Baselining a 2004 SR5 4x4 V8 with 156k Miles

W

WoodenUnion

New member
Just bought this on Friday in Virginia.

Rust free save for a few spots of minimal surface rust on the ladder frame which I'll take care of with a wire wheel and a little paint. Body is in great shape save for a couple of very small dings and a few scratches.

Not looking to do anything crazy with this just yet. Just wanted something my wife to drive daily and haul our kids around in. 4x4 and plenty of power for the mountains of east TN were requirements. The 2uz-fe should handle that just fine.

I'm getting ready to baseline the truck. I'm the third owner. The second owner had the truck for 3 years and 35k miles and did basically zero maintenance other than oil changes. He also said he didn't think the original owner had ever done the timing belt, water pump, etc. I'm assuming brake, power steering and trans all have fluids from the factory. With that said, everything seems to be running great.

Engine has plenty of power and got over 19mpg on the highway on the way home. Transmission shifts smoothly. 4lo miraculously works perfectly as does the center diff lock.

I've done quite a bit of reading on this forum and a few others before purchasing, so I've got a pretty good list of maintenance/wear items together, but please let me know if I'm missing anything. Here's what I'm planning on doing:

1. Change all fluids in the truck. I've had great luck with AMSoil fluids on other vehicles and am planning to go full synthetic on pretty much everything - engine oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid (would use ATF for that), diffs and transfer case. Any reason not to do this? I know Toyota says WS only for tranny fluid (my truck has the sealed transmission...I know some of the 04s take Type-IV instead), but I've read quite a bit on the subject and don't buy into that idea.

2. Timing Belt Replacement. I've already purchased the Evergreen TBK298MHWPA kit on Amazon and that's on the way. I'm planning on doing everything in that kit including crankshaft and cam seals. The VVT-i engines seems pretty involved for the cam seals, but from what I've seen, the pre-VVT engines don't seem as bad. If anyone has a link to a manual or forum write up on the process for the pre-VVT 2uz-fe that would be helpful!

3. Spark plug replacement. This is pretty straight forward.

4. Grease driveshafts and transfer case. Planning to use AMSOil multipurpose grease for this. Any reason to use something else?

5. Chase down front end rattle. Something is a bit loose in the front end. Just getting a bit of vibration when going over a bump of any kind. I'm guessing its probably as simple as a worn out bushing or two somewhere. Could also be the wheel bearing, but I would think that would be a bit more pronounced.

Excited to get started on all of this. Also excited to get started on this forum and learn as much as I can. Any guidance or advice is appreciated.

Thanks!
Adam
 

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Welcome aboard.
Nice runner.

Sounds like your on the right path.

Front sway bars seem to be the source of a lot of mystery front end noise.
 
WoodenUnion said:
Just bought this on Friday in Virginia.

Rust free save for a few spots of minimal surface rust on the ladder frame which I'll take care of with a wire wheel and a little paint. Body is in great shape save for a couple of very small dings and a few scratches.

Not looking to do anything crazy with this just yet. Just wanted something my wife to drive daily and haul our kids around in. 4x4 and plenty of power for the mountains of east TN were requirements. The 2uz-fe should handle that just fine.

I'm getting ready to baseline the truck. I'm the third owner. The second owner had the truck for 3 years and 35k miles and did basically zero maintenance other than oil changes. He also said he didn't think the original owner had ever done the timing belt, water pump, etc. I'm assuming brake, power steering and trans all have fluids from the factory. With that said, everything seems to be running great.

Engine has plenty of power and got over 19mpg on the highway on the way home. Transmission shifts smoothly. 4lo miraculously works perfectly as does the center diff lock.

I've done quite a bit of reading on this forum and a few others before purchasing, so I've got a pretty good list of maintenance/wear items together, but please let me know if I'm missing anything. Here's what I'm planning on doing:

1. Change all fluids in the truck. I've had great luck with AMSoil fluids on other vehicles and am planning to go full synthetic on pretty much everything - engine oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid (would use ATF for that), diffs and transfer case. Any reason not to do this? I know Toyota says WS only for tranny fluid (my truck has the sealed transmission...I know some of the 04s take Type-IV instead), but I've read quite a bit on the subject and don't buy into that idea.

