Cracked sheet metal above radiator body bushings

I honestly advise to stay with oem rubber mounts. I have no doubt that there are examples of cracking when using rubber. Question is what is the real situation with that particular case, use, weight, condition of mounts, etc. Mine did start to crack with rubber mounts that were collapsed, I only noticed the mounts after I saw cracking... and I mistakenly thought the bushing was the reason. It isn't, it is just how the problem of frame to body flex is manifested. Even with rubber mounts, the flexing is still there, and cracking can happen. But with poly it will be worse.

 

Counter argument:

I have a dent in my front left fender from flexing my bumper into it and I have a 3/4" gap between my bumper end and fender, I also have polyurethane bushings, the larger "universal" ones and the only tears in my core support are from where my tires have grabbed it under hard compression not in the usual "flexing" locations.

With that said my front frame has been significantly reinforced, and my 3/16" steel skid plate attaches to where the factory frame to lower chin bar stamped steel flimsy bars were.

The front can still twist but it twists evenly left to right, the front twists as one plane rather than the left and right sides twisting unevenly.

I also suspect that you didn't get tears in your core support until after you put in the poly mounts because you didn't start wheeling as hard until after you started modifying.

Correlation not causation, but that's conjecture.

 

The last statement is 100% not true, though I wish I had been wheeling more since then! My biggest trips were actually all before switching to poly, lots of wheel on fender well action before then too after upsizing to 34's, also a year before switching to poly.

Either way, the physics makes sense in my brain. I'm going back to OEM and I'll see what happens. The biggest clue for me is having a direct comparison with a friend who goes on a lot of the same trips, with very similar build (2017 DCLB, 34's, same bumper, similar winch, prinsu rack, and same battery) but he's on OEM bushings with no cracks.

 

I don't know where you are rubbing your core support on the tires... I have 35s and don't rub even with my wheels pushed forward with JD fab LCA pivot kit. Maybe it is my combo of wheel and tire size? The core support is angled away from the tire anyway, so if it rubbed it wouldn't catch and tear at the metal like it would on the rear of the front fender by the cab mount... Can you share any pictures of what you are talking about?

I can positively say I've been using the truck for years with oem mounts... pushed very hard and very over-weight overland build, and with only a few months with poly bushings - I noticed substantial increase in the cracking, only to have that aggressive cracking subside again with rubber mounts. 100% sure there is no issue of only starting to use the truck hard after poly - that is just projection on your part. Obviously if someone has problems with OEM and moves to poly and it fixes the problem, great. That isn't my experience. And maybe your truck is different than mine, and your usage is different than mine. Good thing we all get to do what we want and make our own decisions about it, hopefully sharing our experiences along the way.

 

Everything ive read about poly bushings is to stay away from them. But obviously there are more factors like terrain, driving style, and other modifications.

 

Better to have bushings destruct rather than metal structures. High usage = high maintenance

 

If anyone has a link handy to the OEM front radiator bushings that'd be sweet

 

Position 1 of the image below is all the components

 

I forget if it was posted in this thread or another one but it was some kit that had a bunch of stamped/cut peices of thickish aluminum that you would bolt together after cutting away the stock structures of the engine bay. Obviously you would only do this if your sheet metal was cracked beyond reasonable repair.

ive also seen people redo their stuff in chromoly tube steel but they also had alot of other stuff going on/project level stuff.

 

Note to those people ordering OEM body mounts. The front and rear cab mounts look identical, but are different durometer rubber. This alone should tell you there is engineering and flex built into the system. I don't know if front is harder or softer than rear, but I have my suspicions.

Also, can anyone with a TRD offroad show/tell me what the part is that is circled in red? I have a sport, not familiar with why this part is in place. I know the bolt isn't extra long or different between the two, and this part goes on after the main thick washer so I don't think it changes how the bushing flexes? I dunno, but maybe it is some sort of stiffener or travel limiter that some of us could benefit from?

 

Ah man all this reminds me of the Cz75 (aluminum frame ones) forums where alot of owners were complaining about how their polymer recoil rods looked (slightly bent) and some were worried about reliability. So some ended up changing them to “high quality steel” recoil rods. The result was fatal cracking of the aluminum frames where the recoil rod sits against the frame.

