2nd Gen Toyota Tacoma 2005-2015 Common Issues and Reliability

The 2nd Gen Toyota Tacoma from 2005-2015 is a very reliable truck, but like every vehicle on the road, it has its fair share of issues. I just want to make sure you are aware of them to better educate you about your ride or your future purchase.

Rusty Frame

The first main issue is frame rust. From 2004-2008 some Toyota factories did a slack job at coating the undercarriage which resulted in rotting frames and a class action lawsuit in 2016. Because of that, Toyota will repair/replace your frame, but that expired in 2019. So, be sure to check out those frames and treat the frame with Por 15 or Corroseal if you are not so extreme rusting.

I’ll have the products I mentioned linked in the description for your convenience.

POR 15:

Corroseal (I prefer this, I have used it before.) :

Leaf springs:

From 2005-2011 there’s a recall for Toyota Tacoma’s with the three layered leaf springs breaking and puncturing the gas tank and potentially causing a fire. You can go to this website to see if your vehicle is under the recall

But, if your vehicle isn’t under warranty and you have the three leaf springs you can either install these, they are called sumo springs which strengthens the leaf springs and allows you to be able to hold more load without the potential of snapping your OEM leaf springs, or upgrade them to a 4 layer leaf spring.

SumoSprings:

TPS

The throttle body can get all gunked up and cause the plate or throttle body blade to not close all the way due to carbon buildup. This can cause your truck to run rough, have higher emissions, and result in bad fuel economy because your TPS sensor isn’t able to receive correct readings. You’ll need to clean the throttle body which requires you to basically just remove the air box and spray it down with throttle body cleaner and wipe it down.

Process:

Deformed plastic headlights:

The headlights in these trucks can deform due to the bulbs getting hot and damaging the plastic housing. If this has yet to happen, I would upgrade the bulbs to LED replacements as they don’t get as hot. If you have the deformed plastic, you’ll need to replace the housing if you want them to look new again.

Here is an issue that hasn’t been widely discussed. A small amount of Tacoma’s from 2005 and a few in 2006 has an issue with blown head gaskets on the v6 model. This is not an easy job to do, but it’s also not a common one. It typically blows around 150k miles.

If you are looking at a 2005 model, when the car is cold, open the radiator cap, turn the car over and see if there are bubbles coming up. If so, it is most likely a blown head gasket. Also check for mixing fluids.

Other mentionable issues:

The floor mat on the Tacoma can easily move around and trap the accelerator pedal, which can be dangerous. Change your floor mats if this is a potential problem for you. safety first.

The timing chain cover can slowly seep oil. What most owners do is monitor the leak. Most of the time it’s a very slow leak and it’s easy to keep the oil topped off. However, if you want to replace the timing chain cover gasket which requires you to remove most of the engine, remove the oil pan and gasket, add RTV and replace the gasket. It is a bit of a labor some job, which is why most folks monitor the very slow leaks.

Engine mounts can fail, which could result in the engine resting on the front diff. Check the mounts.

Motor Mounts 4.0: https://ebay.us/cvLCsa

The latch on the center console can break. And it’s an easy and cheap replacement. $10 Part linked below

New Center Console Latch:

Clutch chatter is normal in the manual transmission. Basically the input shaft sleeve is worn and causes the release bearing to move around and make noise.