Toyota Tacoma Frame Replacement Program

33 and it's yours, I'm likely selling it and another ride and thinning the stable down.

 

They rust from the inside out. You wont know it till hits you. I had an 89 toyota pickup that rusted in half but that was 22 years old. 14 years is not acceptable. No other vehicle frame goes out that fast.

 

FYI
Tacoma is not the only vehicle manufacturer that has issues with frames. I've seen an older Colorado that was buckled at the cab/box and I've seen older Jeeps with very bad-looking frames that I wouldn't want to drive. My '87 Ranger after 17 years was driven to the junkyard because the frame was rusted too badly to fix. The mistake I made with my Ranger was I used a rust preventive that dried hard and it cracked allowing moisture to get in. My 2010 Tacoma still looks pretty darn good after 14 years. If you live in the rustbelt or near a salty environment you're foolish not to put some type of non-drying rust preventative on the underside and check it yearly. Yes, I think it's a manufacturing issue, they all try to get by cheap. They could use a better metal composition, better rust-preventative material in manufacturing, and or even galvanizing such a critical component or even a combination of all. It all boils down to cost. I still remember driving the first uni-body cars before the manufacturers or the government decided manufacturers needed to protect the underside better. A ten-year-old car was a rarity because the rust was so bad. Even sales brochures touted the improved rust prevention.

 

The Chevy/GMC colorado of 2003-2012's frames rusted out just as badly. I have seen plenty rusted out at the rear wheelwell area. They were boxed and rusted differently but they were thin and poorly treated. The early S10/sonoma frames were FAR beefier.

The rangers body mounts would rust right off the frame if you didn't catch them. Their powdercoating was trash.

 

I coated it with fluid film every couple of years... It rusted from the inside. No rust preventive is going stop that. Maybe sealing off all the holes in the frame is something that might work.. I never thought of that. Anyways whats done is done.

 

I bought a 7k mile 2015 last year, no thanks

 

Some of the new snow and ice melters they use are FAR more corrosive then plain salt. Brine [magnesium chloride] is far worse the plain salt and they pretreat in many places which means you are getting the most corrosive amount, it will corrode metal even in humidity and actually heats up when wet unlike regular salt which draws heat from what it touches [when wet, hence it's use for ice cream making] It's also more effective at lower temps so the temp range where steel [especially] corrodes is wider.

It's nasty stuff and when states went to it's use more and more, complaints about excessive rusting skyrocketed.

 

It will be interesting to see if that stuff has impacts on EVs. A few here caught on fire in salt water in the hurricanes. Just sitting parked.

I know that's different (submerged batteries) but if that stuff eats through the right spots.........