My $2,500 First Gen (2002)

In January my sister in laws boyfriend offered to sell me his truck. I had seen it when he got it and told him to call me if he ever decided to sell. When I bought it it had 162,000 miles on it (roughly). 2.7, 5 speed, 4 wheel drive with manual windows and door locks. I like everything about it. The paint is crap, the front bumper is dented, the rear bumper is rusty but the frame and drivetrain are solid. What’s not to like? Pictures of it when I went to test drive:

So I had to bring it home.

I went to work. A few things weren’t going to pass inspection. I knew it. So I started by swapping the wheels from my 4Runner onto the truck. For what it’s worth the ground was frozen solid so don’t hammer me too bad for the floor jack.

When I was taking the wheels off the truck a lug snapped as soon as I started to loosen it. This pissed me off but I called a buddy and used his garage to swap a new stud in. Then it snowed so I had to go out and play.

At this point I’m really liking how the wheels look on this truck so I started looking for a cheap set. I’d have just bought new wheels for the 4Runner but they have TPMS in them. Ended up finding some about an hour away and took the 4Runner to go get them:

The wheels are kinda crappy but they were stupidly cheap. So I found a set of good tires someone took off a JK and I was rolling again.

My temp tag was running out so I had to fix a few things and get it inspected. The parking brake was sticky and the light would stay on. Easily fixed by lubing all the pivot points. The clutch pedal sensor was shot and you had to use the cancel button to start it. Replaced that too. The whole time I had been driving it I had noticed the idle was very high. 1200 RPM high. I had chalked it up to the extreme cold we had in January. When it kept up I replaced the coolant temp sensor and cleaned the IAC valve. Problem solved.

After it passed inspection and I had permanent tags my helper and I started getting into some routine maintenance that definitely had been lacking. Cleaned the K&N intake, replaced all the fluids in the diffs, transmission and transfer case. The clutch was extremely heavy when I got it. I honestly thought I was going to need a new clutch and/or master/slave. Turns out the fluid was BLACK, and a simple bleed and replacing all of the fluid did the trick. Best helper ever:

Got my driveway widened because I have a problem and too many cars.

At the end of March it snowed. I thought this was neat:

Needed an oil change and I was running daddy daycare so the girl and I hung out in the garage. By that I mean she sat in the truck watching a movie and playing with the shifter while I changed the oil.

My neighbor had the hookup on a set of BFG M/Ts off of a Jeep Rubicon. Too good of a deal. Swapped the tires on and took this shot while it was on the lift as inspiration.

Weather heated up and the stock shift knob was getting sticky. I couldn’t take it. Went shopping on eBay. Really loving this chunk of aluminum.

And here she sits today:
I have some small plans.
-I need to troubleshoot the water leak in the cab. I think it’s the issue with the firewall seam because there’s nothing leaking in the heater core.
-It needs a new stereo. The Kenwood in it sucks.
-I’m really considering having it painted OD Green. Repaint the flares black
-I need some floor mats since I just pulled seats and scrubbed the carpet
-replacement black bumpers. The front is bent and rear is rusting out.
-new shocks and struts. Probably go with the same bilstein 5100s as the 4Runner
-might get around to fixing the P0420 code it throws. Might just keep resetting it.

That’s my truck. Originally I thought I might fix it up a bit and flip it but I’m pretty sure I’m going to keep it for the long term now. Just too easy to work on and as simple as it gets.

 

Vehicle inspection suck...

Nice truck though! Welcome to TW!

 

You got one hell of a deal on that truck. How’s the frames

 

He was going to trade it in for $1500 then gave me a call. I actually low ball offered $3000 but he said “It needs new tires so let’s say $2500”

Frame is perfect. Some slight surface rust. I scuffed it and painted every bit of it I could get to. I sanded and painted the skid plates too.

 

Good deal! I bought two 2004 TRD's, one for $500 with a seized 3.4 off of a customer at my work and the other one I bought off a local TW member for $600 with a rusted spot on the pass side framerail & high miles. Mobtown Offroad repaired the frame for me. I installed a used 69k mile 2003 3.4 in my other one. Then of course a suspension lift, tundra brakes, new wheels & tires... These trucks can be fun & cheap to build if you buy'em at a good price.

 

That’s the kind of deal I need. My brother is a Toyota tech. Tried to offer me a 3.4 setup to swap in. I thought about it.

 

The one I bought for $500 with the seized motor only had 147k on it. The po neglected a oil leak that turned out to just be a loose oil filter. He wasn't interested in repairing the truck and told my coworker that he will call Crazy Rays junkyard to pick it up. Of course I couldn't let that happen. Frame is still black and rock solid on that one.

 

nice by

 

Nice truck and a great deal!

 

Some people just don’t know what they have. I miss living close to Crazy Rays though. I used to pay the $1 just to wander around and see if there was anything I wanted. That was well before wife and kids but I haven’t needed to buy a fuse since!

 

Motivation.

 

Changed my O2 sensor last week. Had to hack off the little shield to get at the badly rusted nuts. This is what was left of the nuts on the sensor.


Put 10 minutes worth of work into the headlights with the power ball and some Plast-X
Before:
After:


Today I was painting my trailer wheels. Decided to do the spare on the Taco since I was all set up for it. It looks pretty good and the wheels on it are pretty nasty. Might have to do the other 4.

 

put uv protection on the headlights, will keep em clear alot longer.

 

Nice truck

I got mine for cheap too. It had crappy brakes (bad calipers and proportional valve), surface rust covered frame, a crack in the frame (unrelated to rust) and in bad need of a paint job (but body still good).... It would probably have ended up in a junkyard somewhere, so I can say I saved it.

Keep up the good work

 

Nice project. I also saved a first GEN.

 

OP and @68dave , i hate that i'm envious of both of you for finding diamonds in the rough and bringing those trucks back to life...keep up the work OP truck looks great...i've followed the $500 truck since day 1 because thats a deal of a lifetime ( in my neck of the woods)...looking forward to the outcome

 

And I thought I stole mine for $4,400...and it needed suspension, front brakes, AC system replaced, a tune up, new tires...and a few odds and ends

 

What I really need to do is put some more effort into fixing the EVAP code I keep getting. I have Techstream software and used it to run a “system test” but have no idea how to read those results. The FSM on here has procedures that do not at all involve using techstream. So I either need to go back to 2002 technology to run the test or figure out what the hell tech stream is actually saying. If I go back to the FSM way of troubleshooting I need to find a way to pull vacuum on the different ports. And a gauge that can read low enough.

Or just keep resetting the light.

I think the next thing on the list is a set of spark plugs. No particular reason other than they might have 160,000 miles on them for all I know.

I’d also like to get that cowl leak fixed soon. I need to find the thread where somebody used a tube of caulk on it. I was thinking of grabbing a can of flex seal and spraying it in there.

Winter plans: front wheel bearing and possibly a carrier bearing. Hoping to calm down the loud ride that seems to have nothing to do with the mud terrains.

 

What code is it throwing? Should be an easy fix

 

It's throwing P0440. I'm an idiot and erased the code with Techstream, so I need to get a couple drive cycles on it again. I highly doubt that the problem magically fixed its self, but I'd like to get the code back to see if I can pull data from when the code actually pops up.

I'm also slightly insane and have 3 vehicles, not counting my wife's. The Tacoma is the only one that the 3 year old can't ride in safely so I don't use it as a commuter too much unless I know for sure that I won't have to go get her after work.

I've been YouTubeing the crap out of EVAP related troubleshooting. I have a much better grasp of how the system is supposed to work than I ever have. So when I get around to diagnosing the problem it should go pretty smooth.