Part 2: I paid the stupid money for the 22 yr old Tacoma

[Justin Crossley]

I see it like this. You wanted a truck. The truck you wanted costs about $10k in today's market. You had the money and bought what you wanted.

Seems like a better use of cash than smoking, drinking, eating out, etc, etc.

To each their own I guess

And to be clear, I drive a Ford!

Although I wouldn't mind picking up a Toyota as well. If only they weren't so overpriced.......

 

[aclawrence]

I have already.

Going back to your original post...you telling him to replace the ball joints asap or they will explode is a bit dramatic. How do you know his ball joints are failing? What if they are fine? Should he still replace them? What if the next set explodes? Maybe he should park the truck and never drive it, just to be safe

The 1st gen tundras are very prone to catastrophic lower ball joint failures. I have a 1st gen tundra. It’s so bad there are even Toyota ball joint failure Facebook groups. I don’t know about the Tacoma’s but if they were the same design I’d replace the lower ball joints with new oem parts right away. Like was said earlier it’s very documented and dangerous.


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[Vandy321]

The 1st gen tundras are very prone to catastrophic lower ball joint failures. I have a 1st gen tundra. It’s so bad there are even Toyota ball joint failure Facebook groups. I don’t know about the Tacoma’s but if they were the same design I’d replace the lower ball joints with new oem parts right away. Like was said earlier it’s very documented and dangerous.


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It's called taking care of your truck, preventative maint. Almost 100% of the failures noted by members on this thread have been well into the high 100,000 miles and some into the 200,000 mile range.

Take care of your truck and your truck will take care of you.

Ignore standard checks and preventative mx on any truck and you can have issues.

 

[Rob5589]

It's called taking care of your truck, preventative maint. Almost 100% of the failures noted by members on this thread have been well into the high 100,000 miles and some into the 200,000 mile range.

Take care of your truck and your truck will take care of you.

Ignore standard checks and preventative mx on any truck and you can have issues.

Something to consider, there are ball joints as well as other suspension components that aren't serviceable, eg, grease zerks. Lots of pieces are sealed so there is no maintenance to be done. Whether or not that pertains to the Toyota parts in particular I couldn't say.

 

[Vandy321]

Something to consider, there are ball joints as well as other suspension components that aren't serviceable, eg, grease zerks. Lots of pieces are sealed so there is no maintenance to be done. Whether or not that pertains to the Toyota parts in particular I couldn't say.

I always put PTFE on my ball joints...I also check them, u-joints, carrier bearing, u-bolts, UCA/LCA bushings, tie rods, etc everytime I rotate my tires. Again preventative maintenance and self inspections goes a long way.

 

[Fatcamp]

Something to consider, there are ball joints as well as other suspension components that aren't serviceable, eg, grease zerks. Lots of pieces are sealed so there is no maintenance to be done. Whether or not that pertains to the Toyota parts in particular I couldn't say.

LBJ on these are not serviceable.

 

[JeffRaines]

I see it like this. You wanted a truck. The truck you wanted costs about $10k in today's market. You had the money and bought what you wanted.

Seems like a better use of cash than smoking, drinking, eating out, etc, etc.

To each their own I guess

And to be clear, I drive a Ford!

Although I wouldn't mind picking up a Toyota as well. If only they weren't so overpriced.......

I agree with this 100%, I hope OP didn’t take any of my posts as bagging on his choice in ride - it’s your money and a free country! And at least cosmetically, it doesn’t seem like it’s in bad shape. I hope the CEL ends up being not a big deal.

 

[spike camp]

The CEL on my ‘96 has basically been on for 20+ years.
Oil every 5-7k (sometimes more)
I’ve driven this truck tens of thousands of miles on rough dirt roads.
Don’t think I’ve ever replaced a lbj in its 265k lifespan.

Basically I neglected, 4wheeled and beat the piss outta my first gen since I rolled it off the lot in ‘95 and she’s still ready anytime, anywhere.

 

[Billy Goat]

I see it like this. You wanted a truck. The truck you wanted costs about $10k in today's market. You had the money and bought what you wanted.

Seems like a better use of cash than smoking, drinking, eating out, etc, etc.

To each their own I guess

And to be clear, I drive a Ford!

Although I wouldn't mind picking up a Toyota as well. If only they weren't so overpriced.......

I can take offense to this. Since my better half owns a restaurant in my view it would be way more responsible for him to have spent the money eating out.


Hopefully the individual who sold it went out for dinner.

 

[TFrank]

This dude must have several extra doe tags ^

 

[roosiebull]

You can find pictures of any and every make and model with a wheel off. Take care of your stuff, and listen to your truck and you typically won't have that issue.

Point being, ball joints don't just explode...there will be signs of impending failure, just like any other suspension or drivetrain part..clunking, shimmy, vibrations, the list goes on.

Basically every vehicle that has ever been on the road is prone to something, but you are spot on in my experience, and I have driven a lot of beater toyota pickups in my day, and have been very abusive to them myself, after they had a long hard life already… never had one leave me stranded anywhere, and I have been really hard on some and drove them lots of miles…. I have tried to roll them off a cliff, had one with big chunks of piston in the oil pan, it ran rough, but made it to the mechanic a half hour away.

I remember when I was younger, I had over 30k on an oil change, and it lost some oil… sometimes on my windy 4hr commute at the time when going around corners, oil light would come on… sometimes I let it go long enough that it would start knocking on the corners… add oil when convenient and keep going, trying to pass people in 3rd gear going 70 non stop on the coast hills, then beat them up all year fishing and hunting… never had one fail me and I owned a bunch from an 89’ to our current year tundra, and at least one of each gen Tacoma… for a long time I was a zero maintenance driver unless it was critical like running out of oil, haha.
Had to fix some, clutches, motors, and front end stuff, but never had a surprise with a Toyota pickup.

