Needs comments on a 1999 SR5 V6 4x4 manual (with pics)

[Lugnuts001]

Hey all, this is my first post. I’m looking at a 1999 SR5 V6 4x4 manual. It has 95K miles on it and the exterior and interior look clean in pictures. AutoCheck says its clean. It’s in FL, but it’s been in the north most it’s life and the underbody is very rusty, and that is my biggest concern. Rust on the back bumper is pretty bad, the front has a patch of rust. As far as the owner knows, it’s on the original timing belt and clutch. He said it’s got a CEL and a local place said it’s a bad 02 sensor. I’m trying to find out the code from him. Anyway, he sent me pics of the underbody. The left rear axle seal looks blown, but he hasn’t noticed any driveline noises and says it drives fine. I just want to know if the rust looks salvageable (without too much work). I don’t mind cleaning and repainting some underbody parts as long as they’re solid. I don’t want to weld or have to replace everything. To me the rust looks pretty bad and isn’t just “surface” rust. I’m afraid of what I’ll find if I started chipping at it. The diff housing doesn’t look like it’s leaking like the horror stories I’ve read about. I’d probably ask the owner to poke it with a screwdriver first. Below are the pics I have. What do you guys think? Thanks in advance.

 

[Fireball]

I got a little sick looking at those pictures, reminding me of a POS Cherokee I used to have a few years back that I bought from a guy in NY. Promised myself I'd never again buy anything with rust issues.

That looks quite a mess. It's going to be a huge hassle to wrench on it, lots of cursing. Lots of broken bolts, etc.

Unless you're getting a smoking deal on it and are a masochist, I'd steer clear.

$.02

 

[JohnsD90]

Looks fine. Thats all surface rust. Thats not even really rusty. Its a good buy for a decent price, i dont agree with fireball, because it really isnt that much more work. Just sandblast it. BTW Fireball's truck has no rust, mine looks a little worse than this and it really is nothing, if you are trully frightened by this than don't buy it, but coming from someone with a Rusty truck its not bad.

 

[jsmarine]

You always have to make trade offs when buying an older used car, it does have only 95k on it. And the rust does look worse than most, but you will be breaking bolts and cursing on any 10 year old car when you work on the underside of it. Just the way it is.

If this is the best 4runner you have found in your budget, with options you want, color etc...then go for it! If not, keep looking!

 

[JohnsD90]

You guys dont realize its only surface rust, 95% of Rusty Runners are only surface rust, a little PB blaster for the bolt and you wont ever have an issue, I have yet to break a bolt with all the work i have done, the only things that gave me real issues were the rear shocks, running boards and the sway bar links. Nothing PB cant solve.

 

[jsmarine]

You may be correct about the 95% of Rusty Runners , but if you live in a state with a lot of snow, like I did in Denver, then you would want to find one without too much rust, which is hard I know. I got lucky, the dealer bought mine at an auction in sunny and dry southern California! I know there are a lot of good 3rd Gens out there, and if it were me I would pass on this one. I dont know what your budget is, or where you live Lugnuts001, but here is a good one in Texas. 4x4 Toyota 4runner 2002 A one way plane ticket would cost about the same as trying to get rid of that rust!

 

[Lugnuts001]

Fireball, you're probably right. I've worked with less rust in the past and it's a pain. The bright side is I'm in FL so the rust wouldn't get any worse and whatever rust repair I do would last.

jsmarine, the biggest limiting factor is that I want a manual. I like everything else about this one. I'm not sure I'm willing to make the compromise though. Thanks for the suggestion, but that's an auto. I'm in FL but I would go to TX for the right one.

JohnsD90, I might accept the rust but it's hard to when I've seen 4Runners like this one below, an 02 auto with about the same miles but it's always been in FL. If it looked like this, I would've bought it already. I saw a 99 auto with 145K and it didn't look much worse. It had many other problems and didn't look like it was maintained well, but just the fact that it was always in FL left the underbody practically rust free. Knowing that there are ones like these around makes me want to wait. The problem is I want a 99-00 manual with lower miles, so it might be a really long wait. Look at this, this is beautiful!

