Hood Flutter

On mine, it's more a bounce than a flutter. It's definitely not due to air turbulence. 80mph on a smooth road there is zero movement. It only bounces on rough roads. Due to the temperature swings in Tucson, the roads have a lot of expansion cracks. Some roads worse than others. Going fast just makes the bouncing occur at a higher frequency.

If you check one of my previous posts, you'll see that the 2024+ GX550 and Grand Highlanders that had new aluminum hoods that look similar to the Tacoma hood got TSBs because of inadequate bonding between the outer hood and inner bracing. Those hoods don't have scoops. The guy that got demoted from Tundra engine assembly for not cleaning out machining debris must have been moved to the hood bonding station.

 

So Toyo is aware of the flutter - are they going to do anything about it?

 

Mine does 'flutter' pretty much all the time above 65 or 70.... I am not concerned, at 85/90 it is no better or worse than 65/70.

 

Limited doesn’t have the hood scoops?

 

I had a 2024 Limited as a Loaner last week and it fluttered at highway speed.

Of course, it was a windy day so it was very noticeable.

My 2021 Sport does not flutter...or at least, it is not as eye-catching as the 2024 Limited.

 

Yeah I'm guessing by flutter you all mean the hood is flexing in the middle while driving.... Mine for sure does flex a Lot.

 

Tacoma owners love to bitch on forums, videos, and Reddit but apparently they don’t bitch directly to Toyota. Meanwhile GX550 and Grand Highlander soccer moms complained about their hoods and got TSBs.
If you’re not happy with your hood (I’m not), let Toyota know about it.

 

I'm wonder if the hood insulator makes a difference? I haven't paid close attention to which trucks people are having the flutter.

You say yours does not flutter presuming the Pro has the insulator.

 

100%, end of the world if you need to utilize the dealer....
its laughable, never seen such a thing before joining this forum...
They can all do better than the dealer, & cant be inconvenienced....

 

Wouldnt it be cool if the admins did stickies for all these "common gripes" and then just relocate all these threads to them?

 

Before I picked up my truck after they checked it for the flutter, the service advisor told me a mechanic drove it and confirmed the hood shake. He said they checked for TSBs and there were none. Then their master mechanic looked at it and added pieces of foam in between the hood bracing. It doesn’t say anything was done in the service order. Not sure if this was actually done. The hood does seem more stable now. Still moves a little but now that I’m hypersensitive to the issue I’m always looking at it.
Not sure if high temp foam was used per the the GX/GH TSB or if they were glued down per those specs. It’s behind the insulation so I can’t tell. Don’t want to spend $20 on clips ($2 x 10) to find out. May call the service department Monday and ask what they did.
Seems like this is not an engineering fail but a manufacturing/assembly failure (unless the engineers wrote poor assembly instructions).

 

Unfortunately, the only fix is to bond the two pieces together. Toyo knows it and keeps repeating their production deficiencies/arrogance/penny pinching.

 

I rented a Gen 4 TRD OR and was really surprised how much the hood shook, even at slower speeds. Super annoying bc it's right in your face every time you're driving.