Engine bay body rips

[Blues Dawg]

Sorry to hear about the tears in your rig Carl. That sucks. I'm about to pass out of warranty so I'm really keeping my fingers crossed.

The thing I can't understand is why some people can wheel their rings, put lots of miles on them, flex them out and not have this happen and others without mods and no wheeling develop these cracks.

And yes Carl, you need 35's. Hopefully Santa will bring you some.

Norm! They happened after our Payette run - ya'll went right and I followed the 80 to the left just before the end of the trail. LC Phil was spotting me and I was not gentle on the clutch - I bellyed down hard, leaving all 4 wheels barely kicking sand. You can barely see the failure points, but from these threads, I became sensitive to look for them. I'm at 27,500 now so I've got a little warranty left...

Hopefully if Santa stacks some 35's under the tree, he'll put some 4.88's in my stocking, too.

 

[makaser13]

There's a guy in our club who works for Toyota who has assured me that the warrant doesn't matter. This is a defect that probably is going to be a recall issue. I highly doubt that they will not fix this beyond the warrant. If they don't, I'm sure there will be a lawsuit on down the road. This, IMO, is seriously within recall territory. It's happening to too many rigs and not just the ones being "abused". And I'm sure that once the NHTSB looks further into this, they will probably force Toyota to make this a recall because this is effecting the engineered crumple zones and thus, probably making it more likely to fail in an accident.

 

[NYCTRD]

There's a guy in our club who works for Toyota who has assured me that the warrant doesn't matter. This is a defect that probably is going to be a recall issue. I highly doubt that they will not fix this beyond the warrant. If they don't, I'm sure there will be a lawsuit on down the road. This, IMO, is seriously within recall territory. It's happening to too many rigs and not just the ones being "abused". And I'm sure that once the NHTSB looks further into this, they will probably force Toyota to make this a recall because this is effecting the engineered crumple zones and thus, probably making it more likely to fail in an accident.

I personally am not concerned about safety issues. I think this is a tough one for Toyota and they're likely doing some pretty intense investigating. I also feel the failure is related more to many cycles of vibrations/oscillations than less frequent hits or hard whacks!

If I'm correct, that would take more time for the engineers to reporoduce the issue in a controlled environment.

 

[saskdiesel]

And Ford Triton owners and GM 3.1L owners.

What is wrong with the triton engines?
I've been working around them for 5 years in a fleet of 80-100 cars and trucks. All from 4.6 to 6.8 V10.
No real problems.
All the other techs feel the same way about these motors.

 

[Zack1978]

What is wrong with the triton engines?
I've been working around them for 5 years in a fleet of 80-100 cars and trucks. All from 4.6 to 6.8 V10.
No real problems.
All the other techs feel the same way about these motors.

Has the spark plug thing been worked out?


Zack

 

[r3run33]

hello I'm from the 100 series section and my friend (no computer do u believe that) has a 07 fj no rips but it seems some have mods others dont and some have gone off road and others have not. Could it be from actual driving style meaning a heavy foot? this type of drivng would cause lots of stress on the body etc? Just fishing for ideas. By the way he likes his fj alot.

 

[Toledo FJ]

I doubt that it is related to driving style. I have a VERY heavy foot, my rig has lots of mods including heavy front bumper and winch, and I spend about a third of my time off road and on heavily washborded dirt roads. I have not a bulge or tear to speak of.....at least not yet. I've been watching the area in question very closely and I will document it asap if it happens.

 

[NYCTRD]

Document Document!

I doubt that it is related to driving style. I have a VERY heavy foot, my rig has lots of mods including heavy front bumper and winch, and I spend about a third of my time off road and on heavily washborded dirt roads. I have not a bulge or tear to speak of.....at least not yet. I've been watching the area in question very closely and I will document it asap if it happens.

There seems to be WAY to many variables to pinpoint a specific driving style or set up as the root cause.

Most data thus far seems to point to frame/body flex. So it's either a true design flaw or a Q.C. issue on a specific part or combination of parts. Since (on the surface) it appears to be affecting random vehicles (some '06 bulds, some '07, some modified, more NOT,...etc..), it's not an easy one for engineers to pinpoint.

IF YOU HAVE ANY SIGNS OF BULGING OR RIPPING, DOCUMENT IT WITH YOUR DEALER! THAT'S THE BEST WAY TO ASSURE WE'LL ALL BE TAKEN CARE OF BY TOYOTA WHEN/IF THE TIME COMES.

I do light to moderate off-roading to simply access my rural property in a couple of states, including some mountainous terrain in Virginia. I have 13,000 miles on my FJ and a nice fat bulge on the drivers side with a small one starting on the pass. side. Even if it rips, I'm not going to have Toyota repair it until the ROOT cause is determined.

 

[saskdiesel]

Has the spark plug thing been worked out?


