Video from the guys who blew their strut top cap off.

TL;DW: The 4th Gen Tacoma doesn't have a standard bump stop for its front control arms, it relies on a stop that's built inside of its Bilstein shock. These YouTubers claim this shock-stop is insufficient, and is the reason that their strut top cap ejected. They have a descriptive post on the other forum: Cue all of the 4th gen is doomed posts.

 

Completely normal

 

Originally I thought that the in-shock bump stop was smart of Toyota, because people with top spacer lifts wouldn't be blowing their shocks apart from compressing too far, you know, because a standard bump stop is farther away after installing those. Now I'm not so sure. I think I'll be moving a proper suspension lift up higher on my list of too-do's

 

Utuber’s will say anything just o get views . I can’t take these claims with a grain of salt .

 

Seems pretty legit during the end of the video that something is wrong. However, they didn't film exactly what caused it.

 

I bet they did, just edited it out.

 

He hit a pot hole at 50 to 60 miles per hour and it caused damage. Also did they not air down their tires?

 

Those guys are too annoying to watch the whole video so I skipped to the end. That seems like a bad idea for a shock design. It also seems like a bad idea to be going 60mph off-road in a Tacoma. They should have bought a Raptor or a side by side.

 

Not uncommon for any vehicle with similar setup. No doom and gloom here, just something to be aware of, thanks for the post!

 

Good design, user error. Seems to be the theme for some of 4th gen issues.

 

Nope. This looks to be incorrect material choice (aluminum) or mfg error. May not even be Bilstein's fault. Traditionally the shock is supplied separate from the top hat. Bilstein doesn't offer top hats for 2nd/3rd gen Tacomas.

 

Their claims are at least substantiated by pictures of their cracked top hat. Looks like cheap cast aluminum:

 

Car and truck YouTube is broken down into several tribes.

You have the old guys who pretend to be experts and shit on everything new while comically missing the point.

You have the morons who break shit for clicks.

You have the morons who try to do legitimate reviews, but somehow manage get everything wrong.

You have the anal warts who hang around on car lots and talk about how expensive everything is.

You have the chicks in tiny shorts who climb around cars and trucks with their ass up in the air pretending to work on them.

You have asshole disgruntled mechanics, who shit on every car that’s brought in with maintenance issues, not understanding why that may be the case.

You have the absolute mad lads who are in love with Kei trucks.

 

'Merica

 

They broke it from abuse. It's not from bad engineering or material choice. Just my opinion.

 

That’s perfect. You need to also add the extreme brand loyal fan bois that only review one brand of vehicle and only talk about how great they are.

 

Absolutely ragging on a vehicle and then blaming the design when something blows up under extreme conditions is always fun…

queue the raptor jumps

https://youtu.be/JKQdlXvbWSU?si=fMmKjroXUTHLRWUV

fucking ford amirite ?

 

^Point the way to this. My buddy is asking.

 

I’m going to have to agree with you on the abuse on this one. Driving 50-60 mph Offroad in a stock Tacoma doesn’t seem too smart. I am a bit concerned about what would happen to those shocks if you hit a pothole on the highway though.

 

Claiming abuse and "extreme conditions" when they're there on location showing you the flat dirt terrain they're driving on? Maybe they should've switched to a Ridgeline - those don't blow shocks driving 60 mph on dirt roads.

I wouldn't be surprised if Toyota releases a beefed up top hat in 2026. Toyota revised the TRD Pro spring perch design around 2020 in response to cracked spring coils. These fixes happen.