Unner's Build, 2001 T4R 4x4

Hey Unner! I read your build back to front about a month ago, and I recognized some of the places you are at in your pictures. I thought I saw you around town about 3 weeks back, but it was dark and I think you were going the opposite way. Well today, the fiancé and I were out getting ice cream and we say the 4Runner while we were there. When we pulled in, I didn’t see your license plate and I exclaimed “I’ve read his build thread that’s UNNER!” And sure enough we saw the famous Unner plate . After talking with the fiancé for a few minutes she said it was creepy that I knew who you were. I made this account just to say that I saw the truck in person and that it’s gorgeous. 99% clone of the one I’ve built in my head so many times. Right now I have a 2009 RAM 1500 4x4, so no T4R in my driveway.

Haha nice, you must have been going to Handel's. I was parked there when my girlfriend and I went to 4 Leaves, there was no parking near the restaurant... Thanks for the compliments, and glad you got to enjoy it in person!

Coming from a guy that has one it is indeed tough not to throw money at the Taco. It's also tough not to pull parts from the Taco and put them in my rig. lol

Glad to hear you had a blast and congrats on the degree.

Thanks! I can't imagine there are too many parts you'd rather take from your Tacoma and put on the now dual locked 4Runner though haha

Thanks to you I made the switch to 255's yesterday!

Glad I could be of inspiration! I'm sure you'll love it. The Cooper ST Maxx are awesome. I've got 40k on mine now. They're headed towards 80k, but I might buy a new set and sell these while I can still get good money for them. I'll have to keep an eye out for sales.
 
! I can't imagine there are too many parts you'd rather take from your Tacoma and put on the now dual locked 4Runner though haha


Well to be dual locked I need to get another chain drive t-case and front and rear driveshafts. Guess what the Taco has? It's also got a 5-speed that would be great in my rig. It's tough not to turn it into a parts truck for me. lol

It still runs and drives great at 335,000. So until the motor blows it's gonna stay in one piece.
 
Haha nice, you must have been going to Handel's. I was parked there when my girlfriend and I went to 4 Leaves, there was no parking near the restaurant... Thanks for the compliments, and glad you got to enjoy it in person!

I was at Handel's, first time there. 4 Leaves is a pretty good restaurant. I also saw you graduated from UAH, as an ME, which is funny, because I just graduated from there as an ISE, in May.
 
Well to be dual locked I need to get another chain drive t-case and front and rear driveshafts. Guess what the Taco has? It's also got a 5-speed that would be great in my rig. It's tough not to turn it into a parts truck for me. lol

It still runs and drives great at 335,000. So until the motor blows it's gonna stay in one piece.

Forgot you bought a 5 speed swap you can drive haha. You might never get to swap it if you're waiting for the motor to blow though. The 5VZ is an awesome engine. Mine's at 257k now, and it runs like a champ. Definitley over 260k after accounting for the bigger tires for the last 100k miles.

I was at Handel's, first time there. 4 Leaves is a pretty good restaurant. I also saw you graduated from UAH, as an ME, which is funny, because I just graduated from there as an ISE, in May.

Handel's is pretty good too, they've always got a long line out front which means it's gotta be good. :hungry:

Nice, we've probably crossed paths before in one of the buildings out there and didn't even know it haha
 
Well, I haven't made any progress with any of the pictures or trip report. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can work on it. I really haven't even had the time to look through the pictures at all.

On Friday I warrantied my driver side NAPA Tundra caliper because it was seized on the inside bottom piston. Apparently this is the piston that commonly seizes on these calipers. I guess stuff settles in that one. It surprisingly had some rust inside of the piston when I pulled it off.

That caliper was definitely seized, it was really hard to turn the tire with the old caliper, but with the new one it spins freely as it should.

Unfortunately it didn't cure the driver side pull I have when braking. It only happens when braking, it drives straight and true when I'm off the brakes. If I use the emergency brake to stop it stops nice and straight so I don't think it's in the rear brakes. It also doesn't do it when the brakes are cold, like in the morning. But after stopping a few times and getting some heat in them it starts to pull to the driver side when braking. The driver side wheel/brakes definitely get hotter than the passenger side, even with the new driver side caliper.

