With Jack R on a lot of points, and as long as
you are willing to budget in the cost of an early
transmission replacement (check around on prices,
Toyota dealer too) ,the rest of the machine
sounds great.
The 22RE engine is one of the best and many run
200-400k trouble free. A timing chain check at
around 150k is advised. Check sooner if you hear
noise at start up. No lifters or push rods are used
in this (OHC) engine, so if you hear rattles it's
probably the timing chain.
The chain guides are plastic and these fail first.
(Remove the valve cover and peak in with a flash
light).
One last note on the "red flags". The A-43D auto
trans is one of the best. It should not fail in
such low mileage. The fluid should never have been
low enough to burn up, unless it ran out on the
ground. With Tucker,(glzontop) her trans went out
with white smoke, yet was full of fluid.
And as for "Rebuilt" trans, rebuild is in the eye
of the beholder. Was it really rebuilt, or only
repaired. (most seem to just replace the torque
converter, an easy bolt in job of a high priced
part.) What of the rest of the unit? what shape
is it in after being smoked ?
I feel the truck (22ft) was already too heavy,
then overloaded some more. Mountains, heat, took
an otherwise good trans to an early failure.
As I stated in another post a few weeks back
I believe many of these units that have had the
trans repaired once, show signs of failure again,
and the owner sells it right away. Buyer beware!
Jack A2
