Fellas I went to a mechanic today and he says I need all kind of stuff for my 2000 Toyota 4Runner limited with a 6 cylinder engine. Now mind you I am not a mechanic but I am sort of mechanically inclined and got basic tools. So please be gentle with me and your responses and clear at describing or suggesting what I should and should not do.

Mechanic said that I need to replace my bushings on my sway bars. I checked and yeah I'm going to replace the bushings.

He said that my u bolt is broke. What the hell is that?

Here is a biggy and I'm scared as all hell.
He said my steering rack is shot. I looked and leaks bad and I checked these bushings or covers and there are totally shredded. It's leaking but it's not on the ground. I don't know if it's because of the skid plates stopping it?
So I don't know how to take that out or apart and plus I would like to do the brake upgrade but that's not here or there right now.

Previous owner was pretty good about the little stuff like oil change and I seen in the records that he replaced the pads every year and the rotors every 2yrs. Is that a sign to or for the upgrade?

Trans and radiator arer good so far so is there anything else I need to do or look for?

Oh yeah where do you guys go online to get the best deal for parts for your 4Runner? I know I may have to go here and there but I would like to put everything in one shopping cart and get a big discount and have everything shipped here at once.

Thanks in advance

any grammatical errors is caused by Google because I'm doing the voice to text

Sounds like the mechanic was telling you straight. Why didn’t you just let them fix it?

There aren't any u-bolts on a 3rd Gen that I'm aware of. You sure he didn't say u-joint? That would make more sense due to the fact they're part of your driveshafts.

The things that you mentioned needing work aren't things that should scare you. The steering rack is the biggest one, but most people can handle that on their own. For reference, my steering rack has been leaking for a couple years now.

Mike

Replace the rack with a NEW OEM rack, don't rebuild and don't buy rebuilt.

There are Toyota dealers across the US that run a pretty competitive online shop and there also Ebay - I bought a new OEM rack from Ebay.

Not a big deal, it's a common failure after 20 years on these. Just replace it

Because I didn't have the $

As mentioned above. What you're needing to do isn't something to be overly worried about. I can help with the sway bar links, even if it's just saving you money on bushings. Google "Timmy The Toolman", and find the Youtube channel. I promise you'll find all the instructional videos you'll need to complete this on your own.

Mike
@mtbtim

I would carefully clean off the rack and see if the fluid is actually leaking. Mine looked like it was but it was just oil, probably from the valve cover gaskets. See if those are leaking.



I would also look at the condition of the radiator, if you don't when it was last replaced I would replace it or bypass the transmission fluid part of it with a standalone transmission fluid filter.

Also, LOWER AND UPPER BALL JOINTS! Swap those with OEM joints asap if you have no history on them. Especially the lower ball joints. Failure can be very very dangerous, (truck could flip or crash violently if it failed at speed)

McGeorge Toyota's online is a reasonable one for OEM stuff like the rack. Doing the rack will require an alignment, so if you get it done it might make sense to have the shop install it and align since that's a fairly important part. If you decide to run it with it leaking, keep an eye on the fluid level so you don't let it run dry, it will limp along a lot further that way. When you do the rack, get the rack mount bushings as well.

Rock Auto (online) is an option for cheap parts like sway bar bushings. They have almost any part you can think of, but some stuff is better OEM. It's up to you, but you will find a lot of varied opinions on this forum. You might need to do the sway bar links (or at least those bushings) as well. When I did mine the links were so rusty that they broke coming off so I replaced them. They were cheap from R/A.

As for the U bolt, could they mean the U shaped clamp for the sway bar? Or I hope it isn't the U shaped clamp that holds the rack.

+1 on the LBJ's. When I did mine (likely original at over 250k) they had over 1/16" play off the truck but I couldn't get them to move on the truck. McGeorge is a good one for those. They are in Richmond VA so not too far for shipping. Other Toyota dealers good too, but they had good online pricing when I did mine.

You have two potential critical hazards to look at first:

1 - Lower Ball Joints: Known design issue with 4runners and if they fail it can be catastrophic, even to the point of loss of vehicle.

2 - Radiator: Visual inspection won't be good enough here. This model's radiator includes a section that contains transmission fluid for temperature regulation, both cooling and warming. If and when the internals break down from age, coolant and transmission fluid mix into the infamous "pink milkshake," which will destroy your transmission.

Seriously, get these two sorted first before worrying about anything else.

The steering rack is the kind of high-value, I need OEM but can live with waiting part that I would use an offshore supplier like Toyota Car & Auto Spare Parts Online - Genuine Online Car Parts Catalogue - Amayama . These guys are for real; there are a couple of threads on them. I used them once for an A/C clutch for my ex-'s 1997 Brazilian Diesel HiLux no longer available in the US or Brazil. It was perfect. I also got my LBJs from them.

You can install it yourself and do a half-ass driveway align to get you a few miles to the shop for a real one. See the end of my frame swap thread (link in sig) for how I did that part and how good my "Before" was. Since I had to move the rack from one frame to the other I did that job using the attached instructions on my existing rack. New would not be any different. You'll save a ton of bucks.

Attached Images

SR-68 Installation (2000 4Runner) Power Steering Gear.pdf (51.7 KB, 60 views)