Recent content by fdbyrne

Mine was the head gasket.

Nothing is for certain. It could be the axle seal or even brake fluid. If you have the bearing replaced, I'd definitely do the seal at the same time. Replace the differential breather too.

If all you're doing is removing the axle and taking it somewhere to have someone else do the press work then it's really easy. The hardest part will be getting the drum brake back together.

You don't need to drain the coolant. Also, it's not a job that requires this level of contemplation. It's a 15 minute (1 beer) job. Just buy a new thermostat and some coolant to top off the system afterwards.

The problem with this approach is that you're doing too many things all at the same time. You won't be able to tell which of the things you did actually fixed the problem. Even worse, if something goes wrong you don't know what caused it. I far prefer to make a list of likely suspects and hit...

I used one very much like the first one you linked to when I did my 1st gen Tacoma. Worked great. When I needed to do my 4th gen 4Runner I used it again. The holes weren't in the right location so I had to drill new ones. Also, the metal was so thick that I could only get the nuts onto the...

I'm confused. How did you rule out the rear wheel bearings? You say one was on the way out. Did you just replace both of them and that's why you're confident they aren't the problem?

My HG was done 3 years ago by the local Toyota dealer. It cost around $2400 on top of the parts that I bought cheap online. I bought an engine overhaul gasket kit, a water pump, coolant, oil, etc for a couple hundred bucks. That dollar figure does include sending the heads to the machine shop...

Why not just fix the head gasket, get the heads checked out, replace the water pump and be good to go for another 200k or so? It would be cheaper, easier, and may even last longer than a different engine with an unknown history.

I was in the same boat. Just keep trying it whenever you think to. After a few months mine just started working again. Now I make sure to engage 4lo once a month to keep it freed up. Haven't had a problem since.

Going from memory alone, I think I bought a water pump and an 'Engine Overhaul Gasket Kit.' That kit came with pretty much every gasket they would come across while tearing it down so they could replace them as they put everything back together. It wasn't expensive and I think most of the...

I absolutely agree.

The saga played itself out today. As I was pulling out the driveway to go to work I noticed that the wheel they were working on yesterday was completely flat. I took the day off to deal with it. I went back to Big O and they replaced the valve stem that was only installed yesterday because it...

In my case they went around the truck scanning the sensors to program them into the computer and they swear that the two in the rear wheels are giving off the same ID code which is preventing them from updating the computer with 5 unique codes. I can't figure out how it would be possible for...

Thank you. That makes sense.