Maybe you all can help

Hello everyone. I am new here and am actually just trying to see if I can help my husband out just a bit with a question.

He recently took his 2000 Tacoma to the dealer to check the frame and was told that it was unsafe to put back on the road. He was slightly heartbroken and just a bit caught off guard, but is now trying to find another Tacoma. He only had 77,000 miles on his and trying to replace it is turning out to be a bit of a job.

He just found a used 2005 Tacoma and was wondering where we can find what all of the scheduled maintenance should have been for this truck. It is a 2WD Access Cab PreRunner V6 with 92,146 miles. We have access to the Carfax report, but are just wondering what maintenance should have been performed or would be coming due. He doesn't want to purchase something that needs an expensive maintenance issue right away. I have tried the Toyota site and am able to look at an owners manual, but have not been able to find just the scheduled maintenance, by miles etc...

Thanks in advance for any of your help or suggestions.

 

getting close to 100k should include spark plugs, transmission fluid and obviously oil changes every 3,000 - 5,000 miles depending on what type of oil the owner uses. others will pipe in with more. . . what i did when i bought my used tacoma (with 90k miles coincidentally) was a little snooping. being from a everybody knows everybody kind of place while talking to him i found out where he worked. turned out i had 2 connections to him and asked those people if he was a straight guy, so on so on. i bought it and am very happy with my truck.

 

http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/docu...MS0018/pdf/01omsour/2005/schedmai/51n1smt.pdf

Page 20 starts the recommended toyota maintenance schedule for all of their trucks and suvs.

If you have the carfax you can match up what should have been done with what was actually done. You ought to be able to guess what's coming next fairly easy after that.

Hope this helped!

 

other things that have popped in my head since that post would be if they greased the zerks regularly (little nipple like type ports around the truck), differential fluid would be time to change soon, even wear on tires indicates a lot. smooth shifting, no moan in the power steering, little rust on frame, and even things from the AC and radio are important when buying a used truck. kind of gives you an idea on the overall condition of the vehicle . . when looking at the one your looking at, it's and access cab with a pretty normal amount of miles for that year. i would be less hesitant about buying one of those as opposed to an off-road truck because of obvious reasons.

 

You guys are awesome! Thank you so much!!

 

glad to help, Welcome! . . . Joehs contribution is obviously the very best thing to go by, but don't be surprised not to find out all, or even the majority of those things haven't been done. "regular maintenance" varies A LOT from person to person. best thing you and your husband can do if you buy the truck is to keep in your head i'd say a $500 extra cost to you. buy the truck and go a head and have her all greased up, plugs and fluids replaced. that peace of mind and assurance that everything is the way it needs to be is worth the money upfront and not the burden of a locked up engine or busted transmission later down the road in my opinion. trust me, learned it the hard way.

and MOST IMPORTANTLY! - do not buy the vehicle until a knowledgeable mechanic (preferably one to these trucks) has given it a good check. there are too many shady people that will try to give you all grades of verbal assurance and possibly even a price drop to keep you from getting it checked out before you buy it. DON'T FALL FOR IT!! and lets see some pic when/if you get it!

 

1. Check over the body to see if it is of your liking.
2. Get under the vehicle to inspect leaks and dents and broken stuff. Check for rust to the frame. Check all lights, horn, keyless, alarm, etc.
3. Inspect oil cap and dipstick for grime. The oil could be crystal clear because the person just changed it but there may be signs of abuse like sludge and smoke smelling residue.
4. Inspect power steering fluid. Should be amber or red. Amber means it is probably original. No dark stuff allowed.
5. Inspect coolant. Should be pink. If not pink then it was changed and should be clean and clear (red/orange/green/yellow).
6. Inspect brake fluid. Should be clean clear amber/light brown.
7. If automatic, pull and check the dipstick like number 3. The color should be pink clear.
8. Start the engine and listen with the radio off. Gas it and listen again for any funny noises.
9. Test drive and check all gears including reverse. Go on the freeway if you can. Mine had a rattling at 50+. I think it is the old tires but not sure. Check the breaks with sudden stops to the floor. Check ebrake on a hill. Check the exhaust to be sure there is no colored fumes. Only white steam on cold days is acceptable.
10. Relax. These things have toyota engines that keep going and going.

My biggest concerns were leaks and number of previous owners. I recommend you limit it to 2 previous owners max.

Also if you go to your local toyota dealer website, you can search the vin to see what toyota dealer work was ever done on the truck.

 

The hubby would like me to ask if the timing belt and water pump need to be replaced at any certain interval on the 2005 Xtracab V6 PreRunner Tacoma. He isn't sure if this one has a timing belt or timing chain. His 2000 Tacoma had a timing chain, but he's still learning about the newer model Tacomas and V6 models.

Thanks once again for your help and responses.

 

No, there is no belt. I have been told here that the chain seems to need no adjustments other than greasing. I am still researching this.

 

http://www.toyota.com/owners/

Go to this site and register the vin. It will give you any work that was done at the dealership. It will give you an idea about how the truck was maintained (at the dealership anyway).

Welcome to TW!

 

We have an account set up there with our other cars listed, but is it okay to put in the vin # there if we don't already own the vehicle?