San Diego Shop Drama

Welp, it couldn’t have lasted much longer before I’d need to replace something on my first brand new truck (second taco).

anyone have a recommendation for buying OEM parts? I smashed up some of my front bumper and fog light housing brackets pretty good.

of course this is a good excuse to upgrade to a more dedicated off-road bumper, so if there are any suggestions - I’m all ears.

was on an awesome trail in the sierras and I ended up breaking through some ice. I couldn’t reverse and was up to the door sills in freezing mud water. Pretty much my only option was push through the ice to get out. Ice was at least 3” thick.

great view from some thermal pools though!

 

If you are gonna do that stuff I’d get an aftermarket bumper. For oem, Parts.toyota.com you can select local dealers that have better prices on some stuff. Other options include mcgeorge Toyota, and several others that will be posted soon I’m sure. But again, take the opportunity to get something stout if you plan to ride trails like that.

 

Ouch... dealer should have parts but expect them to be somewhat expensive, especially for a newer truck.
If you have a warranty, that might save you a lot of money if it covers that type of damage.

 

BAMwholesale parts

 

Not sure about any dealers down your way but the Toyota dealer in San Juan Capistrano has been great the few times if bought from them or had them do warranty work. Not sure if they’re still called Family Toyota or if the name changed. When I bought some of my trd parts they did online price matching and since I was picking up the parts there wasn’t any shipping. If you’re looking for any recommendations on aftermarket I can personally vouch and strongly advocate for relentless fab in Nevada. Lead times can be long but we’ll worth the wait. If you want to stay local demello off-road looks really nice to and I think they still have aluminum as an option.

 

Southern style has a 20% sale right now. Almost seems like perfect timing.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/sos-concepts-2020-tax-time-sale-20-off-plus-giveaway.650394/

 

Nah, warranty doesn't cover collision, that's what insurance is for.

 

I’m thinking the same pretty much. What do you think of something like these options? Looking at S&S Offroad, SDHQ and Demello.

 

Sos Offroad has some good options also, might have sale going on or some discount.

20% off tax time sale.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/sos-concepts-2020-tax-time-sale-20-off-plus-giveaway.650394/

 

Or you can ask members if they have any saved parts they are willing to sell off.
After putting on a arb bumper I kept what was cut off. I do have the left side fog light trim and the black center bumper with the crush pad behind it.
Let me know.

Definitely agree with the others, if going to play offroad metal is better then plastic.
Best of luck whatever path you take.

 

Alright I need to update here. I hijacked another post on the slimline out of anger. Long story short, the shop that was highly recommended to me did not install the bumper properly because they trimmed my stock bumper way too much. The ONLY crack to the plastic bumper cover was under the driver side fog light. The shop is trying to tell me they trimmed it the way they did because it was too badly damaged to trim properly.

After speaking with SSO and sharing photos of the install before and after - we’ve determined the shop in question is at fault. What do you guys think here? Does the bumper cover look like it couldn’t be used properly? Am I crazy to not see why they couldn’t trim properly?

shop manager says the stock cover was damaged. Photos I have prove otherwise. Secondly, if there was a problem installing the slimline properly I should have been contacted before they hacked my bumper.

If I’m dropping thousands of dollars on various parts and labor, I don’t want it done kind or right. I want it done the right way. The shop manager says he can try to make it fit better, but he’ll need the truck for a whole day. If he’s going to rip it all apart again anyway, why not just order a new bumper and do it right this time?

This shop came highly recommended by fellow Tacoma owners, friends, military and the local off-road/ racing community. The shop seems to want to make it right, but refuses to own up to the mistakes and offer the correct solution.

Am I out of line by asking that they order a new stock bumper, trim and install it properly before I call them out and dispute the charges with my credit card company? SSO has made note on their end and isn’t going to make contact pending their response to me.

Hopefully no one else has this experience because it really is a pain in the ass.

 

It’s really hard for me to tell the shape it was in, but I’d agree they should have talked to you before making the decision. I don’t know what to say about getting them to fix it. Be nice if they would, but if they don’t I’m not sure what the appropriate action is. Maybe find someone take off and get someone to help you do it yourself. Good luck, hope it gets resolved

 

Yea I totally get that part about it being damaged prior to taking it in. I just don’t buy it because of the photos and walk through I did with the shop sales rep when I brought the truck in. On top of that, SSO says it looks like they should’ve been fine to trim as instructed. I also don’t understand why making a quick call to me wasn’t a thought if there actually was a problem trimming properly.

 

Edit: never mind, looks like you already picked a bumper!

 

I think the high clearance additions to the SSO bumper would fix that problem and give you more clearance anyway. Maybe the shop will install for free if you supply the parts?

 

Are you referring to the space between the metal bumper and the plastic taco parts ??
You might want that in case you hit anything so the metal bumper has a little flex room.

 

Yeah it looks like it was trimmed too short. I can't tell what it looks like at 10-15 feet. Your picture is like a medical diag photo. If anyone is getting that close to your truck to look at it, smack em upside their head and tell them to back off. Lol.
Zim

"Looks good from my house" but it ain't my money

 

Hopefully that doesn’t happen but I see your point. I honestly just hate when shit isn’t done correctly. I hate someone bullshitting me even more than that. Unfortunately I’m dealing with both :/

 

I have been thinking about that as well. I really didn’t want to change it up too much from stock but that might honestly be an option to consider. My biggest issue is not getting what I paid for. I paid to get something done ($4k worth of things actually) and it wasn’t done correctly or handled properly by the shop. I’ll hopefully get something resolved this week or next. The shop really doesn’t sound like they want to pay for the mistakes, just put a bandaid on the issue until I go away frustrated.