Replaced The Beater Truck Today

Nizmo

Nizmo

New member
So I believe it was time to retire my old S10 from my fleet. It had served me very well, but the motor is getting tired (starting to knock cold and use ALOT of oil) and being 2wd wasn`t very useful. I started searching for 4wd trucks and I found a nice 05` Colorado, or so I thought. It was rotted pretty good underneath, fact the bumper was only held together by the plastic trim. I had also seen this truck online last night listed for above my budget, but hey I`m a sucker for dealership punishment. From the pictures I could tell they had it a long time (For a dealership anyways, there was snow on the truck. Last snow we had was very early March). Being a Tacoma they`re way overpriced anyways, but I worked some magic and it came home with me.

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It`s a 2009 and has right at 130K on it. Previous owners took decent care of it. It had the leaf spring and frame recall done. They didn`t replace the frame as it came from Virginia so it wasn`t too bad so they just gooped undercoating on. The exterior needs lots of help as it has the typical white Toyota SS fade, but that`s not too much of an issue. It has the TRD Offroad package, so it has all kind of goodies for offroad and inclimate weather! I`m super excited (even after blowing the budget...) and it actually goes up the mountain without struggling like the S10!
 
Nizmo !
Congrats on a very nice TRD Tacoma !!
Looks great !
Really clean inside - definitely looks like they used it - gently - :)
And, it even has a Bedliner!
Hope it all goes great for you; love that it has the V6..
Dan F
 
Nice truck. IMO the taco is the perfect size truck. Most are just too damn big. I had a first gen Tundra and it was an awesome truck.
 
Thanks guys! For a midsized truck it really feels big, honestly. And it sure does seem to sit high, remind me of the old work vans at my old job! I was a little intimidated pulling into a parking spot at Sheetz (gas/convenience store chain in my area) at first, but I guess I`ll get used to it. It`s a little floaty going down the road, but this is my first 4wd truck, so I`m just gonna have to get used to this thing. It`s nice to have a truck with a V6 and automatic again. I love my manuals, but I`ll reserve it for the fun car. That and if mother needs to use it to get to work in bad weather, it`s a little easier (now, her getting in with both hips replaced, that`s a little different, lol).

The more I look at it, it`s going to need alot of detail work! Should be an interesting journey...
 
Nizmo- Hey, I think that`s a great upgrade over the S10! You *did* try to save that one, but this is just so much better...

Hope your Mom`s hip replacements go well, they have some cool new techniques for that which minimize recovery downtime by a huge margin compared to the old ways.
 
Accumulator said:
Nizmo- Hey, I think that`s a great upgrade over the S10! You *did* try to save that one, but this is just so much better...

Hope your Mom`s hip replacements go well, they have some cool new techniques for that which minimize recovery downtime by a huge margin compared to the old ways.
Click to expand...

Yea it served me well and never left me stranded, but onto bigger and better things I recon. I had someone look at it Friday night and they were amazed how clean it was under the hood. They wanted it, but due to PA`s strange titling laws we have to everything at a notary/title place. Figure they would have changed their mind, but just got a text a little bit ago.

She had the first one done back in 2016 and the other one last year. Its been a struggle, but take it day by day. I get home about the time she leaves for work, so the other day I walk back into the kitchen after cleaning up and the truck was gone. Heh, shouldn`t have given her a set of keys, I can`t keep her out of it:o

Already plan on ordering a new set of tires, I really don`t like the ones on it and they are doing the famous Michelin crack. I did notice a little bit of a blower motor tick under the dash, well I found out why. This is what a 130K cabin filter looks like!

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Yea, it`s completely caked. Here we go again on my used truck adventures!
 
Nizmo- Sure glad to hear your Mom is getting around OK.

What`s this "Michelin crack" you mentioned? I`ve run them on all my trucks (and many sedans) and I`ve never experienced that.

And heh heh...about time that cabin filter got some attention, huh?!?
 
Accumulator, as of late it seems alot of people have problems with Michelin tires age cracking/dry rooting before wearing the tread. This is on alot of vehicles not driven as much as the average, so your mileage may vary (heh no pun intended). The set on mine have good tread, but are cracked to Hell and back. There`s also a nice vibration I`ve narrowed down to the tires. I`ve decided to go with a set of Yokohama Geolander A/T G015`s. A combination of great tread and price. Just sold the S10 so I`ll order them tomorrow to hopefully have them on this week.
 