The symptoms make me believe it is something in the braking system. Tire PSI was even, and I've got all new bushings, but since it doesn't do it when cold I don't think it's a suspension issue.

It seems like the driver side caliper is working harder than the passenger side. I might warranty the passenger side caliper also and see if maybe it's seized open a little and not braking as hard as it should be.
 
Well, I haven't made any progress with any of the pictures or trip report. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I can work on it. I really haven't even had the time to look through the pictures at all.

On Friday I warrantied my driver side NAPA Tundra caliper because it was seized on the inside bottom piston. Apparently this is the piston that commonly seizes on these calipers. I guess stuff settles in that one. It surprisingly had some rust inside of the piston when I pulled it off.

That caliper was definitely seized, it was really hard to turn the tire with the old caliper, but with the new one it spins freely as it should.

Unfortunately it didn't cure the driver side pull I have when braking. It only happens when braking, it drives straight and true when I'm off the brakes. If I use the emergency brake to stop it stops nice and straight so I don't think it's in the rear brakes. It also doesn't do it when the brakes are cold, like in the morning. But after stopping a few times and getting some heat in them it starts to pull to the driver side when braking. The driver side wheel/brakes definitely get hotter than the passenger side, even with the new driver side caliper.

The symptoms make me believe it is something in the braking system. Tire PSI was even, and I've got all new bushings, but since it doesn't do it when cold I don't think it's a suspension issue.

It seems like the driver side caliper is working harder than the passenger side. I might warranty the passenger side caliper also and see if maybe it's seized open a little and not braking as hard as it should be.

I hear you about being busy Gavyn. Besides a few breaks here and there, it has become more common than not to work straight through the weekend. Maybe not work full days on the weekend, but at least four or so hours. That has made getting out and goofing off a bit touch and go. LOL. I WILL have a nice stretch with the 4Runner at this years Northwest Overland Rally in Plain, WA. This will be my first large rally so I am looking forward to camping, wheeling, and hanging out with a bunch of cool people.

I think I might have a similar issue with my NAPA caliper. Mine pulls slightly driver. It isn't bad, and I have no issue automatically compensating, but I will look into getting it sorted. I look forward to seeing some new adventure pics. I think I still need to go back and look at all the great pics you have taken in the past few months tbh.
 
Could there be an issue with a break proportioning valve? I’m having an issue where only the passenger side rotor keeps warping. No sticking caliper either.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I hear you about being busy Gavyn. Besides a few breaks here and there, it has become more common than not to work straight through the weekend. Maybe not work full days on the weekend, but at least four or so hours. That has made getting out and goofing off a bit touch and go. LOL. I WILL have a nice stretch with the 4Runner at this years Northwest Overland Rally in Plain, WA. This will be my first large rally so I am looking forward to camping, wheeling, and hanging out with a bunch of cool people.

I think I might have a similar issue with my NAPA caliper. Mine pulls slightly driver. It isn't bad, and I have no issue automatically compensating, but I will look into getting it sorted. I look forward to seeing some new adventure pics. I think I still need to go back and look at all the great pics you have taken in the past few months tbh.

It's miserably hot here too. I changed the caliper in less than an hour, but that was plenty of time being out in the heat for me.

Yeah it's not a dangerous pull or anything like that, but I do have to correct for it. If I took my hands off the wheel and braked it wouldn't stay straight.

There's certainly no shortage of pics in this thread, they just tend to be all dumped in long portions haha

Could there be an issue with a break proportioning valve? I’m having an issue where only the passenger side rotor keeps warping. No sticking caliper either.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was thinking the same thing, but I'm not sure that there is a true proportioning valve on these trucks like there used to be on old cars. I doubt there is one in the 01/02 3rd gens since we've got the fancy master cylinder with all the ABS, TRAC, VSC stuff built into it.

