Odometer turned 200,000 today. Maintenance recommendations??

hawkcharmer

Member
Today my 99' Runner hit the 200,000 mile mark and its still running strong.

Do you guys have any major maintenance recommendations for this mileage?
My truck has been serviced by Toyota since new and was last serviced by them at 165,959 miles by the previous owner.

I've done steering rack bushes, links, stabilizer bar, bushings, etc..
Doing upper/lower ball joints, inner/outer tie rods this weekend.
so this should take care of my front end steering components.

changed oil with mobil 1 synth, when i purchased. (should i do this every 3 or 5,000 miles?)

next... transfer case and front/rear diff fluids (may have the trans professionally flushed with machine)

then.. tundra 199mm brake upgrade

I am sure that i'm missing a few things, but if you guys have any recommendations, it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm heading up to the U.P in October for an outdoor back country excursion, so i want the truck to be properly maintained for the possible harsh weather conditions.
 
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Today my 99' Runner hit the 200,000 mile mark and its still running strong.

Do you guys have any major maintenance recommendations for this mileage?
My truck has been serviced by Toyota since new and was last serviced by them at 165,959 miles by the previous owner.

I've done steering rack bushes, links, stabilizer bar, bushings, etc..
Doing upper/lower ball joints, inner/outer tie rods this weekend.
so this should take care of my front end steering components.

changed oil with mobil 1 synth, when i purchased. (should i do this every 3 or 5,000 miles?)

next... transfer case and front/rear diff fluids (may have the trans professionally flushed with machine)

then.. tundra 199mm brake upgrade

I am sure that i'm missing a few things, but if you guys have any recommendations, it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm heading up to the U.P in October for an outdoor back country excursion, so i want the truck to be properly maintained for the possible harsh weather conditions.

i have run mobile 1 in my 4runner for about a year and a half now. i have changed it at 5000 miles (still looked brand new) then my next one was 7500 (semi dark but still good for some more lift in it) this time i am going to run it for about 9-10K miles and see how it looks.

i believe mobile one is designed to be run for 10K miles so we should be good there. but the thing is: sometimes people have small oil usages or leaks and never check their oil. if you go 10K miles with out checking your oil, it could go down quite a bit and maybe starving your vehicle of oil and trashing your motor. but i know my maintenance history and i have no leaks so i am going to go for 10/k miles on this change.

if your going to do the tundra upgrade (did mine 2 weeks ago) get the 231 calipers that say 13WL on them. they are a bit bigger and beefier than the 199. also that might change the rotor spec as well.
 
Do you have records of what the previous owner did? Other maintenance items I didn't see being mentioned yet that you could check when it was last done:

Brake fluid
Power steering fluid
Grease driveshaft
Spark plugs
Throttle body cleaning
Fuel filter
 
I'd keep at least $1000 in the bank for when you need major engine work.

Being part of the 200,000 mile club means that major failure is not strange and rare but rather very fair risk of occurance.

My heads became cracked at 199,830 miles. My truck is not a one off. These problems are fairly common post 200k miles.

Just wanted you to be aware of the risks so you can set some money aside.
 
I'd keep at least $1000 in the bank for when you need major engine work.

Being part of the 200,000 mile club means that major failure is not strange and rare but rather very fair risk of occurance.

My heads became cracked at 199,830 miles. My truck is not a one off. These problems are fairly common post 200k miles.

Just wanted you to be aware of the risks so you can set some money aside.

Do you have a source for the claim that cracked heads start becoming an issue at higher mileages? I dont think I've ever read of this being a common occurrence. I would assume this would be more likely attributed to the supercharged 5VZFE, aftermarket mods, or a lack of maintenance. eg. running with bad headgaskets for an extended period of time, overheating, not checking fluids, etc..

The 5VZFE is known to be one of Toyota's best engines, and a rugged design. The older 3VZFE had headgasket issues, but those problems have been resolved for the newer 5VZFE.
 
