If you are one of the thousands of 4Runner owners noticing a lot of rust on your frame, you can get your car inspected to see if it’s related to a manufacturing defect. Check out this photo of a 2005 Toyota 4Runner. The front right lower control arm bracket broke off due to excessive corrosion. Be careful! If you own a 2003-2009 Toyota 4Runner, call 843-546-2408 or email [email protected] for more information about getting your car inspected.

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FWIW, the email address in the post above seems to have a typo. I think the law firm handling this is actually here:

Toyota 4Runners Claims | ELG Law

@L4Time just an FYI, when there are class action lawsuits against major big corporations many law groups start jumping on the band wagon to get in on the action and try to get as many clients as possible, but in this case the aforementioned email address posted by @RustyFrameLawsuit is indeed correct and goes to the original law group that represents the original T4R owner (Weinreich) who started the lawsuit, here's a link to the Bell Legal Group web page concerning this lawsuit.

Toyota 4Runner Excessive Rust Defect Information - Bell Legal Group

The link you posted is for a law group in Alabama and even the phone number for them doesn't jive with the original owner's who filed the lawsuit location which is South Carolina.

Also here's another link to "Carcomplains.com" that has all the info on this class action lawsuit as well, and they also state the the law group is Bell Legal Group and the lawsuit is filed in US District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division - Weinreich, et al., v. Toyota Motor Sales, et al.

Toyota Says 4Runner Rusted Frame Lawsuit Should Go | CarComplaints.com

the user above has some good advice. although I didn't quite go as far as he did with his truck, I did spend several days going at it inside and out and did treatments of Rustoleum rust converter (brush on), then over that with their rattle can rust cover (which looked nice when done), then inside the frame with Eastwood internal frame rust treatment. I skipped a year and this past year there is quite a bit of rust returning albeit nowhere as bad as the beginning. I'm in Connecticut so I get the road treatments and the car was a Mass car to begin with that apparently the owner liked to take to the beach to joyride through the saltwater haha.

I bought a battery-powered right-angle die grinder specifically to touch up and knock down rust on the frame of my truck and am determined to keep it going so I can hand it down to my son when he's ready to drive. but, I have no doubt it will be an ongoing process for as long as we own it.

Thanks for the info AuSeeker. I just got suspicious because the domain edbelllaw.com doesn't currently return an active website (404). That's pretty odd for an email address not to have an active matching web page, so so I figured it was a typo. My best guess at the correct one was the address I posted, but clearly I was barking up the wrong tree.

That Carcomplaints.com link is interesting. Thanks again for the info.

Just had my daughter's fully built Wrangler TJ stolen so I'm looking at a 4th gen 4R (4WD) as our next project. I live in Southern CA. I've looked at a couple that have had rust thru on the frame rails. Our budget is around $17k.

I would have to fly to NM to purchase this one and I had the sales guy take photos underneath. I'm sort of horrified by the rust but it seems most 4WDs came from the East coast and this just may be typical. Any input is appreciated.

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I've spent the last few months looking at, and attempting to buy, a 3rd Gen 4Runner. Those which were clean and rust free tend to sell immediately and I seemed to respond 10 min too late. I even committed to fly to Irvine from SJ to buy a fantastically clean one but was told that he had "just told another guy 5 min ago" that he could buy it. Interesting, because I had told him I was serious and he spent 4 days sending me various photographs to confirm condition and upgrades.

I did end up finally buying one that had spent time in Colorado and other snowy states. It has some light to moderate frame rust which I will clean up over time. For me, the photos you posted have too much rust, unless you are getting a killer deal on the truck. There are always going to be trade-offs, especially with older vehicles like these. But, with the amount of rust on the photos you posted --> 1. there are much cleaner vehicles out there but it may take a few days/weeks/months for them to pop up for sale 2. if you buy that vehicle, you may want to take it to a restoration specialist to have it cleaned up. Some of it is just surface rust but there's likely some that will require parts replacement. Given that your daughter's Jeep was fully built, this is likely not an issue for you as I would imagine you will be building the 4Runner as well, right?

Good luck with it all!!!

Building a vehicle is one thing but to me fixing rust damage is not something I want to take on.

This one might be beyond the point where stopping the rust is good enough. I don't know enough about these to know if what I'm looking are attempts at repairs or if it's just surface rust on the original frame.

The welder I had fix the rad support on mine said use transmission fluid. Clean it maybe treat with something then spray some transmission fluid in the frame and outside. He has 3 tacomas ranging from 1992 to 2009I think it was. The frames looked perfect on all 3 with a nice heavy coat of fluid on them. Dirty yes but no rust! and we live in NY!

jeskandarian, that one looks pretty good to me. you will be spending some time sanding and painting and probably cutting the alignment hardware off the LCAs and replacing with new/greased ones, I Have an '03 I bought used and live in northern Illinois so am constantly battling rust and it is a PIA.
Check under the passenger side front door/bottom of frame rail, that's where the AC condensate accumulates and rusts the frame pretty bad. You will want to re-route that AC line to the wheel well.

There really shouldn’t be any issue with that - from what I see it’s all cosmetic and none of that should cause any long term problems particular if it’ll live in CA. You can again sand it and apply a rust converter and repaint if it bothers you but I think it’s extremely unlikely to be a problem for the next 15 years or so.

The biggest issue you may have is that some of those bolts may be seized and difficult to get off

For someone from the rust belt I wouldn’t think twice about that

I purchased a 4Runner with rust very similar to what's in your pictures. That rust does not look like a structural issue, as is. If the rest of the car and the price are good, then your task is to find someone that will apply an effective rust inhibitor. I purchased (and apply) Fluid Film. This stuff works great at stopping further rust, but it needs to be reapplied (to exterior surfaces, inside the frame, above the spare tire, etc.) every 2-3 years to keep the rust as-is. This isn't a huge deal, but my impression is that most daughters are unlikely to do this. There are other similar products (I like the lanolin ones best ...). If the car is going to a "low rust" climate, you'll be fine for a long time if you inhibit further rust and retreat it occasionally.

It's a huge effort to remove the rust (.. ask me how I know ...) and I couldn't imagine paying someone to do this. It would be less expensive and a lot less trouble to buy a newer model. So the value option it to stop the rust now, before it's an issue, and keep it that way.

I did my 4runner best I could a few weeks ago - wire wheel, rust oleum rust converter then fluid film

Was applying fluid film to our other vehicles - Highlander and ram 1500 and the ram has a lot more rust than I expected. Should have definitely hit that with rust converter first. Next summer I’ll have to try to clean it off those areas to treat better

From lots of research on these forums, a rusty frame is the single largest weak spot on these trucks. I would strongly suggest doing all you can to find a unit that has little to no rust. Being from Wisconsin, this is a large concern for me as well. I went out of my way to get one that fit this criteria and even then I will be fluid filming the frame inside and out to prevent the rust from forming the best I can.

Here are a few pics of mine to show what I thought was acceptable:

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Hi All,

I have just purchased a used 2004 4th gen 4runner and it was quickly and I feel costly decesion due to frame rust and need advice what i need to do resolve the issue.

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