A few problems in a used taco I just bought

You're confusing used car sales with real estate...LOL

 

Did you run a carfax on it or did he supply one? They usually have some guarantee if the car is wrecked and they report it clean they will buy it.

 

Carfax was clean.

Took It to the autobody shop, he said the bumps are dust under the paint- very poor job.

Took it to the frame shop, they said it's good. No signs underneath of serious damage.

The previous owner probably scratched the shite out of it and paid a dude 20 bucks to repaint it.

Really upset I'm stuck with a lousy paint job though....

 

Factory warranty will not cover warped rotors...considered wear and tear.

 

He might have had it off road and was a little rough on it. Sounds like it needs a little tweak here and there. Thing is everything should be adjustable somewhat. Key is to figure out what is correct and adjust the stuff that is not correct. Like is it the fender or is just the hood not adjusted correctly. Look at the underside of the hood hinges. Has the hinge bolts been taken off. It will have marks on the bolts if it has.

Impossible to take that off without leaving some clue that is has been removed.

Warped rotor fix. Ya you can fix them. There is no reason why they cannot be made flat again. If they where really bad maybe it might not last but it don't sound like it's bad. If you just notice it going really slow I would not worry about it. If you use the brakes correctly they will wear flat again. Don't let them get hot. Don't ride the brakes.

The moral of the story:

Get your truck inspected before you buy it not after. It needs some work, big deal, so do it and you'll have a fine machine but if you had noticed those problems before hand you may have been able to get a sweet deal.

 

I just took my '09 Acura TSX with 30K miles to the dealership with warped rotors. The replaced them, no questions asked. I also have had two different Fords in the past that had rotor problems. They never gave me any trouble taking care of the problem. They both had around 15-20k miles when I took them in. I would be very disappointed if Toyota didn't provide similar service.

 

Few things:

First, do further digging like everyone suggested (suspension parts, bent joints on the body, frame check, ect). That's your first major indication.

Also, it's not all doom and gloom, it really could be nothing.

Paint: You're in snow country, it's possible it got scratched bad either on a trail, parking lot, someone keyed it... who knows. The shop that repainted it (if it was) may have done a craptastic job, perhaps there is some surface rust under it that caused the spotting due to poor prep... probably not a huge deal. Worst case is a repaint (or upgrade to widebody buahahaha).

Hood alignment: Could just be the two adjustments are off (look under the hood for two rubber cylindar screw things, play around with them to get it aligned right).

Door alignment: The access cab doors can be adjusted. I had to have my 08 adjusted a few times because it worked loose out in the desert. It'd throw the gap lines a little off, not horribly but visible on a close inspection. Easy fix. Remember the suicide door setup is no where near as strong as a B pillar.

Honestly (of course only based off your descriptions as there's no pics or in person inspection)... you're probably fine and over analyzing it

The vibrations, is it a constant drone while the engine is running or an intermittent thing? I know the A/C compressor kicks the truck around a little on engage/disengage... the abs system primes itself... there are a few systems that can cause a little vibe if you're being hyper aware.

 

Thanks to all of your for your input.

I took the truck to another autobody shop today, and they said that it is dust in the clear coat. It can be removed by wetsanding.

The guy must have scratched it up pretty bad in the one year he owned it, so he got a cheapo paint job to fix his resale value.

Oh well, its all cosmetic, and I can get it fixed if I choose.