Auto Car Wash - Pulls rear pannel off

The auto car was has been pulling the rear corner panels off their brackets. The panels that are on either side of the rear bumper. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a fix?
Currently i climb under with hit the clip back into place. This is a new truck and i should not need to do that after 80% of my car w
ashes.

 

It's not the truck. My neighbours new GMC had his front bumper and quarter panel torn off. Evidently this is a common occurrence.

When I had my AMG Mercedes stated in the manual not to bring vehicles through these contraptions.

 

that sucks…I don’t do auto car washes but as @Eurodriver has said this 3rd Gen bumper ends are crap as it.

You can pull on it and it wants to separate so not surprised it’s happening easily in car washes.

 

Wait... are you going through a car wash that has brushes (i.e. a touch car wash bay vs a touchless)?

 

I never take my truck through those automated car washes. I used to go to some of the touchless car washes and the workers would dry off the vehicle, but I always felt like I would find a scratch that wasn't there before. Now, I just wash it myself and save a few dollars.

 

If I do an automated car wash, its touchless only, and let her air dry.

 

So at the dealers now. Their fix is replacing the body panel with the same compression fitting. I feel this is a temporary fix. It is going to fail again! Might just hit it with some gorilla glue….

 

I had the same problem on my 2023 also. The inner black mounding that the panel clips onto was not properly secured. The washers must have broke through or were not installed. Easy fix though. Thanks for C4 rear bumper install video, took off rear passenger panel. Put some new washers in to hold black bumper attachment in place and snapped bumper right back in.

 

I miss real chrome bumpers....

 

And those little triangular windows that you cou
ld twist up front to let the wind in...good ole days.

 

Thank you......I was losing my mind after " automatic carwashes "

 

Ran mine through one this weekend. Only had to take the antenna off. No issues. This is about the 10th time with this one and I've done with every vehicle I have owned in the past 30 years and not once had a panel pulled off.

Mine has the stupid fake fender guards as well that look like they would be easy to come off. Yet no issue.

Between this and the bed not able to support a proper cap, no wonder they aren't selling them commercially.

 

I see them all over BC with commercial logos on them.

 

Likely there is a clip bent somewhere that just doesn't have the holding power it needs anymore.

 

How many with a cap and ladder rack? If the company washes them, it will be through a car wash. If the panels do separate under either scenario that won't be repurchased by fleet managers.

 

now to trigger some people.

in 2 years, i always take the tundra thru automated car washed that has brushes. havent had any issues yet with any panel, but we do get scratches. but meh, its going to happen either way. its a truck/vehicle. live with it. at least we dont pinstripe it off roading.

 

If there’s a person working the car wash, tell them to switch to “all wrap”. There might be other terms for it but it pulls the brushes out and has less force on the vehicle.

 

Just out of curiosity..... What do you mean by "not able to support a proper cap"? I'm currently shopping for a cap.

 

There's a thread somewhere but weight causes composite bed to bend out.

 

with all the cameras and sensors and horror stories of stuff like mirror shells with them just falling off at speed...no way I'm chancing it...Toyota won't cover it and neither will the wash company...I used it on one of my older cars recently and the blowers nearly removed my upper trim piece that runs up the sides of the windshield to the roof...it was hanging off pulled it right out of the clips!

 

This always concerned me with my Tacoma so I use bed stiffeners. Assuming that's the route to go with the Tundra also?

 

Probably but how much can they really offset it? If your bed stiffeners are supporting the weight of the camper it could still damage the bed.

 

I'll try looking around for the thread you mentioned.

 

Reality is all the tech, safety, luxury gear, 6 ft tall grills, huge tires,etc on these trucks weighs a lot. So metal thickness has gotten thinner for all makes. I would not lean hard on any modern trucks fenders.

If the metal thickness was the same as 25 years ago the cargo capacity of these trucks would be 500 lbs

 

And on the other side, this past winter went through a touch less wash 34 times with under carriage wash. No issues. Nothing fell off or loosened.