Before I entirely give up

Hey all! Well, I joined this forum to try to dig up some answers to problems I'm dealing with regarding my Tacoma. Its been a real struggle lately trying to deal with the issues I'm having. I'm trying not to bore everyone to tears with a back story, but we'll see how this goes. Whatever, you'll just skim over it anyway.
I found this 2000 Tacoma after Toyota bought back a '98 Tacoma I had. Before that I had owned a number of '93, '94 Toyota pickups which had sealed my loyalty to the Toyota pickup line. So back in, say 2011 or so, I had a pocket full of cash (thanks Toyota) and I found a pretty nice TRD SR5 Tacoma on TTORA out in the DC area. It needed an exhaust and some serious valve adjustments, but was a solid truck. Over the last number of years I have enjoyed this truck, whether it was wheeling the piss out of it in Moab, hauling bikes to the trail or blasting the the snow filled streets of Rochester. At some point I installed a supercharger on the little 4 banger to give it some extra boost, that was kind of a nightmare getting that figured out, but thats for another conversation. Overall, it was a trouble free little whip. Just over a year ago I was given a work truck and had considered selling this truck. But when you have a vehicle that is paid for and that you absolutely love to own, you decide to hang onto it. Since my Tacoma was now my "Sunday driver" I was encouraged to get some body work done and get it resprayed and swap boxes since mine got a dent and I found a clean box on Craigslist. However, this fall i get this P0402 code. Now I'm working out of state and don't have any time to dedicate to figure out this code. Oh and this is right when my state inspection is due. I end up talking my buddy into taking a look at this thing for me. He spends a bunch of time on it and says that everything is checking out with the EGR system. The consensus with his coworkers is that the exhaust is the reason for the code... which was due to a poor decision I mad a few months earlier when I had a slight exhaust leak and took it to an exhaust shop thinking it just needed new gaskets. Well due to the flanges being "hammered" as I was told, they went ahead and sleeved the exhaust and oh by the way "your cat converter is shot" so I managed to talk them into bypassing the cat. There is a second one in there anyway. So now I need to replace my cat(s) which now means I have to replace the entire GD system because there are no more flanges! Its all one piece from behind the manifold to the tail pipe. Also don't get any aftermarket parts because they probably wont solve the issue and no one will pass it for inspection anyway. So after my buddy spent some time with the truck, he hands me a laundry list of parts I need to thrown in it. So besides the entire fawking exhaust I need to replace, I should be looking for a rear end because this one is getting awfully noisy. Oh and that transmission leak isn't getting any better. And the clutch can't possibly have much life left. His recommendation is to sell the thing. "its a $4000 truck, you should sell it and get your $4000, rather than putting $4000 into it just to keep it running." Here's the problem- I don't want another truck. i don't want car payments, I don't want the hassle of someone else's problems, I don't want to deal with scouring the internet for an acceptable replacement.
So, with that long winded intro, I've turned to the internet in my futile attempt to find the help and hopefully the parts to get this vehicle going again. So here I begin the process of searching for good used parts to keep this thing in a reasonable budget so I may one day drive it again and put a freaking inspection sticker on the window. Any guidance to good parts sources would be greatly appreciated.

 

Welcome to TW!

I fell asleep half way through the post.

How does it end?

 

Thanks MT girl, but as I stated, the EGR actually all checked out just fine. The exhaust is causing the EGR code.

 

IMO, if you don't have any serious corrosion and if you still like the truck the way it is, you should invest a few more dollars to keep it running. But after all those repair you should continue to do a regular maintenance to keep it in shape and not let leak goes on lime the one on your transmission.

4k in repair is less expensive than a new payment for a sunday car/truck since you have one from your employer. Take your time and bring it back on the road. Those 2.7L will last forever with good maintenance!

 

Welcome to the show fellow Dereck.

 

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Worthywads, thanks for the informative and welcoming post!

 

Welcome...

If you like the truck...fix it. If you want something that will be more reliable, upgrade to something newer using the money you would have spent on repairs. Only you can tell when the costs outweigh the benefits for you. Just make sure you have an honest mechanic if you aren't doing the work yourself.

 

Feel free to ignore solid advise. Or rewrite and get some responses.