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Toyota Tacoma: Problems & Solutions
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Comments
I have been very pleased with my truck once I got the sway problem under control, and am very glad I purchased it. I got 14 years out of my last Toyota, and expect the same from this one. Still, if I would have had a long test drive under different types of driving conditions I would have been aware of the problem before I bought the car, which is preferable to being unpleasantly surprised after the papers are signed. Lesson learned.
PS. The OEM tires are terrible, has anyone found a good replacement lately? I have been through the tire message board.
Is your valve tapping/diesel loud? I've sometimes thought I've heard a soft ticking but I'm not sure it is really there or not. I haven't done anything about checking it out since I'm not really sure if there is anything I'm hearing other than my imagination.
(See msg #898 December 20, 2003)
Thanks,
smith01
Toyota claimed they never heard of the problem, but they authorized the dealer to take the engine apart and replace the main crank bearings. They suspect that there's a problem with the oil routing and the crank bearings aren't getting lubed properly when the engine is cold and has been sitting overnight. What gets me is that if it is indeed a problem with oil not getting to the bearing, then won't the same thing happen to new bearings? Perhaps an oil hole needs to be drilled bigger. In addition to the repair, Toyota authorized a complimentary rental car while this work is being done (so far it's been a week and it's still in pieces)
If you're not satisfied, DO NOT LET THIS WAIT! You need to inform Toyota headquarters - it seems like this is a major design flaw which may potentially cause expensive damage after the powertrain warranty expires! They're probably trying to avoid fixing every engine and will only deal with it on a case-by-case basis, so make your opinions heard!
If they give you any trouble, look into a Lemon Law Lawsuit against Toyota. The law varies from state to state, but that noise sounds like a serious problem and needs to be fixed if you plan on keeping your truck past the warranty period.
Has anyone heard of this problem on the 2.4L engine? I'm thinking of getting a 4x2 Taco this week, but I don't want to have to deal with this.
Regards,
Dusty
2004 Taco 4Dr Prerunner - white.
Bottoms of doors show what uaskd4it describes, and the cargo bed floor had thin areas that showed at panel edges and spotwelds. Latter resolved by installing Line-X spray in bedliner.
However, I noticed a bright orange rust stain on the bottom corner of the weatherstripping at the opening of the driver's door. Looked under the door and found what uaskd4it describes, but worse. There's an area about 13mm x 80 mm that is total bare, except for bright orange rust!
3 months and 1 wk old. and I've got rust.
Anybody got any new info on this subject?
Has anyone noticed this on anything other than white Tacos? (White usually requires hvy coats to cover and shows more under coverage problems than others. But having NO paint, including no primer in a spot is really bad.)
Even if there were primer alone, I wouldn't find that acceptable. This is something Toyota has to address. Primer is not an acceptable "system" to prevent corrosion. I thought automakers got over the horrible corrosion of the 1960s and 1970s, but this kind of thing will bring a rerun.
-msibille
The rattle in the dash turned out to be a "misaligned AC line", and the bumper is being repainted under warranty.
ECU is an electronic control unit, like a CPU for a car.
The Tacoma's cargo beds/ tailgates are week. I have a 2000 TRD V6 4x4. I also put a few minor dents in my tailgate. I had the bed & tailgate rynolined and then I installed a drop in liner on top of that!! I had a piece of diamond plate Aluminum cut and bent to slide / fit over the tailgate. I can now safly put some stuff in the cargo box!
Lame Replies from Toyota? I've come to find that Arbitraton IS the Toyota warranty process! "There couldn't be anything broken it's a Toyota!" I'm just glad I decided to keep my 1991 SR5 4x4(135'000 miles) instead of trading it in on the Tacoma. The SR5 has come through when the Taco couldn't handle the strain. 8o) Jeff
I keep reading about the excellent reliability of Tacomas. I'm wondering what I should be on the lookout for when test driving and examining the truck. What questions should I ask the salesman? The only Toyota truck I've driven before was an '87 4x4, and that was about 10 years ago. I realize it's not going to feel anything like my Accord. Should I be listening for any Tacoma-specific tell-tale signs that the truck might have problems? I know a fair amount about vehicles so I do have a good idea of what might be wrong in general, I just don't know about any Tacoma quirks.
