It's a gigantic pain in the rear but it's not particularly difficult, just unpleasant. Our 2009's hoist cable had totally frozen into place -- I assume due to corrosion. I ordered the "new" replacement part which, like 5th gen 4Runners, has a chain rather than a cable, and the six bolts that attach it to the car.
I cut the old cable so as to drop the spare. Everything in terms of mounting bolds was rusted together so while I had the part on order, I stopped by the local mechanic and had them cut the old one off. They didn't even charge me for that.
We don't have much rust under the car, but for some reason the area immediately above the spare was pretty rusty. I cleaned up the rear with a wire wheel and painted on some POR15.
Recommendation: you definitely want to order the OEM bolts; you might as well do it at the same time as the new hoist. They're just metric bolts, I forget what thread, but at any rate they are perfectly sized to fit into an insanely tight space. To get them started, you kind of have to use your fingers and scrape your knuckles; once they're started, you can get an open-ended wrench, then a short socket on there an get them tightened down. The hardest part of the job is getting the bolts started.
Long and short, I can't see how a dealer -- which, after all, has all the right tools -- could take more than an hour to do this job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielW
So someone cut my spare tire off and I ordered a new carrier thinking it would be an easy thing to replace. The bolts that attach it to the frame come from the top and there's not a lot of room to work with. I called the dealer and the told me it should be an hour job. After I took the car in, they were working on it for 3 hours saying "everything is rusted under there" and that they need more time. They gave me a free rental and sent me home. That was yesterday. It's already almost 2 pm the next day and still no word from the dealer.
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