Well, Im now back home from university. Over the past 8 months, I've kind of neglected my 4runner on the maintenance end. My CV's have been torn and leaking for over 6 months now and in the last month or so, I've noticed that my rear diff has a slow leak where the 3rd member meets the axle housing as shown below:
Now, from my research, it seems like the best way to go for the rear 3rd seal is to use Toyota orange silicone FIPG. I've also heard that a generic $4 FIPG will be completely fine? Should I replace the whole diff drain plug or is there a crush washer or something that specifically needs to be replaced?
In terms of the CV's, I was going to replace the whole axle shaft, but I'm now hearing that aftermarket CV's suck, even if they come with a lifetime warranty. It seems like I am better off getting the $30 Toyota reboot kit and rebooting mine. They have been torn for a long time now, but I dont notice any characteristic clicking and I've heard of other users going 1 year or more on torn boots with no CV problems.
I found a reboot kit from an online Toyota dealer site for a tacoma, but as far as I know, they are the same?
Now the weirdest leak, which happened to just start yesterday, looks like this:
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My entire driver side lower control arm is covered in thin, yellow-transparent fluid. My first thought was a leaking brake line, but upon further inspection, it appears to be coming out of my strut!! There was also a drip of oil forming on the bottom of the strut eyelet and only the bottom of my whole coil over assembly is wet. So it is safe to say that it is coming from the strut. There appears to be a hairline crack right where the strut body meets the bottom eyelet but it is hard to tell if it is a crack or just a scratch.
The strut is an OEM toyota tundra non-trd that came off of a 2005 Tundra DC with (apparently) low mileage. Obviously, I need to replace this as soon as possible and it looks like the 5 perch Tundra bilstein 5100 from Toytec is the best option. I can use my existing Tundra spring and top plate bits and get my desired ride height with the perches?
I realize this is a lengthy post, but any feedback on the statements or questions I made would be greatly appreciated. I'm quite new to working on vehicles but I enjoy learning how to do things myself and due to being a poor student, I don't really have a choice anyways.
Now, from my research, it seems like the best way to go for the rear 3rd seal is to use Toyota orange silicone FIPG. I've also heard that a generic $4 FIPG will be completely fine? Should I replace the whole diff drain plug or is there a crush washer or something that specifically needs to be replaced?
In terms of the CV's, I was going to replace the whole axle shaft, but I'm now hearing that aftermarket CV's suck, even if they come with a lifetime warranty. It seems like I am better off getting the $30 Toyota reboot kit and rebooting mine. They have been torn for a long time now, but I dont notice any characteristic clicking and I've heard of other users going 1 year or more on torn boots with no CV problems.
I found a reboot kit from an online Toyota dealer site for a tacoma, but as far as I know, they are the same?
Now the weirdest leak, which happened to just start yesterday, looks like this:
My entire driver side lower control arm is covered in thin, yellow-transparent fluid. My first thought was a leaking brake line, but upon further inspection, it appears to be coming out of my strut!! There was also a drip of oil forming on the bottom of the strut eyelet and only the bottom of my whole coil over assembly is wet. So it is safe to say that it is coming from the strut. There appears to be a hairline crack right where the strut body meets the bottom eyelet but it is hard to tell if it is a crack or just a scratch.
The strut is an OEM toyota tundra non-trd that came off of a 2005 Tundra DC with (apparently) low mileage. Obviously, I need to replace this as soon as possible and it looks like the 5 perch Tundra bilstein 5100 from Toytec is the best option. I can use my existing Tundra spring and top plate bits and get my desired ride height with the perches?
I realize this is a lengthy post, but any feedback on the statements or questions I made would be greatly appreciated. I'm quite new to working on vehicles but I enjoy learning how to do things myself and due to being a poor student, I don't really have a choice anyways.
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