Grill Surround Deformity

I have a F770 as well, and I understand that there were no motion events. When I mentioned using the camera to find the culprit, I meant whatever that may be, not necessarily a person. In 'Time Lapse' mode it will take a picture every second. If it ever happens again, then you will know exactly when it happens, and if it takes a long time or just a few seconds to deform, or if there is any light shining on the area. From the camera footage, can you narrow down when the deformation occured, such as before Xxxx but after Yyyy?

The better ones have battery or time cut-off, such as the F770. For the cheaper ones you can add a module in-line to the power to give similar functionality.

 

In lieu of a formal dashcam, put a GoPro in the mount Toyota so thoughtfully included (for this reason??) Set it to time lapse. But do it soon - sun angles are changing constantly so it's maybe a twice-a-year event for only a few days if it's a reflection issue.

Yes nicer cams have cutoffs. I know you're talking Thinkware, but my BlackVue 470-2CH has the power module that has different cutoff voltages and timers. So it can run on for X amount of hours or X batt voltage before cutting off, and can be used on 12 or 24 volt systems. The trigger in park mode is activity and shock. Mine does loopback recording, so when an event triggers in parking mode it goes back a few seconds to capture the lead-up event. I assume most do the same.

 

Thanks! That's awesome

 

My apologies, but I honestly do not know how much power the dash cam uses. I can tell you that there have been a few times when I did not drive the truck for at least a week or more and had no issues with the battery being drained. Fortunately I've not had any issues with the battery being drained. When parked for more than a week, it records motion detection yet only has so much room on the memory card and will dump older motion detection events yet it will specifically categorize and save motion incidents in a separate file for viewing. It saves all motion incidents until I personally erase them after viewing them.

 

I would never install a dash cam in my personal vehicle.

If you don't want to blame the garage maintenance crew, or the most likely culprit UV rays I'm all out of Idears.

 

Okay now I understand exactly what your talking about, my apologies for not getting that earlier, often I can be to literal. I will give that a try but then again that poses yet another problem. The possibility of it happening again, which I hope never does. But yes your correct, that's a good idea. Thank you for clarifying, I appreciate your suggestion as well as your patience in making sure I understood what you were talking about.

 

Good idea. I also have a GoPro Hero 4 but from my experience the batteries in GoPro's only last for a short while, I'd say an hour at most.

 

I respect the fact that you'd never install a dash cam in your personal vehicle for whatever reason but for me, I'm hooked on dash cams now and will never go without one in my personal vehicles again. The piece of mind it affords me regarding the possibility of an unfortunate car accident that's not my fault or the possibility of vandals damaging my vehicle. Regarding the maintenance crew, as far as I know we get along famously especially since I've personally ordered lunch for the entire crew on a couple of occasions.

Question for you though, did you take a look at the other thread from the other forum member here who had the exact same anomaly occur to his 3rd gen Tacoma? The exact same type of deformity in the exact same location as mine. For another Tacoma owner to have the exact same problem with his truck in the same exact location as mine. Does that not hold any weight? I find that to be more than a mere coincidence. For someone in a completely different state to have the exact same deformity in the exact same location as mine pretty much proves that it was not done by a human or the grounds maintenance crew.

AGAIN, here's the link for the other member with the EXACT SAME ISSUE in the EXACT SAME LOCATION.

For this to happen to another forum members truck in the exact same location is proof enough for me that this was not done by a human. On the contrary, for me it's proof enough that there is a defect in the materials used. Even if it is the sun, it's a truck supposedly purposely designed and built to be tough, able to take on any elements or so Toyota's marketing team would lead consumers to believe.

 

Sadly, my truck is banished to the driveway. It faces nose-south every day, all day (I work from home) and it gets hot AF here; the worst is behind us, but nonetheless, I can't imagine direct sunlight getting any hotter than PHX in summer, except for reflected sunlight. People here get melted turf in their yards from sun reflecting off house windows. I called BS on that until my neighbor blew $2K replacing his new turf.

I saw the other thread a while back, too. I can't see anything in the front end that would generate that kind of heat in that spot -- the same spot. I don't know man. I'd be on the phone with Toyota - but then again I'm that guy.

 

The plastic materials are most likely made from recycled milk jugs.

