Grill Swap: Check Engine & Parking Support Brake Malfunction

Swapped my Platinum grill out for a TRD grill and light bar. I haven't hooked up the light bar yet, but I just put the bumper back on and turned the truck on to make sure everything was okay. However, I got "Check Engine" and "Parking Support Brake Malfunction" messages. Front camera works fine, I hooked up the two connectors at the top of the grill/bumper on each side of the truck. I hooked up the TSS sensor and the active grill shutter. Is there something I forgot?

EDIT: Went away after putting the car in reverse and park then turning the parking brake on and off a few times and then shutting the car off. Left it off for a bit and it went away next time I started it up. Probably just some weirdness with the electronics.

 

I haven’t done the swap myself but did you disconnect the battery prior to disassembly? I know electronics are sensitive to being disconnected without unplugging the battery on my past vehicles. I’m sure people who have done the swap will chime in with their knowledge.

 

Nope and I think that was the reason. I took the front bumper off to check wiring and it was all good, put it back on and left the car off for a bit, turned it on and it was still there. Then fiddled with turning the parking brake on and off, reversing and moving forward, put the car in park and turned it off. Turned it back on 5 minutes later and it's all good.

 

I did this myself as well. What a pain lol. Anyhow, you didn’t mention reconnecting the sonar sensors (proximity sensors)in the lower bumper cover. Did you reconnect those?

 

Yeah those never were unplugged. I got it sorted out

 

Curious how long it took you guys for the grill swap?

 

I am a handy person (woodworker) but fairly new to any automative stuff. Took me a few hours, but really that was going slow, labeling everything. The biggest pain was getting the old grille out (popping all the plastic tabs out without breaking any).

 

Thanks, that seems to be the case. Local install places are all quoting 4 hours which seems nuts to me if you know what you're doing. At that, I'd rather do it myself.

 

Local shop quoted me 2 hours and $180 just as an FYI

 

As far as I’m concerned, it’s worth the $180 if you can trust them. There is a lot I don’t mind doing on vehicles, but that was a pain in the ass. Spend the one-eighty and sit back and have a beer, or 8, while someone else deals with it.

 

curious where you all are getting the TRD grills? OEM, aftermarket? Best site?

 

Before and after pics?

 

agreed. if they actually do it for 180 and do a good job, it’s worth it cause I’d be at 100/hr for a minimum charge of 4 hours just to do it all over again for someone. It’s not hard, just tedious and too high risk to break any clips for that little of a cost.

 

I agree. The big issue is the getting it off and back on without scratching anything. I did it on my ‘22 and did it twice on my ‘24. I was very cautious but it is hard to do without scratching it. On my ‘22 I did it by myself which was def a pucker factor getting it back on with damaging the paint. Well worth it tho!

 

I've removed the bumper/grill twice on my limited now by myself. the first time was to install the OEM heritage grill and light bar. The second time was to install aftermarket headlights. The second time was a breeze once I got the hang of it from the first time. Both times I didn't disconnect the battery and never got any warning lights. I kept the doors closed, didn't touch anything that could trigger the truck to "wake up" until all harnesses were plugged again. I think that was the key point in not getting any error lights. Hope this helps whoever swaps out the grill.

 

That's not bad at all.

 

So I just received the grille shutter malfunction notification after my grille swap as well. I didn’t disconnect the battery, but I will tomorrow morning to try and reset things. I plugged everything back in and didn’t get any initial alerts when we drove the truck to dinner. I may pull the assembly off tomorrow to recheck everything.

the truck is making a weird noise now towards the top of the engine that sounds like it’s trying to turn something, but not sure what that could be.

any ideas?

 

I'm going to liberally cover all adjoining painted edges with blue painters tape when I do mine.

 

Went out to unplug the battery and noticed I forgot to plug the shutter wire back in all good now

 

How was the process? Break anything?

 

Pretty smooth. Frustrating part was removing the lower “Tundra” piece. Took my time and wrapped up in about 2 hours.

Used this walkthrough:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEmTthOjmNI