Please Examine My Undercarriage

It' a Tacoma with some rust......welcome to the club. Ping around the frame with a metal object. You can fix any frame within reason.....Or, pay a heavy premium for the perfect 06 Taco !

****pull the trigger and buy it****

 

You sound emotionally attached already.

That's the worst possible mindset to enter a purchase agreement. It's like getting so wrapped up with the idea of marrying the perfect gal that you are willing to ignore her $50k in gambling debt.

 

I take it your the cautious negative type........perfection only exists in ones mind.....Every thing has a plus and minus. Perfect Gal with 50K in debt, may be a bargain once fixed up and fine tuned !

Don't be so cautious that you miss an opportunity and live to regret it.

 

I'm actually pretty impulsive and spontaneous. But there's a blurry line between opportunity and doomed from the start. And for me, the potential gain of driving a cool-to-me car- one which there are hundreds of thousands of copies on the road-don't outweigh the risks here.

Just my ignerent opinion.

 

As said in my prior post, your heart.

 

Sorry to rain on your parade the frame rust is ongoing even on gen 3 trucks

 

I have to laugh when I see panic over rust from people outside of the rust belt. It’s a fact of life here. Most vehicles handle it well with corrosion mitigation treatments or coatings. Some surface rust may be expected on part of the sacrificial layer or coating. But, Toyota Tacomas are an exception for certain production years. You must be diligent in examining any vehicle, particularly those residing in cold climate states, or you may suffer the consequences. Unfortunately it’s not limited to Toyota. My neighbor’s GMC pick up’s frame just rusted apart.

 

Nah they didnt, i work for Toyota. Already seen a few 11's get replaced.

 

My 2010 is currently getting a new frame as we speak. Definitely didn’t fix the issue. I hear the 3rd gens are going through the same thing.

 

Tacoma’s are pricey used in all cases. If you are paying the Taco then I recommend a rust free or a truck with a frame replacement.

 

That’s crazy. Really concerning that Toyota can’t figure out their shit after so many well known frame problems. I guess I got lucky with my truck being in Indiana

 

Pass

 

I’d say pass this one up, your heart will be broken, y’all will get over, it keep looking

 

Just from the two pics that frame looks worse then my 2010 frame did. And that frame got swapped.
Run the vin and see if the truck was covered by the recall, and if the recall wasn't done. You can find the frame inspection instructions and areas to focus on. If the seller lets you, get under the tuck and tap around with the hammer. If the seller doesn't let you - pass.

 

I understand this perspective but at the same time a rusty piece of shit is still a rusty piece of shit. Most of these vehicles would do well with like you said undercarriage treatment. Most people and also most Tacoma owners (TW excluded) don’t bother to even look under the vehicle.

My favorite commentary was a member on here swearing up and down he shouldn’t have to get under the vehicle and coat the frame even living in a salty cold-weather region. Like uh no dude, you need to maintenance your shit including the frame unless you don’t care and intend on trading in your Swiss cheese for a new vehicle in 10 years.

 

I don't entirely agree with you. A frame shouldn't rust away the way Tacoma and some others do. I had a 2001 ex-cop Crown Vic that I bought in 2009 and when I got rid of it around 2017 the frame looked fine. All I did was take it to a car wash on warm winter days (40F+) to wash the salt off the underneath. And I'm in MA which is pretty bad for rust.
I did the same washing routine with my 2010 that I owned since 2011 and had the frame swapped in 2018.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe Toyota’s don’t get the same level of frame coating as some other manufacturers. What I’m saying is you can’t just wash it and call it good. It needs to be coated. Majority of the rusty crap on the road has not been coated. There are members up in MA area for example that have coated their 2nd gen frames in fluid film and they look fantastic.

 

Since I got my frame swap I've been doing fluid film and two years now it still looks new. But I maintain that a frame shouldn't need extra anti-corrosive treatment by the owner, there is something wrong if basic washing of the frame isn't enough. Extra treatment is reasonable if the truck gets used for more then just daily, on-road driving.

 

I don’t agree. Every make and model rusts at some point. You type “XYZ make/model rust” in google and see the results. Jeep had a terrible time with rust on some older models, so much so they have full replacement frames you can buy via third party. Their welds on newer wranglers rusted off the lot, plenty of forum chatter about that. GM trucks have a wax like coating that just falls off allowing rust. Hyundai has a subframe rust issue on some models, etc etc. The problem with Toyota is rust sets in earlier. They acknowledged it by running continuous rust campaigns on the Tacoma into current gen. And these things last so long otherwise that people keep then well into 10-15 yrs ownership when they finally say wtf my frame is toast.

 

Looks like just a lot of surface rust. I"d get a ball peen hammer and tap away at some areas. I adjusted the levels on the side frame pic for clarity ...