harper7
Senior Member
I've owned a whole bunch of cars/trucks including many high end ones and I don't think there is such a thing as a perfect vehicle and the 5th Gen 4Runner is no exception with a few minor problems.IMO,still a great overall fun ,safe,Body on Frame truck that should last for years and years and I'm proud to own it and still love to drive it.
Over the 2 1/2 years I've owned mine and been on this forum most of the complaints/problems are very similar and some I would chalk up as being quirky or different,like the brakes that I got used to as have most. Some things,to be honest, they did cut back on to keep it in the price range we have and the beancounters had something to do with that . I'm sure it would have been cheaper for them to cave in and make it a unibody pretender like it's competitors instead of the fully boxed frame we have to work with. As alot of you know I tend to take vehicles apart and put them back together again just for the halibut and as a mechanic ,I've seen nothing lacking in the overall build quality coming out of the Tahara plant in Japan as compared to my previous 4th Gen 4Runner and my GF's 3rd Gen(soon to be mine I hope !).
There are a couple of minor things they missed on that are just plain bad design and materials that Toyota can and needs to address As in the case of the lumbar support crunching or not working and finally a service bulletin T-SB-0051-12,was released just this month.
The other is the hazing, a large majority of us have, on the outside very top of the headlights and that I have to polish out every week. Bad plastic or design ,it is a nuisance and eyesore that they can and should address. They have to know about it from all the complaints .:moon: Maybe they will come out with projectors, for the mid gen refresh in 2013 models, like they did on the 4th Gen mid gen refresh and be swapable and fix it.If you have it ,call or write Toyota to complain please.
I'll name a few other problems I've seen/read and the solutions I've come up with and anybody else can take it from there listing your problems or complaints to Toyota and the sub-forum.It would be proper and nice if you actually owned a 5th Gen 4Runner to post, complain and come up with solutions here so we don't get the usual 4th Gen bashers and trolls and go way off topic and start wars like we always do. I love all 4Runners and it's nothing personal and I obviously can't stop anyone from posting.Best to just ignore them or pm them if they do and they usually go away.
For Problems/Complaints
The thin metal on the hood and doors.I'm sure they were on a mission to save weight but IMO they should have made it a couple thousandths thicker or put another seam or crease to stiffen it.
My solution: I put 3M vinyl on my hood and there has been no more metal flexing at all, and even into 40mph head winds we had here last week. I know not many will go the vinyl route like me but I believe the alternative may be to put stick-on sound deadening made for under the hood.It should stiffen it up and is not very expensive and should be easy to do. Dynamat makes some,but other high temp deadeners might work, just for under hood-Just Google(Dynamat 11905) and Amazon had it for $54 just now.
I used a similar deadener called E-dead , maybe $25-$30 worth of a roll in my doors and now they feel super solid and sound vault like. Not hard to do with the help of other members on here with all the manuals and write-ups(Thanks to our write-up guru Antman and manual master nashman69g)
Exhaust smell with rear window down My fix was to pay a muffler shop $40 to make a pipe to come out behind the pass side rear wheel instead of straight out the back. Got rid of 95% of the smell unless I really hammer the gas pedal. Problem solved for me!
Mast antenna too long and hit my garage door I went with a short aftermarket antenna for awhile but reception suffered IMO I then took the mast and cut an inch or two off, epoxied the black ball back on, so it just cleared my garage and more importantly to me since I'm pretty high up with a lift, rack and overhead lights. It gives me something to see to judge heights of parking garages,tree branches ,ect.
Slippery ,easily scratched rear plastic bumper cover My dog was having heck of a time getting in and out the back and not to mention her claws scratching it up. My fix was to put some stick-on black 3M anti-skid deck tape down and it's held up great. I also put a 1" wide strip on my shrockworks sliders and works great . Cheapest here and you can buy by the yard instead of the roll here at Jamestown Dist..Non Skid Tape - 3M Anti Slip Scotch Safety Walk Tape
I knew what I was getting into with the V6 engine and transmission before I bought it so I have nothing to complain about there really. I did wish they would have given the choice of a V8 but with gas prices soaring again ,not so much !It's not that the 4.6L V8 gets bad gas mileage for a V8 but that it has to take Premium gas too instead of regular.
