2021 Reverse Sound

Hi All,

A couple months ago I got a 2021 TRD Pro. When I put the vehicle in reverse and turn the wheel all the way to the right, there is a scrubbing sound when I'm backing up. It does not make the sound with the wheel all the way to the left. Again, this is only in reverse and has bee doing it since day 1.

I'm going to schedule an appointment with the dealer, but thought I'd check here if anyone experienced something similar, or had suggestions on what the sound may be. Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome from Wisconsin! Can you see any signs of rubbing on your inner fender liners? Or is the tire rubbing anywhere? When you turn all the way to the right in reverse try turning a little bit to the left to see if it stops, then check for rub marks again.

 

Curious to see what the culprit is. I've lived with tires rubbing practically my whole driving life. But this is a brand new truck...

 

The TRD Pro and Venture models come equipped with wheels that have a slightly lower offset than the wheels that come standard on the other trims. This means that the wheels sit further toward the outside edge of the car, which increases the "scrub radius" when you are turning. Due to such, TRD Pro models get a special treatment when they arrive at the port here in the USA, where port techs (hourly wage workers) are instructed to trim some of the bumper away to try to mitigate this scrub/rubbing. Unfortunately, they don't always do a great job. Also, every truck is slightly different due to manufacturing tolerances, etc.

Typically with 5th gen 4Runners, our tire is hitting in one of two places (or both) in the front fender well: At the very bottom rear of the front bumper.. basically where the fender liner meets the bottom of the bumper up front (here, part of the bumper extrudes rear-ward at the very bottom, this part is what the port techs cut off); and also somewhere near the mud-flap, behind the front wheel. It should be obvious if you either watch it while someone else is reversing, or even if you just closely look at the areas I've pointed out, I bet you can see where the tire is marking the body. Since you're in a stock TRD Pro with 265/70 tires, I'm betting it's the bumper up front. They probably didn't cut away sufficient material.

 

Cut away material at the dock WTF?

I'd like to know where you are getting this info from.

If it rubbing stock something is wrong. Dumb question but not in 4WD right?

 

Hi all,
Thanks for all the responses. It does appear the issue is the fender liner. When I look in front of the left front tire, the liner is perfectly straight across (the tire that doesn't make a sound). When I look in front of the right front tire, the corner of the liner closest to the engine has a slight curve towards the tire, which seems like the likely culprit. I'll take it to the dealer to address as I tried to move it manually, but it is molded that way. I'm guessing some sort of heat gun and they could bend it back, or could replace the liner completely. At a minimum, I'm hopeful it appears a lot less dire than the previous scenarios that were running through my head.

 

The internet. I try to not regurgitate information until I've researched well.

Here is some related info: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2015/MC-10111359-9999.pdf

 

He has a 2021. This TSB is for 2015.

Unless they have an updated one. And doubt this is done at the dock as stated since it only affects some.

 

Any photos of the right front liner?

 

Bruh, you clearly have an issue with me. Fine, you don't have to believe me. No worries.

To anyone else that cares, this has been documented on teh interwebs. The TRD Pro isn't built in Japan. It's a regular ol' 4Runner that Toyota NA modifies at the port and turns into a Pro. There are plenty of photos floating around out there that will show PRO VIN'd trucks rolling off the boat with steel wheels, no roof-rack, etc. etc.

The TSB is from 2015 because that's when the Pro started to be sold. That's when the Pro mods started being done at the port, duh. The TSB was most likely written in response to techs not doing a good job at their newly assigned task at the ports sometimes. I imagine Toyota "cracked down" on the port techs, and then assumed that issues would no longer arise, so they didn't update the TSB. Either that, or Toyota themselves didn't forsee that the lower offset PRO wheels would cause rubbing issues, and thus at first did not modify that area on 2015's. Then once they realized there was an issue, they wrote this TSB for 2015's, then started training the port-techs to do the job there so that customers wouldn't have issue, and dealers wouldn't need to perform the procedure (cheaper that way for Toyota,). But the issue still happens, because some workers are lazy and some workers are incompetent. I am simply sharing the TSB so that you can see what is supposed to be done by Toyota to your 4Runner TRD Pro (gasp, at the port), but is not always done well.

 

I take it that it will be OK for me to use the OEM TRD/Pro wheels with standard size tires on my 2021 ORP without issue ?

Thanks, Rick

 

Of course, they are the same wheels (in a different color) as the Venture wheels, and the Venture is basically a TRD ORP. But there is some small chance that you'll need to do some of the steps shown in the TSB if you go with an A/T or M/T tire which can be larger than OEM even though it's stated size (265/70) is the same.

Honestly, I'm surprised that any Pro's rub on 265's, but I think it's one of those "every truck is a little different because of tolerances" things, and an unlucky few might just have rubs if the procedure isn't done correctly. The A/T Nitto tires that come on Pros must be bigger than the typical OE H/T's.. because I've never heard of a Venture owner (same Pro wheels) rubbing from the factory! But yes, the tolerances within the wheel well really are that close, especially when you consider the scrub radius, which was surprising to me.

 

OK. Thanks so much for your reply. Much appreciated.

Rick

 

You bitch about your 4R in every thread that is all. If you dislike you 4R that bad why keep it?

But yes the Pro is "pieced" together at port and nice to know they fix shit. I'd assume the low paid man at the dealer would do it. But then again we only have one dealer here.

 

thanks for this I guess they do a lot work at the port, i knew about the wheels roof rack and side steps or running boards but not this

 

The company I work for actually installs accessories and reactive "mods" on Mercedes vehicles at various ports around the US. You'd probably be surprised at what non-skilled, hourly-wage workers are doing to $100,000+ vehicles...

 

I believe anything. I also read that there is a facility in Jacksonville FL that modifies certain Toyota products and then sends to Southeast Toyota dealers only. I found this out reading about the XP packages. Apparently they take 4R from Japan to Jacksonville and as an example take a ORP put the all black pro grill on it, put TRD wheels on, black badges, and then they do some sort of paint protection etal (that sounds fishy). For whatever reason those vehicles are not sold by Midwest/Western dealers etal. I think they also put in extra USB ports in place of the cigarette lighter port.

 

Yeah basically if you buy a Toyota around here in the Southeast, you're buying it from SET (South East Toyota), which is Toyota's distributor for the area. It would appear that they have special packages and accessories that they offer to their dealers, which are not available to dealers outside of their distribution area.