2024-2025 Toyota Tacoma and Tacoma Hybrid Recall: Front and Rear Shock Absorber Reservoirs May Detach

A shock absorber on the 2024 Toyota Tacoma carries its oil reservoir on the outside of the damper, held there by a welded metal flange. In September 2025, Toyota inspected a truck at a dealership after an owner reported a leak. The left rear shock was wet and the reservoir was gone.

Toyota filed campaign 26V514000 with NHTSA on August 6, 2026, covering 48,280 Toyota Tacoma and Tacoma Hybrid pickups built between January 2 and November 25, 2024. The metal surfaces where the flange, the reservoir and the damper body meet are untreated. Moisture reaches them, corrosion builds in the gap, and the expanding rust pries apart the welds holding the reservoir on.

The shocks come from Thyssenkrupp Bilstein of America in Hamilton, Ohio. In January 2025, Ford recalled 149,449 Broncos because an external reservoir was detaching from a Bilstein shock built at that same plant.

The Issue

An external reservoir separates a damper's oil supply from its working cylinder. The extra volume sheds heat, which is why the design shows up on trucks expected to run hard over rough ground. On these Tacomas the reservoir bolts to the damper body through a flange, and a row of welds holds that flange in place.

Paint and wax cover the outside of the assembly. The surfaces inside the joint are bare. Toyota ran a dye penetration test during its investigation and found that moisture can reach that bare metal even when the paint and wax show no visible damage.

Corrosion in a tight joint does not eat metal away. Rust occupies more volume than the steel it replaces, so it pushes. Toyota and Bilstein modeled the resulting force with CAE analysis in April 2026 and found the two lowest welds on the flange give way first. Field-recovered shocks that had not yet lost a reservoir showed weld damage in the same pattern.

Flange length governs how much of that force the joint sees. Bilstein had studied the difference and recommended a production change to a shorter flange.

Affected Models

Model	Model years	Production dates	Units
Toyota Tacoma	2024-2025	Jan 2 - Nov 25, 2024	43,827
Toyota Tacoma Hybrid	2024	Jan 2 - Nov 25, 2024	4,453
Total			48,280

The recall reaches only trucks fitted with the specific Bilstein shocks that use an external reservoir on a long flange. Toyota states that no other Toyota or Lexus model sold in the United States carries these dampers. Not every truck built inside the production window was sold in the US market, so the 48,280 figure is a ceiling rather than a headcount of affected vehicles on American roads.

Toyota's filing lists an estimated 1 percent of vehicles as containing the defect. The report then explains that Toyota cannot estimate the share, that whether a given shock corrodes depends on conditions the company cannot model, and that NHTSA's manufacturer portal requires an integer. In Toyota's words, the "1" means unknown.

Chronology and Investigation

Two allegations of a leaking shock absorber reached Toyota in September 2025. The truck Toyota managed to inspect had a leaking left rear damper with no reservoir attached. Toyota started pulling front and rear assemblies from the field and shipping them to Bilstein for teardown.

Dynamic testing began in November 2025, with engineers deliberately inducing a detachment to watch what a loose reservoir does at speed. It becomes a road hazard, and the driver loses some damping at that corner. Toyota still did not know why the reservoirs were coming off.

The teardowns pointed at a combination of rock chipping and salt spray. During the original development of the assembly, those two exposures had been tested separately. Toyota bench-tested new parts with rock contact and salt spray applied together, cycling them for the same 600, 900 and 1,600 hour periods Bilstein had used in development. None of it reproduced the corrosion found on parts pulled from customer trucks.

Toyota approved a voluntary safety recall on July 30, 2026, and filed with NHTSA a week later.

Ford's paperwork on the Bronco describes the same joint. NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation contacted Ford on October 31, 2024 about four owner questionnaires alleging failures of long-flange rear shocks, three of which reported a detached reservoir. Ford's accelerated corrosion testing that November and December found the long-flange variant more prone to crevice corrosion than the short-flange version, and part-return analysis agreed.

Ford had already moved to the short flange in production, on May 1, 2024 for Badlands trucks and July 23, 2024 for those with the Sasquatch package. Toyota's affected Tacoma production continued to November 25, 2024. Bilstein raised the flange-length difference with Toyota during the investigation that ran from January to April 2026.

Reported Incidents

As of July 27, 2026, Toyota counted 20 field technical reports and 62 warranty claims from US sources connected to the condition. The filing lists no crashes and no injuries.

Ford's tally on the Bronco was larger and older. By December 11, 2024 it had logged 551 warranty claims, one field report and two customer reports, with warranty activity running from March 27, 2023 through November 18, 2024. Ford reported no accidents or injuries either.

What Owners Should Do

Toyota notified dealers on August 6, 2026. Owner letters go out on a phased schedule between September 21 and October 5, 2026.

Dealers will inspect the front and rear shock absorber assemblies and replace the affected units with improved parts at no charge. The recalled components are front assemblies 48510-AK042 and 48510-AK032 and rear assemblies 48530-AK030 and 48530-AK020. Toyota is running the campaign under its own numbers 26TB14 and 26TA14, and owners can reach customer service at 1-800-331-4331.

Toyota has not issued a do-not-drive or park-outside advisory for these trucks. Owners who paid out of pocket for related repairs fall under Toyota's general reimbursement plan already on file with NHTSA.

Symptoms to Watch For Before a Reservoir Detaches

Oil on the shock body. A weld that has started to open leaks before it lets go. A wet film or a running streak down the damper is the clearest early sign.

A damp patch inside the wheel well. Shock oil thrown by the tire collects road dust, leaving a dark stain on the inner fender or the surrounding suspension parts.

Rust blooming at the seam. Look where the reservoir meets the damper body. Corrosion working outward from inside the joint will show at the edge of the flange before anything separates.

A rattle from one corner over broken pavement. A reservoir with failed lower welds can move against the damper body before it comes free.

Softer damping at one wheel. Toyota's testing confirmed a reduction in damping once a reservoir departs. A corner that suddenly floats or bottoms out over dips deserves a look.

Visual inspection has limits here. The dye penetration test Toyota ran showed moisture reaching bare metal through paint and wax that looked intact, so a clean-looking shock is not proof of a sound joint. Trucks that spend winters on salted roads carry the most exposure.

How Long Will the Recall Repair Take?

Replacing four shock absorber assemblies on a body-on-frame pickup is straightforward bench work, and a dealer with the parts on the shelf and a truck that has lived somewhere dry should turn it in two to three hours. Salt-belt trucks are the ones that run long, because seized fasteners at the lower mounts turn a wrench job into a torch job.

Parts supply is the more likely constraint. Toyota is phasing owner notification across a two-week window instead of mailing all 48,280 letters at once, which tracks how quickly replacement assemblies reach dealers.

How Worried Should a Tacoma Owner Be?

The risk here points outward more than inward. A reservoir that separates at highway speed is a piece of metal on the pavement behind you, and Toyota's own description of the safety consequence leads with the hazard to other road users. The driver gets degraded damping at one corner, which is a handling problem rather than a sudden loss of control.

Toyota cannot say how many of the 48,280 trucks will ever develop the fault, and the filing is candid about that. Salt exposure and rock strikes drive it, so a Tacoma that has spent two winters in the Midwest sits at a different place on that curve than one that has never left Arizona.

The inspection is free and the letter is coming. Owners who find oil on a shock body before then have reason to call the dealer without waiting for the mail.

Find your Toyota recall information: https://www.toyota.com/recall/