How to: black box removal

Nice big new tires rubbing the wheel well when you turn? Thats cuz Toyota put a nice old piece of metal there just to screw with you. No worries though, you can just take that darn thing right off and heres how!

Ok, seriously, I noticed there was no instructions on how to remove the black box and though its pretty simple i noticed a few people had asked how to do it so heres an official instruction for how to do it with pictures! (yay for pictures)


You will need:
-sharp knife/scissors
-10mm socket wrench


So the black box is at the back of the wheel well and is covered by plastic so it just looks like random plastic that juts out:



What you wanna do is cut that plastic off with a sharp knife or scissors (I used a box cutter) all the way around like so:





You will notice the plastic is being held on by a button looking piece shown in the image below:



To remove this you can simply cut it off by pulling back the plastic and cutting it from the inside like so:





Now that the plastic is all gone you just have to take off the three bolts shown below with a 10mm socket wrench.



After you do that to both sides, you're good to go!

 

Is the "black box" in both wheel wells?

 

You are a saint among men, sir

 

so this plus a cap mount chop could possibly result in a rub free ride on 285's?

 

I wonder what that thing is for? Something involving crash safety?

 

It was put there by toyota to remind us that they don't want big tires on the 5 lugs. So mostly to annoy us.

 

yes it is

 

Once you have the black box removed...what do you do with the open exposed area where the black box once was? Meaning water, mud and etc will fling into that opening and cause issues later? Just a guess.

 

I used cheap auto store universal mud flaps to cover that area. I also cleaned and painted the area with frame paint.

 

Do you guys know if the Pre-runner OEM fender inner liner would fit a 5-lugger after the black box removal? Anybody tried this before?

 

I just did the black box removal, except I cut a lot less plastic off than sonzie did. Once the box was out I folded over the excess and utilized one of the black box bolts to hold the liner back, which turned out to be completely sealed off and looks seamless.

 

285s on a 4-cyl 5-lugger?

 

I'm sure the guys are going to want to see pictures or they will say it didn't happen. Lol

 

It happened lol, take a look!

 

That looks really good... would you mind taking the original photo and drawing a dotted line where you cut, then did you turn the the inside out or what? Not sure what folded over meant. How did you seal the piece back on?

 

As per request:


The dotted line is roughly where I cut, and the white dot is where I made a small hole.

Once the box is unbolted, you can use the one lower bolt (that was holding the black box on) to hold back the liner. It literally just folds back away from the tire once the box is outa there. Hope this helps

 

The problem I have is it looks different than the photo you posted...the seams are horizontal and looks like it's sealed and can't tell of any cut lines...maybe it's just photo illusion, but the pictures looks factory looking almost without seams.

 

Yeah man I see what you are saying, but it is just a photo illusion. The seam isn't actually visible from the angle of the photo, but its a vertical seam only.

 

sub'd for later.

 

subbed for this weekend.