Serious Frame Rust Questoin

[Nelsonmd]

Man, the more I hear from people in other states, the more happy I am with Colorado, I mean, it was already better than every other state and then you add the fact there are no inspections and little to no rust...

Yeah, I left CO to move to Mass when I got a job here after college. CO is definitely superior in every way except ocean access.

Most important of all, CO has better beer.

Promise me you will never move out of that state! sob sob... Promise Me!

 

[theizzardking]

Yeah, I left CO to move to Mass when I got a job here after college. CO is definitely superior in every way except ocean access.

Most important of all, CO has better beer.

Promise me you will never move out of that state! sob sob... Promise Me!

meh move to washington we're like the CO but with the ocean and a rain forest, lol

 

[COShadow]

Sh!t, thats land rover rust status.

You fix it by patching it, many land rove folk cut sections and weld new bits of metal in, and i would suggest this cause the replacement frames aren't readily availble for 4runners.

What do you mean by replacement frames aren't readily available? I'm assuming anyone could order a new frame if they were so inclined. Am I wrong?

 

[Nelsonmd]

meh move to washington we're like the CO but with the ocean and a rain forest, lol

Sure, if you like rain.

 

[theizzardking]

Sure, if you like rain.

mythbusted!

Seattle Doesn’t Get That Much Rain
we get alot of Grey days but not that much rain fall, we average 226 cloudy days a year but the rest are great,then we got the whole eastside of the state that's desert with most places getting around 300 days of sun a year not to shabby, quite watching meg ryan movies for crying out loud, lol

it's not really as bad as most people like to make it out to be and whine about it.

 

[Nelsonmd]

quite watching meg ryan movies for crying out loud, lol

OH! You did not just go there!

226 rainy days a year, or 300 sunny days in CO. And I have heard about the east side of the state; about as exciting as the CO plains.

I actually really want to visit Seattle. It is on the short list of places I would be interested in moving to. The mountains there are a very different breed than the ones in CO, shorter, more isolated, not the sustained high country of CO. Makes for some really picturesque mountains, and some great mountaineering. Plus I havn't met anyone who visited seattle and hated it, cloudiness or no.

 

[LINY4Runner]

Although based off the same "idea", the 4Runner and Tacoma have very different frames, both from an engineering aspect and the location they're built. They're made at different plants, and only the Taco and Tundra are covered under the recall.
Taco frames rust out from the "rust proofing" used during assembly being defective.

 

[JohnsD90]

What do you mean by replacement frames aren't readily available? I'm assuming anyone could order a new frame if they were so inclined. Am I wrong?

I meant when i look through Land Rover magazines i see AD's for a fully galvanized frames from South Down Rovers for like $2700, i have never ever seen ads for 4runner frames, nor have i ever heard of a 3rd gen frame swap.

 

[steezemcqueen]

mass has a better baseball team

seriously though...i am glad i sold that 2000 when i did because it was on its way to this

Yeah, I left CO to move to Mass when I got a job here after college. CO is definitely superior in every way except ocean access.

Most important of all, CO has better beer.

Promise me you will never move out of that state! sob sob... Promise Me!

 

[COShadow]

I meant when i look through Land Rover magazines i see AD's for a fully galvanized frames from South Down Rovers for like $2700, i have never ever seen ads for 4runner frames, nor have i ever heard of a 3rd gen frame swap.

I guess Budbuilt is working on being able to produce frames for Toyota trucks up to '95.

In the future, I want to buy a frame and build a runner from the ground up.

 

[Nelsonmd]

mass has a better baseball team though

Not worth it. While the team is technically better, the fans are a million times worse. Many of them feel like fate owes them a championship every other year simply because they are the Red Sox. They complain about the Yankees and Yankee fans "Oh! evil empire! blah blah blah! They buy championships!". Sorry Sox, you are their identical twin brother born just a few seconds later.

The Rockies spend about 1/4 the money, have raised most of their players in the their own farm system, and have a thoroughly entertaining team, especially the last few years with their awesome last second runs for the playoffs, and a world series appearance.

I'll take the Rocks over the roid dependent Sox and silver spoon-mounted fans any day.

I hope this doesn't count as trolling. I really have no problem with die hard Sox fans who love the team; I just don't like the arrogant ones that have to tear down other teams.

Go Avs and Bruins... in that order.

Anyway, back on topic...
How feasible is replacing the entire chassis? It thought that once the chassis was unsalvagable, the vehicle is considered totaled and you should just shop for a new one. I assume you would need to lift and suspend the whole body while you do the swap, so that would be some serious hardware, or a big shop bill. Anyone have a writeup??:biggrin2:

 

[ssgendron]

Hello there, I just took my 2000 SR5 for a new exhaust system and I have the same problem in the same exact spot. My father in-law is a great welder but I don't want to doing anything yet until I find out about a recall, do you know of any? I know they just recalled 00'-03' Tundra's for frame rust. Thanks for the help..!!

