Paperjam
New member
True that, If those motors ever overheat they are done.
Some of the Japanese trucks have strange options like angle gauges and whatnot, did you get anything cool on yours?
CDNsurf's Introduction/Build
- Thread starter CDNsurf
- Start date
True that, If those motors ever overheat they are done.
Some of the Japanese trucks have strange options like angle gauges and whatnot, did you get anything cool on yours?
Yeah can't beat the reliability of the 3.4L
It does have a few unique things compared to the 4runner:
Fender mounted mirror (allows you to see how close your passenger tire is aswell as bumper, used for parking)
Power rear view mirror that comes out from the spoiler (used for reversing)
Reverse "beeping" when in reverse (this on is kind of annoying...)
Compass, altitude and pressure gauge where the sunglass holder would be for the 4runner.
Roadside flare mounted underneath glovebox
A few things it lacks from the 4runner
Does not have:
Cruise control
Cargo Cover (I do think the 4runner one can be modified to fit, something Im going to look into)
VanPattyCakes
New member
Loving the amber corners! Been contemplating ordering some amber LEDs for my rig. This has convinced me to do just that. Where'd you get yours?
poleclimber63
Member
Welcome, from BC!
Love the Surf! I ran into a guy here in Vernon with 2 "90 something" Surfs with 2.8L diesels... the cool thing is he lives on a farm and makes his own bio-diesel. Costs him a little time but $0 in fuel and he says he'd never drive anything else! Perfect farm vehicle and great vehicle for the bush/fishing.... Yours is a little newer!
Please tell us how you bought it, how much plus shipping costs... I looked at a 98 Landcruiser Prado for $5k online, it had incredibly low km's, showroom condition, gorgeous and if I remember right, shipping was $3k... but my wife said she wouldn't drive a RHD!! Rats!
We have lots of RHD vehicles in the North Okanagan, as there's a local importer here and he only brings in the jems--- huge markup, if the prices online are any comparison! I'd think about rust proofing!!
Good luck with it!
Love the Surf! I ran into a guy here in Vernon with 2 "90 something" Surfs with 2.8L diesels... the cool thing is he lives on a farm and makes his own bio-diesel. Costs him a little time but $0 in fuel and he says he'd never drive anything else! Perfect farm vehicle and great vehicle for the bush/fishing.... Yours is a little newer!
Please tell us how you bought it, how much plus shipping costs... I looked at a 98 Landcruiser Prado for $5k online, it had incredibly low km's, showroom condition, gorgeous and if I remember right, shipping was $3k... but my wife said she wouldn't drive a RHD!! Rats!
We have lots of RHD vehicles in the North Okanagan, as there's a local importer here and he only brings in the jems--- huge markup, if the prices online are any comparison! I'd think about rust proofing!!
Good luck with it!
The pictures don't really do justice, they look awesome and are bright.
I got them from superbrightleds
https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor.../194-led-bulb-9-smd-led-wedge-base-tower/207/
These ones, Im sure you could get cheaper ones but they worked awesome!
I do have some 13SMD ones coming from Ebay (in case I didn't like these because I wasn't sure on the brightness) but I'm going to keep these ones in.
VanPattyCakes
New member
Awesome. Gonna go ahead and order the same ones. Really glad to hear they're nice and bright. Thanks for the link and insight! Cheers!
That's awesome, those old diesels were great.
As for my truck, everything said and done it was a little under 7k for the truck
Shipping from Japan to Vancouver was ~1500 and to get it to Edmonton from Vancouver was another ~800 (price of the Canadian dollar and shipping prices are fairly high and not as cheap as it used to be) but none the less still beats any local trucks here. Tack on the custom fees, inspection, registry fees on top of the truck value.
I had a friend who imports a lot from Japan take care of all of this for me without any markups but a lot of importers do charge there fee whether it's a few hundred or a few thousand.
It only took me a few days to get used to the RHD, now it's second nature! (still get looks from people on the road)
Good idea on the rust proofing as it looked brand new underneath, something I may look into in the spring.
