i just got an extended warrenty notice from Toyota regarding my Sienna, apparently some folks get a little popping sound from the front doors (i havent) but its just a little spot weld that didnt take on some vans, so they are extending the warranty to 100K miles for that condition, i only mention this because if they are willing to cover that little thing it gives me hope that they will take care of us and this FJ rip issue...
Not necessarily. I won't jump off a ten story building, but I know it will hurt if I do. We've all speculated on various reasons for the problem, laced throughout this and other related threads, but until Toyota presses for the actual cause, we 're all left to guess.
IMO (and that of a growing number of shops, technicians, and regular folk), the cracked / bulged inner fender wells are a SYMPTOM of a larger problem.
No matter how many times you repair the symptom, the problem remains.
If you were to reinforce that inner fender apron, the crack would most likely transfer to the next weakest area - so installing the newer design aprons, with specific area reinforcement, will likely just delay and transfer the symptoms to another area of the vehicle.
Those of us with affected vehicles are anxiously awaiting the passage of time, to find out if any vehicles with the later model inner aprons show any symptoms. Same goes for repaired vehicles, of which we know, absolutely, of at least one that has failed AGAIN.
You don't need to know the solution to be able to recognize a problem...
Case in point:
The swaybar link breakage issue... People jumped to the conclusion of faulty links and jumped into fabricating beefed up links only to have them fail too. The root causing as pretty much been isolated to the swaybar shifting.
Find the fix for the rootcause or it's a waste of time to get the apron fixxed. I'll have mine documented but not fixxed until they find the rootcause.
Hi Guy's whats interesting i went out to the desert last weekend in my friends FJ 2008 we were third in a convoy of vehicals following a Nissan Patrol safari and a OLD golloper 2 we traveled about 30k cross some really fun desert NO JUMPING had to dig and tow all vehicals quite a few times when we got back to the road we poped the bonnet on the FJ to connect the Air pump and noticed that the Drivers side inner wing was rippling we checked the vehical for other damage the front bumper was cracked but when checking under the car and the front crumple zone rail on the front frame NO DAMAGE at all on then digging around the offside we noticed that there is a scuff mark on the inner win where the Drivers offside wheel has come up at some point and contact with the Innerwing what it looks like to us is the BUMP stop has failed to stop the exccessive travel of the wheel its hit the inner wing the energy has trantered up to the upper lip of the inner wing and has caused a ripple! for front bumper impact to damage the upper inner wing that would mean that the front rails would have to move or the body shell would have to move NO that has not happen all the relevent bolts are tight so that means the issues have to be local to the innerwing side were the damage has occured to cause ripples something has to move to cause the flexing that causes the ripple! Long statement but needed to get my thought out to you guy's BTW i have a FJ as well 2008
Just a little more info I live in Dubai and we went out to fossil Rock to the south of Dubai my thoughts are if an old golloper and a Nissan Safari has no problems why do we get proplems in the latest and greats from toyota even the best make mistakes i need somone with more engineering skills that i to look at the bump top issies on the FJ toyota might need to make a mode to stop this happening Thanks great forum
Just a little more info I live in Dubai and we went out to fossil Rock to the south of Dubai my thoughts are if an old golloper and a Nissan Safari has no problems why do we get proplems in the latest and greats from toyota even the best make mistakes i need somone with more engineering skills that i to look at the bump top issies on the FJ toyota might need to make a mode to stop this happening Thanks great forum
Alanmhewitt-- First off, welcome to the forum! We are all dumbfounded by the bulging/ripping issue. I'm sorry to learn it's happening to the '08 models as well... Hopefully Toyota will complete their examination/assessment and come up with a permanent fix.
Until then, we're all rather anxious, to say the least... Even those of us who so far (knock on wood) have not suffered the problem.
cheers,
dale
__________________
Happy Trails!
TLCA #17625
LOS TRES AMIGOS IN MEXICO
TITANIUM METALLIC--A/T
ARB Bumper - Warn Winch - OME Heavy 886/895 - Bandi Mount - All-Pro Lower link skids - Bud Built skids - Snorkle - Toyota prefilter (cyclone air filter) - Optima Yellow Top Battery - Painless Dual Battery Control System - Scuba Driver Mod - Kenwood DNX 7120 GPS - A-TRAC mod - 110v add-on - Rock Rails - Rear Locker - Roof Rack - BFG TA/KO's - ARB Fridge/Freezer - '08 side visor mod - Royal Purple fluids - E3.68 Spark Plugs - All Pro Rear Bumper - All Pro Lower Links - M-Pac rear and side mounts
To be continued...
To come to that conclusion he must have some idea of what is causing the problem to begin with. Is that the case??
The only difference he noticed was that the dimple towards the rear was about a 1/4" further back. He felt like that would not solve the problem, he thought it would be re-enforce some how although he believes like other people do and that is the fact that the problem may be cause by too much flex in the chassis.
I find it very hard to believe, that an issue which is purely COSMETIC has over 2000 replies, while an issue involving MAJOR MECHANICAL FAILURE has only 74 replies. This being the Rear Differential thread.
FJ owners should be more concerned with getting Toyota to warranty and recall all FJ Cruisers for differential gear replacement instead of something trivial like some body rips which are under the hood and aren't visible.
I find it very hard to believe, that an issue which is purely COSMETIC has over 2000 replies, while an issue involving MAJOR MECHANICAL FAILURE has only 74 replies. This being the Rear Differential thread.
FJ owners should be more concerned with getting Toyota to warranty and recall all FJ Cruisers for differential gear replacement instead of something trivial like some body rips which are under the hood and aren't visible.
It is not strictly cosmetic, your crumple zones are being pre-stressed and and broken before they are even needed. They will not be able to fully absorb the impact like they were designed to do, when an accident occurs. They are purely cosmetic if your FJ is just parked.
I have more important things to worry about than a possible accident and crumple zones if my rear differential blows 50 miles from any help in a desert.
Just for my future reference, please tell me why Toyota would go through the time and expense of designing and redesigning, placing and replacing an engine bay panel if it were merely "cosmetic".
Please also describe for me why blowing a differential in the desert, 50 miles from any help, is a bigger problem and less important than, say, cruising to work in the morning and some idyot crosses the line and hits you head-on?
Linear Mode
