What Did You Do To Your 3rd Gen Today?

[Jszeszko]

Damn! What's the history of that engine?

I just got it, drove it home and everything seemed fine, started it after it cooled down and turned out it had a blown head gasket. Found the heads like that after we pulled the valve covers. Guessing the original owners didn't care too much for regular oil changes. The truck is super clean otherwise.

 

[AZBub]

What did you do to your 3rd gen today?

280k roughly. By the looks of the gaskets this is the 1st time it's been cracked open. I ran Rotella T6 the first change and 2 rotations of T5 changed at roughly 3500miles (it always came out black as black) then switched to Mobile super high mileage from wally world. Always used WIX.

Image below is Driver side. I used high heat self fusing silicone wrap on the POS plastic thing that shatters if you stare at it too long. Amazing stuff. Good to have for just about anything, its good to 500 degrees. There is stuff to 800 but i didn't feel like waiting for Amazon. I go this at a walmart for 5 bucks. I would like to say a HUGE shout out to these guys I know you are on here somewhere. Used their video and the appropriate sections of the FSM as needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5fAXAuGozI

 

[aeroneer1]

View attachment 223328

View attachment 223329View attachment 223330View attachment 223331this is what I've been doing for a few days. This helped out alot with road noise

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What exact kit and where did you get it?

 

[killzone90]

I just went to amazon.com and typed in sound dampening and found this still for $35. It was 18 square foot.

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[Road Bull]

Sanoran Steel 1.2 rear lift and drop diff spacer ordered!

King 2.5 Extended Travel Coilovers delivered! Thanks Total Automotive for making that happen.

SPC Light Racing UCAs standing by waiting for everything to come together.

It has taken a long time to get this far.

 

[AZBub]

Bleeding the brakes. With my Harbor Freight special.

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[Bandit Runner]

Took a few more pics of the truck today just for fun:

 

[jakefly1]

Registered my new (to me) 4runner today! Got a good deal on it for my area especially because it was a 1 owner, Florida vehicle. It seems like almost everyone on craigslist is trying to flip cars nowadays or is selling the car for a "family member". The clean ones on autotrader were usually snatched up the same day they were posted. Its a 1998 with 220k miles, limited edition. I owned a 1998 4 cylinder base model until it was totaled at 292k miles back in February. Hope this one makes it that long, if not longer! Most major parts have been replaced and maintained. Only thing wrong with the car is a slight oil and possibly coolant leak. I can smell the coolant on startup but there aren't any coolant puddles under the car unless its mixed in with the oil on the ground. The oil is the color oil should be and there is no smoke so I highly doubt its the head gasket. It has the original radiator, timing belt and water pump which need to be changed asap. The previous owner never changed it because there is no play in the pulley for the water pump at all, but there could be a slight leak from the water pump. The top of the radiator looks wet so I'm hoping the coolant is evaporating from there. The engine temps are perfect ~178-185 driving around town and on the freeway. I have a new radiator for it, originally intended to be cheap "insurance" against the pink milkshake. Going to see my mechanic tomorrow to figure it out. This 4runner has some cool options like the Securikey security system, which they don't make remotes for anymore. I luckily bought one of the 3 left at a dealers ebay site. It also has the dealer optioned Hella foglights. Does anyone knows the size of the fog light bulbs? This is kind of long but I'm glad to be back in a 4Runner. I've had an RX8 the last few months but nothing beats the dependability and low maintenance costs of a 4Runner!

The old:


The flame shooter:


The new:


The anthracite metallic was just a great coincidence. Its one of, if not my favorite color for the car. I was searching for white/black/green/anthracite/silver.

 

[onejillzee]

It's silly, but my steering wheel has been annoyingly peeling since I picked it up in June. Did a simple, temporary fix and put a steerling wheel skin on. Took me about 2 hrs to install because I'm super OCD. It's not the prettiest update, but at least my steering wheel won't peel any further.

 

[7echo]

When I saw this one my first thought was 'wow, he is REALLY into the HAM radio stuff these days'

 

[4Runner4TW]

Upgraded the lighting! Installed KC Apollos a few days ago and moved my Hella 500ff up to my new CBI Ditch Light Brackets. Easy install and great mod. Only thing different I did from the CBI instructions was cut to the third rib (not 4th) and staring across about 1 inch from the top of the rubber on the cowl.

Little tip of you are working by yourself is to use a plastic or wood shin to hold the fender back while getting to the hood bolts; see picture.

I also took the time to paint the cowl. And as you can see my hood is still flush with the fender.
Highly recommend! Solid product.

 

[sns109]

Hi, New member and new 4runner owner, great forum, invaluable in helping with maintenance. Since this is my first post (don't have requisite 15 posts) and I need advice immediately I'm posting here, hopefully someone can help me.

