Hood insulation

I'm talking about a seal where the gap is between the hood and front of the vehicle when the hood is shut, specifically by the plastic above the grille opening. Not the one between the hood and the radiator. Our 4Runner is an SR5 and the Tacoma is a TRD Off Road so I'm not sure if the trim level makes a difference.

I don't doubt that about the Supra too. Probably part of marketing justification. Similar to claiming that drums were the better option for the rear of the Tacoma citing cheapness for the consumer and lower likelihood of larger debris getting in.

 

Oh the gasket like seal between the hood and outer grill.

Ye, I do think it is in the same vein as drum brakes, Toyota simply cheaped out on a lot of things that are standard on other models.

 

Yes, that would be the one. I don't believe the 4Runner has it which could be a reason noise isn't really an issue with the Tacoma without a hood insulator.

I don't disagree. Although, I will say having discs in the rear is probably over hyped considering how little of the braking occurs there. Ideally they would be discs, but it's certainly not a deal breaker for me.

 

Install a 4th gen hood liner

 

Mine showed up in the mail today. It was much more yellow than lack though. Like a tiny bit of black lightly coating the yellow foam. Right shape and all that, but I wound up spray painting it... Did yours come that black by default? That's really black.

 

How many tabs hold it 4 or 6

 

Guessing 4.

 

In the picture, you can see that there are 6 push fasteners holding the blanket, in the middle. There are supposed to be 4 more, in the corners, but these are left loose because the corresponding holes are not drilled in the Tacoma.

In the following picture of the underside of my hood, the 6 pre-drilled holes are circled in red:



After that picture was taken, I installed underhood lighting. The Rago bracket used two of the holes that would have been used for the blanket. This was another reason not to install the blanket -- a hole would have to be cut in it for the lights.