Im adding my 2 cents. Maybe closer to 5 or 10 cents.
Simple facts,
-Its a 14-20 year old vehicle
-Things will break, regardless of how great Toyota reliability is
-The average person driving down the road is not nearly as OCD as most of us 3rd gen enthusiasts at doing PREVENTATIVE maintenance and understanding the in's and outs and weak points of our trucks. We understand our trucks and tent to fix things before they break
-What breaks is sometimes predictable (you get the warning signs and know a part is going) and at other times will be random and sudden
I love my 3rd gen, but it has cost me a fair deal of money, though I don't really see a reason to complain about that when the truck is 18 years old and has 240k miles.
For OP, things Ive had break, and issues Ive dealt with on my truck
- Had a fuel injector go bad at around 180k miles. The truck still ran but felt terrible (obviously). Cost me around $65 to replace doing the work myself after learning how to do it from the good members of this forum.
- Had to replace the majority of my front end components including steering rack, as parts were loose
- (Specifically regarding the steering rack, it is located aft of the center line of the front wheels, rather than forward. This was a bad design decision on Toyotas part, and is the true reason that so many 3rd gens develop loose sloppy knocking steering racks. It also makes the steering looser in general. Even after I purchased a brand new LTD rack, the steering still feels loose. You feel the wheel move more over bumps than you do on a vehicle with forward mounted steering rack. You may or may not notice this when driving the 3rd gen. It may or may not bother you. Its my biggest complaint against the 3rd gen)
- My alternator suddenly went out at around 220k miles. Ok, it gave me some indicators starting about a week before failing. But at the time I didn't know enough to recognized the signs. This is the one time my truck left me stranded.
- Front brake rotors tend to warp. I talked to an EBC brake vendor about this and he said its because of the relatively weak rear drums. Im on my 3rd set of front rotors now
- Mine hadn't failed fortunately, but I replaced my radiator/transmission cooler at around 200k and it was corroded
- 3rd gens tend to be plagued with vibration issues, which can be tough to track down and fix.
That's my input. If you buy a truck with a lot of miles, expect to put more money and time into maintaining it. Most of us enjoy wrenching on/modifying our 3rd gens as a hobby
