How far gone is my frame?

I discovered this on my 2006 TRD OR. Inner flange of the drivers side member. I'm trying to think about remaining life in this frame before it is essentially dangerous to drive. As far as I know, I am beyond the frame recall 15 year cutoff, unless there is some extension I don't know about.

A little backstory: This truck spent most of it's years in Seattle where there isn't much road salt used (they use chemical deice fluids), but relocated to Boston area ~5 years ago. The frame was in great shape at that point in time, but the local dealership did the undercoating recall. It looked good for a few months but the undercoating peeled quickly within the first year, and I swear it accelerated the corrosion process.

Anyhow, curious to get some thoughts about how bad this is all things considered. E.g., can I expect to get a couple more years out of it or will it rapidly deteriorate?

 

She's ded

 

Shes already done, I wouldn't keep driving it. Maybe look into doing the frame replacement service campaign?

 

Burnt toast

 

You could get a replacement
Not sure how hard it is to replace
What does rest of frame look like



Oh my bad
It’s the frame - not good

 

Ouch

 

It’s gone far enough that you know where “Not” to lift it from or place jack stands.
As for how safe it is, I can’t comment.
Some peoples “safe” is different from others.

 

The rest of the frame is definitely superficially corroded but no other perforations like this one. Either way, this seems pretty major.

So if the dealership offers me a $4500 trade in value, I should maybe consider myself lucky? I don't have time to part it out.

 

That's way gone dude, the qualifying hole size for the recall was anything dime sized or greater! https://youtu.be/zflAbV8J00k?t=25

 

take the money and run

 

If you don’t have the time to part it out.
You might try selling as a complete parts truck.
But it’s an 06’, so $4,500 might not be a bad deal?

 

If a dealer looks under that truck you'll either get a 'we don't want it' response or whatever number they give you will be how much you overpaid for what you bought. As in they really aren't going to pay you anything. They are not in the part out business either.

Exception. If one of staff (including sales) are a gearhead, see and like your truck otherwise, they may tell the dealmaker I'll pay $x for it if you take it in trade. There's all kinds of things that can be done with it, but it takes time, space, tools and knowledge.

If that frame died in 5 years, I'd recommend a different plan of protection/prevention for the next vehicle of choice.

Regardless, best of luck!

 

How many miles did she have?

 

I would take the paper work from the frame coat to a dealer and show them that frame, should qualify for new frame.

 

Gone, done.

And 5 years? I imagine it was exposed for much longer than that based on severity.

 

You can treat these frames till the cows come home. But if you aren't flooding those boxed sections with some kind of rust inhibitor you're wasting your time. These thing rot from the inside out.

 

chemical deicer has salt in it. it's even worse that regular salt...that frame is long gone

 

Around 260,000 miles

 

Chemical deicers are sometimes worse for corrosion (but better than salt for the environment) - I've seen them eat through aluminum and lower grades of stainless steel. And the undercoat likely accelerated the process.

Anyway, find an off-road fabrication shop (the kind that can do cab mount chops). They can cut/grind away the flakey rust parts and weld in a patch. Then coat it with POR15 and cosmoline. That'll get you a few more years.