[NathanF]

Bah!

I just noticed today that one of the little plastic squares on the front of my 3 month old RAV4 must have fell off while I was driving. According to the manual, they are what covers the place where you would attach tow eyelets. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

Yes, this happened to me. A kid ran a red light, hit me, and the cover popped out. But as you can see from the picture, the cover stayed attached by it's little tether. It's hard to believe that yours just popped out on it's own and the tether broke as well. More than likely, some lowlife needed one and "borrowed" yours.

Interesting, I didn't know there was a tether.

I did consider the possibility that someone stole it, but there isn't a single pry mark or scratch around the area where it came out. I have a hard time believing someone stealing the cover would be bothered with using a plastic pry bar to get it out, leaving absolutely zero damage to the car.

 

[NathanF]

Bit of an update: I've been super busy, so I sort of forgot about this for a few weeks, but I finally got the chance to take off the remaining eyelet cover. There was indeed a tether....but the other end of it wasn't attached to anything!

It's basically a little plastic arrow that goes through a slit on the bottom right inside of the hole, but mine was just in there floating around - in fact, the plastic square just fell right onto the ground as I slowly nudged it out.

That being the case, I'm pretty damn sure someone at the factory was just too lazy to connect the tabs, and my other one fell out from vibrations / bumps in the road over the past few months.

As I said before, given that there wasn't so much as a single scratch on the outside of the perimeter of the hole, I find it extremely unlikely that someone stole it, and cared enough about my car not to scratch it in the removal process. So hopefully I can talk the dealer into paying for this. The part is only $8, but the paint job will be a different matter.

 

[NathanF]

I'm pretty damn sure someone at the factory was just too lazy to connect the tabs, and my other one fell out from vibrations / bumps in the road over the past few months.

FWIW.... these bumper plugs are installed at the US port of entry (after the tow hooks are removed).

Interesting, I did not know that.

So, I took it into the dealership, and they are going to cover it, thankfully. So, happy ending.

 

[NathanF]

I had this problem as well. I had verified (due to my own curiousity) that these covers were properly affixed using the tether. This was prior to taking a 15 hour drive from New York to South Carolina.

On the way, a portion of a vehicle's mud flap tore off, came back and hit the front of my car directly where the aforementioned cover is.

Sure, 75+ MPH and 5-10 ft. of seperation between me and the vehicle could certainly be considered "more than average" force to knock one of these out. But I was relatively surprised that it took the tether and all pretty cleanly.

I called Toyota the day after it happened. The part came in the following week (for $17, as mentioned) and it was unpainted. I sporadically called for updates on the status of the paint job. This went on for about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks. I expected to pay 30-40 in the end with the paint job. However Toyota was kind enough to give me the part for free. I assume it was due to the extreme delay on the paint job.

Hopefully my experience gives you some insight. It sounds like you're looking at 30-40. I would argue if its much more than that. Its a small part and the labor rate would have to be substantial for it to be much more. Perhaps if you make a big enough stink about the tether not being properly affixed, you may be get a break. Good luck and let us know!

Yikes! Good thing your front didn't get dented in the process.

In any event, the dealership covered everything. I did have to make one pointless trip out there, though: they called and said it was ready, I arrived, and they handed me a flat black piece of plastic. No big deal. a week later they had it painted, I picked it up and popped it in, and now all is well.

Thus far, Gladstone Toyota (of the Portland, Oregon area) has served me well.