Frame Rust - when to walk away from a purchase??

Gentle people of tundras.com

hello from Fort Collins, CO. Long time lurker, first time poster. I’ve sold my beloved first gen Tacoma and I’m ready for a tundra.

I dig the first gens and I’ve found a doozie of a deal on Craigslist buuuuut, the frame rail is rusted and while it doesn’t look half (or a tenth) as bad as what I see on the internetz, the location isn’t ideal - it’s right where the front portion of the leaf springs mounts to the frame rails.

Price is right. Heck everything is right except this. Can you help me determine if I’m being too touchy about something that’s fine, or if I’m being prudent?

an acceptable outcome for me would be “listen pal, it’s gonna be bad but not for 5 years. Buy it, drive it, ditch it in 4.”

thanks in advance folks.

 

Colorado truck through and through as I’ve been told. “From the diffs”? Do you mean photos taken from the perspective of the rear diff? Apologies. I do have some more pics (including one taken from behind the rear diff) and I’ve uploaded them here.

 

Thanks! This is exactly why I came here. I’d appreciate opinions and observations from anyone reading as well.

tomorrow morning I will call the owner and ask for a detailed history of the vehicle and where it has resided.

Yes bit of a leak from the rear diff. Didn’t seem too bad, didn’t look like anything too fresh or wet and it’s only around the fill bolt, nothing from where the pinion fits into the front of the assembly. I welcome any thoughts on this. I’m not an expert by any means.

 

I have a 2006 with the rust in the same location. It's between the frame and what Toyota calls the "frame reinforcement." I've had 5 years now and it has not broken into pieces yet, but it does weigh on my mind. I'd be more concerned about the diff cover leak. Unless you spray it with degreaser and wire brush it to make sure it's a leak at the bolt/washer, I'd pass. Search threads for diff cover repair, it seems like a pain in the azz.

Pic's of my frame rust in this thread.

Frame rust prevention thread | Toyota Tundra Forum (tundras.com)

 

I am from around the Fort Collins area. This isn't a Colorado truck. It is right on the edge of needing some serious work. I wouldn't buy it.

 

Such an even and consistent coating, like the truck has been submerged and not just had salt batter the undercarriage. Is it Set up with a lift and tires? Has it forded water?

 

It's about the same as mine looked like when I bought my truck. Those frame reinforcement sections can be replicated. I fabbed new ones for mine, and they've held up for pert-near 3 years now. There's a bunch of Colorado dirt that obscures how the frame looks, so look closely at the forward boxed sections of the frame as well.

If the price is right, this wouldn't scare me at all....

 

Thanks everyone for the wisdom and the appropriate gifs

Remington351 thanks for the excellent context in that thread you linked

sounds like the truck has spent a good amount of time in New Mexico, specifically in Taos, specifically during winter

dude is asking $8k for the truck and has said he’s willing to lower the price due to the rusted frame. We got under the truck and took a look together as I explained why I wasn’t buying yesterday during my first visit. He explained it was a truck he’d bought from a family member about 60k miles ago and he wasn’t aware of the rust, wasn’t aware of the recall that expired in 2012, etc etc. Not a Toyota fanatic, he picked it up from his brother in law and drove it for few years and that’s all.

 

Rear diff leaking could just be a plugged diff breather. Even more suspicious with multiple leaking points. The rust is in the medium range based on those pics. Heavy scale with some of the more common areas showing some delaminating. Heavy scale is sometimes treatable with just a wire wheel and rust treatment. Delamination will require replacement. If the delaminated areas are replaceable, such as the rear frame supports, and the rest of the truck is pretty solid (I suspect you will find more areas that are troublesome) then it may be worth it at the right price. But as I’ve said before, these first gens are practically classic cars at this point. If you’re buying one to run daily, you need to be handy with the repairs. Paying someone else to fix and preform maintenance on a high mileage rig will get expensive fast and overshoot the trucks worth in a hurry.

 

I'm no expert but just went though the buying process of a 2001 Tundra. To me the frame does not look that bad. The frame reinforcements seem to be a big problem area for rust for these trucks based on what I've read here and some trucks can almost be rust free besides those particular sections. If the rest of the frame looks ok, I wouldn't completely write this one off if it checks all of the other boxes but that's just my opinion. I can't speak to the leak on the rear diff tho.

What year is this one? Check out this forum if you haven't already - https://www.tundras.com/threads/early-1st-gen-2000-2003-tundra-frame-replacement-faq.54331/

 

Thanks to everyone chiming in. DJC94 yep I’ve trawled that forum post and found it good context, but still had (having) a hard time deciding where I fall on the spectrum.

ultimately I reckon I could get the truck for maybe $6,500.

i noticed the front tires are wearing on the insides more than the outside. Markedly so. I thought hm ok, some suspension work needed up there. Maybe I do a full suspension overhaul and have these frame reinforcement pieces removed, replacements fabricated and installed after cleaning up the inside of the rails.

Eternal optimist here.

edit: it’s a 2003, to answer a prior question.
KNABORES - sage advice there friend. I’m not in a position to do any heavy lifting myself in terms of repairs (space, equipment, and time limitations).