Thanks!
No problem. You won't be disappointed and a big improvement over stock.
poleclimber63
Member
Amazing the differences in shipping--- I guess it depends whether you ship in a container or not, the dealer quoted me double (maybe they were taking a cut, arranging it!) Anyways, $7k for an awesome truck with only 133K-- can't beat that!
As far as rust proofing is concerned, these trucks aren't very rust resistant- I've seen a number of 4Runners from AB show up For Sale here and they had a huge amount of rust! One even had a hole in the frame and it was a 01'! Aside from buying outside the country, the only place to find these trucks approaching the condition of yours, is Vancouver. I was lucky in finding an example that had been commercially undercoated new, therefore, it was really clean, still, I removed the bumpers and found rust and treated it. Despite all this, after 3 Winters in the Okanagan, I'm in need of some more touch up. We don't use salt here but we use Chlorides--- not sure if that's any better than salt on our vehicles....
Are you planning on going off road? That truck would be the perfect means of transport for Ft. Mac and points North (nearing graduation, that's probably what you had in mind...) I go into the bush a bit and use mine to tow my boat/trailer-- perfect Winter vehicle. My truck is bone stock and it really gets me where I want to go. There are obvious mods like suspension and lifts (TONS OF INFO ON HERE) but the one mod that I will do this Spring is the Tundra brake upgrade.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-g...ements-231mm-13wl-tundra-calipers-rotors.html
Last year I planned to do it, but had the JDM engine replacement to do, and the year before, I had tuition to pay for my son... its always about $$$! As far as the brake mod is concerned, guys on the forum have observed brake fade under heavy use, others warped rotors and imprecise braking. I've experienced brake fade while towing. This mod eliminates all of these issues. And its relatively cheap. Aside from the $300 and change, if you go for the 231mm option, your split-3 rims will have to be replaced (or you install spacers). This has been my #2 reason for not jumping into this. I have 2 sets of rims with mounted Winters! I plan on the 199mm option, as it works with the rims I have, with most of the benefits--- heavier rotors, larger calipers (however, same pad contact area). The posts I've read say this will still be a significant improvement over the stock 4Runner setup.
Anyways, good luck!
There is a few places I'm going to look into here in Edmonton that do rust proofing, I guess it depends how the Oil prices are doing and if I get a good engineering summer position haha...
Anyways, I haven't done much offloading as I only owned lowered cars before... haha something I would like to get into in the future.
I plan on keeping this truck around for a while, even if it becomes my second vehicle (has just been broken in!). As far as a lift, I don't plan on doing anything for the next year or so (student budget) and the stock suspension is fine still, but once that goes its getting a lift! As for the brakes same story, when it comes to replacement Im going to be doing an upgrade of some sort depending the money available and the wheels I have (I'm currently looking for another set for my new Grabber AT2 sitting in my garage).
This truck will serve me good for the first year or so after I graduate (if Im in the field) my preference of course will be probably to move down to Calgary where all the headquarters for all the large oil companies here.
Thanks for the post a lot of great info!
Coming up soon:
Hook up the alpine power pack thats been ordered
Hook up rear speakers (once adaptors arrive)
Sound deadener all 4 doors and whatever I have left (25 SQFT of fatmat)
Might be adding HIDS...
In the spring:
Get the new AC compressor in
On the side note: got my replacement heater control unit from a junkyard and modified it to fit with the stock brackets.
Woah is it nice to have a fully functional heater unit again!
poleclimber63
Member
Sounds awesome! And I know about tight budgets.... I would have done a lot more to mine, but with 3 sons, 1 in College, one graduating next year from High School and talking about College--- things get done to my ride only when its essential or time and money permits... the last thing I did was install a new JVC BT/Sirrus ready rcvr.... I got it for $80 on Boxing Day...
