Poor fit and finish

I noticed this 21 LR Pro today at the dealer. What is up this fit and finish on passenger front quarter panel where it meets grill area.

Also, is this just dirt on the wheel well? I am wondering why it would stop at the black metal?

The LR paint is sharp though.

 

Thanks for sharing Snikel Fritz is there a fix I assume for that bumper gap? I am not the usual 4R off-road guy so that clay mud makes sense

 

Have you tried pushing on the bumper? It's just held in by clips. Sometimes they can come undone if something presses on it and leverages a section of it out of position.

 

This was not my vehicle I just happened to be checking it out after service guy parked it. Fortunately mine is ok. I had just not seen a LR 4Runner and was taking a closer look at it.

 

I see.

I'm guessing someone or something pressed up against the lower part of the bumper and that upper piece popped out.

 

Looks like fender bender damage to me.

 

There was a TSB for this that extended to 2020 MY.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10176697-9999.pdf

 

Thanks for sharing TSB. This was lunar rock Pro so that would be a 2021 MY right? Just curious if they did not correct it for 2021.

 

The bumper gap TSB reviews came in with mixed results. It worked for some. It didn’t work for others. I think it involves velcro lol?

After an accident I had to get a new bumper. I have the gap on both sides after that and the clips don’t stay seated. Sucks but it is what it is.

 

Sorry to hear that. That does suck. Using Velcro seems unreal. But then again look at the cheap screws they use in the fender wells that rust.

 

To be fair, “fit and finish” is a term that should only be applied to factory new vehicles, not vehicles that have been in service for one or two years. My 21 looks fairly new everywhere, but a close look shows the front bumper has survived attempted skewerings by busted branches, logs getting kicked up into it, and love taps when Ive driven it into crap I left in the garage that I forgot about when pulling into the garage.

I used to talk with an aerospace engineer who used to be part of supervising manufacturing at a Learjet plant. Being a geek about airplanes and tech, I grilled him for details on several occasions. Imagine my surprise when he told me they use shims to do final alignment on the wings when they are mated to the fuselage. On a 50million dollar business jet…shims. Seems cheap, but you can bet the decision to shim is not nilly willy, nor is it cheap, nor unsafe. It’s just one step, one decision, and one piece of hardware in an extremely complicated manufacturing process.

Something tells me those cheap screws were specifically sourced to do what they need to do. They would probably resist corrosion better than a 4 dollar chrome plated screw from the local hardware store.

And the mud colors in the nether regions is just what happens when different materials are soaked in mud. Some materials take in the mud more than others. If you put enough miles through rainstorms, the colors will slowly mute down.