2012 DC Interior head liner removal write up

Well, I have been asked how to remove the head liner after doing the roof rack wireing write up. So here is the how to write up.

You will need the following tools:
1- #1 (small blade) flat tip screw driver
1- #1 (small) phillips head screw driver
1- #2 (medium) phillips head screw driver
1- pair of needle nose pliers
1- 10mm socket
1- ratchet
1- 3” or 6” socket extension
1- large (18mm) open ended wrench

This entire process took me about 1.5 hours to remove the head liner and about 45 minutes to re-install it. I took my time to not damage anything.

Things to consider:
My Tacoma has side impact airbags
My Tacoma has lighted mirrors in the sun visors
My Tacoma has a roof console with map lights
Driver side and passenger side are symmetrical (no difference in terms of removal)

In this write up I refer to the following frame members:
A-pillars (these are the pillars on each side of the windshield)
B-pillars (these are the pillars on each side mid cab between the front and rear doors)
C-pillars (these are the pillars on each side of the rear window)

I will break down these steps into 3 sections starting from the front to the rear.

Section 1 front
Step 1 Removal of the A-pillar covers and hand holds



With the small flat tip, remove the two covers on the hand hold. Use the 10mm socket and ratchet to remove the 2 bolts, pull the hand hold out of the pillar cover.



Wedge fingers between top of pillar cover and head liner and pull the top of the piller cover away from the head liner. rock the pillar cover (front to back) and pull away from where it meets the dash. It should come out and completely detach.



In this picture you can see what the A-pillar looks like exposed.



Step 2 Removal of side impact air bag sensor
I have no idea how these things work but I have removed them several times and never tipped the air bags so I guess they are safe to remove. (use your own judgment)



With the small flat tip, pop the cover open from the top. Use the 10mm socket and ratchet to remove the bolt. Hold head liner in place and pull sensor away from roof. If you remove the bots from the sensor, the sensor will come apart. This is not a big deal, just make sure you recover all the parts. There is a washer on the back side of the sensor that mall fall free. Do not loos this piece, it is not metal.



This is a picture of all the parts of the sensor in order from the bolt to the washer. If your sensor came apart, just re-assemble in this order and you should be fine.



Here is an assembled sensor



Step 3 Sun visor removal

With the sun visor in the stowed position, use the medium phillips tip and remove the exposed screw.



Flip the sun visor down and hold it in place, use the medium phillips tip and remove the second screw.



Un hook the sun visor from the other attachment point and pull the sin visor away from the roof.



The sun visor attachment points that are to the inside of the vehicle are simple turn and pull removal



Simply turn the attachment point towards outside of vehicle.



Pull away from roof. The plastic clip has two small tabs that may make it difficult to remove just use the small flat tip if needed. I end up breaking one of the tabs off, no big deal, it still licks in place and does not hinder function.



Follow steps 1-3 for both driver and passenger side.

Step 4 Dome light removal

Use small flat tip to pop lens cover open.



Wedge fingers between the dome light and the head liner and pull down gently.



There are two small metal clips that hold the dome light in place. Both of these clips will disengage but you may want to help them to pop with the small flat tip. In this picture you can see the two metal clips. These clips snap in to the light but may have one end that pops out when you remove the light. The two yellow arrows show the ends that may pop out. just make sure they are on top of the plastic where the arrows are when you remount.



Once the two metal clips are free, there is a plastic tab on the drivers side, shift the light towards the passenger side to free the tab. the light will now hang free.



Rotate the light and unsnap the wire connector.



here is what you should now see



Step 5 Roof Console removal

Flip down the rear sunglasses tray. The yellow arrow shows the phillips head screw. Use the small phillips tip to remove the screw.

NOTE: This screw will most likely fall once it is free, if you have disassembled the center console between the seats and the screw fall inside this area, it is damn hard to find, you will need a long magnet and a flash light to recover it. So try to not drop the screw.



Wedge fingers between the front of roof console and head liner and pull down. Metal clips hod the console in place and should pop free. 
The rear of the console has tabs that secure it in the head liner so when pulling down, do so in a swinging motion like the rear of the console is hinged.


Once the front is free, shift the console to the front and the rear tabs will drop free from the head liner. Continue to support the console and unsnap the two wire connectors, these are different so that there no confusion when you reinstall.





This completes section 1

Section 2 middle
Step 1 removal of B-pillar covers
The B-pillar covers and the C-pillar covers are very similar. They have a top section and a bottom section. They also have seat belts inside them. Take care when you reinstall them to make sure the seat belts are not hung up on anything inside the covers.

Wedge fingers between the top of the B-pillar cover and the head liner and pull out. The cover will not come out very far, there are plastic tabs that hook on metal mounts just above the top of the cover. just pop out about 1”.



Pop out the front and read door seals, just wedge you fingers under them and pull up.




Wedge fingers between the side of the bottom section of the B-pillar and the rubber weather seal on both sides and pull towards inside of cab. The bottom section should pop free.



You do not have to remove the cover completely, only enough so that you can access the two 10mm screws that are marked here with the yellow arrows.



Use the 10mm socket and ratchet to remove the two screws. The top half of the B-pillar cover should now be free to fall.