I wanted to ask: it seems my power antenna is starting to ware out, I saw you replaced yours with a Taco whip.. how much was it and where did you order it from? I've glanced at other threads on this, and they mention pulling the inner fender liner.... did you follow the same route for the cable or did you drill/fish it in to the unit and take the lower dash apart... OR can you use the same cable(assuming it has a connector at the antenna?)
Everyone in AB ends up in Calgary eventually it seems!! I've never lived there but I've spent considerable time there, as I have lots of relatives living there! It's the nicest Prairie City (aside from Saskatoon, where I'm from). Half the guys I've worked with here in the Okanagan seem to come from AB when they get tired of the weather... Vernon/Kelowna is the retirement capital of the West and Summer play ground to the rest! My community fills with trucks and boat trailers with AB plates from Canada Day to Labour Day. If you end up in Calgary, you'l be close to some great off road spots, in the Rockies. Anyways, just wanted to mention I love Stellar Blue and if I could have ordered my truck, that's the colour I'd have chosen. Also, I'm surprised your AC compressor was only $275! The control unit---- as yours is a RHD, does the control unit mount differently or did you replace it with a different one and modify it...? Have fun!
Well I know a lot about that. This is my 5th year in school. Went to NAIT first got my diploma in petroleum engineering and decided to get my degree. I can see the light though haha so far all of my purchase have been because of deals. (amazon and other online vendors)
About the antenna. Mine came broken as many break I figured to replace it with the static version. I ordered online for around 90-100 (for both pieces, I believe I posted the part numbers earlier) from toyotapartsdirect.ca they are one the better online priced dealers for us in Canada. I think the dealer wanted 100 just for the manual antenna base...
The process is quite easy. I thought it might be harder, but wasn't to bad. My original plan was to take off the fender but I ended up taking off 1/3 of the fender liner as mentioned in many of the write ups. That gives you more than enough room to unbolt the old one bolt the new one and push the new wire from the outside in. The wire comes through the frame by the passengers foot area. Need to remove some interior pieces (door foot sill (4 screws), then pop off the kicker panel and you can see where it comes from) the harder part I found was routing it from there to the stereo. Just gotta take out the stereo, glove box and top glove box trim to access it. Then there will be a few clips and zip ties that hold the old wire along the route. Once I got the new antenna wire into the passenger foot area. I cut the old wire taped it to the new one to help pull through the dash area. Put everything back together and enjoy! If you need any more detail Pm me
That's everyone's dream here is to retire in the okangnan it's beautiful over there.
The Ac compressor was an amazon prime deal (love the Amazon prime student membership) as for the Heater unit the brackets were reversed so I just had to do a bit of engineering haha I handmade a spacer out of a electrical merit and used some of that coiled metal hanger stuff to make it sit properly and secured.
Cheers!
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Unfortunately I did not take any pictures but I can kinda of explain and use some other pictures. Below is a few links for people that have done it
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/70865-non-power-antenna-tacoma-whip.html
The "Taco" Whip Antenna Mod
Once you either take the fender/liner out you will push the antenna cable through the hole into the trucks interior (see green arrow in attachment)
Then move into the the cab of the truck and remove the glove box and trim inside it. (see below)
Also, remove the door sill and kicker panel on passenger side (there is 4 screws and then the kicker panel just pops off when you pull outward gently)
Then what I did is took apart the center trim to remove the radio and unplug the antenna wire. With that removed you can trace the old antenna wire back over the ac line where it is zip tied and clipped long the glove box area (see picture below)
Once all that was done I cut the old antenna at the hole where it enters from outside, pushed the new antenna wire through, taped it on to the old antenna and with one hand pulled the old antenna from the stereo area and fed it up through the glove box area with the other hand (go slow and be gentle as there is some sharp edges you have to snake it around. It will come through just gotta keep at er)
Hopefully that helps and good luck!
Attachments
poleclimber63
Member
Thanks for the pointers on the antenna.
It's truly is great here--- we only have 3 mos. of Winter as opposed to the rest of the country that has 8 mos. of winter! (with the exception of Vancouver which gets 8 mos. of rain...)!!
