Wireless Charger Delete Question

I’ve got a 2021 with the wireless charger and manual trans console. As many of them do, the wireless charger is bulged pretty significantly. I am aware of the TSB for this, but mine was built more than a year after the TSB so I’m assuming I have the updated parts. Still have the problem, and it makes putting anything in that pocket annoying because stuff will rock around on top of the bulge.



I don’t ever use the wireless charger and never will (wired CarPlay), so I’m not interested in another charger unless there is one that will stay flat for cheaper than the factory non-charger tray. Has anyone removed this crap and gone with the non wireless charger option instead, just to achieve a reliable flat surface?

I ordered Toyota part 58810-04020-C0 from BAM Wholesale, which is the tray and console surround for the tray, for a manual transmission 2016-2017 SR w/o the factory wireless charger. That order was cancelled due to back order. Anyone have better ideas? Thanks.

 

I was thinking about just cutting the rubber cover off with an exacto blade around the edges and flinging it. Replace with those cheap rubber liners you can get on Amazon. Just never got around to it.

 

That’s not a bad idea. Mine came with some aftermarket liners, so I could probably slice it and try it out and throw the liner back in. At least that method is free and if it’s ugly, the liner I already have covers it.

 

Confirmed I have the TSB part, which is 861C0-04010. The part the TSB was meant to replace and fix was 861C4-04010.

I started dismantling my charger by tearing/cutting the rubber off, and exposed a green circuit board immediately below the rubber. I think I’m going to attempt to buy the non wireless charging tray and front console half elsewhere rather than run this without the rubber. It would obviously be fine if I left everything unplugged (which I will), but it’s a little bit tacky.

So, I’m going to try to order 58810-04020-C0 from somewhere else or see if maybe a junkyard has it on car-part.

 

Are you going to fully dismantle that? I'm curious how the rubber is secured along the edges. I would think there has to be some way to either replace the rubber piece or reposition it so it's flat again.

 

Yeah, so you have the front console piece that the rear console clips into. The front console piece clips into the dash. There is an adapter plastic piece that screws to the front console. That whole thing can come out. That has the rubber pad (basically a cover) glued to it. The wireless charging module itself fastens up to the bottom of that adapter and butts up to the rubber layer (the one that warps).

To replace the rubber is to buy the simple factory $50 part, which is the adapter plastic piece. You would move the old wireless charger module and its associated wiring over to the new adapter that has the new rubber layer, and then install that assembly into the old front console half.

The reason I don’t want to buy a new adapter piece with the rubber layer is that it’s just going to do the same thing over time. I believe over time the rubber warps from heat and expands, becoming too big for the hole it’s glued to. Therefore it heaves upwards and forms the mound or bulge.

for that reason I think I’m just gonna buy the non Wireless charger front console half and pocket for $100 and call it done. I believe the new pocket would be all plastic and whether or not it becomes useful, it would at least not bulge and become tacky.

 

I have this an have never used it. I too have considered replacing it with the regular console tray.

 

Initially I loved the idea of a wireless charger but only because I was told the 23 Taco has wireless car play. Seemed plausible since the wife's 2020 Toyota has it and a few Taco-Tubers mentioned it. So when the salesman said it, I didn't even flinch. Of course it has wireless charging. That would make perfect sense and give you a central best possible location for wireless car play.

Now that I find out it doesn't have wireless car play and I can't find a singe place on the the wireless charger that will charge my phone it has become as useless as <insert crude metaphor of your choosing here>.

So many other things I'd like to do with that space and switch hole. And shame on Toyota for even putting this in here.

 

I think that’s the best move to satisfy my annoyance with the bulge without spending too much money or time. The non charger tray actually has a slant to it which I think would be nice to dump my phone down into when plugged into CarPlay.

 

I think part of the problem with iPhones is the large camera bumps over the last 4 or 5 years of phone models. The charger is weak anyways, follows a very old charging standard (not even the 7.5W “fast” charging profile (which still isn’t fast at all)), and overall is just a poor item to have in the truck. Add in the fact that the rubber becomes a pain and the whole thing is just relatively a headache.

If I proceed with deleting the charger, I will definitely be removing the switch from my dash as well. At that point all I’ll have on the dash is the rear window opener and an unused USB-A port (added my own port in the cig lighter spot lol). The switch panel is getting lonely.

 

I went the other way… dash bar with magnet mounts, only thing that ends up in the cubby is napkins and simple items. I seem to recall the tray was deeper without charger.

 

I think the point in replacement was simply to remove the bubble, which is caused more by prolonged heat.

Personally, I wonder how many of these pads that have bubbles are caused by the wireless charging settings being constantly on. I haven't had this issue in my 2017, but I also don't use it often and I make sure to turn it off when I'm not using it.

 

Mine is off 100% of the time, but here in Texas it’s easily over 110° times and I often forget to crack my windows, so it can get worse than that in there. The bulge has been there a while, just finally doing something about it.

It was definitely flat when I bought the truck used with 4K miles in May 2022. Pretty sure I only used the charger 1 time and stopped after I realized how slow it was and how often it disconnected from charging the phone. Never turned it on again.

 

CAMERA BUMP ARRRRRRGH!

Oh now you have gone and done it....

<angry rant>
Phone manufacturers have been given far too much grace in claiming their phone is only 8MM thick when the camera bump adds another 6MM of "thickness." I couldn't give a hard squeezed mouse fart how thin the phone is if the total thickness at the cameras is 14MM. I'd much rather have a little more battery than hang out at swanky parties and brag about some made up dimension that has no relevance.

Also useless if your 8MM thick phone is so delicate that I have to add another 8MM of case around it (Pelican for me) to keep it from being destroyed. Fap Apple.
<angry rant/>

Form Follows Function - ALWAYS - or the product is worthless. They are competing for a trophy nobody cares about.

 

Lol. I don’t disagree. Makes the phone sit uneven on a surface and rock back and forth when you tap the screen near opposing corners. Sadly an iPhone without a camera bump hasn’t really been a thing since the 2013 5S. I suppose the 2016 SE also followed that design but those are rare, hardly anyone chose them.

 

Not bad, I just mostly like to keep my phone in the shade if I can. Especially with all the maps and CP stuff going while it’s charging decently quickly. Can get warm quickly.

You’re correct, it’s a bit deeper overall but it slants. I believe it’s higher on the dash side and lower at the shifter side. It’s still probably not going to be all that useful of a pocket, but slightly better than Mt. Rubber at least.

 

I’ve got a 3rd Gen SE. I think it’s a good little phone, no camera bump. With Otterbox, still pretty flat.

 

I think I am gonna just hack it out and throw a black cover I have on it. And I have never even turned that POS on once. Oh, and my white paint is falling off!
Hey Toyota

 

Didn't really consider the Texas heat. Probably just poor choice in pad material. Similar to how the 2015-2020 F150 dashboards would warp unless you had the Lariat or above which all had leather.

 

That's what I'm trying to figure out. How to replace JUST the rubber layer without buying anything. Since it's glued down, a heat gun would make quick work of that. Something has to be holding it along the edges. I wouldn't replace it with the garbage rubber Toyota used but something a little more rigid that couldn't bubble up. All of my wireless chargers use thin plastic, not rubber. At the very least, you could cut away all of the rubber and cut a this piece of plastic to fit where the rubber is without tearing it apart.