[Build Thread] 3rd Gen Neophyte

[RMGulchin01]

This is a build thread for my 2001 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4WD.

Date of purchase: March 2019
Location of purchase: Colorado
Mileage at time of purchase: 174,700
Cost at purchase: $6000

About me: I've lived in CO since 2016. Never done anything with cars, never knew nothing about them really, outside of changing a flat tire and checking an oil dipstick. I wanted to get a mountain-capable vehicle that could take me up CO backcountry roads to camping and hiking.

I figured getting this 4runner would be a good way for me to learn how to do all the work, and keep it going as long as possible. I'm still fully invested to get this thing to at LEAST 500k.

When I bought this, it had a clean title, almost no rust, and a fine enough sounding engine. Passed all the big pre-purchase checks and had it inspected at 3 different places.

I started a previous build thread years ago but lost my login to that account, so recreating it here, and documenting the journey so far for other starters and noobies like myself. This forum was a massive boost in enabling me to learn and pickup so much maintenance work myself.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Post-purchase round of maintenance [April 2019] [174,700]

Rear axle, valve cover gaskets, battery all needed quick attention.

List of replacements:

Axle shaft oil seals (inner)
Axle shaft oil seals (outer)
Axle shaft bearings
Wheel bearing retainer
Rear brake shoes
Parking brake crank set
ABS rings
Plug breather
Valve cover gasket set inc spark plug, tube seals, and grommets
Intake plenum gaskets
Spark plugs
Injector clean
Air intake and throttle body clean
PCV Valve
Oil filler cap gasket
Heater control valve
Battery
Battery terminal kit

 

[RMGulchin01]

Stock test drive

After those fixes, I shipped out to Moab for some light camping, after building a sleeping / storage platform (with almost none of the actually necessary tools) for the back. Pretty sure the stock springs were barely hanging on for life with that.

But everything ran well-enough.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Second post-purchase round of maintenance [June 2019] [176,503]

Thermostat, brakes, transfer case service.

List of replacements / services:

Thermostat
Thermostat gasket
Coolant flush
Radiator cap
Brake pad set and ceramic shims
Brake rotors front coated
Transfer case service

 

[RMGulchin01]

Suspension Kit [August 2019] [179,064]

Stock suspension was generally worn out as expected. Time to beef up a little with a lift kit.

List of replacements / installs:
Toytec Boss 3" Lift Kit
SPC Adjustable UCA's
Sway bar end links
Sway bar bushings


In hind sight, this hasn't worked out to my expectations. Will cover that in a later post. But these were the older SPC UCA's (tubular design), which have issues with developing a squeak. Doing this very differently the 2nd time around.

I can't recall now what sway bar end links I went with here, but I think they were just stock replacements since the originals were pretty much shot (which resulted in a very steep sway bar angle). I didn't know what the heck I was doing at this point still.

Pic: stock everything but with the lift installed.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Post Lift Kit Tires [December 2019] [180,080]

New wheels and tires.

List of replacements:
Falken Wildpeak AT3W 285/70R/17
Black American Outlaw 17" Wheels

These were apparently the early days of Falken before they really took off and I got these for $195 each back then. They now go for $300+ in my area.

These tires were awesome. I later switched, and would love to go back, but they're too expensive now.

Related work-- with the lift and adjustable UCA's, I had almost no rubbing. I did however need to do the following to make it clear at full articulation:
Remove mudflaps
Hammer pinch weld in front wheel wells

Around the same time I also treated and painted my rear bumper black since the inside was rusted super bad. Shortly after, I did the same for the front bumper and grille. Mostly used plastidip, which looks like crap now years later, but more on that to come.

Plano rifle case mounted to the stock roof rack for light recovery gear.

Loved this look. And it took me many places from the San Juans in CO to the Sawatch. Leadville, Silverton, Ouray, Lake City.

 

[RMGulchin01]

High Angle CV Boots [January 2020] [181,432]

It sure didn't take long to blow out the stock CV boots with the lift. These were not changed or serviced when I did the lift, because I still knew nothing, and had to learn most stuff the hard way.

So this time I replaced them with high angle silicon boots.

List of replacements:
CVJ high angle boot kit

 

[RMGulchin01]

Steering Gear and LCA Bushings [March 2020] [182,538]

Another round of maintenance to tighten up some more things that were noted around time of purchase.

