Searching for my 1st Tundra--Opinions on this Frame?

Hello, I am new here and currently searching for my 1st Tundra ever! I came across shifty's post and it was incredibly helpful. I'm using that along with the other posts here re:frame rust and the Early 1st gen FAQ to help in my search. I checked out my 1st Tundra today and will look at another tomorrow. I am still learning how to recognize if a frame is in decent shape or not. Living in the DC area, we get a lot of salt. A good frame (along with the other factors in the guide above) will be my ultimate deciding factor in purchasing.

These attached pictures are from a dealer about an hour away from me that they sent to me today. I plan on going to get a closer look tomorrow and hammer around to check integrity, but could still use some input.

Its a 2005 DC SR5 4.7V8 4WD. It came from Kentucky and is now at the dealer in VA. Per Toyota service records, it was coated at 45k miles(currently at 134k). Appreciate all and any input/advice.

 

Be very careful with this one. Clearly there is some concerning degradation of the metal due to rust since the dealer sprayed over everything to not make you look closer.



If you really want to go there, tell them you’re bringing a creeper so you can look underneath in great detail. Also take a small hammer or screwdriver you can use to test the strength of the metal.

 

Meh. Some questionable spots on there. Body mount areas, spring bucket etc. The spare tire brace and rear frame overlap stiffening braces are the real fail points. Also front frame rails under the firewall. That spacer lift and rear blocks with no bumpstops is a bummer too.

 

Someone has obviously sprayed the frame to make it look black again, and it's fresh which makes it suspicious as fuck, and sadly it makes it more difficult to see what's going on with it.

All of the above makes me leery, I'd want to really get under it to figure out why someone would want to freshly spray the frame. And I'd ask them about it too, and see if they give you an honest answer, "So the frame looks freshly painted, any reason why you chose to paint right before selling?"

The answer may tell you what you need to know.

I don't see anything scary in those photos, but I also don't see half of the areas I'd be worried about.

 

Definitely look at the parts he mentions; if you aren't sure what those are just search this site, there will be other "is this frame ok" threads with photos. One other thing guys have issues with on rust buckets, fuel tank straps--those seem to look okay from what photos show. If you can get an engine bay photo that's always nice. Also look inside the skid plate to see what the underside of the motor looks like.

 

Man, check the frame below the brake booster and master cylinder also, where it upturns on the driver side leading up to the fender. Seems they love to crack in half between the upper control arm bolt and the firewall. I think I linked a pic to an example in the megathread.

 

Yeah that exact part is what caught my eye and gave me pause when I first looked at the pictures. The Tundra I checked out today, had several spots similar and what drove me away especially because the black bumpy surface just kind of flaked off when hitting it revealing a bit of rust underneath (maybe just surface rust since it wasnt too soft?). But I'm having trouble differentiating between what spots may have been coated by Toyota and what is just sprayed on by the dealer--specifically when I don't see any noticeable overspray or if it's not shinier sheen of paint

 

If it’s flaking of metal, it’s more than just surface rust. It’s actually starting to delaminate. A good frame even with surface rust should be relatively smooth.

If you’re talking about the frame treatment spray Toyota did, that will be fairly obviously when you see it. More of a bumpy black coating when you look at it.

 

Thank you, and thanks for pointing that out as I didnt notice--Dealer just mentioned that they installed 3" in front and 2" on the rear.

 

Good to know--that one was for sure pretty busted up then.

 

Appreciate it, I'll go back and take a look. I was hoping this would've looked much better considering it came from Kentucky. Most Tundras in my area seem to be either from here or PA/NJ and have looked worse frame wise.

 

If you’re going to look for one around here in the Northeast area, try to seek out those trucks that had their frames replaced or are low miles to help insure the frame won’t be as bad. It’s no guarantee, but your odds are better unless you’d prefer to just look in the South for one. Just don’t forget to check if it’s got 4wd.

 

Also, pop the hood since engine parts....bolts, screws braces can tell what you'll probably see underneath. We have had our fair share of barnacle infested engine bays.

 

Im actually kicking myself because one just sold a couple days ago that had 45k miles and a newly replaced frame (2002 AC). I was still on the fence if I wanted to go thru with a purchase of a vehicle or not and ended up getting caught slippin' smh.

 

! hour drive? Go check it out in person. Take a ball peen hammer and a screwdriver and check it everywhere. It's not bad enough to walk away sight unseen, but caveat emptor.

