Frame rust recall

15 years from in service date, so for example my truck in service date was sometime in October 2006, so the coverage will be until October 2021.

 

Got my inspection scheduled in about a week. 'Unfortunately' did undercoat my truck with Rust Bullet just months prior to the service campaign going public back in fall 2013. Most of the frame, main rails for instance look brand new as they were easy to get to and prep well, but under the engine and around the open c channel by the fuel tank and rear wheels was a different story and much more difficult to do a proper prep and paint job and it shows now. Those sections paint is peeling off and rust shows underneath. What I also don't like which is hard to see is there are spots where the bottom lip of the c frame around the rear wheels seems to be splitting. Is that cause for concern as I would think water trapped in there will only accelerate the process. Especially the back area, I can start peeling off chunk of paint and uncover rust. Did not take a spare off yet to take a look at the cross members, but found a chunk fallen off on top of the spare so most likely won't be great. While most of the frame looks great after my rust paint job, some sections not so much?? Lot of areas around the back of the frame I could uncover rust under chipping paint...

 

Dropped the truck at the dealership today to get my frame replaced.
here is the worst spot on the frame

 

Did you have a perforation on your frame or was it just surface rust?

 

That was the worst spot???

 

it was really the only terrible spot and it certainly wasn't surface rust. I probed with the round end of a ballpeen hammer and there were some soft spots but no perforations visible. I didn't want to dig till I had my truck on a new frame... they had already approved the frame swap, I didn't want to make it worse before it was repaired. I'll visit the dealership for progress checks and probe in the rust then.

 

visited my truck frame today, good progress and the mechanic said he will be done on Friday.
Old Frame

Passenger side, just behind the engine

Passenger side, a little farther aft

Passenger side, further aft again, at the lower left is the front leaf spring mount

Drivers side, just behind the engine

 

Curious if you had a perforation in the frame or was it just badly rusted. My truck looked similar to yours by the leaf spring bracket. I thought to fail the "LSC" you needed to have a 10mm or larger perforation in the frame?

 

there were no perforations visible.
In a few places, it was soft when pressed with moderate pressure. That was in the areas where there was a lot of flaking on the passenger side rail.

 

I spoke with the Service Manager this morning and he said the 10mm perforation requirement was lifted late last year and they identified several areas as "excessive rust". I had rust in a few of those areas and that met the LSC requirement.


he pointed to the area on the vertical inside the rail, above the welds.

 

one of these days i'll finally get a check for the expense i submitted back in late april.... can you please confirm your address before i send this to AP? sure.. its... xxxxxxx...... i'm sorry, we mailed some place else. :faceplant.

Toyota never ceases to amaze me. can't complain too much.. out side of reg maintenance, the only issue has been a u joint and frame.

 

Dealer called to tell me that the truck is done with the frame replacement and I can come and get it... except there is a code for the VVT-i sensor/solenoid and he would replace the part for free, but it is not in till Tuesday.
I told him to keep the truck till it was right; call me Tuesday when it is ready.

 

I'm sure the others who had the "Coating" previous to this "lifted requirement" will be thoroughly piss when this is more widely known .....

 

Tacoma Jack,

My son too has a 2007 2.7 4x4. Are you having the frame replaced at AutoNation Toyota at the corner of University and 436? His frame is also being replaced, but still waiting on the frame. Had the inspection performed around mid-March this year. If that's the dealer, did they seem to know what they were doing? Turn out good other than the light coming on?

Thanks,
Mark

 

Service Manager (Stuart) and Mechanic (David) told me that David has done 8-10 frame swaps and both of them told me that he is their go-to guy. He does them now for them almost exclusively. There was another guy that did not want to do another.
I picked up the truck today and it rode well on the way home except that the brakes are too soft. I told them that I was pissed that I need to come back and wait for them to fix something that is so basic. I'm still assessing the entire effort.
They will sell other efforts pretty heavily the day after the truck is dropped off, as a result of their inspection. If there is any interest in doing any of the other work, fight hard for labor cost reductions.

 

My brakes were also soft just after frame swap but got better after a week or so. they have been fine since.

 

Thanks Jack!

 

I experienced the same thing. For me, I noticed a difference in the brakes about 2 weeks after the swap.

On another note, do they remove the transmission when they do a swap? I recently had my flywheel crack and an independent tranny mechanic noticed that a dowel pin was missing and said it was likely the cause. I'm wondering if it had to do with the swap.

 

depends on who does it. sometimes they pull the engine and transmission, other times, they leave it hanging in the body....

that said, i've not seen any pix of the engine being separated from the transmission

 

My engine/transmission were left together.
Same with the others I've seen and the youtube videos of the frame swaps.