Fair warning: Your rear bumper is an expensive, and delicate P.O.S.

Many have already figured this out, but just putting the word out not to expect much from the plastic rear bumper on your Taco. Toyota promotes this brutally cheap rear bumper as a “three piece bumper”, with the feature that you can just replace individual parts to save money. Yeah whatever Toyota.



Long story short, I damaged the drivers-side pod going through a washout. All that happened was the back edge kissed the ground and the decorative cap was torn off, which damaged the plastic substrate underneath, and the clips holding the black plastic footpad. I looked into new OEM parts at my dealer, and holy F , the total cost of the shit plastic parts would be more than a proper steel bumper from a few of the popular fabricators here.

Anyways........big disappointment in Toyota for the fake-news bumper . At least I now have a good excuse to upgrade to an actual bumper.

 

With all of the layers of sheet metal and plastic that do a great job of trapping/holding moisture I expect it will rust out quickly even if you manage not to damage it.

 

Be sure to let us know what you replace it with. Good luck!

 

Op, yeah i managed to tap a tree last weekend and broke my Passenger end cap ( only the underneath piece that hold the cap onto the bumper) along with the tabs on the step on top.. kinda ridiculous but oh well......does your truck have all the sensors in the bumper?

 

Has anyone done a write up on a bumper swap? I imagine its just a bunch of bolts, but I've never actually seen pics of the teardown.

 

I mean I got rear ended and there was no damage to anything other than the outer plastic bits? It's not like I was rear ended by a Prius, it was an 08 explorer

 

There's 5 bolts on each side. Unclip the wiring, disconnect wiring connectors. Remove bolts, and have a great time lifting up and out to disengage
the locating tab on each side. Not too bad, but was kinda a pain since I did mine by myself....

 

Not just Toyota's, but all car makers.... Fair Warning!

 

Yup... I just went through the disassembly process in order to install my new RCI rear bumper. Really not bad after I watched a quick tutorial on Youtube. Lots of pieces and they're all very flimsy, until you get to the tow hitch.

 

I knew that taco looked familiar, I follow you on Instagram

 

The plastic bumper is to accommodate the BMS.

 

Yeah, and currently, the only aftermarket bumper to retain BSM is the C4 Fab one. I personally didn't like how it looked so I was ok with losing it by going with the RCI.

 

@tacopromatt hey nice bumper!! if i'm going to upgrade i want one like that...i would like to be able to keep my hitch but i can't find one i like, your looks the best out of the ones i seen so far.... you wouldn't have a link would you?

 

When I had my 1st gen, I bashed the front bumper up pretty good. This led to me getting my off road bumper
Trail damage is always a good way to get new parts

 

My RCI bumper has a built in hitch under the license plate:
https://www.rcimetalworks.com/2016-Tacoma-Rear-Bumper-TACO-16-10.htm

There are some options that will retain your OEM hitch:
http://www.victory4x4.com/product/VT3RS.html
https://fabfours.com/product/premium-rear-bumper-14/

 

So does the pelfreybilt I went with....

 

Yeah I think all the metal bumpers have a hidden hitch if they did away with the OEM one. Pelfreybilt, C4, Mobtown, RCI, etc.
Supposedly all rated similar as the factory one.

 

I would agree. It stated it should be the same rating as the factory tow bar. All I have towed with it so far is a open car trailer with a gun safe on it...

 

I do not have the sensors, so that's a relief. The thing that bugs me, is even if Toyota had put the slightest roll upwards on the inner edge of the plastic decorative covers on the lower edge, they would not tend to catch on the ground and tear off. Literally, for 10 cents more plastic, Toyota could have made the crappy bumper, just a little less crappy.

 

Well then they doubly screwed me, as I have no BMS or back-up radar. Just a crap bumper.