2016 Tacoma Tailgate Issue, owners need to know! Needs to be a sticky!

Hey Everyone,

Just want to apologize now for the long message but this is something that 2016 owners need to know!

Just wanted to give a heads up to anyone out there that has a 2016 Truck and uses there truck like a truck on a day to day basis that you will eventually have this problem and it will break at some point!

So while on vacation a few weeks ago down VA I opened my tailgate at the beach and it pretty much fell down, so first thought was that the dampener broke...... Under closer investigation it was just the little plastic bushing that attaches to the tailgate that slides over the dampener when you put the tailgate back on. So I figured it would be a simple 1,2,3 fix with a new piece of plastic. So called the guy I deal with on a regular basis in Parts at my local Toyota dealership and he ordered me a new plastic bushing and a few other parts since he wasn't sure which on was the plastic piece since Toyota doesn't show pictures of the parts. When I returned from vacation later that week I went out and picked up the part and attempted to put it on in the dealership lot real quick before I left. So after a few minutes of trying to get it on I thought he ordered the wrong part so I go back in and talk with him and he said Toyota revised that plastic piece and the old part number no longer exists......So I went out on the lot and opened a tailgate on a brand new 2017 truck and took that plastic piece off and see if it fit my 2016, turns out Toyota changed the plastic piece and dampener size so that in order to fix the issue you have to have have a new 2017 Dampener and 2017 Plastic bushing..... So after all that said and done I spoke with the service manager about this problem and told him what the issue was, luckily they did it under full warranty even though I got 40,100 miles on the truck at the time. The price of the dampener was $75.XX dollars and the plastic piece is $5.XX. So all in all about $80 worth of parts that you need to fix that little $5 plastic bushing, thanks Toyota!!!!!!

So for $5.XX I'm going to purchase another plastic bushing and throw it in it glove box so I have it when this one breaks!

Any chance on of the moderators could make this a sticky! @sean266 @tcBob Thanks guys!

Old broken plastic piece vs new one:


Tailgate with missing plastic bushing and old dampener:


Tailgate with new dampener and plastic piece after the dealership replaced them:

 

There is an older thread about this.

 

This post lists the part numbers for 3rd gen Tacomas built prior to Feb 2016:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2016-tacoma-tailgate-replacment-bushing-66143-04020.452351/

 

Time for somebody to fab a metal one? Seeing a little piece of plastic in high use area fail like this doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies.

 

Didn't see that thanks!

 

I have the same issue with the plastic bushing braking. I ordered a new bushing from shapeways since toyota doesnt carry the old design anymore. I installed the new bushing but the tailgate still slams open. Any ideas what might be wrong