 

[Crywolf]

^^ Holy tire shine on that CL find! haha I would have to agree with Johnsd90. My T4r is in Iowa, it's been north it's entire life, but Pb works wonders. As long as you start hitting bolts with Pb say a week in advance of any major work you should be fine. I think if you like the truck and it's a good deal then go for it! Bottom line, like the other posters said it is 10 years old and you're gunna be wrenching on it occasionally either way. Don't let a little surface rust scare ya :biggrin2:

 

[Gumballf355]

Man, I live in california and still occasionally see rusty cars like that as well. That is enough rust to have issues.... My runner is like the clean one posted, it's much more pleasant to work on. Rusty cars are just a pain, plain and simple... if you can, avoid it, you'll be glad you did. If you are on a budget then you'll just have to make due.

 

[bigtimeweb]

I guess it depends on your patience level! But I know John definitely is a trustworthy source regarding rust issues, and I think the sand blasting sounds like a great solution.

Totally off topic but since these are such great pics of the back side of drums...wheres the bellcrank in there???

 

[fightman80]

No big deal!

I live in the Northeastern section of Canada, road salts are used liberally, and my rig has some rust issues as well. I've nipped it in the butt, but spraying the undercarriage with motor oil, and using multi purpose grease to coat some of the other areas. I also spray inside the doors, fenders, quarter panels, and inner rockerpanels. My 98 is 12 years old now, and still looks presentable, and the only issues I've had were the top nuts on the rear shocks, and the Stabilizer link bolts.

Here's some pics of my undercarriage and under the hood:

I know that the oil is a litlle messy to work with, but it's much better than the truck rusting out! Besides, if you are really determined to find a 4Runner with all the options you pointed out, than I would jump on it!

my $0.02

 

[theizzardking]

personally where you live and the non-rusty options you most likely have out there i wouldn't bother with it, just wait to find the one you want, this defiantly isn't one to jump on, it should be around for a bit so keep looking till something a bit better comes along.

the amount of rust above is just surface at this point in most places, but i do see some serious corrotion going on there, you can tell if you run your finger on the inside of the hole profiles and they are no longer smooth but kind of chewed up this means the metal has been eaten away some, also around some of those welds it looks a little weak the main thing i see is the build up going on the the cylinder in the upper part of this picture.

if you do get it... sandblasting followed by a por-14 sort of paint would be the way to go, just keep in mind your not going to have a booth for this and it's going to be you in the driveaway with a sandblaster just shooting shit all over the place.

but honestly imo your buying a new car to you not a project, you should be spending your time and money into mods and upgrades just not tyring to bring it up to par. you also have to keep in mind john lives in a shitty place for rust to begin with you don't really want to start off where the guys in the northeast do anyways. (i'll never buy a car that's lived over there for rust issues)

just so you know rust is a chemical exchange process and even surface rust is bad from a strictly technical point of view , it just means nothing structurally has bad has happened yet, rust builds and peels in layers.
so if you do decide to take it on get on it quick.

dude i suck at explaining this sort of thing
Rust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

here's a pretty cool rust inhibitor test that we did over on my vw site (50 year old vw's have alot of it!)
TheSamba.com :: View topic - Rust Prevention Product Testing

 

[theizzardking]

I know that the oil is a litlle messy to work with, but it's much better than the truck rusting out! Besides, if you are really determined to find a 4Runner with all the options you pointed out, than I would jump on it!

my $0.02

if your using oil you should be using a quality bar and chain oil****not motor oil****. Do not get the cheap stuff. Agway or Husquarvarna seem to both use similar formulas. That is a mixture of phosphoric acid, oil, and paraffin. The phosphoric kills the rust. In fact the rust will turn black within a week. The oil and wax leave behind a sticky residue. This treatment also has the advantage of lubricating all joints, etc...

When looking to buy bar and chain oil, READ THE LABEL. Although it won't give you the ingredients, it should say something like: High adhesiveness, high oiliness, High Film Strength, Anti-Rust.

The best way we have found to apply the bar and chain oil is with a 3M Rocker Schutz gun and an air compressor at about 50-60 PSI. Atomizing the oil helps to make this a quick job as well as makes it possible to spray into doors, rockers, etc.

This stuff will evaporate/dry to some extent and leave a thin film behind.

I do my cars twice a year. In the fall, and also in the spring.