Thanks in advance for your input.
Please feel free to email me directly.
Thanks,
Todd Huestis
gtoddh@hotmail.com
Yesterday I went to a Relax the Back store and bought a back support for it. It helps quite a bit - enough that I'm now planning on keeping the Taco for a couple of more years. We have over 156,000 miles on it now, and I expect it will go another 100,000 miles before I get rid of it. The only maintenance issue I might have in the near future could be a new clutch (still has original one). I don't know what the signs would be for a worn clutch, since I've never had a MT vehicle long enough before to find out! What should I look for?
I did go to the local carmax and test drove both a Nissan Frontier Desert Runner V6 and a Tacoma PreRunner V6. The DR was a '00 with 30K for $13K. Pretty good deal I think, but I wasn't overly impressed with it. The Taco was a '02 or '03 with 21K for $19K. I really liked the Taco. The engine felt much stronger than the Frontier.
I'm going today to another dealer that has what appears to be pretty much the same Tacoma as I had originally planned to see. I'll let you know how it turns out.
As far as test drives - the carmax test drive route isn't very long. I'll ask to take a pretty good drive today in the Tacoma. The one big thing that stood out driving both the Tacoma and the Frontier was the road noise from the tires. I guess that's to be expected on these types of trucks. Also, they both danced around a bit on bumps - a result of the live axle and no rear weight I think. These are just a couple of the things I'll have to get used to going from a sedan to a truck.
Todd
If the light rear end bothers you, just put a couple of bales of hay, or a couple of cement blocks or a couple of pre-hung doors (what we did recently) and the ride smooths out very nicely.
One of the things I notice about the Taco vs. my Wrangler is that the Taco leans quite a bit. If you get the Prerunner, my guess is that the suspension would be stiffer and would take care of that (but I don't know since I haven't driven the Prerunner).
I did get to check on out at this one place. It was a '99 Black PreRunner SR5 TRD with 73K miles. It had a solid fiberglass tonneau cover and the bed was lined with some type of padded carpet. It seemed to be a good truck. I was able to take it on a nice 20 mile or so drive. The selling price was $14.5K. I was able to negotiate the trade of my car and the price was in my ballpark, but for some reason the truck just didn't do it for me. I was a little concerned about the miles, although I might be ridiculous for thinking that's a problem. I don't know. One little thing that really kind of annoyed me was that the grip part of the steering wheel was loose from the steering wheel frame itself right at the top of the wheel. It allowed the grip part to rotate a little bit. I don't know if I'm describing this well enough. Basically I could twist the steering wheel grip much the same as I twist the throttle grip on my motorcycle. I don't know how easily this could be fixed but I do know that it would have bugged me to no end until it was fixed. I also don't think I want a black truck. I'm going to narrow my search to lighter colors.
So anyway, I know I still like/want a Tacoma, I just didn't want that Tacoma.
However, I have expanded my search to include Nissan Frontiers. Since Tacomas in my price range seem to be hard to come by I'm considering Frontiers now too. Even though the one I drove at Carmax didn't do much for me I'm going to give another one a try before I rule them out.
Thanks for your responses. I'll keep you posted on how my truck searching progresses.
Todd
Based on my experience, I wouldn't worry too much about 70,000 miles, as long as the engine hasn't been abused. I was thinking about selling my 2000 Taco and getting something with more comfortable seats, but changed my mind when I got the back support. Mine has 156,000 miles on it and I'm hoping to get at least another 100,000 miles before I finally sell it.
One of the reasons I have the Taco is that I didn't care for the Frontiers. I've owned several Nissans, including a Hardbody pickup that I kept for 11 years (and 290,000 miles). I'd probably still own it but it was an auto and I moved to the mountains. When the second tranny went, I sold it, even though the motor was still in good shape.
.
The truck will be for my son, replacing his '98 Mustang.....LOL.
When I took it to the dealer, they told me there was nothing they could do because the check engine light wasn't on! I have called Toyota and filed a complaint, and I am in the process of sending them a written complaint.
