Rusted Toyota

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This morning I looked at a customers 99 Yota SUV with the drivers side rear sway bar brachet that is supposed to be attached to the underside of the frame. The entire bracket rusted and fell off with the sway bar hanging under the fram. He wanted it welded, but the frame is so thin there was nothing to weld to. Also the bracket was next to the gas tank. I told him he would have to find someone to remove the tank and perhaps weld some lap plates high on the frame and try to connect the plates to the bracket. With the bracket hanging I could feel up into the frame and it couldn't have been nore than .025 thick. The SUV still looked good but the frames is tinney at best.
 
Originally Posted By: crazyoildude
recycled beer can lol ......... And that was a good year for Toyota.
This is a good reason to keep your undercarriage clean..


if it was recycled beer can wouldnt it be aluminum and therefore not rusting
grin2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: crazyoildude
recycled beer can lol ......... And that was a good year for Toyota.
This is a good reason to keep your undercarriage clean..


The real problem is that the frame material should be much thicker.
 
It sounds like the salt belt Ford Rangers this vintage, IIRC the frames for both came from DANA.
My dads 4x4 Ranger frame broke in pieces, like this one there was nothing left to weld.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
It sounds like the salt belt Ford Rangers this vintage, IIRC the frames for both came from DANA.
My dads 4x4 Ranger frame broke in pieces, like this one there was nothing left to weld.



I attached a hitch to the frame of a Crown Vic and needed to drill holes in the underside of the frame. The steel was at least 1/8 thick which would have prevented the TOYO from rotting out if it was made that way. I too had a 91 Ranger and welded to the frame when attaching a home made hitch to it. I found the frame material in that to be heavy enough to stick weld without any problem.
 
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Well, it is fifteen years old and I'm assuming it lived all of its life in the salt belt.
The tragic thing is that whomever bought this thing new could have purchased a similar Ford or Chevy for less money but probably figured that Toyota quality was worth another two or three grand.
Au contraire.
As they used to say in the ads, you asked for it, you got it.
 
I had an older mazda b2000 with the world-beating box frame. But each side of the box was half the thickness of a traditional channel frame. Yeah the box shape is tortionally stiffer on a new truck but when it rots it has twice the surface area and when its insides can't breathe they fill with salt, water, humidity, and rust chips that block drain holes.

It was replaced with a dodge dakota with channel frame rearwards of the cab. Stayed in much better shape.

Was this a real truck based one or a unibody cute ute with "frame rails" molded into the floor pan?
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
I had an older mazda b2000 with the world-beating box frame. But each side of the box was half the thickness of a traditional channel frame. Yeah the box shape is tortionally stiffer on a new truck but when it rots it has twice the surface area and when its insides can't breathe they fill with salt, water, humidity, and rust chips that block drain holes.

It was replaced with a dodge dakota with channel frame rearwards of the cab. Stayed in much better shape.

Was this a real truck based one or a unibody cute ute with "frame rails" molded into the floor pan?


Appeared to be a body on frame design.
 
Dana in Ohio made some frames for Toyota trucks (at least) that had problems with rusting out. A friend of mine got the frame replaced under warranty where they took everything off the old frame and attached it to a new.
 
Toyotas and Hondas do dissolve early in the salt belt. The solution is to undercoat and or rustproof them well when new.

My Toyota 4 Runner had absolutely zero undercarriage rust because I undercoated it with rustoleum undercoating from WalMart when new. I used 10 cans at $5/can so it was a simple $50 investment. I got top dollar when I traded it because the underside was like new.

But my friends F-150 (2009) is rusted through as well.
 
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On CL this past week for fun I looked at older trucks. Found something like a '99 Silverado, and a '99 Suburban, or about that year, both requiring frame work. One had pictures showing how their frame was rotted through. I think I may have seen at least one other.

Even the Big Three, who should have known better, had frames rot out!

*

I had an '86 Isuzu with a "boxed" frame which I think the inside rail was nothing more than sheetmetal, gauging by how it rotted, and what was left, and what was left in the sections still there. Rest of the frame was good and thick. I had a welder just tack some 1/8" plate on so it'd pass inspection. It felt a lot stiffer afterwards!
 
Our Toyota dealer always has a couple trucks in parts waiting for new frames.

Toyota doesn't do rust proofing like the American company's do, they just dissolve up here.
 
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