Anyone have the plastic rivets under the tail fall out?

[stevesweetz]

I was scrubbing down my 2016 FJ-09 to put it to sleep for the winter and found that I was missing no less than 4 of the plastic rivets (or whatever you call the removable round fasteners) under the tail section of the bike.  It's possible I could have been missing these for a long time, I don't bother cleaning or looking at the underside of the tail that much.

I was questioning the possibility of these falling out on their own, but I don't know how else they would go missing.  I do all my own service except state inspection and tire changes, so a mechanic shouldn't have had any reason to have the tail apart.

Does anyone know if those rivets are particularly brittle and easy to break?  If it's a matter of them fitting loosely, I will presumably lose new ones as well and I'm wondering if I should put some kind of mild rubbery glue on them (like maybe silicone caulking).

 

[skipperT]

No they really can’t just fall out. 

It is possible to poke them out from the opposite side however. Do you have anything in the under seat storage area that may have pressed on them? Or did you modify the tray somehow?

someone may have simply stolen them, they are easy to grab once pressed in the center with a pointy object. 
sorry they’re gone, but they’re inexpensive. 
 

-Skip

[stevesweetz]

I haven't modified the under seat area at all.  I do occasionally throw my gloves under the pillion seat, but the rivets that were missing were more towards front of the tail, under rider seat area, not the pillion seat.

The thought that some lazy jerk looking to replace his lost rivets stole mine while the bike was parked somewhere did cross my mind, but that seems pretty absurd, and I don't think they would bother stealing ones that are harder to get to.

The one thing that I'm wondering about is the cold.  The first two years I paid to store my bike in a climate controlled storage at the dealer during winter.  However the last time it was there, some dipwad moving the bike around broke my turn signal and tried to cover it up by hot gluing it 🙄.  The dealer replaced it once I confronted them about it (with so little resistance that makes me wonder if they knew about it being broken)...but now I won't store there anymore.  Last year I stored it in friend's non-climate controlled shed so it was at below freezing temperatures for extended duration.  I'm wondering if the little flanges that get pressed out on the rivet would get brittle enough that they crack under the pressure...and then the rivet eventually shakes loose at some point while riding.

I also discovered early this year that my side panel cracked (known common problem) after making it through the prior 3 years ok.  Fixed that with some epoxy and reinforcing mesh.

Edited November 19, 2019 by stevesweetz

[duhs10]

27 minutes ago, stevesweetz said:

I also discovered early this year that my side panel cracked (known common problem) after making it through the prior 3 years ok.  Fixed that with some epoxy and reinforcing mesh.

Mine has been cracked for years.... I had completely forgotten about them until I read this.

[BBB]

4 hours ago, duhs10 said:

Mine has been cracked for years.... I had completely forgotten about them until I read this.

Me too. Maybe adding that to my winter job list.