Broken metal rod attached to wheel well/frame

For the last two weeks, the suspension on my rear passenger side has been making a squeaking sound. I realized today that the squeaking was coming from the wheel well casing rubbing against the frame because a rod connecting to the outer frame was broken.

It's a small rod, about a foot long and 1/4 inch in diameter. The broken rod doesn't appear to affect the performance other than causing the wheel well casing to rub and make an annoying squeak. I don't even know what this rod is called.

Has this happened to anyone and how did you fix it (OEM vs Fab shop)? Does anyone know what the rod is called? Is it dangerous to drive?

I checked my friends 3rd gen and it doesn't have this rod. Would really appreciate any insight.

Thanks from a long-time lurker

 

Pretty sure those are just braces that run down to the lower edges of the bed sides to keep them from flopping around too much.

 

Yep, it's this. Bedside support. It's not dangerous to drive, and I would hazard a guess and say that a ton of people in the salt belt have broken bedside supports and don't realize it. If there's enough good metal at the break, a simple weld will fix it. They aren't replaceable as a separate piece, they're part of the body panel. If you can't or don't want to have it welded, unbolt it from the top of the bed, remove the plastic cover plate on the bottom of the bedside body panel, and bend up a piece of aluminum to replace it, bolting in the factory spot at the top and drilling a new bolt hole at the bottom of the bedside panel.

 

That happen to mine and I ordered a replacement on line and received the opposite side that won’t work. It was so much of a hassle to try to return and not worth it. So I had a 1/2 “ piece of copper pipe and made one that would fit. It’s was easy to make since you can flatten the two ends in a vice and drill the screw holes where it attaches to the body. Plus it will never rust again.

 

Had both of mine rust out aswell. Got new oem from toyota, sorry I don't remember the part number, but not dangerous.

 

copper or aluminum... seems like a good way to go. Op could mount one end to the screw in his picture that holds the plastc trim (next to the broken area.)

 

Thanks everyone so much for the replies. I didn't think it was dangerous, but glad to hear. Also good to know it's happened to other people too. I'll probably get a local fab shop to put something together for me, I'm not overly handy.

 

Same here. I'll look for the OEM part #s...