Does your passenger side wheel get noticeable hotter than the driver side if you go for a 10 mile city drive or so?
 
No real updates on the 4Runner. I put a new battery in a couple weeks ago. My Duracell was dying. I put a Maxx EverStart from Walmart in it. Has a better warranty than most other places, and really good reviews. Also cheaper than any other options so you can’t beat it. I also haven’t gotten around to any of the pictures from Yellowstone and everywhere else I went a few months ago. I’ll get to them eventually…

But… Here’s a few short trips and pictures from other non 4Runner trips. I’m travelling back and forth to Southern California for work currently so when I have free time out here I try to do something fun. My first trip out here I got a Mustang for a rental car. I was very skeptical about the 4 cylinder ecoboost. I figured it’d be an average car in terms of power/acceleration. This car was fast for what it was. 0-60 in less than 5 seconds, that’s what a GT did it in less than 10 years ago. It’s crazy what this 4 cylinder makes. I was very impressed. I also got 34 mpg cruising on the highway. I did run into an electrical/computer issue that made the car lock all the brakes up at random while I was driving and put itself into limp mode… Other than that I really enjoyed the car. I’d consider one as a daily in a couple years when they’ve dropped more in price as long as the reliability is decent. With a 6 speed of course though.
While I had the Mustang I took it up to the Angeles Crest Highway in the San Gabriel Mountains. This is a really fun road. I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures up there, but here’s a few.
20180630_161455 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180630_162910 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180630_162954 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180630_165108 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180630_163642 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
For the 4th of July I watched the fireworks at the Huntington Beach Pier.
DSC08839 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08828 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08827 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08762 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08755 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08789 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

I also went to Joshua Tree National Park. Unfortunately, I had to stick to pavement in the Mustang, but it had just rained so that meant I had the park to myself, and got to see a rainbow in the desert as well.
DSC08848 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08849 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08847a by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08850 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08856 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08858 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08862a by Unner Unner, on Flickr
 
Rainbow in the Desert:
DSC08866 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08874 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08884 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
Skull Rock:
DSC08895 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08902a by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08906a by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08908 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08910 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08916a by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08919 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08931 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08934 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08935 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08937 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08941 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08942 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08948 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08951 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC08974 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
 
I went and drove along the PCH near Malibu and drove around in the Mountains in that area too. A lot of small fun roads up there too.
DSC09024a by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC09018 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC09016 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC09008a by Unner Unner, on Flickr
DSC09005 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
I’m on my second trip out here right now. This time I didn’t get a cool rental… I got a Mitsubishi Outlander Sport. There is nothing sporty about this vehicle. I honestly think the 4Runner might be faster than it. I can’t really think of a good thing about the car. I don’t know how they sell them still, there are much better options out there.
Last weekend I spent some time at car shows and luxury dealers checking out the cars. Lots of money around here, and lots of cool cars.
Saw this 3rd gen at cars and coffee in San Clemente. Anyone recognize it? Had Colorado tags.
20180804_093600 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_093726 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_093808 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_095216 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_095516 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
I love Plum Crazy.
20180804_095822 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_100632 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_100926 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_114042 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_114226 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_114220 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_114616 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_114611 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_114304 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_123838 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
 
These things are so wide.
20180804_124329 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
20180804_124756 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
I got to hear a Pagani go full throttle on the Autostrade in Italy a couple years ago. My ears are still ringing. It’s an amazing sound that these cars make.
20180804_130654 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

Not sure what I’ll do this upcoming weekend. I’m open to suggestions if anyone has any. I wanted to go back to Yosemite, but the park is closed for the first time in a long time due to the fires. Then I thought about going to Zion NP to do Angles Landing, it’d be a drive, but then I found out that trail is closed due to trail damage… Maybe I’ll go to Sequoia NP again since I was rushed last time I was there, San Diego, or maybe Tijuana. I’ve never been to Mexico. Possibly Death Valley, but I’d have to stay in the car for sure…
 