 

I wouldn't be kicking myself over it. I wouldn't want anything that old with that few miles. And frankly, while the frame may be new, every fucking fastener on that truck that wasn't replaced will be a nightmare to work on, because rust.

 

I can’t offer near the expertise the regulars on this forum can. They are great. But I’ve owned a tundra for a lot of years and have spent a lot of time trying to find good ones when mine were wrecked.

I’ve never had one check out from an independent dealer. Maybe just bad luck. I’ve certainly never had one check out from an independent dealer when they spray painted the frame to hide who knows what. And I’ve gone to check them out even when I was skeptical. As Jack McCarthy noted, the Toyota frame treatment is not smooth like this spray paint dealers will do.

I never found a clean one that spent anytime north of the Carolinas. I’m sure they exist, but typically aren’t up for sale and will be rare to find unfortunately. So dealers providing a Carfax on the listing was an easy way to rule out cars from rust states. Most of what I saw from Kentucky had rust.

Trade ins at the big dealers and private sellers were the only places I ever saw decent trucks.

When underbody photos aren’t immediately available, good places to look at listing photos are the trailer hitch, engine bay, and rear diff. I saw lots of dealers spray paint the trailer hitch receiver. When I saw that, it told me it was rusty. And if you don’t get the pics you want of the frame, the amount of rust on the rear diff was a good indicator of what you will find. And as BubbaW pointed out, rusty trucks will show similar corrosion in the engine bay often visible from listing photos if you look close. At least that was my experience

 

Thank you, this was all very helpful info. So far everything youre saying makes sense in my search. Pretty much all Tundras I've come across so far or looked at via photos online seem to have been painted. And all of them being smaller dealers. I have seen on at an actual Toyota dealership that's a trade in that I will go look at. Also, I've encountered a few that don't have any records of being taken in to Toyota for the frame recall or crc application--I will try calling local Toyota dealerships to see what their stance is on that.

 

That would seem like a PITA to work with--but compared to what's available around here, it's starting to seem like I'd take that over what's currently available. Maybe looking or having to travel south might be a better option as you suggested.

 

Good luck. You’ll get there with some patience and time. I love these trucks but man, it is getting tough to find good ones. 2wd not so much but 4wd double cab for sure. The good ones I did find would sale faster than I could get there or be crazy prices. I found a few good ones locally and responding 30 minutes after listing was too late.

I set up alerts on any sites like Autotrader, Cargurus, etc. And monitor FB marketplace in desirable regions. My friends seem to have better luck on FB because I don’t have an account. It seems to search better on a user account and belonging to specialty groups for Tundras. I had to use my wife’s account when I wanted to send a message

Even ones that were not good or impractical locations, looking at a bunch will help give you a feel for the market. And looking at a bunch that don’t check out will be good experience for what to inspect. Then you can recognize a good one quickly.

I personally don’t like after market exhaust set ups as they make it difficult to hear the finer points of what’s going on with the engine.

Maybe others can speak more to the Bringatrailer site. I think that can be a good site but I have no experience or knowledge there. I don’t live in a bad rust state, so I’m also curious what others experience when buying in those rust states.

If you see anything in the Atlanta area I’d be happy to put eyes on it

 

Yeah, definitely have a lot more clean-frame inventory south of NC/TN. But there are definitely plenty of trucks that migrated down here from up north and have rotten frames.

I had to run VINs when searching for mine, to finally find a truck that had never left the south. Plenty of free searches out there, this is the one I was using: https://vincheck.info/

It won't tell you the maintenance history, but it will show you (in most cases) what state the yearly registration was renewed year to year, and if the state is in the rust belt, that was an insta-fail for me.

I've seen plenty of buyers down here willing to work with buyers from up north. We've had plenty of members buy southern trucks, and fly out to pick up. Sure it takes a little more effort, but you're often getting more truck for less money when it comes down to brass tacks.

 

We get salt here too. I know of 3 Kentucky trucks getting frame replacement. Mine being one. @Tundra2 being another.

 

Yeah exactly, I'm at least getting more comfortable looking at different ones and having frames of references to compare from what I've been seeing so far. I may look into the FB market/craiglists route at this point too--all the ones around here seem to be painted over and make it more difficult to see whats just surface rust and whats not.

 

Unfortunately this one was already treated with CRC by Toyota, but thats still good info to know, thanks.

 

Another example of one I just looked it. They painted nearly everything here.

