Hello, First time Tundra owner veteran Toyota Owner.
I was looking for a pickup that could be used as a Family Workhorse, Of course I was going to get a Toyota, and I stumbled on a Tundra SR5 V6 that the Previous owner was doing the minimum he could to keep it running, He was asking a very low price, and to me It was a Diamond in the rough, It had a laundry list of small and some major things that needed to be attended to that "if you didn't know any better" would scare most people away, The Power steering pump was seized and there was a pinhole leak in the high pressure line, the A/C blower motor was grinding so loud that they stopped using the A/C (In Florida, mind you!) The brakes were unusually spongy and would take at least 3 pumps to get the pedal high enough to stop the truck comfortably. and besides all that, the engine had a bad oil leak. I took 2 hours pressure washing the engine and then I started on the power steering pump and high pressure line, I was able to get a new pump for 66.00 and the High pressure line for 105.00, after install the power steering was working with no leaks or whining, next was the Blower motor, I was able to get a new one for 28.00 and it literally took 10 min to install, the easiest blower motor I have ever installed in any Toyota much less any other car. next was the Front brakes, I bought a kit off ebay from Detroit Axle for 68.00 ( rotors, ceramic pads, fluid and brake cleaner) thankfully all the hardware was still intact and I was able to R&R the front brakes without issue in about an hour or so, But, the brakes were still spongy, I Bled the brakes to no avail, So I decided to pull the rear Drums and lo and behold, the brakes looked beautiful all the hardware looked completely new from the E brake to all the springs and even the pads themselves I just cleaned them and re anti seized some areas and then I discovered the problem, on the Passengers rear brake the automatic brake adjuster was installed improperly. it wasn't seated against the adjustment cog, all I had to do was re-seat the part and run out the adjuster and it was all good. Oh, yeah? the Oil leak, well that was just loose valve cover gaskets. (one more thing, the previous owner in December had the water pump, radiator and hoses replaced so that was all new.
I was able to purchase The Tundra for $2000.00 and all repair parts including a new radio costs me around just shy of $300.00. 2000.00 Plus 300.00 in parts and a ton of elbow grease and I have a pretty great running Tundra with Ice cold air and a nice Bluetooth head unit. Overall I think this project turned out to be a major success!