Not sure what I’ll do this upcoming weekend. I’m open to suggestions if anyone has any. I wanted to go back to Yosemite, but the park is closed for the first time in a long time due to the fires. Then I thought about going to Zion NP to do Angles Landing, it’d be a drive, but then I found out that trail is closed due to trail damage… Maybe I’ll go to Sequoia NP again since I was rushed last time I was there, San Diego, or maybe Tijuana. I’ve never been to Mexico. Possibly Death Valley, but I’d have to stay in the car for sure…

Do you hike? Have any backpacking gear with you? There's a few trails in the Sierra out of Bishop that will give you some views that are photo worthy.

There's also Tuolumne Meadows a bit further north. It's a part of Yosemite and it's still open. Smoke is gonna suck though.
 
Great trip pics and looks like the car show had some nice ones.
Thanks for the trip report for Joshua Tree, was on our list a couple of years ago but we ran out of time. Looks like we missed some neat scenery.
 
Hey man if you are in San Diego area again hit me up. Perhaps grab a burger n beer.

Death valley is like hell in the summer. It's a waste. If your rental breaks down you might die. Real funny right, but true.

Anything in the Sierras is a big crap shoot right now with the fires. They are breaking out all over the state. I wouldn't go down to Mexico, you aren't missing out on anything. We've got just as good Mexican food and just as beautiful Latinas here in San Diego.

Btw just curious but what do you do (M.E. wise) that requires multi-day travel? Sorry if you mentioned it earlier and I missed it.

Lastly, I hadn't stopped by this thread in awhile and I'm just now going backwards to get caught up. All I can say is WOW! The pics from that 9,000 mile road trip look amazing. It makes me ask what am I doing with my life. Actually I'm about to go to Ireland for 9 days but the point is your trip looks amazing and there is so much of America I still haven't seen. Very jealous of the great trip.

Next year I think I need to just take 2 weeks off work and drive. 16 cal days could get me pretty darn far.
 
Last edited:
Do you hike? Have any backpacking gear with you? There's a few trails in the Sierra out of Bishop that will give you some views that are photo worthy.

There's also Tuolumne Meadows a bit further north. It's a part of Yosemite and it's still open. Smoke is gonna suck though.

I'm not a hardcore hiker or anything like that. I usually drive my trails to my scenic spots haha. I'd be interested in casual hike, but I also forgot to bring my hiking shoes so all I have are tennis shoes... I don't have any gear other than a small day backpack.

I think it'd be too smokey to make it worth going to Tuolomne Meadows, especially since the wind could change at any minute.

Great trip pics and looks like the car show had some nice ones.
Thanks for the trip report for Joshua Tree, was on our list a couple of years ago but we ran out of time. Looks like we missed some neat scenery.

Thanks! Lots of nice cars at the car show for sure.

Joshua Tree is cool. There's a lot of off roading out there too, which I didn't get to participate in. If you don't have a whole lot of time and are back in the area it may be more worth it to do the Mojave Road over a couple days. I think there were more Joshua Trees in certain sections of that then there are in Joshua Tree National Park. It's definitely a cool park though.

you should check out big sur or the redwoods

Thanks man, I've been to Big Sur, but I might head up the coast again since it is so beautiful up that way. I wanted to make it up to the Redwoods National Park, but that's something like an 11 hour drive one way from here...

Hey man if you are in San Diego area again hit me up. Perhaps grab a burger n beer.

Death valley is like hell in the summer. It's a waste. If your rental breaks down you might die. Real funny right, but true.

Anything in the Sierras is a big crap shoot right now with the fires. They are breaking out all over the state. I wouldn't go down to Mexico, you aren't missing out on anything. We've got just as good Mexican food and just as beautiful Latinas here in San Diego.

Btw just curious but what do you do (M.E. wise) that requires multi-day travel? Sorry if you mentioned it earlier and I missed it.

