Power Train Driveline problems of the 2003 Toyota Tundra

Entire rear end housing rusted away requiring a whole new rear end housing. Frame is rusting out on whole truck.

When returning to my2003 Toyota Tundra, from a doctors appt, I noticed a pool of liquid, under the rear axle of the truck. Having wife back truck up, I checked this viscous, clearish fluid, finding it to be a rear end oil/grease, and had been leaking from mid housing of the rearend. Upon further inspection, I found this had been leaking for enough time that oil spots were all over the rear window of and tailgate of truck. I called Toyota to look at it and they wanted ?$120 just to look at it, so I brought to a mechanic down the road form Toyota and he found the rear axle housing had rusted thru. He in 40 years had never heard of this problem, and while searching for a replacement rear end, could only find one "good used" one in new england. He obtained and replaced my damaged one, for a cost of >$1000. He later told me he had another one come in less then a week, same problem. At home, I found oil had been leaking front the back of the truck for some time, evidenced by oil on the ground and wood near where the back of the truck was backed into driveway.

I own a 2003 Toyota Tundra. It currently has 101,200 miles on it. I purchased it brand new and when I reached 15,000 miles the shift column to the right of the steering wheel snapped off in my hand. I brought it to the dealer that I bought it and it took them three weeks to fix because they claimed not to have a tool needed to reassemble the various parts of the column. At approximately 39,000 miles the column again snapped off during normal operation. This time I took it to another Toyota dealer because I had no confidence in the original one that fixed it. I had to argue with the new dealer over covering the repair under warranty which they did eventually do. Once again the second dealer had the vehicle nearly 3 weeks and once again they cited the lack of the appropriate tool to reassemble the column. They actually said they had to fabricate a tool to make the repair. And finally yesterday, the column has snapped for a third time. I can assure you that this is not occurring in a fit of rage, nor am I aggressively handling the shift each time I engage the truck into drive. Both dealers claim that this repair is unheard of at their dealerships which is probably true. I wanted to report it to you all in case there were additional reports coming from other areas of the country. Thank you. Marc a. Lapierre.

Truck cab shakes during higher speeds, Toyota dealers reviewing the problem say that's just how it rides.