My mechanic (jay shiel of fine tunes, middletown, ct) informed me that I had an unusual amount of rust under my vehicle. He said he knew that toyota had problems with insufficient rust protection on the tacoma's, but he hadn't heard anything about the 4runners. He said we should contact toyota and ask to have a rep look at it. We did and toyota declined.
1998 Toyota 4RUNNER body complaints
Page 4 of 4: complaints 71 to 78 of 78, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Rear bumper has a design flaw causing it to accumulate dirt on inside "lip". If not cleaned out properly, which is impossible to do, rust will start to eat through the bumper from the inside out. This causes an unsafe condition because the integrity of the bumper is compromised leading to a lack of protection from the rear, not to mention one ugly sight.
My wife was driving along approximately 30 MPH. All of a sudden the passenger side rear window shatters for no apparent reason. Luckily our 3 year old child was on the other side. She called the police and he said it was a defect in toyota 4runners. Ts
On 03'04/02 I was sitting at the traffic light witin on the light to change to green. The light changed to green , then I proceeded into the intersection where I was t-boned on the driver sided. At this time I hear a loud bang then the lower area by the brakes caved in on my left leg, the the doors locked ,then my car alarm sounds off. During this time I can see smoke to my leftt in the door area. So immdiately I try to get out of the vehicle but I had to unlock doors first. I recall trying to get out of the seat but iwas restraint by the seat belt during this time from the impact my vehicle is still moving. I reached over to remove my seat belt while also raising myself out of the seat when the driver air bag deployed. My arm to the full force of the pressure of the air bag deploying. I managed to get between the front seat to cross over to the passenger side to get out of the vehicle when the air bag started to deployed I reached for my purse on front floor of the passenger side and continue to get to the back seat of 4 runner. I tried to get out on the rear driver side door but it would not open then I went to the passenger rear door and got out but when I stood up out of the vehicle my left leg collaspe and I found my self in the middle of intersection unprotective. I laid in the intersection for about 5-7 minutes before other citizen camed on the scene. You could not began to image yourself trapped in this utility vehicle like a caged mouse with no way out. All hear is the bang, electric doors locking, alarm sounding off, and smoke to the left of you and no visible person to help you get out of this cage. Nlm
Support struts on liftgate unable to fully support liftgate when rear window retracted down into door - apparently due to additional weight towards bottom of the door.
Rear gate handle latch sharp metal causing fingers to catch when consumer atempt to open the gate. Yh
Structure is not very stable in windy weather at speeds of 55-65mph. Yh
Rear panel adjust rod failed. Mjs
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