I got scammed 2004 SR5

Hey guys, first post today. I came over from the tundra forums as I have a first gen tundra too. Long story short I bought what I thought was a 2004 SR5 v8 with 140k miles today. When I got the truck home I looked on the Toyota site to see what maintenance had been done and found out the guy I bought it from rolled the miles back! It says it has 254k!

Turns out the guy used a fake name and phone number. Luckily the title is clean and it’s not stolen just flipped and he never actually registered it in his name. He said the name on the title was his wife. I know bad on me being from a small town and buying the truck in a big city.

unfortunately there is no way for me to find this guy because his number is a google number and his Facebook has been deactivated. The truck is clean and runs well so I guess I’ll just move on from here. I had to put new brakes in it today but there’s no rust.

 

Here’s some pics

 

Sorry to hear man. A buddy got scammed the same way buying a Sequoia. Unfortunately it’s becoming more commonplace now.

 

Do the timing belt right away. All the fluids also. These engines have gone a million miles on several different platforms, so once you get maintenance done it should be good for a long time.

 

that’s the plan. It’s such a crazy situation I never thought anyone even did rollbacks anymore on the odometer. Could be worse but I don’t think the timing belts ever been done so it’s definitely on borrowed time there.

 

Wish there was a way to plug in an OBD reader and check the actual mileage.

 

This is my first gen tundra to go along with the new runner.

 

I have a good Toyota master tech buddy who owns his own shop down here. It’s going to him next week and I’ll have him see if he can find anything out.

 

How many miles on the Tundra? My buddy had one that he sold recently with 480K and still going strong.

Your 4Runner still looks awesome. Go give it the mechanical love it needs and hope for the best.

 

Wait, if the title is clean then it should have the guys real name on it. Right?

At least the truck is clean, he just lied about it having 100k less miles. Do the maintenance that others have suggest and you'll be okay.

 

it has the lady he bought it from a name on it. He lied and said it was his wife’s name on the title. He never registered it in his name just bought it and flipped it.

 

the tundra has 160k on it. Its my baby

 

That's what I thought. A lot of dealerships do this, or car flippers. I watched a video on YouTube last week about "how not to get scammed" and they mentioned the title-not the persons name selling it.

 

I wish I saw that! He was a really nice guy too and had all these stories about the car and using it to take his kids to stuff. And he even said he hates selling anything on marketplace because of scammers. What a beauty. I just want to know how he rolled the miles back. I’m assuming it’s not easy I never would have thought people still did that

 

He probably bought a gauge cluster from a junk yard. He found a 4th Gen 4Runner with a lot less miles and pulled the cluster. You can also buy them online. But HONEST people either fix the mileage or make a notation in the CarFax/Title stating the odometer was replaced.

 

That’s alone is not a big deal but how did you find out that he rolled back the odometer? BTW this is very typical on Facebook. People buy a vehicle from a private party, clean it, maybe fix it or in this case roll back the odometer and sell it without transferring the title.

 

With a laptop. Why does it matter? Can you prove that it was him?

 

im assuming the odometer was rolled back because when I got home I registered the vin on the Toyota website to check the service history. I should have done it sooner that’s on me but my wife really liked the car. The service history has oil changes all the way up to 254k miles and the gauge reads 140,540

 

I have to assume it was him. The lady who’s name is on the title is a 60 yr old pharmacist who bought it from a Lexus dealer in 2012

 

with all respect it annoys the crap when people call the 2uz the million mile motor yes it did reach a million miles but ironically the few that reached a million will probably be the only ones because they drove those almost non stop on the freeway in a short amount of time. 99.9 percent of folks with the 2uz would take over 20 or 30 years or never even get that high and all that stop and go and cold starts wreak havoc on an engine even a 2uz so a 2uz or any normally driven petrol engine most likely never make a million miles even if the owner(s) actually tried to drive it for that long

 

So the good news is that it has a full service history. You can dispute the odometer and change it back to original or just print out the service history and disclose whenever you sell the car. It’s frustrating I know but the full service history is an amazing thing for a vehicle this age and mileage.

 

yea I was really surprised it’s only been between two dealerships here in Houston and the oil was done every 5k at Toyota. The only thing I didn’t see was the damn timing belt but I’ll do that.

 

Sorry you got scammed, but the wagon looks great!

Btw, welcome to the site

 

I don’t know man, but looking at these photos, I’m pretty sure the seller is the one who got scammed here. I’d figure out how to roll the odometer back to the right mileage, and enjoy this mfer truck.

 

You know after sleeping on it it really is a great truck. The back brakes were f’ed but I spent 3 hrs replacing them and a bad caliper and it rides and runs so smooth and great. No rattles or squeaks or clunks

 

The only thing stopping the truck was the piston against the rotor In the rear passenger side

 

And a few interior shots. It’s really a nice car I won’t worry about the miles.

 

thanks!

 

Welcome!
The pictures look quite good. I think you will come out alright.

 

I agree. Unless you paid some crazy premium price for it because of the low mileage it was a good purchase. Fully serviced, TX car, no rust and amazing interior condition. Enjoy and don’t worry about the mileage.