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I am just guessing ... I bet there is a correlation between these cracked heads and not replacing the water pump every 100,000 miles.
 
Today my 99' Runner hit the 200,000 mile mark and its still running strong.

Do you guys have any major maintenance recommendations for this mileage?
My truck has been serviced by Toyota since new and was last serviced by them at 165,959 miles by the previous owner.

I've done steering rack bushes, links, stabilizer bar, bushings, etc..
Doing upper/lower ball joints, inner/outer tie rods this weekend.
so this should take care of my front end steering components.

changed oil with mobil 1 synth, when i purchased. (should i do this every 3 or 5,000 miles?)

next... transfer case and front/rear diff fluids (may have the trans professionally flushed with machine)

then.. tundra 199mm brake upgrade

I am sure that i'm missing a few things, but if you guys have any recommendations, it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm heading up to the U.P in October for an outdoor back country excursion, so i want the truck to be properly maintained for the possible harsh weather conditions.

Replace your radiator. Getting a trans flush sounds like a good idea. You could do this yourself pretty easily.
 
Do you have records of what the previous owner did? Other maintenance items I didn't see being mentioned yet that you could check when it was last done:

Brake fluid (no record of it being changed) I'll do it when I do the brakes.
Power steering fluid (no record of it)
Grease driveshaft (I did this when I purchased the vehicle)
Spark plugs (no record)
Throttle body cleaning (I did this)
Fuel filter (no record)

I have the carfax and it shows that a tune-up was performed by toyota at 113,334. I'm assuming they did the plugs, wires and fuel filter and it shows they also did cleaned throttle body. but I'm not sure about the timing belt.
Is there any way I can find this out?
 
Do you have a source for the claim that cracked heads start becoming an issue at higher mileages? I dont think I've ever read of this being a common occurrence. I would assume this would be more likely attributed to the supercharged 5VZFE .....


Well besides that it happened to me. There are many many other members on this site who had either a cracked head between 175k - 225k or a failed head gasket. A simple search (see my signature) will pull up plenty of results - there are SOOo many threads.

In fact this particular type of failure is not uncommon at on higher mileage 4Runners. Sure there are many 4Runners out there with over 200k miles but a lot of them have done major engine repairs.

I'm not saying it will for sure happen, just that it is a note able risk. Also that it isn't rare or a fluke but actually "completely plausible" at over 200k due to normal wear and tear.

The bottom end of the block seems to hold up very well on these trucks. With proper maintenance I've met people who have over 300k miles but they are usually on their 2nd set of heads / head gaskets.
 
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I was wondering the same thing. I just passed 201,000 and was trying to figure out what to do next. I changed the spark plugs and installed an OEM muffler, think I'll change radiator and grease the drive shaft as well as flushing the tran.

Thanks for the great advice.
 
Maybe someone has already chimed in on this but this is what I would do. New plugs, wires, coilpacks. Clean the MAF. If you have the $$, swap out critical relays for new ones. (This has always saved me lots of frustration down the road as relays go bad) Check the valve cover gaskets and change if needed. Check the PCV valve and gasket - change if needed (recommend Toyota OE PCV valve - much better quality) Drain and flush coolant and replace with Toyota RED Coolant. Get a new radiator if yours is original and either way, put in new upper and lower radiator hoses. Lube the driveshaft. Swap out all the fluids you can all over the truck. That's about it. Mine has over 220K and I am pretty OCD about keeping it like new. No problems to report at all.
 
Forgot to mention - swap out the cooling fan clutch. Aftermarket from Advance is what I use. I did not realize mine was bad for a long time. Swapped it out as a preventative maintenance item and amazed how often the fan kicks on in Alabama heat. Excessive heat can destroy and engine and this is cheap preventive medicine...
 
Thanks for all of your great info guys! It was extremely helpful. I've created a new list of things to do in the next coming weeks...
 

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