Broken centering pin?

F#@* me, it might actually be the frame...look at these pictures. the first one is of the left side of the truck, and the second one is of the right side...look to the left side of the second picture(rear of the truck) it looks like there is a ripple in the metal. please tell me it's supposed to look like that

 

any ideas on what to do? looks like i'm going to have to get the frame bent back if that's possible. start at the dealer maybe and see what they say?????

 

Get a BFH, either for the frame, or the head of the person who sold it to you.

 

truck was baught bran new january 6, 2007 with 4 miles on it. unfortunately they guy i baught it from no longer works there.

 

Find his manager

 

will do, i started out frustrated....but now i'm just pissed. can toyota fix that kind of thing?

 

The frame can likely be straightened by a good body shop with a frame puller. Your bigger issue is proving that it was that way when you bought it.

 

tell me about it...2 weeks ago (under warranty) i would have been better off. after i get it straightened, asuming i can, would it be a good idea to weld a plate on top of the unbent area just in case it was weakened?

 

i think i'm going to stop by toyota today and see what they think. i haven't done anything to my knowledge that would cause this, so i think they need to help me out (they'll think otherwise). but then i'll be calling around.

 

Don't forget the BFH

 

I actually have an ax mounted in the bed of the truck...that shall suffice.





i'm asuming that frame pulling is pricey...do you think insurance would help with this kind of thing?

 

Ax handle...good.


The price on the pull depends on how bad and where it is. Could be $100, could be $1000. Insurance will want to know how it happened.

 

no one ahs ever borrowed my truck. both of my parents as well as my girlfriend have driven it, but i was always in the truck with them, and it was on road.

i just got back from the dealership. i was able to talk to the head service manager. he said he's never seen that on a truck from the factory. he was very surprised when i said it had never been in a wreck or been wheeled (little fib on the second part, but i'm very careful off road.) he said that it takes a 45 mph crash minimum usually to bend a frame.

so we went back into his office and made an agreement. he's going to contact the regonal toyota rep and give me a call later today or tomorrow about when the rep will be able to come see my truck. so whenever that day may be (next two weeks) i will bring it in and they will put it on the alignment stand (for free). it will then be shown to the rep that the frame is bent and the rear alignment is off.

he said if the rep is able to confidently say that it was a factory defect (by looking at my insurance and various other things to see that it's never crashed and i have had zero traffic tickets, meaning i'm a careful driver) he will then let toyota know that it was in fact bent from the factory, and toyota will pay for part/all of the cost to fix the frame....even though it is out of warranty. he told me this would be his ideal scenario...we'll see if it actually happens.

he did say though that there is a better chance of toyota helping me out right now becasue of the 1st gen rust problem. he said they are pretty sensitive about their truck frames at the moment and have been getting a lot of the frame swaps, per order by toyota