Zack

We've never had a single spark plug failure in this fleet. And all vehicles are kept for at least 140 000km. And driven hard.
But the plugs get changed every 40-50k so maybe that has actually prevented it.
Regardless, this problem affected an extremely small percentage of the engines in this series.

 

[makaser13]

Here's the pics of both fender bulges. I think my passenger side may be worse since I had them documented on the 12th.

Notice on the passenger side, you can't see the bulge at all from a simple glance from the front of the rig....

But put a straight edge to it and it tells the truth. the passenger side fender is flat until you get to the crumple zone, where it turns outward. At the end of the straight edge, there is at least a 1/8" gap.

You can easily see the driver's side bulge even at a glance from the front of the rig....

The driver's side bulge is different from the passenger side. It is showing on both side of the crumple zone. Holding the straight edge to the fender in front of the bulge, the whole thing has a bit of a dip to it, from the fuse box bracket up to the crumple zone. Holding the straight edge across the bracket and up to the crumple zone, you can see that the bulge is the same height as the bracket (approx. 3/32) and behind the crumple zone, it is about 1/8 " from the straight edge to the fender.

 

[r3run33]

hey toledo thanks for the response but that is exactly what i'm referring to your rig is modded and u go off road and no rips then there are some with no mods and no off roading that have rips; so it has to be traced either back to the make of the body?? (2 DIFFERENT PLANTS?) or something??? I'm sure toyota people are thinking of this also but behind closed doors.

 

[MajorMiner]

Very informative thread thanks. 5000 mi on mine no wheelin' yet but off to Colorado next week so I'll be looking under the hood more than I have been so far. Thanks again.

 

[Jim S.]

Makaser13's post is dead on. The photo's are exactly where the cracks occured on our fj. Vehicle is lifted with a winch, goes off-road but is not abused. 15,000 miles. Documented with dealer and awaiting resolution. These cracks are insidious and require careful inspection to spot when they first manifest themselves. Hope this post helps other folks.

 

[NYCTRD]

Makaser13's post is dead on. The photo's are exactly where the cracks occured on our fj. Vehicle is lifted with a winch, goes off-road but is not abused. 15,000 miles. Documented with dealer and awaiting resolution. These cracks are insidious and require careful inspection to spot when they first manifest themselves. Hope this post helps other folks.

So as not to clutter this thread with redundant info, there's a few HUGE threads on the blue forum that covers a LOT of info (albeit disjointed).

To be redundant again (& hopefully not annoying First Toy TOO much I want to stress to owners to CHECK & DOCUMENT WITH TOYOTA.

No one knows how widespread this problem is, and more importantly how widespread it MAY BECOME over time. My rather large gut tells me many more cases will manifest over time.

 

[FJ Grover]

Here are the links to the FJCruiser forum that discuss the cracks and bulges under the hood:

Engine Bay Body Rips - Toyota FJ Cruiser Forum

Do you have inner fender bulges / cracking?? - Toyota FJ Cruiser Forum

 

[WillsFJCruiser]

For what it is worth.
I noticed cracks on my truck slightly before Christmas. Took it into my dealer, they looked at it and talked to their district manager, or whoever it is for Toyota that handles warranty stuff with dealers. Toyota is engineering a fix for the problem as we speak, currently they do not have a solution for the problem but they are going to fix it. Just thought I'd post up this bit of positive information for you all.

 

[bernd122465]

For what it is worth.
I noticed cracks on my truck slightly before Christmas. Took it into my dealer, they looked at it and talked to their district manager, or whoever it is for Toyota that handles warranty stuff with dealers. Toyota is engineering a fix for the problem as we speak, currently they do not have a solution for the problem but they are going to fix it. Just thought I'd post up this bit of positive information for you all.

I've been hearing that since Aug. My rig has received new aprons and the front clip. 1,200 miles later the driver side is bulging. I don't believe its going to an easy fix. I have taken it in and Toyota is aware of the recurring bulge. I am holding off on any repairs until Toyota does come up with a fix. If they do not figure it out I have a tube structure coming my way.

 

[WillsFJCruiser]

I've been hearing that since Aug. My rig has received new aprons and the front clip. 1,200 miles later the driver side is bulging. I don't believe its going to an easy fix. I have taken it in and Toyota is aware of the recurring bulge. I am holding off on any repairs until Toyota does come up with a fix. If they do not figure it out I have a tube structure coming my way.

It is what it is, and I have no illusions of things being resolved quickly. However, I am pleased that I was not told to kick rocks. Either way I'm not going to be happy unless I'm behind the wheel of an FJ. It's been a great ride despite this issue.

 

[Toledo FJ]

What sort of tube structure?

 

[bernd122465]

Cutting off the front end and building a tube structure off the frame and either using the original hood and fenders or the glass ones. I've got two more years on the warranty so it'll wait. We'll see what Toyota comes up with.