Right side of bed loose

Have have had an ongoing issue with noise on the right bedside of my 2016 tacoma which appears to have happened due to a crack in an aluminum sheath under the torx bolt in the bed.
Dealership says that the entire bedside needs to be replaced at a cost of around 5k excluding labor.

I have heard this is and has been an issue when having a canopy or carrying heavy loads but I have not abused the bed like that.

Any insight as to a fix to this issue that could be done in the driveway with minor expense and just my time?

Cheers.

 

Well since you posted this in the 4th gen forum the only logical choice is to trade it in for a 4th gen Tacoma!!!

 

that is a split bushing as a crush sleeve, it is completly normal. no issue with the pic.

 

This issue is noted with the 2nd Gens, which share most of the bed with the 3rd Gen. With a good bit of wheeling or hauling, the bed will wear against the frame, or something like that, and loosen enough to rattle. Their fix is to install some rubber shims, like pieces of conveyor belt between the bed and frame to make up the gap. I believe it was noted to not try and tighten up the bolts.

I recall when installing D rings on the bed bolts, that the bed was flexy when they were loose, so it should be an easy job to slip some heavy duty rubber pieces in there.


Note that dealers are only going to try an restore stuff back to the factory configuration. They very rarely use a mod to fix things, esp when it saves time and / or money.


If you need it, attached are the torque specs.

 

I’m not familiar with that part but can you remove it and replace it with another one? Not sure if it’s shaped like an upside down ‘T’ or just a cylinder, if a T then it possibly may have to be removed from the bottom side if inserted that way, else can you use an easy out or thread a coarse bolt into it and pull it out that way?

True Value may have an insert that fits, they’ll usually also let you take parts out to their lot to try on first before buying them, can’t do that at Home Depot!

 

Your dealer is a thief. Never darken their door again.

 

I had this EXACT same problem on mine and this is what I did to fix it:
Look closely at how far above the bed the sleeve sits after you take the Torx bolt out. You will probably see 1-2 MM of exposed sleeve. Next, If you pull the metal sleeve up and out of the hole (you can) and take the sleeve to a grinder and remove the same amount of material (1-2MM) and re-insert it, it will sit flush and allow you to re-tighten the Torx bolt to fully contact the sleeve and the bed. Thus eliminating your loose rattle.

 

There's a whole thread in the 2nd gen section that recommends against this, and instead putting a shim/washer of sorts inbetween the bed and the frame to make up the difference. If you grind the sleeve, the bed will just wear again and the issue will come back.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tacoma-loose-bed-design-flaw-explanation.388873/

 

5k is a "go away" price. Dealers don't want to do shit like this, they want to replace the cabin filters or sell you a new truck

On mine I used a huge washer to shim the fiberglass bed up between the frame rail and bed

 

Well now!!
Didn't look there since mine is a 3rd Gen but I'll be damned!!!!
Oh well, mine was only 1mm ground off, everything is still aligned but next time I'll do it differently. Thanks for the heads up.