Looking at buying a 2013 4.6

first post here! So ive been hunting for a truck. not an easy task during covid times. i may have found my truck but id like to run it by you all first.

here are the details, then ill get onto my questions and specifics:

2013 Toyota Tundra 4WD Double Cab -
4.6 V8 engine –
6 1/2 ft. bed
One Owner,
Only 35,000 miles
Asking $26,500 o.b.o.
Tow Package
Bedliner T
Dual Climate Control
4 new tires
New battery

i spoke with the lady, she hauled horses to the vet a few times, hardly used it. mileage seems insanely low.

tow rate is plenty for me. i plan on towing a ton of woodstove pellets a few times a year(short distance), and a rzr in an enclosed trailer a few times a year(400 miles round trip). would love the 5.7, but really dont neeed it. my main main concern is reliability. main sub concern with that is rust. she said it has no rust. sent me pics and it really has no rust outside of very light surface rust.

ive read some horror stories about rust on this era toyotas, but ive also read that by this point you'd see signs if it was going to be one of the nightmare trucks? but then again its only got 35k on it so maybe it wont show these signs?

this is going to be my second vehicle and likely see about 7k miles a year, so i really dont want to end up with a rust bucket in 5 years when the engine only has 60k on the clock.

any other semi common issues to look for? even if they are just things to let me haggle the price down? i read something about secondary air injectors and cam towers. as soon as i look further i get a bit overwhelmed.

last truck i had was a ford 5.4L.. bought it in similar condition... less than 100k on it and i needed to drop 4k on the motor for some rather common nonsense that everyone on the forums dismissed as not a big deal.

thanks yall!

 

The Ford 5.4 motor issues are no fun! Typically you fix the cam phaser on those and then the tyranny goes out.

I would pay for a pre purchase inspection at minimum. Are you in the rust belt?

You could use a borescope that plugs into your phone to look around the back of the cam towers to see if they are leaky. The air injection system will make itself known with a check engine light when it fails.

As always, post photos of what you're looking at!

 

thanks for the quick response!!!

lol, so i bought the ford from someone llving in the sticks... upon seat removal to find the door lock code, i found reciepts from philadelphia scrap yards. turned out to be a scrap hauling truck. 1000k after i bought it the phasers went... and then the tranny started hard shifting out of overdrive. never trusted the truck enough to use it. definitely took a hit on selling that one. live and learn i suppose.

so i hear the cam towers are just a bit of a hassle and typically just require minimal top offs? i dont mind keeping an eye on the level and topping off a quart here and there if that is the case. or are they on the level of the jeep 4.0? lol. no warning signs on the air injection?

yes... im in rural/suburban PA. so not a whole lot of snow, but they salt and pretreat the shit out of everything. heaven forbid karen cant get kids to soccer practice driving the same speed as normal. lol. so yeah. rust is definitely the main concern.

 

Man, it really depends on how mechanically inclined you are. Resealing the cam towers on your own isn't impossible, but it's not super easy. If you've done valve shim adjustments before one something like an I4 motorcycle or a Honda, it's NBD. On the air pump thing, there's a bypass kit you can get to tell the car that everything is OK, even if the pump has kicked the bucket. It's a pretty easy installation.

For rust, fluid film is your friend!

 

well, i was more thinking... how big is the cam tower issue, as in... can i just let it leak? ive delt with some cars with some pretty substantial oil leaks. id rather it not need to "check the gas, fill the oil", lol... but if it leaks a little and i need to routinely check levels, im not going to be heartbroken.

seems like fluid film is a preventative, not a fix... as with most rust stuff. is the rust on these something that can be seen, or is it a boxed frame where the issues start from the inside and you dont see them till its baaad.

i posted this to another forum and everyone seems to be ragging on how expensive it is. $25k. for the life of me, i havent found anything even remotely close to that price, let alone, cheaper. but its kind of killing my enthusiasm to even go look at it. i mean, i know if i dont get it, the thing will be gone in a weeks time... but damn if i dont feel like im throwing away money when others are saying its a $17k truck.

 

If the 5.4 ford pulled your loads, the 4.6 will pull them even better. Ive towed with both. 4.6 has plenty of power! Good luck

 

That price would be a very, very good deal where I live. I looked at roughly the same truck with more mileage for nearly $30k.

