Tailgate Cable Question

Hey fellow Gen 3 owners,

While on a long roadtrip from Colorado to Florida last month, I opened my tailgate to find that the passenger side cable had come loose where it attaches to the bed rail of the truck. The cable and upper bolt remained attached to the tailgate, but whatever that bolt threads to was gone. There's just an over sized hole in the sheet metal of bed rail, but nothing to screw the bolt into.

Yesterday, I went to my dealership's parts department, but 3 different employees couldn't find the part on any of their diagrams. They concluded there must have been a nut that was tac welded to the sheet metal that broke loose, and they told me there is no replacement part other than buying the whole sheet metal tailgate surround.

I've temporarily fixed it by removing the tail light assembly, then I used a large washer and nylock nut to secure the cable bolt. It works, kinda, but I'd still prefer to have the factory part.

Do any of you happen to know what actually secures that upper cable bolt? To me, it should be some sort of threaded bushing that snuggly fits the hole in the sheet metal. If all else fails, I'll remove the other tail light to see what the factory part looks like. But I thought I'd shout out to this community, first, to see if anyone was familiar with the part.

Thanks.

 

You do know that you have a bumper-to-bumper warranty for 3 years or 36K miles.
Let Toyota fix it as it appears to be a defect in manufacturing.

 

Yes, I'm aware of the standard warranty, as well as my 10yr/125K extended warranty.

Unfortunately, I'm over an hour from the dealership. I happened to be in the area when I stopped by the parts department. The fact they couldn't even find the part in their system doesn't give me much confidence about a service department visit.

I'd rather fix it myself. It's literally a 10 minute job, if I could find the right part. Or, I might just live with my improvised fix. It seems to be working fine.

 

I'm with you.
We've got better things to do than sit in the dealership waiting room for hours, plus your drive time.

Did you pull the other tail light?
Just curious about what you found..

 

I haven't pulled the other tail light, yet. Been busy catching up with chores after a month of vacationing in Florida.

I'll update when I get around to it.