Shock top hat failure on our stock 2024 Tacoma Off-Road while offroading

[AlexT]

Reading on Tacoma World it sounds like the guys that cracked the top hat hit a pothole in the desert doing 60mph. I knew a guy with a 1st gen Tundra and he had 250k on it (this was years ago) and the only repair he ever made to the thing was when his wife hit a big pothole on the highway. I’m beginning to suspect this won’t be an issue.

Toyota is advertising these trucks, mostly the TRD pro, as being able to bomb through the desert and take jumps. It's the first thing you see when you click on the Tacoma overview page on their website. They also highlight the bilsteins in the TRD OR as being "Co-engineered with Bilstein®, * Tacoma TRD Off-Road comes equipped with the most extreme suspension setup in its history." That may be the case but they obviously didn't upgrade the top hats as well. I have to imagine the Pro and TH have been beefed up in that area.

Aluminum, and especially thin cast aluminum is susceptible to fatigue failure, which is repeated low stress over time. Steel is not nearly as susceptible to this. You may blame user error but I see weakness and something I would have to worry about if going far off the pavement. Know that every time you inadvertently bottom out your front suspension, the full force is being absorbed by a few square inches of thin aluminum.

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[Powhunter]

Toyota is advertising these trucks, mostly the TRD pro, as being able to bomb through the desert and take jumps. It's the first thing you see when you click on the Tacoma overview page on their website. They also highlight the bilsteins in the TRD OR as being "Co-engineered with Bilstein®, * Tacoma TRD Off-Road comes equipped with the most extreme suspension setup in its history." That may be the case but they obviously didn't upgrade the top hats as well. I have to imagine the Pro and TH have been beefed up in that area.

Aluminum, and especially thin cast aluminum is susceptible to fatigue failure, which is repeated low stress over time. Steel is not nearly as susceptible to this. You may blame user error but I see weakness and something I would have to worry about if going far off the pavement. Know that every time you inadvertently bottom out your front suspension, the full force is being absorbed by a few square inches of thin aluminum.

I don’t disagree with any of that. Time will tell. On the bright side, I don’t see that being a terribly difficult piece to upgrade should it need a recall.

 

[znzn]

Wow… that’s crazy. I thought we were paying extra for reliability...

Same. Im switching brands for the first time and getting nervous.

 

[belfo]

Have there been any updates on this? I find it crazy that there has not been a more informative resolution to give potential buyers more confidence. I would never buy a 2024 without this being more officially resolved. I have the same question about the TFL transfer case failure where the last update was nebulous and incomplete.

 

[Cincy513]

Same thing happened to me but on a paved road

 

[Taconatron]

Is this an early build?

 

[Sagebrush]

that's 2 that we know of

Two out of 80,000 trucks.

 

[ridetime]

Two out of 80,000 trucks.

The vast majority of Tacoma owners don't post on internet forums so there is no telling how many actually have the issue. It's a poor design regardless.

 

[Sagebrush]

Tacoma owners don't post on internet

They seem to when something breaks (or they post on YouTube) and then it goes viral, like TFL's front end.

 

[ridetime]

They seem to when something breaks (or they post on YouTube) and then it goes viral, like TFL's front end.

Notice I said the "vast majority". You miss quoted me. 80,000 trucks and how many forum members? It a very small fraction of total ownership.

 

[Sagebrush]

It a very small fraction of total ownership.

It's my theory that most folks don't post on a forum or on a Facebook page until something breaks.

 

[ridetime]

It's my theory that most folks don't post on a forum or on a Facebook page until something breaks.

Ok now were making progress! "Your theory". Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Sagebrush]

Ok now were making progress! "Your theory". Thanks for the clarification.

Look, you won't change my opinion, and I won't change yours. We both have our theories. I went through these same first-year growing pains with my 2016 Tacoma.

It happens every time a new model is released by any manufacturer. It's been my experience that Toyota stands behind their products and there's data that supports the company being #1 in reliability.

 

[ridetime]

Look, you won't change my opinion, and I won't change yours. We both have our theories. I went through these same first-year growing pains with my 2016 Tacoma.

It happens every time a new model is released by any manufacturer. It's been my experience that Toyota stands behind their products and there's data that supports the company being #1 in reliability.

You said 80,000 trucks and 2 failures. I pointed out that not all 80,000 owners post on the various Tacoma forums therefore you don't know if there are more failures that are not being documented on internet forums.

All I was saying is you don't know that only 2 trucks out of 80,000 have the shock issue. Many owners (most) don't even know or care forums exist. If they did these forums would have 80,000 registered users...they don't. Those same owners (that don't post on forums at all ever) could have the problem and we would be none the wiser. That is not my opinion that is common sense.

I wasn't trying to change your opinion, I was pointing out the fact that your data (80,000 with 2 failures) has no basis in fact.

 

[Cincy513]

Is this an early build?

Yes mine was a early build

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