Bummer Day, Frame is Too Far Gone on my '04. Now What?

Found out last year my frame had the deadly Toyota frame cancer. Found a shop that would do the SafeTCap frame repair and dropped it off over the weekend. Monday they asked me to come back in and take a look. The whole frame is done, control arm supports, everything. Would cost more than the value of the 4runner to fix. It's an '04 Limited with only 120K miles!! Running great! Most of the body is perfect! I'm beyond bummed and seriously PO'd at Toyota. I've owned some rusty old cars but this is ridiculous. Never seen anything like it. I don't even live in the 'rust belt'. I'm in Northern Virginia! I was towing a boat with it. Could have killed me and others!!

But now what do I do with it? Just put new TRD rims and tires and updated stereo in it. Would anyone want to buy a parts 4Runner?

 

It's not the rust belt, it's the salt belt. And Virginia is in it. Sorry to hear about your 4r, maybe reach out to Toyota to see if anything can be done.

 

Toyota won't do anything. There are a couple class action suits going on but not holding my breath. They eventually recalled same model years Tacomas for severely corroded frames but not the 4Runners.

Lived here for 55 years and owned a few cars. Rust happens but this is beyond anything I've even seen or even imagined. My first car was a 20 year old '65 Mustang. It had rust, had to replace floorboards. But it was nothing like this. Looks like a quarter or more of the steel is gone.

 

You are just a few tubing bends & welds away from a cool rock crawler!

 

I guess I'm wondering why you were recently putting an updated stereo and TRD rims/tires on a vehicle you knew had 'frame cancer' that you found out about last year...

 

Did you take any steps to prevent rust (such as fluid film) or undercoating? Sorry to hear about this

 

Well i found out AFTER the upgrades. derp..

 

Never thought i needed to. Never had a vehicle with such serious corrosion problems. Owned a convertible Celica for 24 years in the same area, nothing but minor rust.

 

Did you puit the boat into salt water? Did you go skiing on snowy days. Drive after the snow melted while roads were still wet. All of those contribute to salt getting on your frame but yes, Toyota has been absolutely horrible with their frame rust.

 

I'm well aware of all the salt possibilities and how that adds to corrosion. I could understand a certain amount of rust but this frame is swiss cheese. There are a few class action suits going on about it so it's definitely not just me.

 

What kinda TRD rims & tires are they? (if you would want to sell those)

 

This is a real bummer. But want to toss out an idea. You note that the cost of repair is more than the value of the 4Runner. But maybe that's not the best way to think about your decision.

Using round numbers to illustrate: Let's say the repair is $10K and the sale value of the truck is $3K. The question for me would be, what could I get for $13K? Would I rather spend $10K to have this known vehicle that I love, with only 120K miles and in solid condition in all other respects, and now with a fully fixed frame?

Or would I rather roll the dice out in the marketplace to buy an unknown vehicle that I can find for $13K?

Which vehicle is likely to be better?

 

I guess I misunderstood your original post. It sounded like you found out last year about the frame cancer, but just recently added the upgrades...my apologies.

 

My economics teacher told us the cost of repair never exceeds the cost of replacement. A new T4R will set you back way more than to repair this one and a used T4R is a crap shoot.