Enough whining by me for one night and almost time to go home.:crybaby:
You've come to the right place so Complain Away and we'll hopefully put our collective brain power and love of 4Runners together and find all the solutions . There's a TRD and a URD supercharger supposedly in the works to fix alot of the complaints on here.
imp:
Time to go Smile and drive her to the house!:lookout:
Over the 2 1/2 years I've owned mine and been on this forum most of the complaints/problems are very similar and some I would chalk up as being quirky or different,like the brakes that I got used to as have most. Some things,to be honest, they did cut back on to keep it in the price range we have and the beancounters had something to do with that . I'm sure it would have been cheaper for them to cave in and make it a unibody pretender like it's competitors instead of the fully boxed frame we have to work with. As alot of you know I tend to take vehicles apart and put them back together again just for the halibut and as a mechanic ,I've seen nothing lacking in the overall build quality coming out of the Tahara plant in Japan as compared to my previous 4th Gen 4Runner and my GF's 3rd Gen(soon to be mine I hope !).
There are a couple of minor things they missed on that are just plain bad design and materials that Toyota can and needs to address As in the case of the lumbar support crunching or not working and finally a service bulletin T-SB-0051-12,was released just this month.
The other is the hazing, a large majority of us have, on the outside very top of the headlights and that I have to polish out every week. Bad plastic or design ,it is a nuisance and eyesore that they can and should address. They have to know about it from all the complaints .:moon: Maybe they will come out with projectors, for the mid gen refresh in 2013 models, like they did on the 4th Gen mid gen refresh and be swapable and fix it.If you have it ,call or write Toyota to complain please.
I'll name a few other problems I've seen/read and the solutions I've come up with and anybody else can take it from there listing your problems or complaints to Toyota and the sub-forum.It would be proper and nice if you actually owned a 5th Gen 4Runner to post, complain and come up with solutions here so we don't get the usual 4th Gen bashers and trolls and go way off topic and start wars like we always do. I love all 4Runners and it's nothing personal and I obviously can't stop anyone from posting.Best to just ignore them or pm them if they do and they usually go away.
For Problems/Complaints
The thin metal on the hood and doors.I'm sure they were on a mission to save weight but IMO they should have made it a couple thousandths thicker or put another seam or crease to stiffen it.
My solution: I put 3M vinyl on my hood and there has been no more metal flexing at all, and even into 40mph head winds we had here last week. I know not many will go the vinyl route like me but I believe the alternative may be to put stick-on sound deadening made for under the hood.It should stiffen it up and is not very expensive and should be easy to do. Dynamat makes some,but other high temp deadeners might work, just for under hood-Just Google(Dynamat 11905) and Amazon had it for $54 just now.
I used a similar deadener called E-dead , maybe $25-$30 worth of a roll in my doors and now they feel super solid and sound vault like. Not hard to do with the help of other members on here with all the manuals and write-ups(Thanks to our write-up guru Antman and manual master nashman69g)
Exhaust smell with rear window down My fix was to pay a muffler shop $40 to make a pipe to come out behind the pass side rear wheel instead of straight out the back. Got rid of 95% of the smell unless I really hammer the gas pedal. Problem solved for me!
Mast antenna too long and hit my garage door I went with a short aftermarket antenna for awhile but reception suffered IMO I then took the mast and cut an inch or two off, epoxied the black ball back on, so it just cleared my garage and more importantly to me since I'm pretty high up with a lift, rack and overhead lights. It gives me something to see to judge heights of parking garages,tree branches ,ect.
Slippery ,easily scratched rear plastic bumper cover My dog was having heck of a time getting in and out the back and not to mention her claws scratching it up. My fix was to put some stick-on black 3M anti-skid deck tape down and it's held up great. I also put a 1" wide strip on my shrockworks sliders and works great . Cheapest here and you can buy by the yard instead of the roll here at Jamestown Dist..Non Skid Tape - 3M Anti Slip Scotch Safety Walk Tape
I knew what I was getting into with the V6 engine and transmission before I bought it so I have nothing to complain about there really. I did wish they would have given the choice of a V8 but with gas prices soaring again ,not so much !It's not that the 4.6L V8 gets bad gas mileage for a V8 but that it has to take Premium gas too instead of regular.
Enough whining by me for one night and almost time to go home.:crybaby:
You've come to the right place so Complain Away and we'll hopefully put our collective brain power and love of 4Runners together and find all the solutions . There's a TRD and a URD supercharger supposedly in the works to fix alot of the complaints on here.
imp:Time to go Smile and drive her to the house!:lookout:
