Rust on rear hatch - warranty?

At the dealership right now having mine looked at while I get an oil change. Only 10K miles on my 2022 TRD ORP. Garage kept, professionally ceramic coated as soon I brought it home. Happening on both sides, clearly a factory defect. So frustrating they allow this to be an issue when it could so easily be corrected from the beginning.

 

God damn tahara monkeys

 

So I finally did the spacer thing on the the outboard handle garnish studs and touched up the paint. Worked great. Glad I didn't try this in cold weather. Handle garnish and hatch interior panel were locked in pretty good. Then I noticed the same thing happening on the hood scoop. This truck only has 8300 miles on it. So off to the dealer. Dealer has agreed to repaint the hood and hatch. Hoping the paint will match. Dealer said no updated parts for this hatch or hood scoop problem. But they will apply clear film on affected areas after repair. As well keep the outboard handle garnish spacers. Dealer flat out said yah we know you're not the first. But
they were good about it and no hassles.

 

It is my second T4R in the last twelve years and neither had that rust under so-called "garnish". And I think this is because I never press on it with a hand closing lift gate, and I barely pull it while opening one. Lift gate is heavy with equipment inside and struts are strong and we all know that sheet metal on 5th gen T4R rather thin. Pressing/pulling force on a handle bends sheet metal door, effectively rubbing clear coat and paint to bare metal. Hence rust you have.

 

Doubt many are pushing on the garnish to close gate. How are you concluding that?

Would be inconvenient as hell to transition from the strap or hand cups, to reach for the garnish area to slam the gate shut. One doesn’t even have leverage, pushing on the center of the tailgate

 

This is how the garnish sits on my brother in-laws 2015 4Runner. My brother's 2013 4R has the same gap. Meanwhile on my 2021 4R it physically touched the paint before it was repaired under warranty. On a 2023 4R I looked at the other day it was also physically touching the paint. Somewhere over the years the assembly processed changed that introduced a flaw in how the garnish is attached at the factory. It has nothing to do with how a user interacts with the garnish.

 

Nope, I never touch the garnish (or paint for that matter) to shut the tailgate. I always use one of the handles at the bottom of the hatch. It’s a production issue.

 

@Taco4R What was the final outcome on this? I noticed the same thing on my '22 the other day. No rust...yet. but I can see where it is chipping the paint off.

 

I fucked up the garnish on my wifes 24 ORP and in the process tripped across this thread while replacing it. When I removed the original garnish I did notice the little "rubber" trim piece that runs the perimeter of the garnish seemed to be installed inboard and down in a recess instead of being raised up and in contacrt with the body of the hatch. When I went to install the new garnish I stuck the rubber trim to the new garnish pretty much flush with the outside edge and it seemed to make much more sense.

As a side note I ended up using a little butane lighter to warm up the studs inside the hatch to soften the loctite. Worked beautiful and did not spin the studs. Ended up double nutting the studs after install of the new garnish instead of loctite. Pretty sketchy design all around if you ask me.

 

This is the garnish on a 2024 Limited sitting on the showroom floor at my local dealer. That's the type of gap you want to see. I wonder if the last batches of 4R's have the problem fixed at the factory?

 

@Taco4R

Just following up on this… any updates? Anyone find out a TSB # for this? I was oblivious to this until last night when I found that video about the guy with all the issues. Sure enough. this am I confirmed it's happening on my 2021 Pro, both sides I am past the 3 yr for sure..

 

Lots of info here:
https://www.4runners.com/threads/plastic-trim-rubbing-off-paint.34142/