Note the plastic tabs on top and where they hook inside the head liner. Also note that what holds this top half o f the cover in place are the side plastic clips. These clips wrap around the pillar and the rubber weather srtiping is what holds them in place. When re installing make sure the top red plastic clip is lined up with the hole. It will be easier to pull the rubber weather seal off its track and push the top cover in place, while holding the top cover in place screw the two 10mm screws in place then reapply the rubber weather stripping. Make sure the stripping holds the side plastic clips next to the pillar and that the clips are not outside the stripping.

On the bottom section notice the two white plastic clips marked here with yellow arrows. These will need to be pulled out of the pillar and attached to the pillar cover where the red arrows are.



Use the needle nose pliers to grad the plastic clips and leverage against the pillar to remove.




Snap the clips in place on the pillar cover



Complete Step 1 for both sides of vehicle
This completes Section 2

Section 3 Rear
Step 1 remove rear storage section.
Ok, so if you have done all of sections 1 and 2, you will only need to remove one of the C-pillar covers to be able to remove the head liner. I find it easer to remove the drivers side.

Fold flat the drivers side rear seat (remove head rest), you should now see the rear storage section. There are three 10mm bolts to remove with the 10mm socket and ratchet.



Pop the top of the storage section away from rear wall with your left hand.



With your right hand, reach under the storage section from the side. lift up and tilt top away from rear wall. This is a bit tricky but just keep working on it and it will eventually pull away free.



Once the storage section is out, there are three white plastic clips that will need to be removed from the rear wall or may have fallen off the storage compartment. The three yellow arrows show where they need to be snapped back on the storage compartment.



This is you exposed rear wall



Step 2 removal of the driver side C-pillar cover
Wedge hand between the rubber weather seal and bottom half of the pillar cover, pull away from pillar to expose the two 10mm screws shown here with the two yellow arrows. Use 10mm socket and ratchet to remove screws.




Use small flat tip to pop open cover on top section of pillar cover. Inside there is another 10mm bolt. Use 10mm socket and ratchet to remove 10mm bolt, the small round cover may fall free. The top pillar cover cam now be pulled away from pillar.



similar to the bottom B-pillars, you will need to make sure that the four white plastic clips are installed on the top half of the C-pillar cover. Shown here with the yellow arrows.



Note, the bottom half of the C-pillar cover has different clips from everything else. These clips are two part clips. There is a black part that needs to be attached to the pillar cover and a white part that will be on the pillar. These are tricky when reinstalling. I found it easer to remove the rubber weather seal from its track in the bottom corner near the pillar to allow me to line up the back plastic part with the white part. This will be a trial and error process for you. But its not impossible. I installed the rear most black plastic clip on the pillar cover but the one closest to the corner of the door I had to partially insert into the white plastic part and hold in place while positioning the pillar cover then connecting the black part to the cover. I know this woulds confusing buy I have no idea how else to explain how to do this.

Step 3 removal of coat hanger clips
There are two of these above the rear window. They come out by turn and pull like the inner mounting points for the sun visors. Turn them towards the outside of the vehicle and pull away from roof.




Step 4 removal of rear hand holds
There are two of these above each rear door.
Use the small flat tip to open the covers on each end. Inside there are two 10mm bolts. Remove bolts with 10mm socket and ratchet. pull hand hold away from roof.




Section 3 now complete and head liner should now fall free. There may some parts that are still held in place by the rubber weather seal, just pop head liner out of seal.




To reinstall the head liner, just go in reverse order. I recommend that you hold the liner in place when reinstalling with the two rear coat hanger hooks and the two inner sun visor attachment points.

One other tip, when you are ready to overlap the head liner with the rubber weather seal, use the large open end wrench to assist you with this.



Well, I hope this helps some of you and thanks for looking at the write up.

 

Nice write up, thanks.

 

+1 for you sir! You have the best writeups!!

 

I doubt i'll ever be so bold as to try this but this is a great, detailed write-up! Thanks,


Stan

 

Awesome detailed write up! Will definitely be referencing this for my project! Thanks again.

 

guys thanks for the comments. stanbp64, it may seem daunting but its not rocket science. If you need to access this area of your tuck, feel free to contact me for help.

 

Anybody know of a writeup like this but for 01-04 first gens???

 

Guys again, thanks for the comments. Sheepdog, I do not know of one.

 

nice write up!

 

Well documented and nice photos!

 

I have a NMO antenna mount were the factory sat antenna used to be, very detailed write-up.

 

Nice write-up, thanks!

 

Awesome attention to detail. Thanks.

 

That's not the airbag sensor.

The airbag is a curtain style airbag, you can see it run along from the A pillar across the top, back to the C pillar where the charging canister is located.

Actually, looking at your pics, it looks like the charge is located in the headliner on the DC. The AC has it on the C pillar and long steel pipe runs up to the airbag.

Anyway, those clip blocks exist to keep the headliner in place, and together with the portion of the headliner between the clips and the door sill, help direct the airbag downward along the door/windows instead of into the driver.

It's a good write up, I just wanted to correct that part.

 

Great write up. Thanks.

 

Monkeyboy, thanks for the correction. Well, like I said, I had no idea how these things work. Now I do. thanks

 

Many thanks to the OP for this detailed and very helpful post.

Great pictures too.

I could not for the life of me figure out how to get off the rear coat hooks. So, inside I went to the forum and was back in business soon! Installed two NMO mounts for antennas in the center line of the cab.

 

n1dp, glad I could be of help.

 

should have titled "how to take almost the entire interior out" haha Great write up though!