I am in the process of replacing front struts, top strut mount studs and nuts are hopelessly rusted for usual removal. I've had to resort to using a sawzall for cutting off the studs. I've been able to cut the two outside studs, but the inside one is nearly impossible to get to. I tried to use the sawzall bending over blade, lose control of tool. I've been able to get a dremel tool with carbide cutting tool to cut through nut to a certain extent but even the dremel tool is too large to cut entirely through nut (interference from inner fender doesn't allow proper tool movement). I've tried to break remainder of nut with cold chisel and by removing lower strut mount and twisting, no go. It seems nut and what's left of studs is fused to frame mount, won't allow release of strut.

At this point I'm defeated and contemplating taking to mechanic for torch/plasma cutting off. Is there some option I'm missing? I've seen much information in regard to the rear shock mounting bolt rust issues (I had this as well), but nothing about this issue with front struts. I wish Toyota had placed upper mounts in engine compartment.

I also have experienced some issues with springs and front strut shocks. I replaced front springs (old rusted and can't get out anyway) with the Highlander springs. In researching this I came to the conclusion that the 35350 and 35400 Highlander springs were the only ones available for my 2000 Limited with 16" wheels (perhaps these were oem ?) even though different color code from original (my old coils are orange/white on LH side, haven't looked on passenger side).

Finally, I purchased KYB gas adjust struts and rear shocks, rears are fine, fronts orient springs differently than stock or pictures of Bilsteins I've seen. The KYB's orient lower coil end in line with bolt hole in bottom of shock, stock and Bilsteins locate coil end opposite the bolt hole. Therefore KYB will orient coil end either towards the front or rear of vehicle vs. the outside of vehicle as called for in Toyota manual. I've oriented mine to front of vehicle. At this point I cannot see any problem, are there issues with this?

 

[killzone90]

I put these together today for my 97. They r tundra 5100s with fj springs and 4runner top hats. Hope to put them on tonight.

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[fmars62]

i just bought my 3rd gen, so does that count? lol

 

[GTEE1997]

slow progress ...

2016-10-22, 151152 miles.
Today I changed the oil in the transfer case, front and rear differential fluids. All the oil appeared to have retained a decent viscosity. (I have no idea about how frequently these oils were changed by the previous owner, but it was done at least once because the front diff drain plug was installed without a gasket.) I put Valvoline Synthetic Blend 80W-90 in the rear, CarQuest synthetic 75W-90 in the transfer case and front diff. All bolts reinstalled with correct gaskets and torques.
Up next:
grease the driveshafts
replace radiator, coolant & transmission fluid
paint / protect the chassis
replace brake fluid
engine oil sludge flush
then I can start my 'bubbafication'

 

[t4rFL]

LED - reverse and license plate

also de-badged to paint the emblems charcoal color; didn't put them back on yet.

 

[sam.basye]

LED - reverse and license plate

also de-badged to paint the emblems charcoal color; didn't put them back on yet.

What type of LED's did you go with? Wattage and layout wise.

Got some 7w t10's in the wife's car and might reorder them when I find a nice 00-02 left taillight. Found a right side, but still need a left. Lol


Fun story. I bought red LED's for the taillights and they were junk so I swapped some old white LED's I bought last year in it (white makes the red lens look orange, fyi).

I originally removed the white LED's after buying them because orange taillights look stupid and just replaced with stock bulbs. Last week, a stock bulb blew so I put new red LED's in, last night I took them out because one quit working and put the white LED's in so I would have working lights.
Today, starting to get dark and I get in the car to go out to eat and the dash lights are all on, but dim. Headlight switch is off, then I realized pushing the brake triggers the dash lights... Lol Must be the low resistance of the LED's confusing the car.

 

[t4rFL]

What type of LED's did you go with? Wattage and layout wise.

Got some 7w t10's in the wife's car and might reorder them when I find a nice 00-02 left taillight. Found a right side, but still need a left. Lol


Fun story. I bought red LED's for the taillights and they were junk so I swapped some old white LED's I bought last year in it (white makes the red lens look orange, fyi).

I originally removed the white LED's after buying them because orange taillights look stupid and just replaced with stock bulbs. Last week, a stock bulb blew so I put new red LED's in, last night I took them out because one quit working and put the white LED's in so I would have working lights.
Today, starting to get dark and I get in the car to go out to eat and the dash lights are all on, but dim. Headlight switch is off, then I realized pushing the brake triggers the dash lights... Lol Must be the low resistance of the LED's confusing the car.

reverse - 210 lumens
license plate - 4000k; 56 lumens

purchased from diodedynamics.com

 

[PCF4runner]

#ToyotaTRDdecal [emoji1490][emoji4][emoji1491]

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[traffic61]

Just stuck a new battery under the hood. Now that I am about to join the ranks of the employed again, I can start doing a lot more to the old girl!