Good job on the heater panel! By the way, I really like the spoiler. I bought a factory spoiler from a wrecker but just havent got around to installing it yet... maybe I'll see if I can find one like yours. Thought I'd include a pic of my grille....
Alright so its been awhile since I posted... Finals and midterms has kept me really busy
Any-who I got done a few things:
All new 16G wire ran to the amp, 14G separate power run to the amp, every connection soldered and heatshrinked !
I had troubles finding this color combination before buying it but I love it.
Still a few things that need to be done:
Im moving to Calgary for the summer, for a summer engineering position so I won't get much done over the summer.
Any-who I got done a few things:
- Sound deadened the front doors with fatmat
- Installed my alpine power pack, bridged to my fronts only (90w) - Woah :jaw: I couldn't believe the sound coming out of these new hertz speakers. Day and night difference with the amp sounds amazing
- Got my TRD decal on
- Put in Cree 5W LED reverse bulbs - super bright!
All new 16G wire ran to the amp, 14G separate power run to the amp, every connection soldered and heatshrinked !
I had troubles finding this color combination before buying it but I love it.
Still a few things that need to be done:
- Get AC compressor installed for the summer
- Install my new hertz speakers along with the door spacers
- Sound deaden the rear doors
- Install 3000k DDM HID (sealed) into the fogs
Im moving to Calgary for the summer, for a summer engineering position so I won't get much done over the summer.
I didn't snap any photos, I didn't think doing the sound deadening and amp would take a whole afternoon but with soldering and running the wires it eats up time quickly.
As for the amp it self its pretty straight forward and like I said above the hardest part is running the wiring (which apparently is optional) but for good sound and no power surges I thought it was necessary.
I ran brand new 14G wire from the positive battery, with a inline 15A fuse right before the battery through the firewall and into behind the stereo.
I ran new 16G all copper speaker wire to the two front doors to the output on the amp (the hardest part is running it through the rubber grommets between the door jam, just a pain not really hard)
After that all connections at the speakers and amp were soldered.
With the power pack it gives you two options to hook it to the stereo input (RCA, or stereo wire (direct)), I decided to directly splice in the stereo harness, this way no remote line is needed to turn on the amp.
Then you just need to find a good ground, I used the screw that holds the power antenna relay (seems to be good bare metal). Once all connections and solders were made the amp tucks nicely behind the stereo and is ready to enjoy.
The install itself goes pretty quick and for the price the upgrade in my mind is worth it. Playing around with the settings, it sounds awesome for every type of genre and honestly I won't need to worry about a sub for awhile now.
Alright its been awhile since my last post. Nothing has been done to the truck just driving it!:banana:
I moved down to Calgary for the summer for an internship. So I have just been spending money on gas when I go back every once in awhile (300km one way trip) been averaging about 10.5-11 L/100km or 21-22 MPG all highway driving at around (120-130 km/hr)
I guess a small update, I got a good deal on a set of 4th gen 4runner wheels that I am going to mount my General Grabbers on. The next question is what colour should I paint/refinish them?????? Im thinking a dark silver/gun metal or black. I also been thinking about using plasti dip cause I am kinda lazy and don't like painting....
I've done some searching and haven't seen to many people running these wheels so post some pictures if you have some.
Here's a picture of the wheels
Much better then the split 3's in my mind
I moved down to Calgary for the summer for an internship. So I have just been spending money on gas when I go back every once in awhile (300km one way trip) been averaging about 10.5-11 L/100km or 21-22 MPG all highway driving at around (120-130 km/hr)
I guess a small update, I got a good deal on a set of 4th gen 4runner wheels that I am going to mount my General Grabbers on. The next question is what colour should I paint/refinish them?????? Im thinking a dark silver/gun metal or black. I also been thinking about using plasti dip cause I am kinda lazy and don't like painting....
I've done some searching and haven't seen to many people running these wheels so post some pictures if you have some.
Here's a picture of the wheels
Much better then the split 3's in my mind