 

Just surface rust in the first pic and yes, you’re right, you should easily get 5 years out of the infamous reinforced joint that easily promotes rust. I suffer from it myself so I should know. It’s when the rust starts coming through the outer frame that your days are numbered. If you want to treat it right and make it last , you have to cut out the inner reinforcement, clean out all the loose rust, protect it and put on a new custom reinforcement. A lot of work which one of our members, @N84434 from the Northern Midwest did.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. This is the path I’m thinking about taking. I’m neither equipped nor skilled to fabricate replacements myself but hoping I can find someone locally to trade for cash homebrew and smoked meats. But if cash is the only thing acceptable, I can roll with that.

 

My experience on various automotive websites is that opinions on rust are often geographically driven. Folks in the south have less tolerance for rust than those of us in the north, simply because they have often have lower rust alternatives to choose from - you just have to keep looking.

Here in Atlantic Canada, that truck would sell fast because it is in much better than average condition than most 20 year old trucks. Here, a good number of Tundras that did not get the frame recall are in scrap yards, or are headed that way.

Bottom line: I'd not hesitate if the price was right. But I'd address that frame issue right away and then stay on top of the undercoating.

 

I wouldn't touch it. When you start seeing rust that's gotten bad enough ithe steel is visibly delaminating and exposing its layers, and that's the stuff that's readily visible, you DO NOT want it. Find another truck. Unless this is selling for under $3k-4k, is 4WD and very well optioned, and under 200k miles, and/or it's eligible for recall you don't want the grief that will come with this.

Sometimes it takes time to find what you want. This thread has wildly different answers, for good reason -- The guys chiming in the positive primarily live in the rust belt, where a truck like this is about the best you'll find locally given the age. Most of the rest chiming in with "RUN AWAY" are outside the rust belt, like you, and can pretty easily find better with an ounce of patience.

I wouldn't do it unless the price is under $4k, and you know for a fact the frame is eligible for recall. The GD rear diff housing is leaking already in the rear, you know right off the bat you'd hafta replace the whole rear axle. And if it perforated that, and it's full of friggin oil, just imagine what's inside the framerails...

PASS!

 

2nd. Fucker is mint for PA. Slap some oil on and send it.

 

Update for anyone interested:

Colorado and New Mexico truck its entire life. Two road trips to east coast but didn’t spend any time there, just there and back. Lots of time spent in Taos and the surrounding country roads. I’ve just uploaded a pic that I neglected to share earlier - it’s the driver side frame rail beneath the infamous frame reinforcement piece.

I note that rust is limited exclusively to the frame reinforcements on both sides with the sole exception of this location. But as has been mentioned before, once that rust begins permeating the frame rail itself instead of just the reinforcement piece… days are numbered.

dude will accept $5,000 for the truck. 270k miles on it. Needs new timing belt and water pump right away, and I’d like to get the rear diff better situated than it is.

I’m not capable of doing any of that myself and KNABORES wisely mentioned earlier that all this adds up quickly when you’re paying a shop to do it.

Even if none of this is necessarily earth shattering bad news, it’s still a lot to do over time. And yet, it’s $5k.

Still deliberating while keeping a close eye on other options in Craigslist / marketplace / etc.

 

All I see is delamination, delamination, delamination. This cannot end well, even at $5k.

Look, this is the best example I can share of what you're going to find underneath.

Where they put the frame stiffener in right here. Notice the purple box - the two different pieces of steel are very clearly here, without any delamination. When it gets to the yellow part of the box, notice how the gap is suddenly not there anymore, and is instead filled with rust and layers of delaminated steel? On truly southern trucks, there is little to no gap between these pieces of steel, kind of like how close the pieces are to each other on the right-hand side of the yellow box. See the blue circle? That's straight-up perforation in the crossmember riveted into the framerail. I believe it's a CO truck, but it was clearly a part of CO where the roads were being treated with brine of some sort, because it has classic signs of the type of rust damage you'd see in the rust belt.

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Oh, and the fact the diff is already apparently perforated and leaking oil all over the housing ... new axle housing is in your future, if I didn't already mention...

 

I'd buy this for 5k as a farm truck, not a DD.

 

Y’all are extremely helpful. Shifty - thanks in particular for the highlighted visuals. Right in front of me and I didn’t know what my eyeballs were showing me.

official verdict here is I’m going to pass. Too much stuff that needs to get done right away, coupled with too many unknowns. This is a $10k project at least, including the purchase price.

Thanks everyone for your time and energy here. Much appreciated.

 

Are there any write ups that you wrote or viewed? I’ve searched but found nothing. My new-to-me Tundra has very clean frame, with the exception of rust developing between those two pieces of metal on one side of the truck. I’d love to actually fix it as opposed to loading it up with oil and awaiting the inevitable.

 

N84434 has a couple posts related to it in a build thread: https://www.tundras.com/threads/my-2001-trd-access-cab-repair-modify-thread.71679/#post-1854134

 

You beat me to the punch...
Starts at post 12, FYI