Land Cruiser and GX melting mirrors and other plastics

I have seen people wrap mud flaps with it, yes it started peeling up within 6 months, but i dont think anywhere is safe from idiots thinking it will stick to anything.

 

People have been talking about declining Toyota quality since the '90s, for as long they've been talking about declining Moog quality. Pick your decade.

Out of the nearly 200k Tacomas sold in 2024, melting plastic hasn't been reported as a problem. Maybe Mexican plastic is better than Jap plastic?

 

This is EXTREMELY easy to see exactly what is wrong here, this is melted from the torch used to heat/shrink the stone guard wrap. You can see the exact path of the torch and how it melted the plastic under the film.
My guess would be the torch was too hot, burning way too hot. It sizzled and fried the top layer of the wrap as well. This owner needs to go nag at his stone guard wrap, thats who did this damage. Cant believe the installer let this vehicle leave, wowzers..... Rookie installer, terrible job, melted the wrap and the customers mirror and didnt even try to peel the wrap up and install a new piece. Totally rookie move.

 

I agree, debating declining Toyota quality has a tinge of, “back in my day, all Toyota’s could drive on three wheels, and without oil…”

However, having owned practically a fleet’s worth of Toyota trucks in just the last decade, and having extensively sampled various members of the TNGA-F family, I can’t deny my own eyes & ears….it’s just not what any of us here should accept from Toyota. The recalled engines, TSB’d trannies, slashed prices, and daily ownership tales only seem to reinforce what my gut tells me.

Toyota will probably right the ship, but right now, the ship ain’t right.

 

Add to that sky high pricing and it should make people look for another manufacturer. The problem is they all seem to suck. Mediocrity has become the new normal.

 

The newer high efficiency window act like a magnifying glass in reflection. You can feel the heat from them when the sun is right and you walk through a reflection.

My house has the siding badly warped on my West facing due to the morning sun reflecting from the neighbors upstairs window. It doesn't 'burn a hole' because as the sun moves through the sky the window reflection moves. The result is an arc of warped vinly siding.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-23930675

 

Very hard to make one injected molded mirror housing substantially different from the others in the same material batch / Mfg time frame. If this was a Toyota / Lexus caused issue, it would show up on quite a few vehicles. Since the owner alleged it was not hot out, it seems the cause is not “cheap - post covid materials”.

 

But the article talks about this happening to more than one vehicle and there is damage on the other side of the mirror and trim around the doors?

 

Look at the picture and tell me you can’t see the same thing I see. Not only did this wrap installer totally trash the install and mirror and wrap, he sent it back to the customer like that. You mean to tell me that the other side mirror and other accent pieces are just so happeningly melted and you truly think it was Toyota’s fault? Naw cat…. The only thing wrong with that vehicle is the person that was hired to wrap it and the methods he/she/it/they/them used to facilitate the install.

 

Did you actually read the article and look at all of the photos? In your theory do you think the owner wouldn’t have noticed this for days after the film install? Also why is the mirror side of the plastic also melted and the other trim pieces?

 

I read the article, its clickbait like any tabloid.
Both of the pictures on the mirrors are BOTH from an external heat source with 500+ degree flame. A high end heat gun wont even do that, thats a pointed flame from a torch.
The side pillars, showing warping under the matte black vinyl wrap, hard to explain. That is a matte wrap, over a plastic piece, that snaps into the door pillar. The way its bulged outward isnt easy to explain i would much rather see the rest of the vehicle and see what it looks like before making an assumption but having just those pillars cropped into a picture where you cant see anything around them is suspect of manipulation. You never know that could be a cookie cutter photo from a vehicle that was in a fire but everything is cropped out but the melted pillars.

 

Does Toyota actually make those parts in house or are they out sourced.. I am sure Toyota will fix this immediately, of not already.

 

I'd be pretty sure Toyota outsources those -- they assemble many components together, but don't make many components.