What Did You Do To Your 3rd Gen Today?

[fixxor]

Installed a TJM front bumper, I freaking love it.

 

[Zipporaider]

Aquired our third 3rd gen. Found an Autumn Blaze limited with elocker locally!

 

[Chicago3rdgen]

Aquired our third 3rd gen. Found an Autumn Blaze limited with elocker locally!

This is an awesome color combo. Wish there were more out there. Never seen one in person.

 

[Chicago3rdgen]

Replaced my fuel pump, fuel level sender with updated version and trimmed the fuel tank vent(known issue for 1999 model year).

Also replaced the rear upper and lower control arms. Left the truck on the ground. Pulled the ebrake and wheel chocked both sides of the rear tires to replaced the control arms. Did all 4 in less an hour. Was as easy as removed bolts, remove control arm and reverse. One control arm at a time. No ratchet straps. No shacking the truck to align anything. Did it solo.

 

[SurfTo57]

She's in the garage for couple days now because of the covid-19 lockdown i washed her up, did a oil check.

 

[fourfive]

Noticed my passenger side Toytec Boss coilover leaking over the weekend. I didn't see an active leak on my driver side but it looked like it had probably leaked at some point since my last oil change. I have about 80k on them. I was initially considering the Tundra Bilstein 6112 or Tundra TRD/Bilstein 5100 but recently saw that Toytec started offering their 5100/eibach Ultimate coilovers with the threaded shock body again. I may go that route since the threaded shock body will make them much easier to adjust.

 

[LittleCaesar]

Actually occurred a couple of weeks ago. One of my brother’s employees (bro owns a boatyard) bought a 3rd gen 4Runner. Looked under the hood and saw a remanned NAPA alternator. It solved his charging problem but the two problems with it IMO was that it was noisy and that the wire cover cap could not be used so they had the connector covered it with electrical tape. And the pulley is bigger than the original one.

I am usually found of using NAPA products for the right application but would tell forum members to pass on this NAPA part unless one is in a bind. But with the worker’s discount I think he paid less than $100 for it out the door.

 

[jarrodg1993]

2nd Gen or 3rd Gen??

Hey guys, looking to get a 4runner this week! I have the choice between a 1990 with the 3.0L and 180k miles, and the other is a 2000 with the 3.4L and 275k miles. I realize that the latter one has considerably more miles, but I also know that the 3.4 is highly favored over the 3.slow. I am not sure if it's worth going 10 years newer with the better motor, but take on the extra 100k miles. The newer one is actually worth more according to KBB. Just looking for some guidance.

 

[JMat]

Hey guys, looking to get a 4runner this week! I have the choice between a 1990 with the 3.0L and 180k miles, and the other is a 2000 with the 3.4L and 275k miles. I realize that the latter one has considerably more miles, but I also know that the 3.4 is highly favored over the 3.slow. I am not sure if it's worth going 10 years newer with the better motor, but take on the extra 100k miles. The newer one is actually worth more according to KBB. Just looking for some guidance.

I'm not sure I would buy either... I had a 2nd Gen and 180k is a lot of miles for one of them and 275k is alot on a 3rd Gen if you don't know how it's been maintained(unless you can get it for less than $1500 and plan to do all the wrenching yourself)

 

[spartacus]

Hey guys, looking to get a 4runner this week! I have the choice between a 1990 with the 3.0L and 180k miles, and the other is a 2000 with the 3.4L and 275k miles. I realize that the latter one has considerably more miles, but I also know that the 3.4 is highly favored over the 3.slow. I am not sure if it's worth going 10 years newer with the better motor, but take on the extra 100k miles. The newer one is actually worth more according to KBB. Just looking for some guidance.

If it's good value then it's worth it. 3.4l motors and 340 f tranny's last a long time but the key is proper maintenance. If the owner can provide info then you are good.

 

[marcus clarkus]

Replaced my fuel pump, fuel level sender with updated version and trimmed the fuel tank vent(known issue for 1999 model year).

A lso replaced the rear upper and lower control arms. Left the truck on the ground. Pulled the ebrake and wheel chocked both sides of the rear tires to replaced the control arms. Did all 4 in less an hour. Was as easy as removed bolts, remove control arm and reverse. One control arm at a time. No ratchet straps. No shacking the truck to align anything. Did it solo.

Is your fuel gauge more accurate now? Also can you elaborate on trimming the fuel tank vent?

 

[marcus clarkus]

I replaced steering rack guide using Timmy's video. I'm a little concerned because the new guide didn't thread in very far before the torque spiked. I ended up tightening it to about 50 ft lbf (more than double the actual torque spec) just to get another thread or two on there. It feels fine when driving though - smoother than the old guide, and still returns to center.

My rack poured out a few tablespoons of ATF though when I removed the old guide, and continued to seep out until I had the new guide in place. The boots are wet too, so it's on it's last leg so it probably wasn't worth swapping the guide out since I'll be replacing the rack at some point. Oh well.

Painted rear license plate holder. It looks black in the picture, but it's a "hammered silver" that matches the stock color pretty weld. Sanded, cleaned, 3x color coats, and 3x satin clear coats. I hope it holds up nicely.