It's a good idea to pressure wash your ride and let it dry before undercoating. Spraying the oil on top of mud won't do much good...

I spray all sheet metal, joints etc underneath, and also spray in the rocker panels, doors, etc.

Would you rather have salt water or oil in them door seams ? Remember you'll be splashing up slush that seems to get inside all seams (this salt mix is not nice !)

you get a chemical reaction from the bar oil with the metal which forms a protective oxide.

This treatment is for cars driven daily in the rust belt.



also remeber if your going to use por-15 and the bed liner paint you must remove all rust first!!!!! sandblasting and then spraying it with phosphoric acid
should get the job done, the sand blast will remove the top layers and the acid should eat away the rest hiding in the pits or such, if you do it right you're truck will last another 20 years.

 

[JohnsD90]

Por 15 can be used with some amount of rust left, not a huge amount but they say it will absorb rust.

 

[Gumballf355]

Why are we still talking about this?? Don't buy this headache. The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of 4runners out there without rust. Be patient and search for one, you'll be glad you did. Even if it costs a little more, if you plan on keeping your runner for a while and working on it yourself you'll be glad you did. Spending time making your car less rusty isn't my idea of moving in the right direction...

 

[fightman80]

Thanks for the info Izzardking! I like the Chain oil Idea! I've used the old motor oil, because I recycle it from my oil changes......just trying to re-purpose it rather than send it to the hazardous waste depo. I've heard of using gear oil before, and the chain oil seems like a great option!

By the way, if you do buy it, and have issues with removing rusty bolts.....use the old candle wax method! Heat up the nut and bolt with a propane torch, and then take wax candle and touch the nut with it. The heat will draw in the wax and loosen the bolt! Just a little trick that saved me from having to buy a new Strut Assembly when I couldn't afford to do so!

Just an FYI, and common sense, don't torch anything that shouldn't be torched! Gas lines and such are BAD!

 

[theizzardking]

and make sure you wipe off the wd-40 and pb blaster before the torch, that shit be flammable!

 

[theizzardking]

Thanks for the info Izzardking! I like the Chain oil Idea! I've used the old motor oil, because I recycle it from my oil changes......just trying to re-purpose it rather than send it to the hazardous waste depo. I've heard of using gear oil before, and the chain oil seems like a great option!

haha yeah no problem, i guess you can call that recycling or at the very least you can leave a spy hunter oil slick behind you and escape professor x. lol, j/k it's relatively ok.

seriously though it's not that bad at all i was just saying if he's going to go out and buy something to coat the bottom of it with he should go with the oils i listed they're pretty cheap and far Superior then motor oil, even though the motor oil does offer some protection the gear/chain/bat oil is better.
but like you said it was free for the old motor oil so why not it's an old trick from the 50's and 60's and worked ok then, you should just wash it off and re-coat twice a year or so, and the biggest thing you can do to keep rust away is just wash the mother regularly as it takes a bit for rust to form from salted roads when the temps are cold and not 1/2 as much when it's warmer out , saying the warmer and saltier the roads the quicker the process goes, so just use best judgment when you should wash and when i say wash i'm talking about a pressure washer being sprayed on the under carriage.

 

[Lugnuts001]

I won't have to apply oils on the undercarriage here in central FL (I read Fluid Film works pretty well though). If I was to get it, instead of making regular applications, I'd rather just POR-15 it all and be done. When I lived up north I bought a Jeep Scrambler from the south with hardly any rust. I took the body off and stripped it down to metal and painted the entire thing with POR-15, thinking I'd be living up there for a while. Well, a year or two later I moved down and drove it with me. I ended up selling it to someone down here. That body is gonna last a long time!

Anyway, I would gladly pay more to find the exact same one with no rust, and I wouldn't even consider this if the manuals weren't so difficult to find.

Well it looks like there's no consensus so far. I have to be patient either way, either patient dealing with the rust, or patient waiting for the "one". I think it would make more sense to wait since it's less work. This particular one has been available for a while already and I figured I'd look into it to see what he meant by surface rust. The rust on this one isn't my idea of surface rust. I had an 01 Tacoma for 4 years when I lived up north (about half the time this 4Runner was), and it looked nothing like this when I sold it.

Thanks for quick replies guys.

 

[JohnsD90]

how much is the one listed?