Shopping for 3rd gen Tacoma. What should I look for?

I've owned a 1st gen for about 10 years. My wife is now looking to sell her minivan and buy a newish truck instead. She's used her van like a truck for too long. She's figured out how to carry top soil, cows, goats, children, ladders, construction materials, and anything else you can imagine. Yeah, she really does need a truck. We love our older Tacoma and now we want a 3rd gen. We know we want a 4 door long bed TRD Offroad. I know all about the 1st gen, but almost nothing about the 3rd gen. Are there any issues we should keep an eye out for? Are there any cool things we should look for? We are totally willing to travel for the right vehicle.

Here's a pic of our old truck in case you're curious.

 

The axel shaft recall is definitely something you need to get looked at on a late 2022 or a 2023 model. Also, the 3rd brake light also has a recall on some of the crew cab models. Only real issues I’ve seen other than that is to make sure that the oil fill cap is screwed down TIGHT if you do an oil change on a 3.5. That particular engine has an issue with the oil fill caps vibrating off. Something else I’ve noticed is that the steering racks tend to start leaking at about 70,000 miles on these things. I still highly recommend a 3rd gen. If someone gave me a 4th gen for free, I’d put it on a wrecker, drive it to Ford, and trade it for a new f150 with a 5.0. I love my 3.5 3rd gen Tacoma though.

 

No a lot of long beds out there, so you will be searching,,,, but could be a fun road trip!
The biggest, most expensive common two I can think of:
1. timing cover seal (often pulling the motor to change, and likelihood of it returning)
2. coolant crossover tube (often pulling the transmission to replace)

 

Something I forgot to mention is that Toyota recommends a 10,000 mile oil change interval on these trucks, that’s a load of hogwash. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done the first oil change on a 3rd gen Tacoma and the oil looked like diesel oil. I do mine at 3 months/ 3,000 miles. I’ve had my 10th gen f150 on the road since high school using that oil change interval.

 

And another: check for water intrusion from cab mounted brake light. Some leaked, and had the interior stripped for mold removal. If this is the case, I’d be more or less checking for proper reassembly and to make sure they got all the mold out.

 

Completely false.

Also steering racks could 'weep', but thats usually as far as it goes.

 

The OR DCLB was only sold in Canada or am I wrong? Regardless, it sounds like the long bed better fits your use case. The 5’ bed is really short. Skip the off-road me thinks. Too many people buy the OR and never use its features.

 

Can anything be done to mitigate this? It's not a cheap fix, is it?

 

Actually no, its only offered in the states and its a unicorn.

 

What am I confusing it with? There was a long bed configuration only sold in Canada, yes?

 

I think I did figure something out at work about the oil cap issue. It isn’t necessarily that they are vibrating loose, what happens is that it’s easy to cross thread the oil fill cap so that you think it’s on there, when, in reality it isn’t, and thus it pops off when you hit a large bump in the road. I figured that out on my last oil change at work today.

 

Yes sir, the almighty ACLB TRD off- road.

But the states sell DCSB TRD off road available with MT, the model i wanted in the first place.

Who and why at Toyota makes these strange decisions?!

 

I own a DCSB OR with a manual. I love it. The bed is short, but I have hauled passengers much more often than payload.

 

I came from an AC pick up, couldnt do it anymore.

I was a bit worried coming from a 6ft bed but Ive used my bed hundreds of times to haul all sorts of things, zero issues. That 1 foot really makes zero difference unless one plans to sleep in the box or wants to transport ATV with tailgate closed.

 

Every time I have had to haul a couch, a dirt bike, etc, I’ve had to put the tailgate down. With straps it’s fine, but it’s not ideal.

I helped my elderly parents do some yard work a couple weekends ago. My bed didn’t fit much more yard debris than my brother-in-law’s SUV.

I’ve had better pickups for those tasks, but it wasn’t priority this time around.

I found my taco to be an ideal moderate sized boat tow truck though.

 

One thing I found out when shopping for my 3rd gen. They had manual seats up until I think 2020. Mine is a 2018 and I wish I had power seats. I have a DCLB OR and I love it. Really glad I went with the LB.

 

Interesting. I know someone with an ACLB TRD Off-road - I’ll have to ask him where that came from. I thought it was unusual

 

Yep, wrong. My 3-17 I bought in Colorado brand new.

 

Couple grand with dealer labor costs. Frequent power steering fluid changes helps.