 

[Chicago3rdgen]

Is your fuel gauge more accurate now? Also can you elaborate on trimming the fuel tank vent?

Time will tell if my gauge is more accurate. I average about 80mi a week on the 4runner. There’s a picture floating around this forum showing the length differences. there was a tsb about an updated fuel pump bracket assembly for model year 99, this bracket contains this vent tube. The vent tube was too long causing gas station fuel pumps to auto shut off too soon. This I can confirm definitely helped. Was was able to put 16gal in after the mod. Max before was around 13-14 gal. The vent tube on affected model year 1999 tho.

 

[marcus clarkus]

Time will tell if my gauge is more accurate. I average about 80mi a week on the 4runner. There’s a picture floating around this forum showing the length differences. there was a tsb about an updated fuel pump bracket assembly for model year 99, this bracket contains this vent tube. The vent tube was too long causing gas station fuel pumps to auto shut off too soon. This I can confirm definitely helped. Was was able to put 16gal in after the mod. Max before was around 13-14 gal. The vent tube on affected model year 1999 tho.

Thanks. So did you actually trim the tube, or just buy the new assembly that came with a short tube?

 

[Mark_BC]

I did this last week / 2 weeks ago. I drove my rescued 2000 Limited to Calgary and back to Vancouver in the middle of winter weather. That's a couple thousand k's. Nice to have the part time 4WD transfer case. It performed flawlessly except a couple times while cruising at speed and overdrive on, when I started going up a slight hill and put on the gas a little bit, it seemed to get confused about shifting and clunked and made a hard shift. Popping it out of overdrive immediately stopped the problem by forcing a shift.

I slept one night in the back in the freezing cold and snow up a logging road. It plowed through 8" of snow that night. I was worried it might not start in the morning but it fired right up with 27 F reading on the Scanguage. I was warm in my sleeping bag, it didn't even get below freezing with the windows cracked open a bit.

I previously replaced the front rotors with some from a 2002 from the wreckers. I took a chance that these ones wouldn't be warped and they aren't. Man this thing drives so smooth. Amazing considering what it looked like this time last year.

And I gave it a good spray underneath with Fluid Film first, as well as Rust Cure 3000 (linseed oil) in the doors and rocker panels since it doesn't stink as much -- come summer when it all heats up and volatilizes.

I'm really liking this 4runner and I'm going to turn it into my built rig. New front bumper from Coastal Offroad, winch, 33's without a lift so I'll have to trim the fenders. There's also still some more repair work to do from the crash -- crunched fuse box, and paint and replace the fender, re-install the AC system, some bent body mounts -- are the main ones. Plus fix the Limited climate controller, put in new airbags. It just goes on and on...

 

[Hokie-Pokie VT]

Rear diff swap! Had to drive to NC to do it considering I don't have a garage at my apartment.

Big shout out to Zuk, find his website here Toyota Gear Install Harrop and Timmy the Toolman's helpful video. No LSD because I'm really not a hardcore off roader, so just the standard stock differential. Zuk worked with me really well, very communicative and excellent customer service.

All Went smoothly until we got to bleeding the brakes, at which point we stripped the crap out of the corroded bleeder valve and had to go get a new caliber. All in all took about 4 hours to do the diff swap and another 2 of back and forth to the parts store since they were useless and kept giving us incorrect parts.

Runs so much quieter now! No more annoying roaring or whining from that ruined diff :lmao:

 

[JZiggy]

Nice! Zuk is tip-top notch.

 

[sharkytrav]

Got stuck at the grocery store curbside pickup a few days ago. Wouldn’t shift out of park. Figured out the brake light switch is bad, ordered a new one and installed it this afternoon. Biggest annoyance was lack of room under the dash. If I had an additional elbow between my current bendy arm parts it wouldn’t have been quite so tough.

Also swapped the original headlights out for a new set.

Post 2 of 15 in the bag...

 

[eddielasvegas]

So did you use the shift lever release override? I think it's sticking a key or screwdriver in a slot next to shiftier to release it?

And how did you determine it was the brake light switch? Our wonderful forum?

Thanks,

Eddie

Got stuck at the grocery store curbside pickup a few days ago. Wouldn’t shift out of park. Figured out the brake light switch is bad, ordered a new one and installed it this afternoon. Biggest annoyance was lack of room under the dash. If I had an additional elbow between my current bendy arm parts it wouldn’t have been quite so tough.

Also swapped the original headlights out for a new set.

Post 2 of 15 in the bag...

 

[sharkytrav]

So did you use the shift lever release override? I think it's sticking a key or screwdriver in a slot next to shiftier to release it?

And how did you determine it was the brake light switch? Our wonderful forum?

Thanks,

Eddie

Not intentionally... Im not sure how the vehicle finally decided I was trying to spur it into action but after about 10 minutes that felt like an hour I was able to shift.

The Googles also played nice that day and quickly led me to a good set of t4r forum topics.

HELP! stuck in park!

In looking back at that one and others, several mention a manual override, but in the heat of the moment and having never heard of such a thing, that info zipped right past. Or maybe the 4runner absorbed the info directly from the phone and leaned how to help.