This one centered on steering gear, and LCA bushings in the front.

List of replacements:
CVJ Reman Steering Gear
Steering rack bushing kit
Whiteline Bushing Kit for LCA's
Power steering pressure line
Cable ext kit for e-brake

Around the same time I got a cheap basket roofrack, I think it was ROLA. I got it with the extension so it would be full length of roof.

I built custom L-brackets and mounted them to the factory roof rails to achieve a low profile look. It looked pretty awesome IMO, and functioned well. It was quiet. I read reports of rust issues with ROLA so before mounting it I added a coating of bedliner and used silicone sealant over the connection points and bolt holes to seal out water.

I had it for a year or two and it stayed in like new condition.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Heater Control Valve [January 2021] [190,846]

Noticed I was consuming coolant at a slow rate, and saw signs of leakage in the engine bay.

List of replacements:
Heater control valve

 

[RMGulchin01]

Full Exhaust [June 2021] [193,303]

A solid roughly 1.5 years with no big maintenance requirements! Everything running smooth, and just performing usual basic chores.

Full exhaust system had been completely rusted out, and finally noticed a small hole developed in the muffler.

List of replacements:
Exhaust pipe
Muffler
Tailpipe

 

[RMGulchin01]

4xInnovations Rear Bumper + More [August 2021] [197,200]

Installed a 4x Innovations Rear Bumper + Tire Carrier. This also required me to install new poly body mount bushings as my stock ones were shot, and the bumper was getting caught on the body.

Sometime after this, I don't have dates, I did the following:
1. Sold ROLA roofrack and got a Prinsu roof rack.
2. Installed a Thule Tepui Kukenam3 Rooftent
3. Installed an Ironman 8' awning.

Altogether, made for a pretty capable multi day adventure rig.

So post-thoughts of all of this:
I powder coated the bumper and tried to get it to a similar color as the body. It was a big miss and was basically just white on my gray body. I always kinda hated the look of this but didnt want to strip it and have to do it again. 100% would just do it black next time. No idea what I was thinking.

The roof tent was surprisingly not a major change in handling. Obviously with all of the things were heavier, but I didn't feel overly top heavy like I thought it would.

This tent was annoying to setup and take down even though it only took 10mins each. I later sold it for a flip up roofnest and its way better and more convenient. I'm usually on the go when camping so having to do full setup and tear down each day sucked, and the roofnest is super quick and painless for this.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Animal in Engine + Tires [October 2022] [204,460]

Because when I did the lift, with those size tires I could never get a super clean alignment, for reasons unknown to me at the time, my Falken Wildpeaks wore out quickly (20k miles. Pain). Lessons were learned.

I went down in size to 265/70R/17 with Goodyear Wrangler Trailrunner AT's. Partially because at this time in my life I was doing less trips into the mountains and wanted something more comfortable for daily driving also.

List of replacements:
265/70R/17 with Goodyear Wrangler Trailrunner AT's

Aside from this, around the same time, I had an issue with a mouse getting in my engine and chewing up my wires! Apparently the old models used soy in the wire coating which is a tasty snack for critters?

Luckily their preferred cuisine were just my windshield wiper wiring harnesses. So I noticed quickly when they no longer worked, and the fixes were pretty isolated. This is where I learned how to patch wires.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Modern Day [August 2025] [216,095]

This brings me up to modern day. Where after almost 5 years of no major fixes or maintenance (outside of exhaust), I am going through a refresh on many things that have fell to the way side over that time.

Throughout the entirety of 2023 and 2024 and half of 2025 I only drove 12k miles. But this is ramping back up after I get this next large round of maintenance done.

Will cover that in next post, for now, here are some other miscellaneous things I did over those years:

1. Replaced headlights with OEM
2. Replaced all bulbs in dash with LED. Then changed them all back to stock 3-4 years later because it looked terrible with dead spots everywhere and was also absolutely blinding at night.
3. Replaced other interior lights with LED.
4. Tried out Corbeau replacement seats, and immediately took them out and returned. They felt extremely cheap, had a misaligned headrest that felt dangerous, and would have disabled my occupancy sensors and airbag sensors which I didn't like.
5. Instead bought replacement foam for the front seat bottoms and swapped that in.
6. Many many rust treatments to the undercarriage.
7. Sold rooftent and got a Roofnest Falcon 2 as a replacement.
8. Replaced shifter bushings.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Timing Belt [August 2025] [216,095]

When I purchased the truck, the timing belt was in great shape at around 170k miles. It had been changed once by the previous owner and didn't seem worn at all.

