Toyota frame recall

My nephew stopped by in a Dodge Ram. I asked, what happened to the Toyota? Apparently 4 months ago he went in for a leaf spring recall in his 05 Tacoma. They took the truck, said it was a safety recall on the frame and won't give it back until it has a new frame. They gave him the Ram which only had 3,000 miles to drive in the mean time. He went back later in the day to retrieve stuff from his truck and they escorted him to an impound area with approxiamately 40 other Tacomas awaiting frames. They told him minimum 6 months until a frame arrives and then it will take a guy 2 weeks to do the frame swap. Seems like a lot of work and hassle for a truck with 240,000 miles on it. 4 months out and still no word on when the frame will show up. He just put his house up for sale. He and his wife are building a schoolie and plan to travel the country and live out of the bus. Wonder what happens first, the truck gets fixed, or his house sells and they take off. She already quite her job as a fourth grade teacher.

Yeah this was pretty widespread back in the day. Surprised they're actually still honoring the recall. I thought it ended in like 2010. But he will get a brand-new frame out of it. Apparently Dana (who made the frame and rear axle) didn't coat the frames correctly so early Tundras and Sequoias had this issue. I thought it was only up to the 2005 models though (nervous now, my Sequoia is a 2005....) and mostly applied to ones in the rust belt/snow/salt areas.

The ones that I have seen that failed were a kind of "OMG you stupid what did you THINK would happen?" because they weren't one layer of really thick steel, they were three or four layers of what looked like 22 gauge steel and it rusted between the layers, which failed rapidly.

I got to fabricate new frame rails for a truck that was 1 month outside of the production date cutoff. No pictures, I was working under a tight schedule. Turned out OK, truck is still on the road.

They put a new frame, and a ton of other new stuff, on my 2005 Tacoma. My old frame didn't look that bad.

It took about four months for the frame to arrive and eight days to swap it. I kept driving my truck while they ordered the frame and they gave me a new Camry for the week while they worked on it. I'm very happy and plan to keep the truck for another 100k miles (125k now).

I would buy another Toyota.

Hmmmmm, I seem to remember something similar on a few older chassis (pre 1990)

Hey Todd,

I'm surprised you hadn't heard of this before. I've seen stacks of frames behind the Toyota dealer in Bourne where we bought Becky's van. They've been replacing frames on Tundra's a lot longer it seems than the Tacoma. Seems they were just buying back the Tacoma's for a long time, and crushing them. My sister's ex-boyfriend had a 95 or Tacoma that had around 240k miles on it, and they gave him something like $14k for it. He bought it used 4-5 years earlier for around $12k. He then just bought a brand New Tacoma with the money they gave him for the 95.

A guy on my crew at work just got the frame replaced on his '02 (I think) Tacoma. It took about 6 weeks from beginning to end. This being Texas they weren't familiar with the whole deal until we printed some internet stuff off for the service manager to read. After that, painless process. They also changed some other stuff under there as courtesy. In the end they told him it would have been a 12k dollar job if he'd had to pay for it. It pleased him greatly since the truck is basically irreplaceable. Finding a 4 door, 4x4 in his preferred red color isn't easy nowadays.

oldeskewltoy wrote: Hmmmmm, I seem to remember something similar on a few older chassis (pre 1990)

Yea, they've always rotted like mad throughout all the years. Comes from being a box frame. However it worked out, only a few certain years got covered with a recall.

My parents' '00 Tundra has had recall work done on the frame twice now. I want to say they bought the truck in like 2012, then took it to the dealer shortly after purchase to have the frame assessed. At that time, they were still replacing frames outright if they were rusted badly enough and just coating them if they weren't rusted through. My parent's truck just got the coating.

Fast forward to last August, when the truck went in for inspection and failed for a rust hole in the area of the passenger side front wheel (the day after I'd used it to tow home ~5000lbs worth of Jeep Cherokee and Uhaul trailer .) The dealer/Toyota (not sure which) initially denied covering the rust repair under the recall until they were able to argue, at my urging, that the undercoating they had previously applied was done improperly. It looked an awful lot like there was zero prep done prior to applying the coating, judging by the way it had flaked off in many spots. Ultimately the dealer did end up covering the rust repair, but dad was still unhappy they didn't just give him a new frame in the first place.

I too am surprised they're still doing full frame replacements, as I thought they were phasing that out a few years ago. I do, however, still see flatbeds running down the highway stacked with frames probably every month or two on average and always assume they're headed to a Toyota dealer.

The Toyota dealer called me in for an inspection. I was told that if it wasn't too bad, they would sand off any surface rust and coat it, and if it was bad, they'd replace the frame. I took a look underneath and it didn't seem too bad for a ten year old truck, so I didn't expect much. I was shocked when they said that they would order a new frame. Even then I expected something like "We'll give you $15,000 for the truck toward the purchase of a new Toyota", but they went ahead and replaced it.

They gave me an itemized receipt and I searched the part numbers and added it all up. I think it came to close to $8k in parts, plus eight days worth of labor for however many guys.

In addition to the frame, I got new rear springs (the old ones were so rusty and noisy that I was considering disassembling them and stripping all of the rust off), new lower control arms and bushings plus a bunch of smaller stuff. they also changed the brake fluid and coolant and did an alignment.

The morning after I got the truck back, I noticed that there was a small spot of oil under the truck. I crawled under it and saw that both front axles were wet where they went into the differential. I called the service writer. He complained that the truck had over 100,000 miles on it, but I countered with the fact that they were not leaking before they took my truck apart. I spoke to the manager, he contacted Toyota and they took the truck back in and replaced both CV axles under warranty. They also gave me a brand new RAV4 for the day.

Satisfied customer.

We have had our 05 Tacoma at work awaiting the frame replacement for two months now. Luckily our 2010 hasn't suffered from the same issues. I'm surprised they just didn't offer a high trade in on these with the cost associated with the recall. Three months of providing a rental car and still doing all the work to replace the frame.

The frame replacement at the local Toyota dealer takes two guys one day to complete. They split the 40 hours it pays. They are the only guys doing this since the other techs "can't make any money at it". Taking two weeks to do it is scheduling or crappy management, not the difficulty of the job. Getting the frames in stock is a whole other problem. Toyota will buy back the truck for way more than it is worth to make complaining customers go away.

I'd start complaining.

In reply to Junkyard_Dog:

We only complained that they sold our first rental van and gave us an Altima for a bit. My maintenance guy that drives the Tacoma is starting to like driving a minivan instead. Amazing that it had rust holes being that he always seemed to be washing or rinsing off his truck. The wait time for the frames to come in is a bit crazy.

I'm glad to see you guys were happy with how Toyota handled you. I love my FJ and when the time comes for a newer truck I'm considering a Tacoma/ Tundra in a few years. We've been happy with our Prius and the dealer up here but rust bothers me more than anything with a vehicle. I was thinking about an aluminum F150 when the time comes just to not have body rust to worry about (I know it can still corrode sometimes) but if Toyota is that helpful with rust issues I may stay Toyota for my next new truck.

As I was picking up my truck, they were dropping off another load of frames.

I still don't understand how this was cost effective versus offering an above average trade number, though I really didn't want to buy a new truck at the time anyway.

Woody wrote: I still don't understand how this was cost effective versus offering an above average trade number, though I really didn't want to buy a new truck at the time anyway.

It probably wasn't in most cases. But it likely kept the customers happier, as they got the truck they already owned and liked fixed for $0, instead of getting some money and having to put in the effort to go truck shopping.