 

that makes me feel a lot better to be honest. im located in eastern PA. i havent been looking at the classifieds every single day, but most days. and this is by far the cheapest ive found. people keep piling on though saying the truck was only 33k new, no way 7 years should only drop it 6k. etc etc.

of course they are also trying to get me to go buy a new one for 38k. lol. its my secondary vehicle. no way that's happening.

 

You wouldbe surprised at how many have cam tower leaks and don't even know it. I had a 2013 with the 4.6 until a couple of months ago. It was solid as a rock. The only thing replaced was wiper blades and the battery.

 

that's great to know. the 5.4 definitely hauled what i needed it to, with absolute ease(till it would break down, lol). even my friends ford f-150 with the 4.6 was fine towing the same stuff i tow. honestly, i could probably get away with a subaru outback with the turbo. it has a 3500lb tow rating. my rzr probably weighs about 2k, and the trailer another 800. add in humans and a weekend full of gear and youre getting pretty close to the max. too close for my comfort.

 

I found a 2015 with 40K on it less than a year ago for under 20K and got in the car that day and drove 5 hours away to try to snag it!

Sure it is a longbed regular cab which is pretty rare but exactly what I had been looking for too and maybe I was the only guy even looking at it?

All I am trying to say us that these can be tough enough to find that if you think its a good deal don’t wait around.

 

I would never use a vehicle to tow with a CVT, which I believe is what that Subaru would have.

 

welp. put money down to hold it till i can get back down there when the notaries are open. pretty stoked. zero rust whatsoever. ran super strong, couldnt find any oil leaking. looked new. the owners were an elderly couple so im certain the thing was babied. it still had plastic down in the back, lol.

bit bummed that it was the doublecab not the crewmax. dont need the longer bed and bummed i have no rear roll down window, lol. but it will work fine for me. now onto the fun stuff....

• the biggest thing is figuring out how i want to add bluetooth, cause thats something i cant do without. id love to stick with the stock radio, but if i have to get a basic bitch aftermarket, that's fine too.
• a cheap tonneau cover. nothing expensive cause its literally just to keep stuff dry for our trips to the cabin. looking to stay under 300. i saw a brand a few people liked was tyger. looks to be 230 for the tri fold soft cover.
• seat cover for the rear for the pups...
• cheap-ass seat cover for the drivers seat just cause it seems like that is something that always wears out on cars.
• and i think i saw something about themaking the rear seats fold down that i might want to look into.
• switching so one of the 12v outlets is "always on"
• figuring out the headlights. ive grown very attached to lights that come on automatically when its dark... i heard there is an option to just leave the lights on 24/7, where they shut off when you turn off the truck, which would be great.

 

ohh, and since i havent met a forum that doesnt like pics.

https://imgur.com/a/Sivpl8H

 

Congrats! I have the 4.6L myself and it’s plenty of power, given I don’t tow. Mine is a 2012 and I got it this year. As far as rust, it lived in Alaska its whole life parked outside and the only rust is surface rust where the u-bolts connect to the rear axle. I did have to do the SAIP fix with the Hewitt kit (works like a charm).

 

If your truck has that feature, the headlights should turn off 30 seconds after the ignition is switched off, or immediately, if the lock button is pushed.

Conventional Auto On-Off headlights can also be an easy mod. Details and difficulty will vary depending on your MY and trim level. Several thread/file references in the following thread link:

https://www.tundras.com/threads/auto-on-off-headlights.73839/#post-1892518

Note that @Wynnded has done the auto on-off headlights mod on a Gen2.

Welcome from the Texas Hill Country.

 

phew. the 2nd gen that wynnded did is awesome, but pretty damn intense. not really interested in going that route. and it seems like the plug and play is only the 3rd gen. i sure as hell hope mine has the feature that shuts the lights off after exiting the car, cause i hope to just run with the lights on 24/7. i did the vin lookup at toyota, and they dont really do a great job of telling you what features the trucks have. at this point its my biggest concern with the vehicle. as silly as that sounds. i honestly didnt think they made vehicles without auto-on headlights anymore. even my bare bones 2010 corolla has it.