This truck is rated at 22 city, 25 highway, and I a can't beat 18MPG on the highway! My main reason for getting this truck instead of a 4WD Tacoma or Full Size Chevy or Ford was the fuel economy! I got the 2.4L 4x2 beacuse I don't mind sacrificing some power for better fuel economy, but this little truck is very sluggish and still doesn't get good gas mileage! Something is seriously wrong. If Toyota can't fix my truck to get better gas mileage, I would like a replacement or refund. I am going to go through arbitration if they cannot fix this problem.
Car manufacturers always claim "Your Mileage May Vary", however I have tried varying my driving technique even to the point where I drive like a grandma and I still can't get better mileage! A friend of mine has a 2002 4x4 Tacoma that averages 20MPG, and that's a heavier truck with a bigger engine and bigger tires!
Has anyone else experienced poor fuel economy on their 2.4L 4x2 Tacoma?
Good luck trying to get the dealer or Toyota to do something about your mileage.
I have noticed that my mileage has continually improved since I got the truck, they seem to take a while to break in.
My current prospect is an '01 V6 4x4 Ext Cab with 85K miles. I haven't seen the truck yet so I don't know much about it. I don't even know the asking price yet. My bro-in-law who works at a dealership just took the truck in today. I'll know the whole scoop tomorrow after the truck goes through the service dept for inspection, detail, etc. He did say though that the truck should be in my (limited) price range. :-)
So here's my latest question - At what point does mileage on a Tacooma become an issue? I realize that 85K on an '01 is ALOT! I put on about 15K miles/yr, so it would be a while, if ever, before I'd catch up and be on track for average miles/yr for the model year. Is this going to seriously hurt me if I ever DO want to get rid of the truck?
As always - thanks for your responses. Once I know more about the truck I'll post it here.
Todd Huestis
gtoddh@hotmail.com
If my experience is any indication, that 85,000 isn't something to be scared about, especially if the truck has been taken care of properly.
the dealer just called, said the drains/ vents are clear, there's no water puddled in the door, same as always.... i'll get another can of deoderizer in each door and be on my way! i told the service manager this is b%llsh!t to spend so much on a new vehicle and it smell like mold & mildew. he said his techs have other vehicles come in smelling similair, some worse than others, i'll find out if they're tacomas, solaras & if they're all light colored. he's also gonna give me an 800# for toyota consumer affairs to lodge a complaint (like i couldn't find that in my owners manual). going to pick up the truck now.
So I went and drove this truck today. It has not been serviced/detailed yet by the dealership. Right now it's rough! There is some sort of aftermarket alarm system that keeps cycling on and off. The dash and parking lights are all flashing in unison with said alarm system. The exhaust is pretty loud. I looked underneath and didn't see any aftermarket exhaust so I think there's probably something wrong with the muffler. It's got aftermarket cruise control. I don't know if it works or not. The interior/exterior is very dirty. There are small holes in the ceiling where something was mounted right behind the reading lights. There is evidence of a previously mounted toolbox. There is a tow hitch that looks like it's had the ball mount bar (receiver?) inserted/removed many times.
Oh and did I mention that the truck is GOLD with TAN interior? I really dislike Toyota's tan interior, and I'm not too keen on the exterior gold color either.
My bro-in-law says he sees vehicles in this shape traded in all the time and that once it goes through service/detail it will look MUCH better.
The truck drives well. The one thing I did notice was what seemed to be detonation. I thought I could hear the engine knocking under acceleration. The truck does have 88K miles. Should there be any evidence of detonation in a 3.4L V6? I wouldn't think so.
As it stands now I'm not inclined to purchase this vehicle. It would have to have a major transformation to win me over.
I also today had the thought of waiting until the 2005's are completely out, like in Dec/Jan. I'm betting there are going to be quite a few people in late model Taco's ('01-'04) that are going to want to get in a new '05 model Taco once they see them. There will also be a new Frontier and new Dakota by then that people might be trading in their Taco's for. Do you think that I might have better luck waiting until then to look for a used Taco?
Thanks,
Todd