TRD Pro Grille for $140?

Is there any reason to assume that the OEM toyota grille is not coming out of the same factory and Toyota was laughing all the way to the bank every time someone paid 400 bucks for 3 dollars worth of plastics. I highly doubt Toyota’s is being made in some highly skilled factory in Japan by unionized masters of plastic molding. It’s probably the same cheap shit. Anyone receive one of these faux grilles and actually confirm they are any different than OEM.

 

Both the OEM and eBay ones are made of Chinesium for sure. But post 265 seems to be saying that the mounting mechanism is different, so the eBay one is not a straight copy. There are a million screws on the Toyota part, the Chinese ones use clips. Others have commented that there are bars for rigidity in the Toyota part, that are not present on the eBay ones. Again, not a straight copy. The type of plastic definitely matters to me, because similar to you, my weather goes from -30 C to +35 C.

Different types of plastic are going to give you different rigidity and different crack resistance, even if the important parts of the mold are exactly the same. You can embed bits of fibreglass in the plastic, for example.

If I was buying a 2017 with no radar transceiver, I probably wouldn't care. I'd roll the dice because I can buy four eBay ones for the price of the Toyota part, and it's not a safety-related part. Different story on the 2018 truck I have on order.

 

Yes it was immediatey declined than accepted

 

I had to sign for my grill as well.

 

Look up the way these systems work. It does not project a single dot to determine the location of the impending item/crash. It uses typically a fan shape. I promise this fake grill will work fine. You are over thinking this to an extraordinary level. PLENTY of vehicle with this technology get lifted/lowered/tire size change. In theroy if it was as sensitive as you say, different levels of wear on tires would affect the systems abilities.

 

I can see your point. Even if the radar sensor could be mounted and the grill was strong enough and it could be aligned there is the legal issue. The Same can be also be said when someone decides to lift the truck or even put larger tires on. The alignment of the sensor is not the same. Could the owner of the truck be held liable for these types of modifications? Sensor alignment could also be out when an owner is hauling a load in the back of his truck. My feeling is that Toyota has designed the radar to accept misalignments to allow the system to work. Consider even a road where your on the high ground, sensor misalignment would naturally occur.

 

At USPS?

 

It's the legal aspect that is the concern.

 

There are no screws on the Toyota one.

 

All I can tell you is that you do not want to mount a radar transceiver on a surface that is vibrating a lot, especially if it is a doppler radar. The safety system engineers would put vibration requirements on the grille designer including the mounting scheme, and the Toyota part 100% respects all the safety-related requirements.

If you look at how your truck is put together, there are not really a lot of fasteners that don't obviously have to be there. A lot of thought is put into the fastener type, sometimes you use a plastic clip, sometimes a low strength bolt, sometimes a high strength. Now look at the Toyota grille - there are a million screws and clips that fasten it. Why are they all there? All those fasteners cost money, especially in assembly plant labour. These are things that make me go "hmmm."

On the subject of front end collision repairs, on the VW I used to have with a forward radar, there is a 5 page procedure for aligning the transceiver after you reinstall it on the new bumper. I guess I want to see the Toyota procedure before I sign myself up to doing it myself.

 

I have seen several YouTube videos about grille replacement, that indicate that there are a lot of screws on the Toyota part. There are also more clips. This is mentioned in post 265 in this thread.

 

There are screws in the grille surround, which are not used on the Pro grille at all.

 

Negative. There are eight screws used to fasten the Pro grille, and about 12 clips. Does the eBay part use all of those, and could you prove to a court or your insurance company, that it has the same amount of reinforcing structures in the plastic and has the same vertical and horizontal rigidity? Could you prove that you aligned the transceiver according to the Toyota procedure? Does anyone here even have the factory service manual for a 2018, because I'd love to see excerpts from it.

What I can tell you is that my Toyota dealer declined to install the Pro grille on the 2018 DCSB Sport manual I ordered, which I was willing to pay them for. They cited safety and liability reasons.

 

I've watched several install videos and none of them reuse any of the screws for the no longer used grille surround and only use clips.

 

Have a boo at this video:

 

I would go for it. Ebay is where I source 90 percent of my online goods. I've made thousands of transactions and only a few have been less than impressive. I'll probably pick one up also.

 

This one shows no screws.

https://youtu.be/qBElHs4m2mE?t=209

 

The 2017 doesn't even have the radar junk....apparently it's unsafe and we should all turn them in :lol:

 

This dude just sold about 3000 grilles!

I love it!

 

No screws, and that video is from the same user as your video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW-TU_g6sC0

More no screws:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwm6yT0BiE&t=867s