Reassurance (A rust thread)

I know this topic has probably been beat to death, but I did a search and couldn't get a good answer, so apologies in advance.

Does anyone have any statistics on how many Tacomas were actually bought back due to rust issues? Or the percentage that were affected? Wild guesses? (I know 800000+ were in the running). Reading forums like these would lead one to believe that you were lucky to not have one with problems.

I ask because I'm looking at buying a '96 that has an extremely clean body, but has spent its life in the midwest. I have not had a chance to inspect the frame yet, but I'm reluctant to even consider buying it now whether the frame is clean or not due to the horror stories I've seen and the potential for rot in the future.

Would someone with a 1st gen that lives in a salt heavy region chime in and give me some reassurance?

Thanks!

 

Well I can't answer your question, but if the one you are looking at is a creame puff and the under carriage is clean whats the problem?

 

why haven't you inspected the frame? What is keeping you from inspecting the frame?

this is an impossible question to answer...with a few simple pics, you'll get much better opinions here.

 

^^^^^^ what he said ^^^^^^

Look the vehicle over carefully. If it looks decent enough for a 15+ year old truck, buy it. If not, don't.

 

I've only seen pictures of the truck. I'm going to check it out tomorrow. If the frame is clean I'm more concerned about probabilities of future frame rot. The owner did say there was some surface rust.

I live in the midwest and take care of my vehicles, but I don't want to have to live in paranoia thinking that if I don't wash the undercarriage every time I drive it that it's going to rust out on me.

 

A 16 yr old truck thats lived in the midwest is bound to have some rust on the frame, take some pic's post them and get a few opinions. Better yet crawl under the truck with a hammer, and ice pick and sample a few spots.

 

In my opinion, do not buy a 16 year old truck from the Midwest with a known frame rust problem. The 15 year warranty from Toyota is over. If you have frame rot, you are screwed. Get a little newer truck that is still under warranty or a 2001-2004, where Toyota is replacing the frames. I lost my 2000 to frame rot. It spent 8 years in Colorado and 2 years in New York and 1 year in Massachusetts. The frame looked great but they put a hammer through it so just looking at the frame does not always work.

Good luck

 

Thanks for the advice all.

The problem with getting something newer is that I only want to spend ~$8500 for something with 4WD and < 150000 miles. I'm selling my current ride (an FJ) to get out of the car payment and put a little cash in my pocket for moving costs.

 

You can get something newer for around $8500, 4wd, and less then 150K miles. My 2000 had 140K, 4WD, V6, and a cap and I paid $7000. there are deals, you just have to look hard for a while.
If you pay less then $8500 and get a truck with frame rot you might has well have thrown your money down the toilet as Toyota will do NOTHING if it is out the 15 year frame warranty. Then you have to pay a shit ton to get a new frame (which are nearly impossible to find on pre 2001 trucks. In my opinion, you are taking a huge risk. Look in the south if you want to go that far back (no road salt).

 

I ended up running the VIN through the dealership and found out that a claim had been submitted to Toyota and denied last month. After expressing this concern to the owner he said he didn't know anything about it and has completely ceased communication with me. Some poor soul is going to unknowingly buy a Tacoma with a rotted out frame.

What site do you recommend? I have been using Auto Trader, eBay and Craigslist.

 

Remember not all the trucks in that were listed had frame problems, but because the frames were sourced from Dana, Toyota couldn't identify exactly which ones got the frames that were below par. Mine had been up here in the north with all its cold, snow and roadsalt for 11 years before I bought it and the frame was fine when I took it in to get checked. It had however been oilguarded and I continue to spray oil inside and cleanup any surface rust on the outside. The local scrapyard here that took all the failed trucks ended up with 7, out of how many I'm not sure but I do see quite a few around.