Nothing but problems.

My journey as a Tacoma owner looks like it may soon be coming to an end. They are clearly awesome, durable trucks as people wouldn’t buy them if they weren’t, but my luck with Tacoma’s has been a little different. I owned a 2005 prior to my 2012 that had problem after problem after problem, it was every week that something different would go bad. So, I looked for something newer and with lower KM.

I stumbled upon a 2012 for sale (which is now mine), that had just over 56,000miles on it and it was in great shape. I got an inspection done at two shops before buying it because I was adamant that it needs to not cause me any more problems. When I bought the truck it was great for the first month, and then problems started to arise after 2000 miles. In the past five months I’ve owned the truck, and driven it only on pavement, here are the issues that have been fixed or still need to be fixed, and that we’re NOT present when I bought the truck:
- Lower ball joints
- Upper ball joints
- Upper control arm bushings
- rear shocks
- rear differential whine/howl
- rear axle seal
- rear wheel bearing
- front wheel bearing
- CV axle shot
- Front caliper seized up
- bad carrier bearing

As the truck sits it has 59,000 miles on it. I’m sick of these problems and after paying a lot of money for a truck in great shape I’m absolutely astonished as to how many issues it’s had for me. I don’t think I have to confidence to buy another. I’m going to be looking at other options next week...

 

There's nothing like a host of problems to have you running away and never looking back at a brand. I will never buy another modern Ford truck again after my experience with 1 truck. Sorry to hear about your problems.

It's a bummer, but many of your problems sound like things that could be caused by a neglectful previous owner. Mud, mag chloride, road salt and lots of off-roading without service or care (washing, lubing) could be the cause of a lot of these problems. Unfortunately, you never know how the truck was truly treated or how honest the seller is when buying a used truck. With a little care (pressure washing and anti-rust coating), at least you or the newer owner won't need to replace your list of items for another 200,000 km's or more.

 

I had the same reaction to my first generation Frontier (2005) at 100,000 everything from the transmission to the fuel system to the window motors went bad. In the last 10,000 miles I spent $6000. I understand your frustration. I never looked at the Frontier's again.

 

2012 huh?
Just wait till this one kicks in lol https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-switching-valve.381997/page-51#post-20486081

 

Was the truck stock or modified?

 

OP: where do you live and how much?

 

As someone mentioned prior, those items are definitely signs of an owner that drove their vehicle a bit hard. A good portion of these issues could have been from the vehicle being left in water for some time(wheel bearings and diff issues). Suspension is cheap if you buy second hand parts. A large portion of owners here have had no issues with their trucks and have had them function flawlessly. Wouldn't let a sour apple deter you from an otherwise excellent brand/vehicle.

 

Stock

 

You bought a used truck not knowing how the previous owner treated it. That is the gamble you take when buying used. I bought my '11 used with 10K miles on it, sitting at 93K now with no issues. My guess is previous owner worked the snot out of that truck.

 

Most of the problems you list are suspension related. I wonder if that truck was lifted for most of its mileage and then returned to stock before being sold? The lift parts were probably resold.

 

this

 

And this is why you never buy used. You never know how the previous owner treated it

 

It sounds like that truck sits the overwhelming majority of the time and is outside in a rust state.
All of those issues seem to come from rust and lack of use.

This is why I don’t buy low mileage vehicles. Vehicles not driven will come with a host of issues regularly or overdriven vehicles don’t have.

 

Where are you located? I want to buy it

 

How much did that independent inspection run you? Sounds like they need a FUPA punch for not doing their job. Lots of that stuff should have shown up during the inspection.

 

None of these issues were present when you bought the truck. Who is telling you that the truck now has these problems? Sounds like maybe a shop that needs some business...?
Very hard to believe all these problems on a Tacoma with just 59k miles.
With the pre-purchase inspection, that's about the best you can do to make sure you're getting a good used vehicle. Sorry to hear the bad experience... twice

 

Rather than new - 1 or 2 years old. That way the previous owner spent all the time at the dealer waiting for warranty work already. Beyond that, finding something that has an average of 15,000 miles per year seems to be a good sweet spot.

 

This is what I thought as well after reading the laundry list of parts

 

looks like an opportunity to upgrade the suspension with a decent lift.