 

[Nelsonmd]

Hello there, I just took my 2000 SR5 for a new exhaust system and I have the same problem in the same exact spot. My father in-law is a great welder but I don't want to doing anything yet until I find out about a recall, do you know of any? I know they just recalled 00'-03' Tundra's for frame rust. Thanks for the help..!!

Yeah, no 4runner recalls yet. If there ever is one, I guarantee it will be posted here, 'cause alot of us will take ours in for it.

 

[fourwd1]

That's pretty bad, but I've seen and had worse. My 83 was so bad I had to swap a new frame in. Toyota frames rust from the inside out, so treating the outside isn't going to help any. On yours welding on some L angle stock may help for a while.

 

[rjaudi]

My 4runner just had its frame repaired by a local welder. I have rust problems, but my frame looked fine. I had a 6 inch hole next to the muffler. I believe the area where the lower control arm mounts to is a catch for water.

 

[[email protected]]

I've been lurking on the forum for a long time but this is my first posting. I went in for my inspection this week and the mechanic pointed out some frame and axle rust issues to me. I passed inspection, thankfully, but I'm worried I might not if this continues. I'd like to keep it around for another 12 years and 205k, but if it's super expensive to repair I'll probably just keep driving until it fails inspection. The vehicle is used every weekend for trips to ski country in northern New England, so it sees a lot of salty roads. Here are some pictures:
Passengers side in front of trailing link bracket

Passengers side trailing link bracket

Bottom view of rust spot in front of passengers side trailing link bracket

Rear diff cover

Drivers side trailing link bracket

The rear diff leak seems to be minor as I've not seen any drips on the ground under the vehicle. The mechanic also stated that the diff was full of fluid, although it looks like the fill plug was not removed?

Replacing axle seems relatively straightforward if a little expensive. I've found used axle assemblies with ~100k for ~$800 shipped from California. Should be simple enough for me to install myself, but I don't have a driveway let alone a garage to work in (I live in a city and park on the street) so I'll need to pay a mechanic to do it.

Fixing the frame seems a little more involved. Anybody know a good body shop or welder around Boston who can do the job? How much do you think this would cost to repair? Would a welder be able to replace the leaking cover plate on the axle?

Thanks!

 

[Nelsonmd]

Hi G Wallace. Good to meet a fellow Bostonian. There are now 4 or 5 of us T4R owners in the area. Always good to find another.

I had the same axle problem you have. See my build thread in my sig for my fix. I got a whole axle assembly from Florida. I think $800 for a whole assembly (diff and axles) shipped is a good deal. The swap isn't hard. The diff cover isn't a separate part, but integral to the axle housing. You probably want to replace the rest of the housing as well anyway; if it's anything like mine, it has lost a significant amount of material pretty much everywhere.

The frame rust is a problem. I don't know a good welder here in Boston, but I might be able to help you find one.

I live in Brighton and have a driveway. If you can get all the parts together, we could probably do the axle swap at my place once it warms up a bit (I did mine in my driveway).

I take you are an engineering student? ME, EE, CE, ChE, AE?

My 4runner just had its frame repaired by a local welder. I have rust problems, but my frame looked fine. I had a 6 inch hole next to the muffler. I believe the area where the lower control arm mounts to is a catch for water.

How much did that run you?

 

[[email protected]]

I'm a physics postdoc at MIT, actually, but I have a BS in EE.

Thanks for the offer of the driveway, Nelsonmd, but I'll probably try fix this ASAP rather than waiting for the weather to warm up. (That's assuming that I decide to fix the frame rot. If the frame fix is really expensive I might just keep driving as is through the winter and then get rid of it when the rusting gets worse. After 205k, it doesn't owe me anything, and my wife and I don't really need two vehicles---I bike to work during the week and her Subaru can handle weekend trips.)

I've read a bit about removing the rust from the diff cover and patching with JBWeld putty, then covering with a rust-converting paint. That might be a good stop-gap measure if I decide not to fix the frame.

 

[JohnsD90]

Buy a welder and patch te bad spots, like your patch job cant be any worse than a hole in the frame.

 

[Nelsonmd]

I feel fairly comfortable saying that your mechanic did not actually check your rear diff fluid level. From the picture, that fill bolt doesn't look like it's been touched in a long time.

That's a good point. If you havn't, you should pull the fill plug and check it your self. I ran mine almost dry before realizing my leak and cracking the plug. Could have been very very bad.