 

I think that is the harmonic device to help with the diff whine. There is a TSB about it.

Good point on the P/N differences, but dang. I'd really recommend the Rogue Offroad kit:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...dy-mount-kit-group-buy-round-two-open.763759/

100% biased recommendation for sure. But, I did the Energy universal front mounts. They helped with the original issues, but the full kit works really well.


Edit: Found the TSB. See attached.

 

My whole front core support cracked, and inner fenders cracked in half basically with oem bushings. Almost every plastic piece has cracked as well (headlight tabs broke off, grille hardly stays in, etc)

Tubbed the front end and did poly mounts throught, no issues since. No creaks, way less body movement, and my front end doesnt flop around after fixing some of the clips/headlight falling out with zip ties.

 

Got any info on the TSB? that part is nowhere near the diff, seems odd.

Regarding that rogue kit... I dunno what is different and so expensive with a 3rd gen. But the kit is down to $93 on Amazon

$109 ENERGY SUSPN Energy Suspension 8.4109G Body Mount Set-Reg, Access & Dbl Cab

https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Suspension-8-4109G-SET-REG-ACCESS/dp/B00G1X9ZA6?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I bought the kit, as well as the "universal" larger mounts for the rad core support. I hated it, not only did it make a shit ton of creaking and noise, but the bushings self destructed as well, and I saw a bunch of different issues related to cracking and such. Tried super lube, as well as torque values from 25 all the way to 85, no good, just sucky and noisy. Dunno what I did wrong, maybe they needed to be installed dry. The core support under the headlights started cracking like crazy fast with the poly in, presumably because the metal was forced to flex when the bushings didn't. The only reason I put a energy kit in was because I had a collapsed radiator bushing from a 'send it' accident, and I wanted a bit of body lift when I moved to 35's, figured poly was better, stronger, less flex, and get the body lift at the same time. My 4 cab mounts were fine, I should have just left those in and replaced the radiator core bushings. When I pulled the poly bushings out, I bought all new oem, and used some of the energy washers as my body lift. Never looked back

If anyone wants my energy bushing kit that I took out, I'll gladly send it to you for the cost of shipping, maybe you can use a spare sleeve or puck... Also, if anyone has the poly bushings but wants to go back to stock, I'll help your cause by selling my old oem body mounts for cheap...

Wow. That seems extreme. Glad the poly are working for you. I'd guess you have a different usage model, driving style, terrain, or you had severe mount degredation that allowed the cracking and breaking to happen. Maybe now with it all cracked up it flexes enough to not need the rubber bushings to do the flexing? I dunno. Yours is a good data point though, on the opposite end of the spectrum as me. My truck is really really heavy, full camping/expedition rig for family of 4, and I do ask a lot of it, but I'm rarely slamming it into rocks and high speed stuff to cause hard bottom outs or air time. So it is important to note that there is no one solution for all.

 

I just added the TSB to my previous post.


That Energy Kit is for 2nd Gens only. The diamond plates for the 3rd Gen are different.

 

Here is the stuff I took out. Let me know if anyone wants it. As you can see the energy kit didn’t work out that well for me, and the reliability (even if you have to replace stock core support bushings often) and simplicity of stock is way better than aftermarket. Although I do know I am in the minority, I say oem for the win on this one.

 

thanks. I’ll look at the TSB. For the cost difference I’m surprised folks aren’t water jetting or plasma cutting new plates in small batches.

Edit: the TSB is interesting, it is a active noise or harmonics damper, the TSB is for 2016-17 trucks only. Being a 2nd gen, and fuuuulllllly modified suspension and diff and drive shaft, I don't think I have any applicability to that TSB.

 

That is what Rogue Offroad did. I'm thankful for that as my rear left body mount was squeaking in the rain.

 

Well done! Glad to hear honestly. From what I was reading I was not seeing anyone having the issues with OEM bushings. Probably no one-size fits all solution regardless. I'll try going back to OEM bushings and see if that improves things for me. I stop drilled all the cracks last night and there were more than I realized. Anyone have any gut feeling if these holes are big enough?

 

Those are fine, but your sheet metal is beyond the point of no return. All that weight is sitting there and will just keep ripping the rest of it unless you patch it all up.