Should I buy newer

Keep your truck since it’s paid off and invest that money into a low cost index fund instead of another car payment.

 

I wonder how much of this applies to the 5th gen 4runner. In my head, they’re the same vehicle

 

Bookmarked, thanks for that!
And to OP, keep that 2015, hard to replace those.

 

I have your truck: 2015 DCSB TRD sport with 208k miles. I just chased down and fixed a front end clunk that was mostly coming from driver’s side. My clunk was also low speed and heard when weight was shifted in the truck around a light turn in a parking lot, or when a small bump was hit. There is not much that you need to swap out to ensure that clunk will go away. I don’t know what your clunk is like without driving your truck, but here are my recommendations roughly listed in order of what to look for first, in my opinion(!):

1) As others have mentioned, check (or have your mechanic check) for bad ball joints and bushings in your upper and lower control arms. But, if a mechanic has looked at it and says it looks good, I’m willing to bet that the ball joints and bushings are in decent shape since that is an obvious place that any mechanic should be looking once the wheels are off the ground. If you need to replace a lower ball joint, might be easiest to just buy an entire new OEM lower control arm ($350 each).

-as a side note, I’ve read about many clunks related to loose cam bolts on the lower control arms, make sure these are torqued to spec (100 ft lbs I believe). Some people torque them up to 120-130 ft lbs.

2) Another more obvious place to look for looseness: coil over assembly (shocks and springs)

3) Warped brake rotors due to overtorqued lug nuts? I think this was also mentioned before.

4) Is truck lifted? Any high speed vibrations? If so, you could have a little play in the axle that could be resolved by installing the ECGS “clamshell” bearing ($60 part).

5) You want to double check CV axles for play - especially if it is lifted on stock CVs. 2 top end rebuilt OEM CV axles from CVJ will cost $500-650 depending on if they are for a lifted truck or not.

6) Especially if lifted, make sure your sway bar isn’t hitting your shocks or coils. Can install a sway bar relocater in 15 mins for $40. Also check/replace the sway bar endlinks. This is super cheap and easy to do. Probably $40-$100 depending on if you go MOOG vs OEM.

7) STEERING components. This was the one that fixed it for me. I swapped out inner and outer tie rods and boots on both sides with full OEM (total cost: $550) and replaced the stock rack bushings with Energy Suspension polyurethane rack bushings ($80). Front end feels like new after this for me.

8) If none of these appear to be the issue, it could be the body mounts. I’ve read a lot of stories about clunks coming from the front core wall radiator support body mounts just ahead of your front wheels. You can check these by sticking a pry bar in there to determine if there is a lot of play in the bushing. There are 4 more mounts that support the body. You can replace all 6 of these mounts with energy suspension polyurethane body mounts (parts $100-$150). If you take it to a shop, labor hours might get pricey here. Not sure what they would charge you.. I’m guessing in the neighborhood of 3-6 hours for all 6.

I may be biased because it fixed it for me, but I think the steering components may be your issue. Especially the rack bushings… after 200k miles. Rack bushing swap is about 3 hours of labor, and it won’t cost you much/any more labor to swap out the tie rods at the same time. That’s $630 in parts and 3 hrs of shop labor, so maybe $1100 for all new OEM steering with poly bushings… not to mention these are wearable components that might be good to replace after 200k miles anyways if they are still all
originals.

Just want to echo what others are saying: 2014-2015 are perhaps the best years for Tacoma. All the early 2nd gen issues were sorted, you get the 4.0 liter, better transmission than 3rd gen, and less stuff to break compared to the newer models (tried and true tech). I plan on taking mine to 400-500k miles.

 

What a great rundown of what could be the culprit(s) for his clunking issue, and the quote posted above is where I'm at, at 190k miles my 2015 still runs and handles so well, just one solid mofo of a truck. I've had several Toyotas and this one feels like it could go 400k without too much trouble.

 

Thanks @blnewt

Just my opinion of course, but I’d keep the truck and invest some money at 200k miles to keep it going another 100-200k. Once mine was paid off, I kept putting money aside each month for about a year so I could re-invest in the truck to keep it going. Followed the maintenance schedule above for the most part. Other things you might consider replacing at 200k miles, though it may be overkill:
-belt, pulleys, tensioner, radiator hoses, thermostat and water pump
-swap any fluid (brake, power steering) that hasn’t been changed in 100k+ miles or 10 years
-might be time to swap tie rods and rack bushings if it’s never been done and the steering isn’t tight
-check/replace body mounts

This is in addition to getting done the regular maintenance if it hasn’t been done in some time. Some important maintenance items that should be prioritized: sparkplugs, transmission fluid, diff/xfer-case fluid

 

Fix it. You know the history of your ride. You don't know the history of the other one.

2 yrs ago all in all I dropped about $4k into mine. Mostly wear or stuff expected, but either way I was fine with it.