They look really good!

She’s loaded up and ready for an elk hunt!!

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New tires

Removed my rusty panhard bar and scrapped/sanded/primed/painted. Was going to replace the OEM bushings with Super Pro but I'll wait till next time on that.

Repaired a tire!! Bwahahahaha

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I finally got around to replacing my passenger cv axel but now I’ve developed a tiny diff leak on that side. I’ve driven a couple hundred miles and there’s barely any oil on the diff cover so I’m thinking I’ll wait a little longer to replace the seal. I’m on the hunt fro some cheap stock rims so I can install my off-road tires. I want to have two sets of wheels and tires so I can switch between them to save some gas.

Flushed the power steering and refilled with Valvoline Dex/Merc ATF. I did this service 80K miles ago and noted then how kind of brown and greasy the fluid was, which I assume was b/c someone topped it off with something that didn't belong in there. Steering performance was much better but I don't think I got it all out last time so today I removed and cleaned the reservoir (which was actually pretty clean) and did a very thorough flush. Fluid is clear and red, steering is excellent, so I'll just keep an eye on it to be sure it stays that way.

Side note: I've done this twice and made a mess twice, each time in different ways. Looking forward to 300K miles to see if the third time is the charm.

Bought my first 4Runner! 2003 Limited V8. First time owner, long time admirer. Don’t know much but I’m looking forward to learning. This forum have been a great resource.

Didn't do this today (more like Sunday the 10th) but finally got around to reviewing the pictures today. What a fun ride. Only disappointment was not seeing any bighorn sheep.

If you have any interest here's a link from the BLM website.

And one from AZ OffRoad.

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Thanks for the links. I so want to go off-roading out west again but it's a long drive from north Georgia!

Passed emissions inspection! Tomorrow she gets registered. Then the upgrades start (new to me '04 V8 4x4)

The fan clutch went out on my Gen4 4.0 V6. I picked up a Duralast one from Auto Zone. $90
Replacement wasn't that tough.
Drop the skid plate.

Drain the radiator.

Slide the clamp off on the upper radiator hose on the thermostat housing side.

Pull the hose from the thermostat housing and move it out of the way.

Using a 12mm wrench remove the 4 nuts securing the fan clutch to the pully.

Remove the fan/fan clutch assy.

It takes some fanageling and a few cuss words, but you can work it out past the fan shroud on the passenger's side.

Once you have it out, using a 10mm deep socket, remove the 4 nuts securing the fan to the fan clutch. Remove the old fan clutch.

Install the new fan clutch in the same orientation with the fan that the old clutch had. I used some blue loctite on the threads before I tightened the nuts.

Install in the reverse order.

I reused my coolant as it was pretty fresh.

All went well. My skid plate had some janky bolts holding it on. a couple of them were almost stripped out. I'm going to chase the threads with a tap and get new bolts and reinstall the skid plate this weekend.

Love my 4th Gen! Best vehicle I have ever owned!

Well after months of putting it off, I’ve ordered a new pair of the bilstein 5100 adjustable height front dampers for the struts to replace the decade old ones on there right now. With the fj coils in front, I’ll have them set to the 3rd notch up from bottom. I think that will set it to 2.25-2.5” lift vs stock height without the fj coils. A month or so from now I’ll order rear shocks and new rear coils (going with the bilstein 5160s in rear, and +400 pound coils) so rear will be at +2.25” from stock. I’m really looking forward to this upgrade/maintenance because its getting really old having such floppy ride quality on my commute.

Got a LFD Cross bar to try out for my kayak mount before I order a few more. Looks good and the fitment was on point for the stock rack.

Installed a tow hitch on my SR5 today! First weekend with it and already a project!