Skid bolt stripped

The tech must have stripped a bolt on the last oil change on one of the skid bolts. Glad they just left it half on instead of fixing it.

Trying to avoid a tap. Looking to just chase the threads.

Tap? Or just chase?
Looks like this is a M8x1.25 bolt.

UPDATE:
So after digging, this actually all originated because of the skid plate.

I pulled it off and looked at each hole. There are some quality control issues for sure. The rear two holes are large enough to accommodate the bolts. The front two however (on mine) were too small and two different sizes and shapes.
The front passenger side (the side with the stripped screw) was oval and WAY too small. With the skid on, there is no tolerance to align this hole and the threads. Any offset and no wonder it stripped the screw, even properly aligned; the narrow sides of the oval grab the threads as you screw it on.
Small washer for scale.
Front passenger (small and oval):


Front driver (small and round):


Rear two holes (larger correct size):


The driver side was round but also left no tolerance. Hit each with some wd-40 and drilled each hole to just over 7/16”. They were just under 3/8” before.
Wiped the metal shavings and degreased. Ready to reinstall.

Newly resized front passenger:


Gonna chased the threads with a Hardened M8x1.25 then replace with this m8x1.25x25 body bolt that lowes sells for about a buck.

Old on top, new in bag:

 

Did they strip the head or the threads? I thought mine was stripped too and I thought it was cross threaded. I cleaned up the threads with a tap and it was fine. I'm sorry but I don't remember the size though.

 

Time to weld!

 

Isn't there another bolt holding the skid you can pull and use as your 'shopping guide'?

 

Dealer techs cross-threaded the same exact bolt on mine, so it must be standard practice.

I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt during free oil change period, but every time out of 3 I took the truck in, I had to turn around on the highway and go back to get something fixed. They did do a couple solids and fixed a bad door check and alignment... but managed to screw up something every damn time. I'm done with the dealership, gonna give my $$ to my known trustworthy independent mechanic, and do consumables myself.

 

Yeah. Probably this.

 

Same as the one in red

 

Cross threaded.
Just gonna drop the skid, use one of the other three good ones, and stop by Lowes for a hardened bolt to match then try chasing it.

 

Buy one of those bolt/thread gauges to keep in the garage. This will help you for future shopping or to find the right tap or chase

 

Pretty sure it's an M8. Not sure on the length but around 20mm I think.

 

Yes. Same. Got it.
Was trying to see if anyone knew the size so I could swing by the hardware store and pickup the bolt without dropping the whole skid beforehand.
If I take out the good one then the front of the skid is only held one with that cross threaded crappy one. Not driving around like that.
Was looking to avoid more work by dropping it. All good though.

 

Length doesnt really matter. It extends through

 

Take your wrench with you to the hardware store, pull the good bolt in their parking lot, throw some zip ties through to hold the skid in place while you get the new bolt, and reinstall then and there. Only takes a minute.

 

Use a Heilcoil if the frame is stripped and not the bolt. Personally I would just tap it out one size bigger and use a custom bolt for that hole. Use a Harbor Freight tap if you need a cheap fix one time.

 

i totally have one in the garage and forgot about it. Im dumb.
Correct on M8.
Went out and pulled the bad on off. By hand. Straight out.
Grabbing replacements now.

 

For what it's worth, that bolt goes through a small support bracket for the skid that in turn bolts to the frame. Just as easy to pull it off and reweld a nut of the correct size on a bench rather than under the truck if you want to do a "factory" fix. When I had my stock skid, I tapped out to the next size up in SAE because that's what I had on hand (tap and bolts). Those nuts are ridiculously easy to strip.

 

Chase it with a tap, You try forcing a bolt in the fix it and run a higher chance of damaging the threads. And odds are lowes wont have hardened metric in my experience.

 

Just run a tap and chase the threads , takes just a few minutes!!!

 

Look for a thread chase, not a tap.
Taps cut material. A proper chase tool doesn't really cut.
M8 x 1.25 I think is the thread size & pitch there. That's the oem bolts on my 4Runner gas tank skid anyway.

 

Then after all this advice...Pick up a TRD skid, so then all they have to f*ckup is the 6mm hex bolts that fit in the removable piece for oil changes...