By 2025 it was squeaking horribly on startup and showing some signs of wear. So this was replaced finally.

List of replacements:
Timing belt kit
Crank seals
Cam seals
Thermostat
Water valve

 

[RMGulchin01]

SPC Upper Control Arm Bushings [August 2025] [216,095]

About a year and a half ago, I started noticing a really annoying squeaking coming from the front suspension. It would go away in wet weather, and come back when dry and was loudly audible when driving down the road whenever there was any suspension movement.

This intermittent squeak became constant in summer of 2025 and I did some research and it seemed to be coming clearly from the front UCA (SPC adjustable). I read that this was actually a common problem for these old tubular UCA models they made, but was unfortunately out of the warranty period where they would have replaced them for free since I waited so long. Lessons learned...

I also noticed the upper ball joints were constantly leaking grease from the boots (their old ones required adding grease regularly which I did).

One fix that seemed reasonable was to swap out the old metal casing bushings for their new poly bushings. Many reported this would fix the squeak.

Wow what a clusterfu*k of a process to do this without a hydraulic press. Their official guide states that one should use a sawzall to cut out the old bushings and install the new ones. Easily the worst job I've had to do at this point. Near impossible to cut through the thin metal bushing casing without knicking into the wall of the UCA.

I replaced the bushings, and also the upper ball joints with their new sealed model.

Pulled it out of the driveway, and the squeak was still strong as ever. NICE.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Sway bar bushings [August 2025] [216,095]

Thought possibly my old stock sway bar bushings could be a culprit of the squeak, so went ahead and changed those with new poly bushings. Spoiler, it was not that. But now at least I have new bushings.

Old:

New:

 

[RMGulchin01]

Squeak Diagnosis [August 2025] [216,095]

Took my rig to a local off road shop and had an inspection. They highlighted that the squeak is not only the UCA, but just the coilovers and suspension in general being worn out.

ALL of the oil has leaked out of my front shocks.

To add to that, the steering rack as a whole was pretty spent and leaking.

I had the steering rack replaced at another local shop. I already knew the left inner tie rod boot was twisted and split and needed work anyways. Was feeling worn out on a lot of work done already this year and was running out of time for summer. They did a good job at a reasonable price.

I went ahead and ordered a new Dobinson's 2.5" lift kit. Should be able to get to the same height I had with the springs I got. Will be installing this week.

On a side note, pretty disappointed in the Toytec Boss coilovers going fully non-functional after ~4 years and 30k miles. Not sure if that's normal, but either way I thought it would go a lot longer.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Rear UCA and LCAs [August 2025] [216,095]

The 25 year old bushings were completely dead in my rear stock UCA and LCA, so I ordered replacements and installed those this past weekend.

I got Moog UCAs and SPC LCAs. I realize I could have just replaced the bushings. But after the last replacing of the front UCA bushings, I'd prefer to never do that again without a hydraulic press. Hopefully these are good enough and buy me some good years before I reevaluate again.

These were a super easy install. While they were all out, I took time to sand, and rust treat the frame and axle brackets. When I do the rest of the suspension I'll be getting the rest of the rust treatment done.

 

[RMGulchin01]

Rust Treatment [August 2025] [216,095]

In the process of rust treatment for the undercarriage. I missed doing this the past 2 years and it was overdue. Combined with the fact that I need a full suspension replace, seemed a good time to address all the mount points as well.

I do this by wire brushing the absolute hell out of any rust spots. Giving a deep clean with degreaser. Then spraying rustoleum rust converter, followed by a hand painted top coat of rustoleum oil based enamel.

Some pics of the before / current rust state:

Treatment is still in progress but heres a pic of the rear frame rail after it was done:

 

[RMGulchin01]

This week [August 2025] [216,095]

Installing Dobinsons 2.5" Lift Kit when it arrives.

Installing adjustable front and rear sway bar end links.

Installing new replacement SPC UCAs (their new and improved version that isn't the tubular design).

Finishing rust treatment for full undercarriage.

Selling my 4x Innovations rear bumper and swing out. I want something lighter and more minimal. I ordered a new one from Addicted Offroad awhile back so that should be in soon.