What’s wrong with my suspension?

Hi everyone.

I purchased this new 2021 Tacoma trd off-road with a lot of excitement and rush due to chip shortage and dealer pressure. It seemed like the truck of my dreams had awesome wheels and tires and already came with the lift I wanted.

Flash forward to now I’ve discovered that the $8k package I got that supposedly had a “3 inch performance suspension lift” is actually a shitty spacer lift. I only discovered this after noticing a bent rubber piece above the coil which I’m scheduled to take in later this week to get checked out.

My questions are:
1. Is there any way I can fight this with the dealership to try and get swapped for the actual trd lift. Maybe take it up with service manager or corporate?
3. Can I try to get any compensation.
2. I’m not really familiar with suspension issues so does anyone know what’s really wrong with the pictures I’ve posted.

Appreciate any advise from you guys!

 

Sorry to see this happen. Tbh man if there’s a way you can exchange the truck for like an SR5 or stock Trdor I would do it. I know some states give a grace period on the time of contracts. 8k would buy you one hell of a suspension setup with plenty to spare for wheels n tires.

to answer your question directly , I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the rubber. It’s just freakin out cause it’s under a lot of pressure from a $50 puck spacer.

 

"It seemed like the truck of my dreams had awesome wheels and tires and already came with the lift I wanted"

That shitty spacer lift is the lift that you wanted, right? Sadly, you signed the paperwork without really investigating what you bought. I don't know that the dealer will help you now.

 

does it even look installed right though? I’ve been looking at other spacer lifts and it looks like way different.

 

Instead of simply flipping the shock around in reverse they rotated the top hat and twisted the rubber insulator.

For that price, I'd have them fix it.

I've installed tons of those spacer lifts, it should not look like that.

 

Yikes

 

Wait 8K for rims tires and a Spacer lift?? holy shit

 

Oof. This is going to be a harsh learning opportunity for you. Regarding the suspension, it looks like a top plate spacer. In this scenario they shouldn't have had to pull the tophat off to do anything with the rubber isolator. That rubber isolater is between the tophat and spring, not the spacer and tophat.

 

Fuck.

33's a year ago ran me $900ish
Spacer kit maybe $200
Nerf bars go for what, $5-600
Not sure what the wheels go for...
New lug nuts $120?

Tell me you at least got to keep the stock tires and wheels too? That should've been a credit to you if you didn't.

 

Name of stealership please

 

It's in Sunnyvale CA

Just 40mins north of where I used to live.

 

Unfortunately, being in CA there is no grace period at all for the OP.

If he took delivery of the vehicle, that's it.

I'm familiar with DSI; they tried to sign up with us and we told them we don't want to partake in their kits. Last I remember, we installed full Icon Stage 2 or 3 kits on our Nissan Titans.

 

Says Toyota of Sunnyvale, CA

 

If you signed paperwork, unless you are a frequent customer of theirs, good luck.

I don’t really see how other than the rubber isolator being crapped up that this really reflects anything different about this dealer. Nationwide, dealers slap on crappy top plate spacers, bigger tires and flashy wheels and routinely want 8-10k more.

 

They wouldn't take the truck back even as a frequent customer.

That'd be an unwind in CA, and would mean the vehicle would be sold on a USED car report of sale.

A statement of facts or similar disclosure would have to be signed by the new buyer acknowledging they're buying a USED vehicle.

Doubt the next person would want to pay that price on a used vehicle, even if it had that $8k kit.

 

Wow for $8k you could have gotten 2.5" Fox / Kings all around and a custom leaf spring setup. And had money for wheels and tires. What a sh*tshow...

 

See if they'll fix the shitty install and add proper aftermarket UCAs for that 3" lift since they screwed you so hard at the beginning - which they won't.

So, chock it up to a lesson learned.

 

That dealership is gonna tell you this:

 

@Ashgh

Only thing I can think of, and not something I should be saying out loud but, maybe cause an 'issue' of some sort with funding.

If you can delay, or even stop funding of your contract, then you could end up getting yourself out of this transaction.

Unless you paid cash, then you're screwed.

That's if, you only just recently purchased your truck.