Being I'm in a humorous mode, I installed a pro grill insert on my 2nd gen, and to little surprise the insert was of lesser quality than the original insert.

Question about dash cams do the work with sun shades? UV light can damage the vehicle interior.

 

I've got my cam mounted to the rear view mirror and back a few inches from the window specifically so my sun visor can pop in front of it easily. Since mine is off when the truck is off it protects (and hides) the camera.

 

Mine is stuck to the windshield. I tried to hide it as best I could from drivers line of sight, but also not putting it on the passengers side. As it ended up there's about 3/16" of gap between it and the drivers-side mirror back casing. I can squeeze an accordion-style reflecting shade in there, but I fear it'll eventually contribute to the camera's adhesive failure. I suppose my point is, if you aren't trying to hide the camera, or even if you put it on the passengers side, yes the sun shades would still work. But it may pick up some glare from the windshield reflecting the silver material in the captures though.

The camera I put in is here. It's quite a bit less than the others, and I already have a slew of class 10 SD cards. The only down side is I killed a 128Gb card in 4 months and the 470 doesn't do wifi (which I knew). It would be sweet if everytime the truck came home and picked up wifi it would auto download the captures to a NAS. That feature might make me replace this unit.

 

Another vote for E.T!

 

It's 100% sunlight reflection. The reason why you don't see tons other tacomas with this issue is that this is a very rare occorance. Everything must be aligned correctly at a certain point and angles. Again as one user already said, a week later and the sun would be at a different angle. Even if the sun was always at the exact same angle everyday whatever object(s) the rays are reflecting off would need to be set up the exact same for this to happen. Since its reflecting off a another vehicle that exact same vehicle would need to be parked in the same exact spot, same angle, and everything which the odds wouldn't be in favor of that happening. Also where that reflection was pointed I'm sure there is no reinforcement of the plastic in that exact spot which is also another reason why it warped. If the reflection hit another plastic piece on the truck (bumper, fender flare, ect) this damage may not have occurred, even with the intensity being the same. They are many factors that could play into this. I'm not rocket scientist but it's more than possible. Lots of articles online about cars getting damaged due to reflections off of skyscrapers, reflection from house windows or other objects that reflect light. Some cars have a lot more damage to parts than yours. Just google it. I'll provide some links below


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-cars-reflecting-sunlight-fitted-shading.html

http://www.wral.com/glare-from-energy-efficient-windows-can-melt-siding-vehicles/13614716/

https://www.houselogic.com/remodel/...rgy-efficient-windows-causing-siding-to-melt/

 

Thats what I was thinking .

 

Thanks for the links. I've read the articles and understand how one can come to that conclusion based off of the information in the articles. I am not oppose to believing sunlight reflection being the culprit as well as cheap manufacture cost cutting materials used by Toyota to manufacture these purpose built rugged trucks supposedly designed to withstand all elements as well as rough and tough usage by owners. I strongly believe for a truck with a $40K+ MSRP, this is unacceptable and would not be happening if better quality materials were used. Toyota has a reputation for quality yet consciously choose to use cheap inferior materials when producing one of the industry's best selling most popular trucks in an effort to save a few dollars while increasing the price of the truck to consumers. I appreciate the fact that this is being covered under warranty but am disappointed in the quality or lack thereof. Thanks again for chiming in on this, I appreciate your input.

 

There is no evidence of anyone attempting to pop the hood. As previously stated there are no pry marks and or scratches. The dealers service department inspected the area, they DO NOT believe anyone attempted to pop the hood due to the lack of evidence suggesting tampering with the hood. There is another member here who experienced the EXACT SAME deformity in the EXACT SAME location on his 3rd gen Tacoma as mine, also no evidence of tampering in that case. My sensitive dash cam would've recorded anyone or anything touching the truck or even getting to close to the truck.

 

Someone trying to pry on the hood would definitely crack that piece. It's brittle not pliable at all. Focused sunlight is the most likely answer albeit a bizarre one.

 

Agreed, prying would've have more than likely cracked the piece as well there would be evidence by way of marks and or scratches. Bizarre to say the least and beyond disconcerting.

 

Do you think it is possible that the Oil Cooler (The one that sitting right in front of the Radiator) generated heat, and causing the grill to deform? The spot actually sitting right on top of it, and if the Oil temp getting too hot then it may generated enough heat to slowly makes the grill deform.