Looking to buy Gen 1 Sequoia 4WD with a little rust

Hi All,

Long time lurker here and first post. I am looking to buy a 2006 Sequoia with 4WD, having 170,000 miles. Car seems clean and has lived in Reno Nevada, California and Boise, Idaho. These are not the traditional rust belts.

I was worried about the rust issues, timing belt replacements primarily and have heard that these trucks are bullet proof apart from that. I know that the timing belt was replaced 20,000 miles ago and I am not to worried about that. What I am worried about are anything else that I need to look out for, specifically transmission related or 4WD related (transfer case/actuator etc.).

Can people here tell me a little bit more about how I can check that these are not issues on the truck. The other thing I need to add is that I live in California and was thinking of shipping the truck in from Idaho without actually test driving it myself but can ask the dealership to test drive it for me on video and engage 4WD if needed.

I am also attaching pictures of the undercarriage which shows a little bit of rust and was hoping that someone here might tell me if this is ok or something that I need to worry about over the next 10 years.

 

Welcome!
From what I can see, that rust isn't bad. My 04 has the same weld rust spots. Through the small holes the inside of your frame looks factory black, just like mine.

They went to a sealed transmission in 05 so maybe there is dealer history of a trans service?
How much are they asking? Good luck!

 

Thank you for your response.
They're asking 9250$ which seems reasonable for a dealership purchase.
It does not specifically say that transmission service was performed. Just says the following at 92Kmiles. There are other carfax reports where it specifically states that the transfer case was serviced.

• Recommended maintenance performed
• Brakes checked
• Timing belt tensioner/idler replaced
• Timing belt tensioner/idler checked
• Rear differential fluid flushed/changed
• Timing belt idler pulley/bearing replaced
• Thermostat housing/gasket replaced
• Thermostat replaced
• Drive belt(s) replaced
• Antifreeze/coolant flushed/changed
• Battery serviced

I got a picture from the dealership for when the timing belt was last replaced which was not on the carfax and so I am thinking that other things have been maintained as well.

Looked on the classifieds section here as well and there are very few of these for sale, with clean title and no damage/accident history.

 

Any way to make sure ahead of time that it’ll pass CA smog test? It would suck to get it and then be unable to smog it.
Otherwise, from what I see it looks clean enough rust wise.

 

I actually did not worry about this till now. I am not sure how I could do this and will look into this some more.

 

If you can get an independent inspection and that checks out, I'd say buy it.

 

Is there anything I can do to ensure that the 4WD is fine, beyond just engaging it and seeing that there are no lights that flash.

 

Nice find.

 

Frame looks decent.

 

That is not rusty by any definition for a 15 year-old vehicle, much less a Tundra/Sequoia.

Get the VIN and register it here and look at it's Toyota dealership service history...

https://www.toyota.com/owners/

 

This was very useful.

I tried this and was able to pull service records. Some of the maintenance records shows the service technician stating that there are aftermarket parts that needed fixing. This just makes me feel like the person who owned it probably tried to cheap out wherever possible which concerns me.

If he's done that there, I am sure that he would've skipped other things as well. Having second thoughts now, specially because I probably will not be able to examine the car myself and in person.

 

Howdy! Is this in Sacramento? I went to look at a bunch of trucks in the Sacramento area before I got mine (same mileage, 2wd, paid a lot more but new timing belt, Bilsteins and stereo).

The frame looks fairly similar to what I have. The price isn't bad for CA as the prices tend to be higher. Sounds like you'll have to put in a couple grand to get it up to snuff (less if you do your own wrenching).

I'd prefer to look at a truck in person. It can be an eye opener looking at a truck in person that you see in pictures, especially a 15 year old truck. I saw one which appeared clean with 100k miles and it had dents and imperfections all over the paint. I test drove another and the front end wobbled when braking. The stealership refused to acknowledge a problem and showed me some "40 point imspection" which included brakes and would not fix the brakes for the sale. Utter BS.

As for smog, the seller should be providing a valid smog certificate.

 

This is in Boise, Idaho. I am going to offer 800-1000 USD less, in case I need to get stuff done and see if they accept it.

There was a really good one a couple of weeks back in Los Angeles with 182K miles that was driven by an older lady who was the only owner. It was a 2005 limited and she had all the receipts for the maintenance, priced at 6900 USD.

I was the first guy to look at it and test drive it but wanted to take it to a dealership to have them inspect it. She had a couple more people coming by that day and refused to do so and it sold the same day.

Really think I missed out on a good deal there. Also missed out on a very nice Land Cruiser in LA for 8500 which also had all the maintenance done based on the description of the ad, sold in like 5 hours and before I could go look at it.

 

Yeah, tough call at $6,900. But if she had all the receipts you should be able to tell if the high maintenance items were taken care of and who did it. And if you drive it and it's fine, I would have taken the chance. But easy to say in retrospect...in my case I could have overpaid a little.

 

What about this one ?
Looks like the frame looks good but the axle seems bad and some of the other connecting parts look rusty. The frame seems to be treated with something that looks to have stopped the rusting.

Appreciate any input.

 

You seriously need to goto a Jeep Wrangler forum to see what real rust looks like.

Some of those guys are asking if a frame can be fixed with gap holes in it.

 

Are you saying that the last set of pictures I sent is not bad ??
The rear axle/differential looks bad along with the metal near the tow hook.

 

You need a better pic close up of the rear pumpkin. That's probably the only area I'd be concerned. The tow hook is still good and can be power wire brushed to clean it up.

 

I’ve attached a much higher resolution picture now. Do you think it’s not too bad ?

Do we know how much it would cost to replace the rear pumpkin or the entire differential in the worst case.

 

I would do a search here on leaking differential. Last I saw people were getting the whole axle at a salvage yard for something around $1200.

 

1200 is a bit. Regretting not getting the first car. Do you think I need that replacement. The other threads I’ve seen, the pumpkin is completely gone, on this I steel see some of the metal on some parts.
Also, it looks like the other parts have been treated for rust and the car’s been serviced regularly, so hoping the dealership felt that this is not too much rust.

 

Looks like it maybe had a frame replacement?
Frame does looks alright, to me, but everything else is pretty rusty.
How much is it, what are all the specs, how’s the rest of it (engine, body, interior, etc.)?

 

It’s a 2005 limited, 135k miles. Body and interior look good. It looks like the car was well taken care of with regular service and maintenance. Asking 8200$ for it.

 

Maybe you’re in luck and it won’t leak. Hard to say until you wire brush it to get rid of the loose rust. The frame does look replaced now that I look more closely. I would also check the bed under any liner. Rust has a way of eating through the bottom of the bed. You might have some issues getting the drain plug off the differential both front and rear.

 

I dont understand your reasoning here really at all?

What this says to me is that the Dealer Tech tried to get the owner to agree to bullshit work blaming it on aftermarket parts which sounds like classic dealership tactics to sell work not really needed.

It makes me think the original owner was not that gullible.
Maybe I misunderstand though?

On the other hand I would NEVER buy and have one shipped without me seeing it first period.
Does not matter how inconvenient or impractical it might be either as it can always be worse later if I dont.

 

I don’t mind someone refusing service because they feel the offer is still good enough. What I don’t want is someone using the cheapest after market parts which can then cause other problems.

 

Axle is on the the edge of Gnar Gnar. Same with underside of Body. Proceed with caution. Caveat Emptor.

 

^^^ This.

That's a lot of rust on everything except the frame.

 

What about this one. Very close to buying it.

 

Little hard to say from the low res pics, but generally looking better as far as I can see.
Is the diff rusty or covered in dirt/grime?