Lastly, I hadn't stopped by this thread in awhile and I'm just now going backwards to get caught up. All I can say is WOW! The pics from that 9,000 mile road trip look amazing. It makes me ask what am I doing with my life. Actually I'm about to go to Ireland for 9 days but the point is your trip looks amazing and there is so much of America I still haven't seen. Very jealous of the great trip.

Next year I think I need to just take 2 weeks off work and drive. 16 cal days could get me pretty darn far.

I'd be down to meet up in San Diego. I will probably head down there one day this weekend to check out the city. I'll shoot you a PM later tonight.

Right now the extended travel is due to my program's engineering moving from California down to Alabama. Most of the engineers found other work, or are retiring so I'm out here trying to learn some from them before they leave and their years of knowledge are gone. After this period I won't be travelling as much, or for as long most likely. There will probably still be some travel to suppliers, but I doubt I would go for weeks at a time. It works out well for me though since I don't have kids or a family or any reason I need to be at home all the time.

Thanks for the compliments on the trip! It was a lot of fun, and I saw a lot of stuff. The pictures I posted don't even begin to scratch the surface of everything I saw. I really need to get going on the rest of the pictures...

It's not often you get to take that many days off and do whatever you want, so I took advantage of it. I'm sure Ireland will be fun, it looks like a really pretty country. You're right though, there is so much to see in the US it's really amazing.

I agree, you should take 16 days off and go for an extended drive.:biggrin2: It's an awesome experience that I'm sure you wouldn't regret one bit. You see so much more going on a road trip than you do flying somewhere.
 
Looks like a blast Unner. Always enjoy your excursions. Anytime I go and eyeball exotics in dealerships, I have to make sure not to drool too much.
 
Looks like a blast Unner. Always enjoy your excursions. Anytime I go and eyeball exotics in dealerships, I have to make sure not to drool too much.

Thanks! There were some beautiful cars in there. The Ferrari dealer had little fact sheets on some of their cars. The V8 in one of them revs to 9,000 rpms... That's ridiculous.
 
I rolled over 260,000 miles this weekend. She still runs like a top.

I recently changed the oil, and figured out the brake pulling issue I was having. Driving through the hills around Birmingham the brake pull got really bad, pulling towards the drivers side. I got out and checked the temperature of the wheels and the driver front was way hotter than the other 3 wheels. Coming back home later that weekend I was on the highway for about 70 miles without touching the brakes, so I pulled over to check and see if any of the wheels were hot. If the driver's side was hot then I would figure I had a bad wheel bearing, or a faulty new caliper. None of the wheels were hot, so I knew it must be the passenger side not doing it's fair share of the braking.

A couple days later I pulled the wheel and sure enough, the inner pad on the passenger side has a lot more material left, and the pistons wouldn't push it tight against the rotor with slight pressure on the pedal like they should. I got a replacement caliper from Napa and swapped them out. Make sure you check your part numbers, I told them I needed a passenger side caliper, but they gave me the driver side so I had to leave the truck torn apart over night and get the right caliper in the morning...

This was what I found on the inside pistons of the passenger side. A lot of corrosion for a southern truck that has never seen salt. The calipers were only 3.5 years old also. They had almost 100k miles, but that shouldn't really increase corrosion.

2018-09-05_10-45-56 by Unner Unner, on Flickr

The inner side of the driver caliper is also what was seized on that side, so that seems to be a common factor with the Tundra calipers. Hopefully this second set of calipers lasts another 100k miles, and if they seize I'll use that Napa lifetime warranty again.

I still have a slight pull, but now it's to the passenger side. I think this may be the tires though, as my alignment is all within spec and the brakes are good. The pull happens with and without braking, so I'm not too worried about it. It's nowhere near as bad as the brake pull I was dealing with.

I also ordered a replacement key fob case from Amazon since mine was cracking around the key ring hole. For $7 I'm really impressed with it. Feels just like OEM, and everything fit perfectly. Nice little upgrade.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KTHXYO8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2018-09-05_10-57-13 by Unner Unner, on Flickr
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
278,316
Messages
3,554,120
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Trending content

Back
Top