Battery J hook hole bent

[RogueRunnerAB]

Hey everyone,

New to the forum and looking for a bit of advice from the community.

I drive a 2021 4Runner and recently upgraded the battery to an Odyssey 34R. While reinstalling the battery hold-down, I aimed under the factory torque spec at around 30 in-lbs, but even that seems to have bent the sheet metal around the J-hook mounting hole upward. After doing some reading, it looks like that inner fender/core support sheet metal is notoriously thin and most people recommend ditching the torque wrench entirely in favor of hand-snugging it.

Two questions for those who have run into this:

1. What’s the cleanest way to tap/flatten that mounting hole back down into place?
2. How have you reinforced or dispersed the load in that area so it doesn’t pull up again down the road?

Appreciate any tips or photos of how you’ve tackled it—still fairly new to DIY work on this platform!

 

[OffRoadScott]

There was someone on the 80 series forum that recently reinforced the OEM Toyota box with some fiberglass and washers. You might be able to do rivnuts, but finding the right size might be the issue.

And instead of the "J" you could change your tie down to an "L".