PSA on Loose Underbody Shield Bolts

[harkco]

OP, what was the VIN range of your R1T with all the loose/missing bolts?

I'm like mid 3,000.

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[DaveA]

Same here…I did a visual check and all seems well but guess I’ll get some tools out now. .

 

[AltaTruck]

I have just under 4,000mi currently. I will check in another 1,000mi. If I find loose bolts again, I will remove each and Loctite it before re attaching. There is a possibility that the carbon fiber will crush down and take a set after the initial torque setting. It may give an even stronger case for thread locker of some sort to be used to prevent loosening down the road.

 

[cohall]

I put a bead of silicone seal the length on the inboard edge to prevent vibration.

Don't you have to remove those shields to put the truck on a lift? I thought I had read that somewhere. I'm sure it's not the end of the world to pry the silicone off when needed, but seems inconvenient.

 

[svet-am]

Has this been added to the delivery checklist? I can’t find that thread now.

 

[harkco]

Any of the shield bolts have witness marks?

Mine had none, but my buddy with a later VIN and no shield does - so who knows what should be there.

 

[HokieR1T]

Leaving my office this afternoon a co-worker was traveling behind me and noticed a loose panel under my truck. The underbody shield covering the rear axel was indeed unsecured. I crawled under the truck later and noticed at least 5 fasteners were missing and one was incredibly loose. The suspension was serviced 9 days ago, and I have a feeling the two are related. As you can imagine I'm a bit frustrated by the lack of urgency on Rivian's part. I'm hoping for a quick response tomorrow with a quick resolution. I'm not close to a service center, but this is tailor made for the mobil service techs. A few fasteners, a torque wrench, a yoga mat to lie on, and the repair could be completed in 10 min.

 

[shrink]

Would this warrant an NHTSA complaint?

https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem

A loose shield could certainly be a safety risk to other drivers if it comes loose on the road.

 

[ksujeff99]

I had to change a flat tire today (picked up an allen wrench on the road somewhere that punctured through the tread) and while I had the truck at its highest setting I looked underneath to check all the bolts. I found one missing, two about to fall out, and several that were loose.

I'm going to report to service since I have other things for them to fix. My VIN is in the 7,000s.

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

Two torx bolts gone and one almost all the way backed out.......

 

[sherold]

Upon delivery, I had 3 I was able to loosen by hand and almost all able to be tightened by 1/2 turn minimum with a small socket wrench. VIN 10,XXX

 

[ksujeff99]

Upon delivery, I had 3 I was able to loosen by hand and almost all able to be tightened by 1/2 turn minimum with a small socket wrench. VIN 10,XXX

I wonder what the torque specs are on these. I’d say all of mine that I checked were way less than 5NM based on my highly accurate (ha!) wrist torque wrench, calibrated over years of wrenching on bicycles at home.

Not a hint of threadlocker on any that I pulled out to check.

 

[RexRemus]

This seems like a hugely widespread issue that's almost trivially easy to "fix" at the factory, is there not visibility to this back at Rivian?

 

[svet-am]

For the ones that are missing, what type of screw is it (size, pitch, etc)? I will probably buy some extras to have on hand.

 

[CharonPDX]

Took delivery yesterday - this is the first thing I checked. All present, all in tightly.

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