What have you done to your 4th Gen 4Runner today?

Would you mind sharing the Lexus part numbers for the gaskets?

 

I swapped out my OEM rear hatch struts for new Toyota struts...man, one of the buggers refused to turn with the open-ended wrench so I mustered the Sawzall and cut off the ball and socket of the strut arm...the right deep impact made all the difference! The hatch feels like it'll almost let me do pullups from there now! Ha! Merry Monday everyone!!

 

I got the write up info on YouTube like Bluesky07 said, there is a good bit of precise soldering so be patient and take your time.

 

Mine was pretty grimey but very likely never been done.. 2006 166k.

 

Fair enough, that's pretty good for 18 years of use!

 

Installed the Jomise rear view/backup/dash camera I got for Christmas. Seems to work well, though I have not taken it for a test drive yet. All functions worked in the driveway. Mounted the dash cam on the grill so as to double as a "rock Camera" as my son calls it. Not rated as waterproof so we will see.....

 

I'm in the process of installing the

$150 Wolfbox G850 12" 4K Rear View Mirror Camera with 5.8GHz WiFi and Voice Control, Smart Mirror Dash Cam Front and Rear, Backup Camera with 1080P Rear Camera, Dash Cam with WDR, Includes 64GB Card & GPS

Wolfbox G850 Pro. Front cam is in the rearview mirror (it replaces the stock mirror) and I plan to put the rear cam on the lower edge of the spoiler. That will enable me to move my current backup cam from the rear bumper to the front one as a trail cam as you're doing. The Wolfbox rear cam shows on the replacement mirror and my current backup cam shows on the stereo HU. I'll rewire the current cam off the reverse circuit to a switch I can activate as needed.

 

This is what I ordered, hopefully it’s all correct:

 

Remind me never to do this again. We are at like 1,400 miles so far with I think 250ish to go. It’s too much with the kid and the dog.

San Diego -> Paso Robles -> Vacaville -> South Lake Tahoe -> East sac -> back to South Lake Tahoe -> Santa Barbara -> San Diego.

get me the F out of this car haha

4Runner has been a champ tho! Going over the 50 summit started snowing pretty bad. Chain control guy was like “4wd 4Runner with your tires… no problem” after my wife was having a mini panick attack going through chain control, lol



edit: this photo was already on the downside of the summit. Going ‘up’ the pass was much gnarlier. We left SLT like a half hour after the storm hit, so good timing overall I think.

 

Way to keep it between the lines the whole trip! That is an adventure! My feeling is 4runners are tough for road trip vehicles when you have more then yourself inside! Ha!

 

Anyone take any extra gas along for long road trips? After ditching the f150 for a 4runner i have to say one of the things i miss the most is that range i can get on a tank.. f150 ecoboost doubled what the t4r will do.

 

My 4runner hasn't been taken on any long road trips aside form visiting Denver and back (about 10 hour drive one way)...but that was before kids...the 4th gen gets better fuel mileage than my Tundra and can drive about 100 miles further than it too...arrrgh! Hahaha...if I were to be going on a trip where limited services were available, I'd definitely have an extra fuel container ready for use...it might stay empty until I know the way is limited, though...

 

In October, we did 13 days & 3400 miles in my '07 (266K) with our 2 dogs:
Atlanta
Reading, PA to pick up 21', 4000-lb travel trailer
Rhinebeck, NY
Lake Placid
Smuggler's Notch, NH
Plymouth, NH
Cavendish, VT
Reading to drop off the TT
Shenandoah Natl. Park, VA
Charlotte
Home

Had an amazing trip and the 4R was its usual awesome self.

 

Where did you tie in rear reverse power for camera? The reverse bulb doesn't have wires to it just a plate to attach it

 

You could use the factory trailer connection circuit...the ole 7-pin dealy...

 

It’s the red wire with a yellow stripe going to the taillight plug.

I’m mounting the rearview camera on the spoiler, so I had to splice some extra wire for the reverse trigger. It was easy to run it down from the headliner near the top of the hatch underneath that pillar trim, and right into the little compartment where the plug is.

Running the camera cable to the mirror was easy too. They give you a little trim tool, and you can just tuck it under the headliner or trim along the driver side, all the way down around the pillar and across under the headliner to the mirror.

What wasn’t so easy was fishing the camera cable through that rubber boot from the body to the hatch. I’ll post some pics when I’m done.

 

Thank you

 

Finishing up the Wolfbox rear camera installation. Took the spoiler off and removed the 3rd brake light for better accessibility.

 

My uncle lives in Rhinebeck, very cool.

 

Very nice town where we stopped so I could check something off my bucket list - Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, which is awesome.

Sadly though, there was a tragic postscript to our visit. I shot this pic of Brian Coughlin flying a replica Fokker D.VIII on 29Sep24 and really felt it perfectly captured my reason for wanting to go there. I was heartbroken to learn that this aircraft crashed during the very next show a week later and Brian lost his life.

 

Really nice town and area. I recall driving just north of there a few times to Red Hook NY, as we had some family that lived near there at the time, to spend the day cutting down Christmas trees with the kids, strap them to the 4R roof rack and head back to tri-state area.
Sorry to hear about the tragedy.

 

I installed a DrawTite Class IV receiver hitch on my v6. I also ordered a trans cooler kit from Iconic Fabrication. They make a nice bracket to mount a Hayden 698 cooler behind the grille

 

Did my 255k oil change. I’m tripping, I looked online and found that the v8 takes 6.4qts but I don’t remember what I did last time. Is that correct?

 

6.5qts is typical...if you have oil cooler, it may add a smidge more...I thought they all had it so throw in 6qts and start checking!

 

I did 6.5 qts and I checked my dipstick multiple times but it just had fresh oil ‘smudges’ all over the bottom. Like as if the dipstick was catching oil inside the tube, so I wasn’t confident in my dipstick reading. But glad to know I’m not crazy with the volume.

 

Installed my Wilco high clearance tire carrier and wired up the license plate light to a 7pin connector so it’s easy to move the license plate down

 

Looks good and functional...does it rattle or wobble much?

 

Thank you, it functions well and uses an anti rattle hitch that you tighten down with a 19mm to keep things from moving around. It’s a pretty good design imo. I live on a dirt road and it is solid once you tighten up the mechanism.

 

Which stereo head unit are you running? I would like to add a backup camera to my 06

 

No need to route cables nowadays...use a bluetooth adapter and you're good to go anywhere now!