I have moved away from them since finding the Colorado zr2, but we have a tundra for moving my work boat, that started as mine, but is now my wife’s daily driver and I got another zr2, but Toyota pickups have treated me way better than I have treated them

 

[5MilesBack]

Toyota pickups have treated me way better than I have treated them

You got that right!

 

[tradman]

We have a 03 TRD 4x4 Tacoma, purchased in 2004 upon return from Iraq. Timing belt, water pump done at 130k, oil changes every 7500 miles. Front and rear diff fluid done about every 50k as well as the transfer case. Man, this thing still drives like the day I bought it. Currently approaching 265k. Other than maintenance, have had zero issues.

 

[roosiebull]

Huh? I've never heard of it literally until this thread and I've owned tacomas most of my adult life, a couple that went 250k in stock ball joints and were ran very hard.

i once heard of someone driving a tacoma in 4wheel drive on a 5hr drive, mostly at freeway speeds from K falls to the coast

 

[roosiebull]

Count me in as one that doesn't understand the emotional attachment to 25 year old $10k truck that fits in a very small niche. (Fills that niche very, very well.)

Hope you get 200k trouble free mi. out of it Jesse.

if you have 10k to spend, and need a small pickup, the options are pretty slim.... i was just in that situation not long ago. for me, small pickups aren't niche, a full size pickup is niche.... only want to drive a full size pickup if i'm towing something too heavy for my little pickup.

around here, if you only have one rig, and it's a full size, it's very limiting to where you can go, and it's going to get dinged up and scratched up pretty fast, and there are places that i just don't want to drive our tundra even when it's not choked out in brush. a spot i fish a lot in the winter, i can shave a lot of miles and time by going over the mountain.... it's the way i have always accessed it, but i just stay on pavement with the tundra... it's several miles of windy gravel with tons of pot holes, and it seems like that pickup pretty much is the perfect size to hit every one.

this winter i traded in my ZR2 for a new tundra.... was shopping used, but with used vehicle prices right now, new made more sense. it took me a week or 2 before i decided i needed a beater woods rig, thought i would just get by with the tundra, but they suck in the woods around here.... i wanted to keep the woods rig below 10k for the application, so the obvious starting point is a tacoma, or an 89'-95' pre tacoma pickup, preferably a standard cab... i was also considering a samurai, or a tracker, or a sidekick, or possibly an S-10 zr2, but it would have to be the right one... those 4.3 vortecs were a cool motor for small pickups, they had their issues, and i don't play mechanic.

i couldn't believe how much people wanted for old beat up pickups... i would have bought the right one, but shopping for a month, the only one i even checked out was a nice little samurai that i would have bought if it wasn't for a bunch of janky wiring.... nothing else was realistic.... i would have bought the OP's pickup if i had come across a similar one, because what else is there for a small reliable woods rig? i'm not getting an older ford ranger, because a little research puts up red flags, and i don't know anything about them.... an S-10? unless it's a ZR2, it's not an option, the S-10's were the hardest small pickup to make a good woods rig.

nissan is the last option, i have owned 3 of them over the years, and they just aren't as reliable as a Toyota... had coils go out on all of them i owned, and 2 of them got to where they had bad exhaust leaks that couldn't be fixed without spending more than the pickup was worth... they were just rattle traps too, lots of rattles and pops.... they just felt cheap, and the prices weren't that much lower than an equivalent toyota.

they are way over priced, they aren't anything super special, but they are the best option for the niche they fill. they are the lowest maintenance vehicles i have had, that's why they are grossly over priced and popular. of course they aren't without issues, and there are lemons in every type of vehicle, but big picture, they are solid pickups for the most part, and have been very consistent in that regard (of course they have had their epic fails over the years, like the years with frame issues, and i think there were some bad leaf springs some years) but overall, they have been very consistent..... great in the woods, and not bad on pavement, and easy to modify.

the used toyota pickup market was so bad when i was shopping, that ended up working in my favor.... my wife likes driving the tundra, i really don't, so i talked her into making it her daily driver and i got another colorado zr2... everybody wins

i will say, those pickups are in a different league than any stock toyota, when i traded in my 18' TRD for my first Colorado ZR2 i had a "holy ****!" moment, i don't think tacomas are the best midsize option currently (depending on what you actually do with a pickup) but their reputation follows them, and most won't consider a different small pickup. if the tacos are marginally too small, you wouldn't like the zr2, it feels a little smaller, but i like small pickups, so it doesn't bother me.... still bigger inside than most cars, but it's capability is crazy for a stock pickup, and the fun factor is way up there.

 

[AZmark]

As long as your Chessie likes it then its ok.

 

[Jesse Jaymes]

I had to make a plywood bench to fully cover the rear jump seats....and he fits pretty snug. But that's "His Rig" now. Dog fights if anyone else wants in.

 

[WRO]

i once heard of someone driving a tacoma in 4wheel drive on a 5hr drive, mostly at freeway speeds from K falls to the coast

No comment lol..

Same truck may have also ran 40k between oil changes..

 

[CorbLand]

My buddies all use to give me crap because my 01 tundra would leak oil and I would have to put about a quart in every month or month and half. I just called it self changing. It stopped leaking about 3 years ago and that had me more concerned than when it did. Hasnt given me any issues though so I dont know.

 

[Ryan R]

i once heard of someone driving a tacoma in 4wheel drive on a 5hr drive, mostly at freeway speeds from K falls to the coast

My ex coworker had a tacoma like myself so we would chat about trucks. One day were talking about four wheel drive and he tells me he tows his tent trailer in 4x4. I’m like what??? He tells me it’s more powerful. We’re talking summer highway towing. I’m like you don’t have to do that dude LMAO.