Another.....Rear shock mount broke off my frame today... Is my frame junk? Thread....

The frame replacement program ended in 2020 for all 1st gen Tacomas. It was only good for 15 years after the in-service date of the vehicle, so only 2004 Tacomas qualified through 2019 anyway. Nothing Toyota is going to do about it now unfortunately, though they did offer a big window for it for awhile.

Not that it matters now, but the "cold weather state" qualifier only meant that people in those states had to meet more criteria for their trucks to qualify for a replacement. They had to have the inspection and coating applied otherwise Toyota wouldn't warranty them. Every other state didn't need to worry about the Toyota frame coating, if you had a frame perforation and the inspection failed, they would replace your frame, provided you were within the 15 year window.

Given now that its 2020 and their 1st gen frame replacement campaign is done, I don't see them doing anything for any of us anymore. As far as the frames go that is

 

4 Tacomas
2003 w/375k miles had a frame replacement -- 6 months later my son rolled it 3 times RIP
2002 -- frame was replaced -- everything else that wasn't replaced is rusted and rotted
2020 --- I'm going to be using fluid film on this to try and curb the rust. Got surface rust on parts already and it's only got 500 miles.
1996 --- the reason I went out and bought a 2020. This 96 is my sons truck he was away for air force training for 6 months and asked me to drive it every week rather than just let it sit. I put about 1000 miles a month on it and then right before he came home I heard clunking coming from the rear passenger side. Crawled under -- frame snapped at the shock mount. I went out and bought a 20 sr and gave him my 02 so he had something to drive. Heres pics


Pulled the bed to assess the frame. Drivers side seems pretty good. I'm wondering if I should get the autorust safe t cap? Anyone have suggestions. I'm also wondering if the leaf spring hanger in that last pic is the next victim.. any thoughts before I start trying to fix this mess????

 

The good news is that I FINALLY FOUND MY VACUUM LEAK. P0171 has been plaguing this truck for a year. I replaced the vacuum lines, maf, filters... could not figure it out. After pulling the bed--- there was a small vacuum line detached from the e locking rear. Go figure -- I would have never thought to look there. I spent hours under the hood chasing this down to no avail.

 

The trouble is you strike an arc and find out fast that you have no good metal anywhere near .

 

Great.. wonder if I should do a reinforcement plate that is custom fabbed instead. I would like to get those safe t caps and be done with it. Seems like a pretty good option but I don't want to buy the replacement cap only to find out that I can't use it

 

The rot really only seems to be concentrated in that one area. Drivers side looks and feels solid

 

same here. Drivers side seems ok....but the passenger side is in the same shape as yours. Ripped completely out.
Seems like an odd way to mount the top of the shock. its mounted thorugh the frame on the drivers side. The passengers side they welded it do the top of the frame.

 

I'm probably going to get the safe t cap and shock mount and give it a try. I'll keep my fingers crossed on the leaf spring hanger section of the frame.

 

Ita ashame -- the rest of the truck is in really good shape for a 96. Very little rust anywhere else

 

Hey man. I am in the same boat. Truck only had 135k on it. Frame was crap. I found a used excellent condition frame for $1100. You can pretty easily lift the cab and drive train off and roll a new frame under it.

 

Good point. Im not looking to sink any more money into this truck -- especially since I have 3. I was actually looking to sell it before this happened. My plan was always to get a 3rd gen, but not the way I wound up doing it. $1100 is actually pretty cheap but about $900 more than I want to spend for a repair. Im going to get the safety cap and shock mount. I'll disclose the repair if I sell it, or just keep it and use it as a crap wagon

 

same thing happened to my 2000 4runner. i had a lot of money into it and i loved it, but could not find a reputable shop to fix it. many shops declined the work because of the liability (?) which i thought was strange, but also kind of makes sense. the cost of frame replacement or shipping the truck to a good shop was just not worth it to me.

i ended up selling it on craigslist. i was very open and honest about the frame rot and the buyer inspected it before buying. he was confident he could fix it himself, so he bought. if you end up needing to sell, i don't think you will have a problem as long as you dont try to hide anything from the buyer.

 

Yeah. No need to hide stuff from people. I ain't like that. I also would like to have it in good running condition and safe if I do wind up trying to sell. It's got 260k so I think $2000 would be a fair price. If I cant get that after the repair then I'll hang on to it and use it for crappy weather, hauling mulch/stone, or just an extra vehicle. Either way I gotta get it in safe driving condition.

 

That is where i am at as well. I need to pull the box to see how bad it is but once i pull that.....get the cap and start grinding away to clean up all other exposed areas.

I am thinking i might get a few more years out of it. Sadly my dreams of getting to 300+k will never happen....but i sure would like to at least get to 200k

 

Toyota gave everyone 15 years to get it squared away.

 

I guess that's for your lawyers to discuss with Toyota. I think you've beaten that horse with TW posts, tho.

 

I don't understand how someone can let it get this far and not notice. I also can't understand why mechanics who work on cars/trucks don't say anything when they see something like this.

 

My god that's frustrating, especially when I'm sure shops have seen it thousands of times before. Say something for fucks sake.

 

A lot of you guys clearly don't live in salty states/rust belt. The frame goes from looking like it has surface rust (pretty normal) to being perforated pretty quickly. The progression is exponential. You can see that before the shock mount broke, OP's frame just looked a little bit rusty - it wasn't until the shock mount broke and he hit the frame with a hammer that you could tell it was so brittle/rusty. It's really no bueno

 

Well that's not fair to say, he has an undercoating on it that hides it pretty well. You can definitely tell by looking at a bare frame that something's up.