It breaks my heart to have to be doing this, but my 2002 4runner will be showing up at LKQ pick-your-part in Chula Vista in the next week or so.

My engine blew about a week ago, 4 months after a "successful" head-gasket job I performed myself. The thing was spewing oil from the pan and my mechanic said the crank was "swapping cylinders" and wouldn't even start.

In the interest of finances, I have decided to let her go. I am not letting my 3rd gen dreams die, I'm just delaying them.

I just wanted to give y'all a heads up as this community has been incredible for me and wanted to give you guys the first pick for parts.

The truck has a 231mm TBU installed just over a year ago. The rotors will need to be re-surfaced and the calipers painted, but everything is there.

Also has a 6-month-old koyo radiator which you might wanna flush first just to be safe. I was running Toyota red, but there could be debris in there from the engine.

Other than that, it's got heated leather seats, heated mirrors, and all that jazz. I also currently have brand-new OEM Lower and Upper ball joints sitting at home if anyone is interested (located in SD, California). I will be posting those for sale in the marketplace soon. Edit: BALL JOINTS SOLD

Also has the right side Burtman clear corner. The left side popped off after a small impact and the tab broke off. If you're interested, I still have the left side and will give it away for free, the tab just needs to be glued back on.

Thanks guys! I'll be lurking haha

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Damn, sorry to hear.

Out of curiosity - because of how fast these are scavenged on the east coast... What does LKQ offer for the whole vehicle?

They're giving me $935 because they're picking it up. If I would've dropped it off myself it would've been $1k

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I don't know your current situation but, did you think of trying to sell the whole rig on here, or on Craigslist, etc?

If would've been a great opportunity for someone on here to purchase the whole rig and drop an engine into it. And have a running rig on the cheap.

Never the less...a part of me hates it when I see very clean cars in the wrecking yard such as yours. Yours looks great on that single shot.
If it was a Ford, Chevy, Jeep, etc...it wouldn't bother me too much.

Sorry to hear that. I actually live here in Chula Vista and if it makes you feel any better my 4runner was just totaled by a drunk driver. Luckily I wasn’t in the vehicle when it happened.
Looks like we’ll both be on the lookout for a replacement gen 3


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Was it 4x4?

Yeah, 4x4 and had a manual transmission


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Was the manual transmission swapped in? Because that's a 2002 truck(only came with auto).

I wouldn't have let her go and instead let it sit in a garage but I do understand about finances. A very clean 4Runner doesn't deserve to be there as the 3rd gen series are slowly going extinct. Instead of scrapping it I would rather post the whole truck on Facebook Marketplace so someone else could at least rebuild it.

Mine was 99’ and had an original manual transmission


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Yeah. I do feel bad about scrapping it but the things been a headache for awhile. I also didn't really have a lot of time to make a decision and it would've cost me over $200 just to get it towed home...

But yeah it was an automatic

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Hey can you on me about the LBJs I'm in SD area

...

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Please PM me about the LBJ's