Toyota Tacoma / 4Runner Glovebox Latch

The glovebox latch claw for the Tacoma and 4Runner.

It fails in a way that is briefly alarming: the claw snaps, the glovebox drops open on its hinge, and everything in it lands in the passenger footwell. Usually while cornering. After that the lid will not stay shut at all, because the latch is the only thing holding it.

The claw is a thin hooked section of plastic that takes the entire retention load, and Toyota moulds it as part of the latch body. Ten to fifteen years of heat cycling in a dashboard is enough.

Fitment: Tacoma and 4Runner, 2005–2015. The two share the mechanism but not the surrounding trim — tell us which vehicle, and whether your glovebox is the locking or non-locking type, since the claw geometry differs between them.