“Frame Replacement” WOW

Just thought I would post this work order. I am blown away. I also had some additional things done on my dime. Pretty awesome they would do this to a 15 year old truck with 257000 miles.

 

"Wow" is right.

 

What are some of the things you're getting replaced in addition to the frame replacement? Its a little difficult to determine from the parts list.

Very nice and Congrats on the new frame!

 

Damn that's $$$$, was this all covered under the warranty/recall?

I'm looking to get a 2003 Xtra Cab this weekend actually, but wondered about the expiration of the frame issue. I think the frame has been sprayed, but not replaced by Toyota. I see it says yours failed an inspection/"rust perforation found" but had spray in 2010, so if mine fails a Toyota inspection maybe they'll replace it all? At least that's what I hope...

(edit: I called the Toyota # with the VIN and they weren't much help, just a canned response of "rust and corrosion/spray was addressed" and "recall is now closed on this vehicle" and "couldn't give additional information on what was done" and he didn't help address when the replacement offer will expire )

 

My warranty was going to expire in June of 2018. I got in just in time. I also had a new cat, bilstein 4600’s, rear axle housing, and new coil springs done. It honestly feels taller and tight as new.

 

Why even risk buying a truck that may need a new frame? Buying it Knowing it has a bum frame, and hoping Toyota will supply you with a brand new spiffy one seems parasitic imo.

 

Parasitic? lol I'm not expecting a new one or trying to be shady, just wondering if the frame does indeed fail, will it be covered under warranty or not. People on Tacoma World have said 15yrs for frame warranty, Toyota representative said recall on that VIN expired in 2014, and was "addressed in 2010" on that truck but wouldn't answer my question about warranty, and couldn't give more info on what was actually done to the truck (rust prevention spray vs. replaced) bc I don't own it yet. Hopefully the used car dealer can dig up more info as they are the owner.

 

You need to be very careful about what you say when you talk to Toyota. Never never say "recall". There is no frame recall. When you say "recall" the Toyota person you are talking to, any and every Toyota person, will say, "I'm looking with your VIN. I don't see any recall on the frame for that truck. You should be fine."

Call Toyota with the VIN and ask about the extended frame warranty. If the person you are talking to doesn't know about that keep pushing until you find someone that does. There are very specific conditions that have to be met. I'm too tired right now to dig up all the old posts. You can either DM me and I'll look tomorrow or you can search this site. It's been documented many times. With a 2003, though, you are swiftly running out of time.

 

Thanks! I actually just a minute ago dug deep and found some info about that on here, with similar advice to what you said (being careful when talking to the representative bc some don't know wtf they're talking about, recalls vs. warranties, etc.)

I'm gonna do some diligence tomorrow and hope to find out more before buying.

 

Yes a parasite.

Hoping that Toyota's very, very generous warranty will benefit your bottom line. And cost them theirs...

I'm hoping the rumor I heard a while back, that ownership of a certain time period had to be met before Toyota would acknowledge a claim is true.

And the parasites im talking about are the ones that ruined the very generous warranties that REI & LL Bean used to offer. That they ruined for the rest of us...

Example:

http://fortune.com/2018/01/11/woman-returns-dead-christmas-tree/

I don't understand why you would buy a vehicle to then go after a genorous warranty claim if it wasn't for shady intentions. That's just me thou...

 

I don't know. I did just that. I was about to have two kids in college and had a truck I couldn't afford to drive. I needed a used truck (cheaper that way) that would last long enough to get my kids through school. A high mileage Tacoma fit the bill. However, I wasn't about to buy one and have the frame disintegrate under me. If I couldn't preemptively confirm that Toyota would honor the warranty I would be on a Nissan forum now, probably.

 

Yeah exactly, that's all I'm trying to do. Get a used truck, hopefully never have to replace the frame (obviously), but know if I'm covered vs. have to pay out of pocket based on the details of the warranty. Big difference between warranty fraud and doing research to determine if a product I may purchase is affected by an issue/covered under certain warranty conditions.

...actually I'm a deep undercover agent for competitors trying to dismantle Toyota's entire system one 15yr-old truck at a time

 

I don’t blame you one bit. I just called the Toyota care number and gave them my vin and they told me exactly when mine expired. I hope this one works out for you, but some 03 have expired, but the 04’s that we’re sprayed within the timeframe are still covered. Good luck, mine is the best truck I’ve owned.

 

Thanks, I'll hopefully know more today. Went to toyota.com/owners and service date was June 2003 and it was sprayed by Toyota in 2010. So I think I'm good but am calling the dealer and Toyota # with more details to 100% confirm. The truck is cleanest I've seen yet, under 65k miles , and price is right. Hope it's the one!

 

Same in service date as mine and mine was sprayed in 2010. You should be covered if it does fail. 65000 miles is awesome.

 

Toyota has fucked up the frames for 15 years now. They know they fucked up regardless of owner...it’s been in the courts. No reason to not take advantage of a new frame being offered

 

But the biggest f-up is Toyota Corp being milked by these dealers doing the replacement. Don't even for a moment think, they do you a favor with the frame replacement. It's over 2 grands pure profit on parts and 6k in labor for them.

 

I dont see it being parasitic at all, the truck never should have been sold with a frame coat that was as weak as this one is, they avoided a recall by offering a warranty, make no mistake, this was not out of kindness, this was to avoid a recall that would have cost them much more, for instance, not expiring after x time, and not having any conditions applied, a recall would have made them fix them all period, warranty gets them off the hook. All this person is doing is finding a truck that otherwise would have slipped through the cracks and making toyota do what they said they would do. They should address all frames in the time in question, that came from the areas in question, regardless of if they were ever brought in or not, they added conditions to make it where they could get out of as many frame replacements as possible, all while making it look like they were doing us a favor.

 

I got my frame replaced and the parts list was long too. They changes all the prices to zero though. I wanted to know what it all would have cost.

 

While on this forum Tacoma frame rust is the only frame rust discussed, it does not mean that only Toyota trucks would rust in "cold states". Google "<any car manufacturer> frame rust" and you will find hits. Ford, Chevy, Dodge, take your pick. And not only in USA - this is common problem all over the world (https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2791663/nissan-navara-safety-fears/). It is just only Toyota who extended the warranty to 15 years, most other manufacturers will give you just few year warranty and then it is your problem.

Could Toyota use better frame? Yes, of course. They could use better alloy, galvanize frames multiple times before painting, use harder and more resistant paint. But they did not, like most of car manufacturers then and now. Still cost and number of frames replaced is covered by cost saving of making trucks with less expensive process.

My take on that is that most of the rotten frames are because of lack of maintenance, checking and care. People spend hours waxing and polishing a body, but never look under, where the road salt it doing most of the damage. I remember in late 80s in northern Europe most of cars would not last 5 years without undercoating them every year. And still many of them got killed by a road salt anyway (Fiat was the most famous of that).

I drove my Tacoma in Central Valley in CA for 19 years and really got spoiled by the fact, that rust almost does not exist there. But after my move to "rust belt" country (yes, these stupid f***kers dump salt on the roads here like there is no tomorrow here) I treat with fluid film all my cars, not just Tacoma.