Loose skid plate bolt

I just installed a Talon’s Garage cat shield on my 2022 DCLB OR TRD. I was buttoning everything up and didn’t have a problem until the very last bolt. I had loosened the middle pair of bolts on the skid plate to allow the back of the skid plate to drop a little for the cat shield. One skid plate bolt went back in just fine. The second skid plate bolt just spins and won’t grab. I can reach up above the skid plate and feel that the bolt goes into a sleeve that also spins when I try to tighten it. The second photo is the offending bolt. Any suggestions?

 

If you had a Dealer Oil Change they probably installed it with an impact gun and stripped it.

 

Can confirm. They did this to EVERY BOLT on my skidplate.

 

why do they have to remove it to do oil change if it has the little access door?

 

The TRD Skid is supposed to be torqued to specs.

How unfortunate the Dealership Tech did this to your Tacoma.

 

If the OP did have the dealership change the oil, let's hope a oil filter element was put back into the housing.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/no-oil-filter.748693/

 

Put a "Pro" skid plate on my '18 Sport last year in order to prevent problems with dealer service stripping or cross threading bolts when dropping the factory under engine shield. Extended warranty on my truck so there are some things I'll take it to the dealer for documentation purposes.

Installed a Talon cat shield last week (nice fit). When backing off the two middle bolts for the cat shield install, found they were finger tight. Came to the conclusion the "tech" doing the last oil change dropped the skid plate, possibly in order to remove an over-tightened filter canister with a strap wrench.

 

Ive had the same issue before.

The trd pro skid hardware has a keeper washer on the thread side that prevents the bolt from falling out. But if its not far enough down on the bolts threads then it also prevents the bolt from making contact to the threads on the truck.

Drop the skid and adjust or remove that washer.

 

JFriday1 called it. I dropped the skid plate and that one bolt had the metal locking clip up at the top of the bolt, preventing it from engaging the threads.

 

@Tallgrass05

Glad you figured it out!

 

I had this happen once. Good call.