I got a beef with Toyota and my truck.

[knightsfs4]

I got my car CPO from Toyota in November of 2010. Since then I've had no mechanical problems but I've had a handful of body issues. First the gas door broke, that's a hundred dollar fix. Then I noticed my driverside front fender came loose, and a month later the passenger side a little as well. Now I'm noticing the front bumper is loose and so is the cladding on the passenger door. What gives? Why are all these clips coming loose. I brought it into the dealer and complained but they seemed not to care. Is this normal?

 

[wtn11]

Odd to me. Mine is a 2005 and it's all holding up great.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

That's weird... what does the history say? I have seen quite a few high mileage 4Runners, we just got an '03 Limited in for our used car lot and the cladding is nice and tight...

That sounds bery strange to me, its something that either was not present or noticed during the inspection, but I am surprised they are giving you a hard time over it...

 

[gaterose]

Yeah mine's an '03 and there are no loose panels

 

[blkexp98]

I have a 2007 and everything is tight as well. Did the car have any kind of wreck that they or the previous owner repaired at some point?

 

[TRDCal]

I would say isolated incident...I got into alittle fender bender last month which required removing the fender flare. Body guy said he had a hell of a time getting it off because it was on there so good and then with my approval he reinstalled it with a few less clips than it's suppose to have and it's solid as a rock

Hate to suggest this but maybe you got a lemon or your truck was in a front end collision and the fenders/ bumper weren't installed well.

 

[settytb]

I have an 03 and my driver door cladding came loose and pushed in my fender when I opened the door. I took some epoxy and put it back on. Pain in the butt, hate my cladding.

 

[knightsfs4]

I guess this goes back to my old thread, but how can you remove the front bumper and fenders? I feel like all I need to do is just get new clips so it's snug again. Now it's not awful, but I am very picky and it pisses me off. Toyota said it was "wear and tear" and I called bullcrap. Called corporate Toyota and they said it was on the dealership who won't respond to calls and are totally unreliable. I just feel like I'm doing so much cosmetic stuff to this car. Like who needs to worry about fenders :/

 

[ohnoitsthecops]

My front and back bumper are loose, but that's cause my old lady has been hitting things. But other then that it's holding together just fine

 

[bensanders]

I brought it into the dealer and complained but they seemed not to care. Is this normal?

The dealership not caring is very normal. Your runner falling apart is not...I've never heard of issues like this on any runner, regardless of generation.

My '06 w/ 85k miles hasn't had a single issue.

 

[diamondplate]

My '03 is still holding strong. It sounds like there was some repair work done in the past that is now coming back to haunt you. Does it have a clear carfax report?

 

[4RunnerFan]

Yeah. I'd be suspicious of a previous accident. Otherwise, highly unusual.

 

[knightsfs4]

Yeah the carfax came up clean. But I've had people tell me that they think the front bumper had been removed at one point for some reason. I just don't know what to do about it, cause Toyota also has some other cars on their lot with similar problems and they still claim "wear and tear".

 

[8086bruce]

I would take it to a GOOD body shop and pay the 200.00 and have them snug everything up and you'll never have to think about it again.

 

[MikeInNH]

I too am suspicious of a previous accident.

 

[knightsfs4]

I'm just gonna take it to the Toyota body shop and get a quote. I just want it all fixed and tight. Anyone have an idea of what the total may be?

 

[DC runner]

Accident!

Seriously. You see those fenders buckle like that after a fender bender.. and most of those type things NEVER end up on carfax.

 

[rockwall]

It has to be either an isolated case or due to bad repair work.

 

[inscarguy]

if you get a chance check the inner fender jambs and see if there is a toyota stamp or toyota part number. if not then you have aftermarket parts. i have seen in some rare intsances that the aftermarket parts have slightly larger holes or holes cut-drilled wrong and the factory clips do not hold correctly. also the clips that are on these vehicles are all different colors for each individual panel(fender cladding and door cladding take different color clips). they are also 1 time use clips they are not reuseable. they may look ok but they are not supposed to be reused. so if it was hit at one time, either they tried to use the clips over or they could have used the wrong ones at different locations. hope this helps.

 

[Casper421]

As some might have noticed, my bumper has had a lot of time spent with snow berms and has taken a few good shots over it's 4 years. Over summer I took a look at how loose the bumper was and I found all but a few clips were missing and the remaining were already broken. I replaced all clips with zip ties and it's much stronger than before! It's a temporary solution till I get a DeMello or Shrockworks bumper.