Used tacoma, many issues

So I just picked up a 2000 trd sr5 last week and it needs some love to say the least. Thankfully I think I can do most of the work myself.
From the looks of things both front axles are shot. 3 of the 4 boots are torn, grease everywhere. Upper and lower ball joints are shot on both sides. Tie rods are questionable. Sway bay end links look nasty too. And I'm leaking oil on the driver side where the axle goes into the front diff. Which, based on my research means there is a seal that's gone bad.

My question is could the lift cause all this excessive wear? Its got 2+" blocks in the rear and I'm guessing taller knuckes up front for what looks like 4" of lift. I'm wondering if the cv angles are too extreme... Hopefully the pics have enough detail.

 

How many miles does she have? And yes a lift can cause more wear on your Cv joints, upper and lower ball joints, etc.

 

Hope you didn't pay more than 500.00 for it. Damn.

 

Just shy of 220000. I forgot to mention that it shifts into 4wd fine, but when taking it out of 4wd there is a long delay and a significant jolt/jerk for it to shift out. Not sure what that might be.

 

Also here is the front shock. and some of the knuckle if someone can tell if the knuckle is in fact longer.

 

is that a big crack in the housing im seeing? I think THATS your oil leak



sounds like all you have there is a body and frame and you damn near need everything else replaced and or fixed on it.

also, a word of caution on the TRD thing, I would guestimate that 60% of all trucks with those stickers calling themselves TRD are not "real" and somebody just put a cool sticker on it and called it one just to sell it easier.

I hope you didn't over pay because I see major $$$ being spent to get it all sorted but you will have a great truck when you are done. just sounds like some young kid or just someone who didn't care, rode this thing into the ground.

 

Frame is good. I think that this thing has just been neglected for a while now.

 

Yea that's normal wear and tear for a lift but the whole front axle really shouldn't do that. I'm guessing this guy went a little crazy when it came to off-roading. And my truck doesn't do a jolt/jerk when shifting out of 4WD. My light will take a while to come off but not my transfer case. That might be your front axle again.

 

With all that stuff wrong with the front end, I'd consider a straight axle conversion! Perfect candidate!

 

It does look like a big nasty crack in the diff housing!!
Is it!?!?

 

That crack is definitely the predominant feature of that diff. My thoughts in order as I looked at the pics.

1. Decent looking truck,
2. Those boots are shot.
3. Look at that crack, and then looked at the text to see you hadn't mentioned it.

That's more of a concern than your shocks, which look shot.

$10 says previous owner was a fan of jumping his truck. While all that can be from deferred maintenance and a bad diff casting, it has the overall look of a young driver and abuse.

 

Lol me too!!

 

from the outside its a great looking truck but need$$ a lot of work to get that front end fixed and whos knows about the rest looks like the previous owner just beat the hell out of it, its a shame great looking truck

 

Wow the previous owner really beat it to the ground what a lack. Seeing you have this many issues it a pain but save little more and get a sas kits in the long run its a win win no worry 'bout cv axles wear and tear

 

I didn't even notice that crack until I just went back and looked at the pic again. UGH!!!

Well now that changes thing quite a bit. I'll have to get under there again to take a closer look. Now I wonder if the leak is actually from the crack rather than what I thought was the axle seal.

I wonder what a new diff would cost or if It would be cheaper to go sas. Nothing like going from bad to worse!! LOL. Thanks for the extra sets of eyes guys!! Who know if I would have even noticed that.

 

Well now I'm thinking I did over spend. I bought from a kid headed off to college. He only had it a year, but had bought it from his cousin. Needless to say it wasn't taken care of. In addition to the front suspension and drive shafts, the valve covers are leaky, rear diff seams to be seeping from the full plug and I don't know if the timing belt has ever been done. So as it stands now the front end is going to be the bulk of my issues.

 

Have you checked your rear suspension yet god only knows how bad that might be as well. While your replacing everything wrong with it might as well get some new uca's and LCAS to replace I'm sure those haven't ever been touched either

 

If you bought it for a project truck then a project it is

 

not to worry too much, there are lots of wrecked parts trucks out there and some with bad frames where you should be able to source just about anything you need.

this is what I would do, buy a parts truck and swap the entire driveline from bumper to bumper then put new suspension all the way around.

the only scary thing I would worry about is if the truck is in that bad a shape I assume the motor wasn't taken care of at all so check compression on all cylinders to see where you are at before spending any money on anything. if the engine has compression issues then I would sell it as a parts truck to get what you can back out of it and move on.

what did you pay for it? that matters the most for advice on what to do or not do with it

 

I spent 5800 on it. I knew it had some issues before buying it. I wasn't able to determine where the leak was coming from at the time because the skid plate was in the way, but figured it was worth a shot. I think this just went from manageable to somewhat major.