What do you think of the frame on the Tacoma I may want to buy?

This 2015 Off Road is 3.5 hours away so I had the dealer take it to a Toyota Dealership for a written prepurchase inspection. I’m sensitive to the frame rust issues. Basically there’s surface rust all over the welds but everything else looks ok. Truck spent first 30K miles in Massachusetts then moved down south. 63K now. What do you guys think? Here are the photos taken during inspection:

 

That's not bad at all for the area. Hit the welds with a wire brush and some Rust Oleum, hose the rest down with Fluid Film or some chain/cable lube. I like chain/cable lube better than FF. It flows into the little crevices and sandwiched areas of the frame really well and stays put once the solvents evaporate off and it thickens up.

 

I also hose down the leaf spring pack with chain/cable lube. Hit it all.

I think it looks fine. My 2014 looks better than that but I've stayed ahead of it since I got it.

 

Also interested in opinions on the lower control arms.

 

Price? If it's top of the book value then it's too much, if it's at the bottom, it's a deal.

Mine is stupidly rust free [TRDOR 2015] but I just rolled 2500 miles and never take it out in the snow or salt.

 

$27K out the door including tax.

 

Yeah it’s bottom of the KBB range. But I’m willing to pay more for a rust free truck, just don’t want to pass up a good deal if it’s not a real problem.

 

That's only 4 K less then I'm thinking about asking for mine and it has a matching LEER cap. [Toying with buying a 4 runner]

 

That looks close to mine. Mine may be a tad better but slightly. I was in same position as you a yr ago when looking for a Tacoma. I normaly dont even bother looking at vehicles from up north but the dealer kept dropping the price and after 2 mo of the thing taunting me i went for a look. First 3 yrs were in Ill. Had 78000 mi, 2011 dclb, trd sport, 2 owner asking 21000. After putting on their lift and picking thu it i ended up leaving with the trk out the door for 21000. Price made me over look the small amounts of rust that could be treated. Been a year and 16000 mi and no major problems. I did have to do wheel bearings and the alignment cam bolts were rusted tight so cut em out and replaced with oem LCA’s. Also first time i looked at i made a big deal about the rust and various other little things and played it off like yeah probably not which seemed to make them wanna work a lot harder. Waited a day or so went back and thats when they came way down to get it gone. Sorry for long post. Hope it works out for yah.

 

Not too bad. I would use the #1 product on it and worries gone! POR15

$69 POR-15 Rust Preventive Coating, Stop Rust and Corrosion Permanently, Anti-rust, Non-porous Protective Barrier, 32 Fluid Ounces, Semi-gloss Black

https://www.amazon.com/POR-15-45404...QNU?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAJ2F6RDUSIYCWQMFQ

 

See this is what I’m worried about - frame is fine but a bunch of other components are going to break down or are already in bad shape.

 

Meh looks fine to me. If you buy it, what I’d do is wire wheel the rusty welds, hit with your choice of black paint, let cure for a week or so really nicely then topcoat entire frame in rust protectant, including boxed sections and as best you can in sandwiched C channel sections (between the layers)

 

I totally understand your concern but, the Tacoma is known to have an issue with needing wheel bearings somewhere around 75000 to 10000 mi. on average regardless of being an up north vehicle. Also the Tacomas, 4runners and the Tundras all have the issue with the LCA cam bolts seizing up. Dealt with it on my first gen Tundra. They dont grease them from the factory.

With the exception of those two issues, my truck has been trouble free and I dont regret buying it. Just go over it real good. Put it on their lift and thoroughly inspect it. If you dont know what exactly your looking at, take a friend or someone who does with you.

As others have stated, I wire brushed any rust spots and rattle canned it black. Also fluid filmed frame, etc......

 

Unfortunately seized lca cam bolts are a very common thing. How about this - Tell them you want the bolts checked. If all four move, buy it and take it home then take all the cam bolts out and grease them up good(mark them first). If they don't move ask them to replace them as part of the deal. I'd bitch about it no being able to be aligned if needed. At 63k the wheel bearings are probably good. You could try to listen for a bad wheel bearing on a test drive but even if they're quiet they could go out shortly after. Imho they are much easier to swap out than lca cam bolts and won't require a realignment or anything else. Truck sounds like a good deal . GL.

 

Speaking of alignment, the other thing that scares me off is this from the prepurchase report: "there is a wheel tire vibration and truck pulls when test driven". Toyota said it's probably because the wheels are worn and need to be replaced. But it's just one more thing. I was looking at a one-owner Off Road, same year, 30K miles, new tires, at a Toyota dealership, closer to me. Assuming the frame looks good I'd be willing to pay a couple more thousand to buy the truck and not have any up front issues.

 

And the LCA cam bolts are not seized.

 

Looks better than mine by a bit and mine has less miles. You aren’t going to find one up north that doesn’t have any rust. I just throw some fluid film on it and call it a day, if it ends up growing significantly more rust I’ll probably por 15 it