2006 Tundra Frame Rust (Extreme) HELP?

Good afternoon,

I am new to the forum and was trying to get some information on the rust issue with the 1gen Tundras. I have owned this truck for appox 2 yrs and never noticed this rust until the what a assume is the sway bar was almost on the ground due to mounts detaching from the roached area. I contacted Toyota and the rep stated that my truck wasn't part of the recall. The manufacture date is 26 JUN 2006, which was to the end of that production year. I explained to her that is only a month difference and that i wasn't trying to obtain the cure for cancer, just some replacement assistant. I like the old truck, it has 132,000 miles on it and otherwise decent rig.
Any advise would be welcomed and appreciated!

V/r
db

 

Sorry to hear about this. You'll want to read this thread.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/early-1st-gen-2000-2003-tundra-frame-replacement-faq.54331/

 

That's a huge bummer! Hopefully you can get the frame replaced by Toyoya, as some have recently on this forum.

 

The horror!
Welcome to the forum and thank you for your service.

 

Don’t think the frame recall covers 04+ models outside the service campaign

 

I would advise to not drive it. Hate to say so but you have a truck that's unsafe and if Toyota won't replace the frame it's probably best to part out or sell to a scrapper. From the limited pics I have to assume there are other areas rusted as badly along the frame.

 

Some have had luck at taking it to the stealership and getting it done under the recall. Iirc, one was done fairly recently.

 

Bloody hell

 

I would call Toyota corporate and firmly but professionally tell them they are responsible to fix it.

Good luck!

 

Did I hear a $10K cost to replace the frame? Was that parts or parts and labor? This truck would sell as-is for $4K? $10K for repairs+$4K for lost opportunity = $14K. Given today's prices it would be hard to replace an '06 DC for $10K so perhaps a repair is worth fixing it to get a truck that will run another 200K miles.*

*My beer math sucks which is why I own a bunch of jalopies with oodles of "potential".

 

00-03 only i believe, the newer ones were under warranty enhancement and not recall

 

Think you might be SOL. I just had my 01 done last month. I don't know what the real difference is between the 04-06 that they don't qualify for the recall when it seems that they rust out just the same as the older trucks. Seems like most of the 04-06 trucks have way less miles on them by the time they rot out. Sucks cause if the truck wouldn't break in half it would last another 200k. Maybe you can get Toyota corporate to do something about it. Seems unlikely from other people's attempts but good luck.
My dealership told me that people can no longer order frames. They can only be ordered if a truck is recalled. So you'd have to find a doner truck with a good frame and swap if you're capable/really attached to the truck.

 

@NickB_01TRD not that I’ve tried to actually place the order, but my frame is available for $6k

 

Yes I see them online too available to add to cart or whatever. Might be one of those things that looks like it will work until you actually press the order button. Unless someone actually tries to do it I guess we'll never know for sure though.

 

Some dealers don't carry it. So I feel like it would work...but yeah. Guess it would depend how deep into the whiskey I'd get, and whether I could kidnap @empty_lord and @Tundra2 and chain them to the frame and tools or not.

 

If you have the recalled part number you might get it… I ordered one out of rage for my 01 Tacoma and well.. they built it and I got it a couple months later for 2300 bucks

 

You may be able to fix it with this...

https://www.autorust.com/product-category/toyota/tundra-2000-2006/

 

Does anyone know why it was only the early first gens covered by the recall? Seems backwards that the older trucks can get a new frame but the newer ones can't.

 

That sway bar is hanging by a thread, I would remove that so it doesn't fall off while driving and injure someone.

 

That's how I fixed mine.. After I removed all the pig iron that someone stick welded onto my frame, I cleaned it up and welded the Autorust frame caps onto my frame horns.

Lots of work, but well worth it!

@sfparamedic20 Check out my Repair/Build thread for all the gory details...

 

If this isn't posted in the top of the frame rust sticky thread, it really should be! It's the first time I've seen it and this really would solve some folks' issues on here where they only have a bad xmember or horn

 

I just posted it in that thread. It's not the top but at least it's in there.

 

I really want to know what the rest of the frame looks like and where the truck lived. I'm not convinced this one can be saved with patches.

 

I agree. More pictures would be nice to see.

 

Almost anything is savable... Almost..

 

What we did you save this tacoma

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gray223s-the-resurrection-98-rebuild-build.373116/

 

Somehow I feel like I'm the only person who brings a creeper with them to check out used trucks at a dealership.

 

or at the least crawl under that 15+ yr old truck at least every year at minimum. 04-06’s had frame coating or replacements via LSC’s phase 1,2 & 3 that started in 2013 but in July 2015 they started running out. Either previous owners were negligent, didn’t receive letter or possibly wasn’t in too bad of shape at that time. Personally, Toyota Corp needs to make this right…..class action lawsuits are still ongoing !

 

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that it was the metallurgy/source steel that was faulted. I'm sure they did their due diligence and found the time period they were using the faulty steel. I'm not saying saying they couldn't have had some run over and used the bad frames on later manufacture dates, though. From the looks of people's rigs, that seems to be the case.

OP, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

Strange, I heard it was Dana Corp who didn't apply the top coating to the steel frame correctly which caused it to prematurely rust. A mechanical engineer at my work thought it was intergranular corrosion when I showed him pics of others frames including my own prior to me treating it.

I almost wish my truck was completely made in Japan since they're one of the few countries besides our own that produce some of the highest quality steel in the world.