2. Timing Belt Replacement. I've already purchased the Evergreen TBK298MHWPA kit on Amazon and that's on the way. I'm planning on doing everything in that kit including crankshaft and cam seals. The VVT-i engines seems pretty involved for the cam seals, but from what I've seen, the pre-VVT engines don't seem as bad. If anyone has a link to a manual or forum write up on the process for the pre-VVT 2uz-fe that would be helpful!

3. Spark plug replacement. This is pretty straight forward.

4. Grease driveshafts and transfer case. Planning to use AMSOil multipurpose grease for this. Any reason to use something else?

5. Chase down front end rattle. Something is a bit loose in the front end. Just getting a bit of vibration when going over a bump of any kind. I'm guessing its probably as simple as a worn out bushing or two somewhere. Could also be the wheel bearing, but I would think that would be a bit more pronounced.

Excited to get started on all of this. Also excited to get started on this forum and learn as much as I can. Any guidance or advice is appreciated.

Thanks!
Adam
Click to expand...

Looks to be a clean truck! I would replace the sway bar bushings and if they look rough the sway bar end links. I found noise to be coming from those on mine. Also check the skid plates because some shops have a bad habit of shearing those bolts off so one may be vibrating where it is loose. You can check the wheel bearings by putting it on jack stands and trying to move the wheel side to side. If it has play the wheel bearing most likely needs replacing
 
Fern said:
Looks clean. Jealous of your 3rd row.
Click to expand...

Yeah we were looking for a bit of a unicorn. Wanted an 04 with the 4.7, 4wd, and the third row. Felt pretty lucky to find this within a few hours drive.

Ideally we wanted to be closer to 100k miles, but this is super clean for the age and miles.
 
I would caution you on switching to the synthetic oil. I bought my T4R with 240k miles on it. The first thing I did was change the engine oil and I used Mobil 1. One of the things I looked at when I bought it was leaks, and there weren't any. Two weeks after I bought it, oil was leaking from what seemed to be every seal on the engine. Not only that, it started smoking at startup, every startup. I chased leaks for weeks, I did pcv valve, valve covers, crank seal, cam seals. It was using about a quart of oil every 1000 or so miles. It continued to leak and burn oil, until the next oil change. At 5000 miles, I switched to conventional oil. Within about another 1000 miles, the leaks dried up. The only leaks I have now is at the rear main seal. It went from everything under the car being oil soaked, to just a dirty spot at the back of the engine. It only smokes a little at startup after it sits for more than a week at a time.

I'm not suggesting you don't run synthetic, by all means, do what you want. After all, it's your truck. Just passing on my experience.

As far as the cam seals and TB change, it's all pretty straight forward. I started mine on a Saturday afternoon and drove it to church Sunday morning.
 
smokey73 said:
I would caution you on switching to the synthetic oil. I bought my T4R with 240k miles on it. The first thing I did was change the engine oil and I used Mobil 1. One of the things I looked at when I bought it was leaks, and there weren't any. Two weeks after I bought it, oil was leaking from what seemed to be every seal on the engine. Not only that, it started smoking at startup, every startup. I chased leaks for weeks, I did pcv valve, valve covers, crank seal, cam seals. It was using about a quart of oil every 1000 or so miles. It continued to leak and burn oil, until the next oil change. At 5000 miles, I switched to conventional oil. Within about another 1000 miles, the leaks dried up. The only leaks I have now is at the rear main seal. It went from everything under the car being oil soaked, to just a dirty spot at the back of the engine. It only smokes a little at startup after it sits for more than a week at a time.
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I hear ya. I have a 92 F350 that started leaking like a faucet after switching to synthetic.

This particular truck has been running mobil 1 full synthetic for at least the last 35k miles according to the previous owner and I've seen zero evidence of leaks, so I'm a bit less worried about it.

Also, at 240k you were well past the suggested interval for cam and crank seal replacement, so hopefully at 150k I'll have better luck. Time will tell. Fingers crossed.
 
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