Could use your advice!

I went off roading this weekend to the Bloody Basin Trail and the Sheep bridge for those of you who know the area here in AZ, and we had a little bit of trouble coming back up from the bridge. Needless to say we had a 5 hour wait on the side of a mountain until a friend came to pick us up, and I had to wait a day for the tow truck company to get my truck out of there.

My insurance has covered the towing and said that I should take it to a repair shop and all I will have to do is pay my deductible ($500) and the truck will be fixed. I do the work to my own truck, usually with the help of a friend, so I normally don't take it to shops. I have had it towed to my friends house and it is sitting there for the time being until I decide what to do.

Has anyone been through this? I have looked, and I remember seeing a first gen sitting like mine, but I can't find it now. I just need to know if I should call out the adjuster to look at it and give me the estimate or if I should fix it myself as I intended to do? Do insurance companies pay out for these kinds of things, or is that only if I take it in to a shop for repair? I have never been in this situation, so I am slightly ignorant when it comes to insurance. I just don't want it to be totaled out. I personally don't think it will be, but for the insurance company I am not sure (it has 269,000 miles). If any of you have ideas or have been through this, please let me know what you think I should do. Thanks in advance

 

I have been through this a few times unfortunately... haha.

This is the way the process has always gone for me.

1st - You need to get a price quote on repairs. I typically go to dealerships and not run of the mill repair shops. For two reasons: If you are having the pros do the work, or course Toyota is going to do the best job with all factory parts by Toyota mechanics. If they are not, and you just want a quote to provide to the insurance company, dealers usually quote higher.

2nd - After you get your quote you can decide if you want to fix it, or leave it to the pro's. There is money to be made here, but I would suggest bot being greedy because of the damage I can see in the pictures. I assure you the quote for repairs will be high, probably like $5K or more which I am sure you will go "oh shit, I can fix it for way less." Which you can, you can buy a junkyard fender, have it painted, get the new balljoint you damaged and such. But I guarantee your repair will not be anywhere as good as Toyota, especially the body work. They will do such a good job you will not notice it was damaged, plus when you go to sell in the future you can say it was damaged, but repaired by Toyota (I have done this, makes people feel good about the fix). But if you do it yourself, I assure you there will be defects, and it will hurt the value of your truck much more in the long run.

3rd - If they do total it, which I don't think they will, you will get an opportunity to buy it back at a very discounted price. From the money they pay you to replace the truck you could more than likely buy it back and have it fixed (or fix yourself) and still probably have a few bucks left over. However you will have a salvaged truck at that point which will have a very reduced value when you go to sell and it will take much longer to sell (I have been down this road too).

My advise, have it towed to Toyota, tell the insurance it is there and give them the repair quote, they will say ok, and have your truck fixed by the pros. That is if you want to keep it and don't have any wild pre-runner dreams of hacking the truck up... Good luck

 

Thank you very much for your quick response. I am in no way out to make money on this. I am actually rather disappointed that this happened, but I am ready to get it fixed. I have no plans to ever get rid of this truck, but I don't plan to pre-runner it lol. I am more worried about the fact that if it is going to cost that much to fix, they may want to total it. I suppose I am okay with the salvage title (although I'd rather it not be), but I just thought I would see what could be done since the insurance guy mentioned it. My intention was just to get it off the trail and to a location where i could go and fix it over the weekend. I am going to go and look at it tonight and get better pictures of the underneath, but it looked like I would need a lower ball joint, cv axle and a new fender. I am sure that there are some other things once I get a better look.

Thanks again!!

 

Looks like a lower ball join failure, pretty common amongst our first and 2nd gen tacos. If the LCA is in good shape, I'd change the LBJ's on both sides and uppers as well.

Edit: No way it's totaled, the damage looks worse than it is. You need a new fender and flair which are common and all over CL since people upgrade to fiberglass.

 

If the vehicle never leaves your hands, it will not get a salvage title...at 269k, I don't think a salvage title means much anyhow. So, it looks like you snapped an upper ball joint and damaged the plastic trim? Did you damage the spindle or UCA? I think the mechanical repairs are a few hundred for parts, probably no more that $500, and will the plastic trim snap back on or do you need an actual fender repair and paint?

I am also amazed at that age and mileage you carry comprehensive insurance...I usually drop comprehensive and collision once the loan is paid off and end up with $20 every six month for liability. Our comprehensive and collision losses for the last 30 years have NEVER exceeded the deductible.

 

It was the lower ball joint that failed, but it didn't look as though the spindle and lower control arm are bad. I have all-pro upper control arms and they look to be okay, however I truly won't know until I take another look and get the wheel off.

I drive my truck a lot and spend almost every weekend off roading, so I keep full coverage on it. It's only $75 per month for it, and in all honesty, I am more than grateful for it this weekend. That towing bill was billed to Geico at almost $2000.

So if an adjuster comes to look at the truck and tells me he thinks there is x amount of damage, what happens next? (Provided I don't take it to a shop and choose to repair it myself). My friend does body work so i am not too worried about that side of things.

 

Simple, they write you a check and are done with you. Repairs and such are on you at that point. Trust me they would much rather write you a check and not have to worry about anything then deal with a repair facility who may hit them with a larger bill. When they write you a check you cannot come back and say "I need more" like the shops can...

 

Thank you for all your help!! Sorry I'm sure these questions are really silly, but I have never had to deal with the insurance this way. I was going to take it to Toyota as you suggested, but the cost of getting it from where it is now into the city would be huge, not to mention it could do more damage to the truck. My friend suggests that I just have the adjuster come out and look, but again, neither one of us have dealt with anything like this. I figured someone on here has gone through their insurance so I would ask. If it would be worth it to get it to Toyota, I will most definitely do it, but if I plan to repair it myself should I just call and get them to come out and do an estimate?

Thanks again

 

I somewhat disagree with this. Something similar happened to me last year. I was ran off the road and pushed into the center divider on a highway in a snow storm, the car ran off, and there were no witnesses so the insurance company put me at fault. I took it to a repair shop who quoted me around $2,000 for parts & labor based on their analysis. Unfortunately they would not remove the bumper or dig deep into the repair unless i committed to having them repair it which I did not want to do.. It was my front end (bumper, grill inserts, fenders, headlights, fog lights and some other stuff behind the bumper). I left my truck at the repair shop where the insurance adjuster came and tried to write me a check for $2200. I was not happy with this, i drove my truck home immediately after the phone call, ripped my bumper and fenders off, and insisted that the insurance adjuster come back and re-evaluate. She was not happy about this at all, but when she saw the damage that was not originally visible she apologized and cut me a check for $3500. There was no frame damage, and I managed to fix everything myself with some glue and some MacGyvering, it turned out alright, minus the bumper. I spent $250 on an HID headlight retrofit kit from the retrofit source, and another $600 on my addicted offroad bumper (purchasing that this weekend). I pocketed $2650. Unfortunately my insurance rate has gone up :/ I too was not looking to make money out of this situation, just wanted my truck to be back in decent looking condition, but i think things worked out in my favor. Just some food for thought.

 

I appreciate the information and I'm sorry to hear that. How long did it take until the insurance part was over? I am hoping to get my truck back together asap! I don't know what they will offer on my truck, and I'm thinking it's probably not going to be much, but I hope enough to get it fixed up. I was going to take it to the shop and have them repair it, but since there are mostly aftermarket parts on it, I didn't want to hear that they think this caused it. I don't know if this would be the case, but insurance companies say to leave the vehicle stock (I have been told this on numerous occasions). Did your rate go up a lot? I am worried about that, but I figure it's worth it to get it fixed!

 

You make some good points I did not mention. Each instance is a little different than the next. You are right that you have to be diligent and use your brain here. The insurance company is going to try and buy out for as little as possible. If you do not agree with the first offering, it is in your rights to say no and get a 2nd opinion. A lot of companies like to get 3 quotes to make sure they are all the same repairs. In this case, he can't drive his truck so it will be a little harder.

Do what you are comfortable with!!! And also make sure no matter what way you go, both lower ball joints are replaced with good Toyota joint's, not crappy box store replacement ones!

 

The day after my accident I reported it to my insurance. From that point it took a little over a week, maybe 10 days or so, for the check to show up. My rate did go up quite a bit, I'm not sure how much but I was already a "high risk driver"... male 18-25, several prior accidents, and lots of speeding tickets. It wasn't too bad before but I think this accident was when my insurance folks decided it was time to stick it to me. I'm getting ready to order a dash-camera. Had I had one installed, the accident would not have been deemed my fault.

 

That sounds like a pretty good idea! I am hoping that my rate doesn't go up too much. I think all of my tickets should be off my record by now, and I am 28 so I have my fingers crossed that it doesn't change much . I was speaking to my insurance company and they were saying that the adjuster will write the check on the spot. I was shocked when i heard that.

 

You were going slow when this happened I'm assuming , but the damage looks worse than what it is , the CV axle is where you'd expect to find it it just pops back in but check the retainer clip/ring to make sure its not flat on edge, should be round, other than that I'd throw it back together & drive it while looking for the other pieces needed no big thing really

Just replace BOTH sides & get alignment checked at least when done

 

Yes, be sure you get the other sides LBJ replaced as well. Since this one has failed, the other could go at any time. And I guarantee you they wont total it. Especially being a 4 door, they are worth a bunch haha

 

Those Kings look broken for sure!!! You better sell them to me for $200 to help pay for the fix... haha.

Good luck with getting your truck fixed!

 

Haha, I have already had someone ask if I part it out if they can have them. I have no intention of parting it out or letting it sit lol. This thing will be fixed and good as "new" just as soon as the insurance guy gets here.

Thanks for all your help everyone! I would like to get quotes from a body shop as I know that the adjuster will low ball it, but I will be happy as long as it gets fixed.

 

I have the adjuster meeting me at 3pm on Monday so hopefully all goes well. Thanks all for your input!

 

i went through this...twice..this summer. Both sides failed a month apart.

First time:

Frank-3.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
Frank.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

second time:

SOSMeet-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr
SOSMeet-22.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr

I did all the repairs myself. Was less then 500 both times in parts, i just went to junk yards and got parts.

the most expensive part is the the LBJs themselves. Get OEM ONLY. so that'll be 200 bucks there.

Junk yards are your friend for anything else damaged.

Took me a while to do it all myself, the second time, in part due to experience and i had my dad helping we did it all in 11 hours. THat included welding the steering rack mount back on on the passenger side.

If you do take it to a shop, go to toyota, if insurance is gonna pay for it, you'll want ALL OEM parts for this stuff.