Nizmo- Huh, that`s interesting, especially as the Tahoe only gets driven when a big SUV is the right tool for the job. My wife`s car has Pilots, but gets driven all the time. I oughta go check the spare for the Crown Vic, it has a Pilot A/S on it that`s getting kinda old.

By the sound of it, you want some kind of A/T capability, maybe that`s the diff, mine are all about handling, even the ones on the Tahoe, so they`re probably very different. I wore the last set out with zero signs of cracking, just weird wear from my high inflation pressures.
 
Yea, it is a pretty common thing; you`ve gotten lucky!

This is what mine look like (yea I`m going to have to refinish these wheels...)

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And you can see tons of tread, but is just starting to separate. That is a big no for me, once it starts getting hot outside I feel they`ll be a ticking time-bomb!

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It goes in for new tires tomorrow. Gonna see how a set of Yokohama`s do on the truck. I had a set on my old Jetta that were good in the snow, so we`ll see!
 
Huh, I`ve only had one set of tires crack in my life, and those were on the Volvo I inherited (rest of it was in similarly neglected condition), and I can`t remember what brand those were as I replaced them immediately.
 
I know I don`t post much detailing wise anymore (with my work schedule it doesn`t leave much time...), but figured I`d update on the truck. It has not been without problems these past 4 months and I`ve spent more than what I sold my other truck for, go figure. First thing was to get rid of the old dry rotted tires, that was almost $700. Couple months ago I was having an issue with a vibration from the drivers side from 25mph to 45mph. It would come and go, just kinda shrugged it off as "normal" till I needed to use 4wd to get out of my muddy yard. The vibration came back with vengeance afterwards. Come to find out the needle bearing the drivers front CV shaft rides on was on its way out; a common 2nd gen Tacoma problem. Issue being since my truck is lifted I could not use a factory replacement. I had to install an upgraded bushing to compensate for the extra angle the CV shaft is now. Parts and labor that was a $500 fix. Month or so ago I had a tire slowly leaking down, figured it was corrosion in the bead the just didn`t clean off well. Nope, $100 later that TPMS sensor was replaced. Waiting for the others to fail now.

Couple maintenance items have been done to catch up on what the previous owner neglected. Spark plugs were changed out as they had an estimated 100K on them which is fine for the Iridium plugs the first owner put in, but the truck really needs standard Denso copper plugs. All 5 u-joints needed a serious greasing and seems to have elimintated 50% of driveline vibrations. Still have one from 65mph to 90mph and I`ve tracked it down to the carrier bearing for the 2 piece driveshaft. The slip joint does need re-greasing, but I plan on upgrading to a one piece shaft in the spring to a tune of $600-$800. Expensive, but will eliminate extra maintenance in the future.

Other than that, just some general cleaning and polishing. The single stage white has come back pretty decent for now.

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Nizmo- Thanks for the update!

I think, no...I *know*...I`d have undone that Lift Kit, but I`m glad you`ve got things sorted out.

And yeah on the aging TPMS sensors...I need to replace the Crown Vic`s when I get the new tires mounted (on the new rims I still need to buy).

I sure like how that white looks! Was the ss hard to correct? People *say* all sorts of things about how hard it is, but I never experienced that on my ss white ones.
 
Accumulator, I can understand your reservation about the lift kit. I know it isn`t the best thing for the truck, but it was installed when I bought it and I actually like a little bit more height. It`s just right, just a little bit higher and not obnoxious. Was actually going to give this truck to my mother and trade the GTI and Camry in for a new `19 Tacoma TRD. She said I was going to have to lift the new truck too and add a set of rock sliders ($1K plus...), lol. Decided against it now, but I thought that little bit was funny. Woman is almost handicapped and wants a lifted truck, heh.


The single stage on this truck is a nightmare in my opinion. So far I spent 7 hours getting it halfway decent and I haven`t done the roof yet! Took multiple passes, but probably one last light polishing session it should be decent. Also even with 2 coats of sealant it is super hard to keep clean and stain free. I have gotten the interior spotless and nobody believes me the truck is 10 years old.
 
Nizmo- Heh heh, I *do* appreciate ground-clearance as I simply can`t take the S8 to the places I regularly go as it`s *slightly* lower than the others, but I can`t help but think how well my factory-stock Tahoe would handle were it about three inches lower (can`t do with that model w/4WD).

That *is* funny about your mother, but OTOH an older lady we know with serious mobility issues finds her SUV a lot easier than any regular car.

BUT, about trading the GTI and Camry for another truck, well..[INSERT predictable comments HERE ;) ]

Interesting about the ss paint being a PIA...wonder why it`s so hard to keep nice?!?
 
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