I’m about to go through my 02 4Runner sport. I’m looking to do ball joints (upper and lower), tie rods (inner and outer), brakes (front and rear completely), CV axles on both sides, and a full exhaust kit (nothing performance just stock). It’s currently on a 3 inch lift front and rear. I was wondering what you guys do to compensate for the axles while lifted. The boots are torn I’m guessing because of the lift. What brand or part should I look for, for the CV axles. Also, I have 16 inch rims, and I’m wondering if I should do the Tundra brake upgrade while I’m in there? What MM rotors and calipers do I get? Also, the exhaust kit sold by walker, is there any welding required? I’m going to completely replace it from the block back. Are there any special tools I need for any of this?

I can speak to a few of your items.

First congrats. Once you get those things done you’ll be on to others because these trucks respond very nicely to good care and upgrades.

General consensus in here is to stick w oem parts. Especially your front end parts (lower ball joints). Including CV. I just put in Napa reman and it appears to be rebuilt OEM. The shiny new CVs for sale have had mixed reviews, but some have had good luck.

3” is on the edge w CV, might be something worth considering warranty on what you get. Prob a maintenance item at those angles. Check out the boot extension mod in here should help, mtbtim did video on it.

Tundra brakes is a popular upgrade. Mixed opinion on whether it changes pressure bias front to rear. Fit in some wheels but not all. Post your wheel choice and you’ll prob get a fast answer in here whether it will fit.

If you want a permanent fix for the axel boots you can go with extended axels and tie rods and upper and lower control arms from a shop like BTF. However that runs pricey. 3500 dollars pricey. I've also seen tundra axels used. For the axels if you're going stock and want to save some money you can go with napa remans. Essentially OEM axels remanufactured. Just make sure you check them in store to make sure they're remans and not Chinese axels. They also usually come with a year warranty I believe. For the exhaust if you get the true OEM kit it will come in three pieces since you have an 02 you have both cats. The front cat attaches directly to the manifold with three bolts and a gasket. It then attaches to the second cat which is two bolts and a gasket and then the other side of the second cat should have two bolts and a gasket to the muffler. If you go with the setup you're talking about you can even get a pre bent exhaust pipe that comes out of the muffler. That may be the only part that needs to be welded unless you can find something I havent that Is all once piece. I just did my exhaust but I deleted a cat and simulated my rear 02 sensor. I hope any of this info helps!

P.s. I also forgot about the tundra brake upgrade. I just did this this weekend and got the reman powerstop 13WL setup on rock auto. Without the core return after taxes and shipping it ran me 400 dollars even. I have the 5 star OEM rims on my 2000 and they have a ton of clearance. All I needed to do was bleed the brakes after which I wanted to do already cause who knows how old the previous fluid was. Huge increase in stopping power in my mind it was worth it because they're pretty looking and also my passenger side caliper was messed up. Tundra brake upgrade was just as much or even less than 4runner brake pads calipers and rotors from the research I did. The 13WL setup is a 231MM pad and the 13WE (?) Is 199MM (?) (Fairly certain that's correct) I wanted to go big or go home so I went with the WL.

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Thank you for the responses and info. This all doesn’t seem too bad to do with my experience, I know it’ll be a good weekend project to do. None of it’s really urgent rendering it dangerous or unable to drive but it’s about to be my primary vehicle and it’s old with 260k. Timing belt kit and trans flush have been done. While I’m at it I’ll do a coolant flush and service the diffs as well.

not sure what your budget is like but I'm buying this soon. My truck has 250k miles on it and as preventative maintenance I'm changing out the radiator. Not going OEM denso though as I dont want plastic. All aluminum for 160 bucks. The original ones are notorious for breaking with old age and mixing the trans fluid with coolant rendering the trans useless in most cases.

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Don’t forget about a manual hub swap if your worried about CVs