and they replaced it under warranty. Move forward to about 9000 miles and the same thing happened. I took my truck in for the 10000 mile service about a week ago and let them know again. It is currently getting fixed as we speak.

Now, I know i have never hit anything and my truck is in the garage every night. I live in VA so there hasn't been any extreme weather or anything. The service department never gives me any grief or push back, they look at it and say they'll replace it under warranty, but they never give me any reason as to why this is happening.

I was just wondering if anyone else is having this issue. I was able to find one other instance on the forum ( https://www.tacomaworld.com/posts/12306245/ ). Any Idea what could be causing this?

Finally, I apologize for not posting pics, I got a new phone and didn't save any of the pics.

 

That's certainly interesting...almost looks like it took a bunch of heat.

 

Didn't you ask them why this is happening ?

 

Ok take pics with your new camera... or it didn't happen! Just sayin....

 

That's heat related. I bet it's a high efficiency window in your usual parking spot.

 

Meh.. grain of salt .. first post no pics... no "hi how ya doin?", looks like a duck quacks like a duck .... could be trolling !!!

 

Heat soak from the engine from being parked in a small garage with the garage door closed immediately after parking?

 

So look at your alls as well. Mine has a wave in it in the same location....not nearly to the same degree, but it's there.

 

Hey Scooby.... I can't see what it is your showing.... looks perfectly fine to me. Get some mud on it ... shit will buff out. Problem solved.

 

Observe this location of the grill. Top center, they are warping with time. When I first saw this thread I saw a very minor warp, which has become more warped now.



Ever notice the old first gen eclipse bumpers warped? Bad supporting for the plastic. Wonder how these will look a couple years from now.

 

Sub'd.



If you have less than 36k miles. It should be covered under warranty.
Parts defect. Maybe a bad blend of plastics for your truck.

I hope this doesn't happen to all of our tacos.

 

I'm going to give it some time. As is I can definitely live with it...not super noticeable. But if it continues to get worse over the next 3 years/36k miles, I will definitely get a replacement. I'll probably alert my service advisor so he can inform Toyota to see if they are investigating it as a potential flaw in design/manufacturing.

 

Hopefully mine will do this, because it's got a small paint imperfection that loves to annoy me when I clean the truck.

 

When I was shopping for my Tacoma I happened to notice a few on the lot that had ripples on that section. Depending on color some would be more noticeable than others. Because my truck was black, had it come in rippled I would have complained about it, however mines came in straight. It must be happening during the manufacturing process and with exposure just makes a flawed material worst. $.02

 

The paint isn't compatible with what ever type of plastic their using. Keep an eye on the other plastic parts, bumpers etc. for imperfections as well.

 

...^^^... very possible. The best example that I remember of this is:
The Concave shaped .... "Walkie-Talkie" glass skyscraper in London heating things up big time.

 

It's not heat related, my truck is a garage queen, don't think it's ever been parked outside for any length of time.

 

If you live in Texas or any desert area and your garage is not insulated, then a garage will literally be a huge oven....

 

The plastic is not adequately reinforced for it mammoth size.

The paint doesn't contain adequate (if any) flex agent, since it's not supposed to be a truly flexible part. So movement causes separation.