Thanks for that tip, I will try that out. So far, most Tundras I've been looking at have carfaxes listed with them so I can still see where they've been registered/service combined with cross referencing with Toyota's service history records. But will check that out if/when those arent telling the whole picture. Thats good to know dealers are open to working with people out of state. I am looking nationwide at this point, mostly only seeing 2WD being available in southern/non-rust places.

 

Yeah, that's the downside to the SE USA and potentially as far over as Texas. A lot of people don't "need" 4WD in the same way people in snow/ice climates do, and they prefer avoiding the added maintenance/stuff to break, so they buy 2WD.

I'd say about 1 in 5 trucks I looked at (on avg) were 4WD. I just lucked out and found mine, it'd been sitting on the back of a dealer lot in middle Alabama for a couple of weeks and a sales guy decided he'd try to list it on TrueCar before sending it to auction. Fortunately for me, USAA was partnering with TrueCar at the time to help members find vehicles and get a discount, and I had an alert setup for 2004-2006 Tundras, so I replied within 30mins of them listing it. But this was back in 2018-2019...

 

Ah well that makes sense. That's awesome you were fortunate enough to find yours like that. I've seen a little more than that that are 4WD but Id prefer my sweet spot to be around 150k miles or sub 200k. I plan on keeping mine for 10+years and 150k+ added miles ideally.

So that low-mileage Tundra I mentioned earlier (2002 AC 4WD V8), looks like the frame was replaced at my local Toyota dealer in October, it was originally from MN. This has me curious about just finding early 1stGen (2000-2003) in my area and seeing if they will replace the frame if it is bad enough--this may or may not be less of a headache than finding one from the south logistically. Although, in doing so, I'd be able to look for later Gen1s as well (2004-2006).

Also re: low mileage--I've read thru your and AV8R4AA posts and a few others on the topic advising avoiding them. So the main reasons being are varnish-like sludge built up in the cam/under the valve cover, shrinking seals/gaskets/maybe valves/etc, likely rusty bolts and fasteners as you pointed out earlier. I also read how you both dealt with/suggested using seafoam in those areas under the valve cover to clean combined with shorter oil change intervals to make sure any sludge or debris gets out. Are all of these really not worth the squeeze and are more trouble than they're worth in going with a lower mileage? I understand the longevity of the 1st gens and buying a 200k mile Tundra ain't the same as other 200k miles trucks. Apologizes if this is beating a dead horse topic, those things sound like PIA to deal with for sure--I'm just trying to gauge what my threshold is and if those are all something I'd be willing to deal with or not. Again, everyone's experiences and insight have been much appreciated.

 

From what I see, it does not look bad at all...

 

That's what I did, though not entirely on purpose.

If you want to take zero risk you have to find a truck, inspect the rear crossmember yourself, if it looks bad enough you then have to convince the owner to take it to toyota so they can inspect it, and then see if they'll still sell it to you after they find out it can get a new frame.

Not impossible but you may just have to risk that the frame is bad enough and covered for recall.

Best part of doing this is that you can take really good care of that new frame so it doesn't end up rusty again.

 

I'd just add to that, isolating based on year is a good idea in my opinion.

'00-02 are obviously the most dated/feature-less options and they have weaker transmissions (grenading planetary) that aren't doing any owner a favor, use the worse edition of keyless entry (if they have it at all), but they are eligible for frame recall.
'03 adds some tempting/updated features, transmission is fixed, keyless updated to RS3200, I think they get the larger 13WL brakes (?), still has the old steel bumper design, and it's still eligible for frame recall.
'04 is that hybrid year as they're rolling toward the VVTi engine updates and is that midway step to get there, with all the same features, front bumper plastic, double cab added to the lineup, some have steering wheel controls and a couple other bells/whistles standard, but no frame recall.
'05-'06 you're VVTi so more horsepower but adding Secondary Air Injection (ugh), jumping from the antiquated 4spd into a 5spd transmission, nearly every upgrade option available, but speedo runs off the ABS sensors, and a few other quirks.

Personally, if I were hunting again, I'd aim for one of the last three years. If I were up north and hunting for a salt belt truck, I'd probably be looking for an '03 that never got frame coating or recall. If hunting nationally I'd probably aim '03-04 if I wanted something basic, or '05-06 if I wanted all the bells whistles, power, etc. despite the VVTi.

Way oversimplified, and probably missing one or two pros/cons, but that's the gist.