New T4R Owner! Need some advice.

Good evening everyone, New Toyota 4runner Owner. I just picked up a new 2019 TRD with the 4.0 and five speed automatic transmission. I know a lot about American heavy duty trucks but I know absolutely nothing about Toyotas. I’ve always been an Amsoil guy for all or most of my fluids, but am interested in Toyota fluid quality. If y’all could provide some advice tips or recommendations it would be greatly appreciated.

1) The oil filter is very different from what I’m used to, is there a full synthetic Spun micro glass oil filter available on the market? How is the OEM oil filter? Any recommendations or tips would be helpful concerning the gaskets.

2) Engine calls for 0w20 engine oil? Anyone running at 30 weight oil? I did see Toyotas 20 weight oil are loaded with Molly which was nice to see but a little on the thin side for me personally.

3) is the transmission in a sealed unit? Didn’t see a dipstick tube for the transmission but in all honesty I haven’t crawled around the vehicle yet just pop the hood before I bought it and didn’t see one. I typically do a simple pan drop every 30 K but I’m not sure that’s necessary on a Toyota.

4) is there anything about the four-wheel-drive system or transfer case that’s different from American vehicles? Can anyone confirm the gear ratio? I typically do my diffs and transfer case every 30 K but not sure with this Toyota because it’s so much lighter and I will not be doing any towing. Does the rear diff have a vent tube?

5) would like to put a beefier tire on my rig, any recommendations on the stock height and stock rims?

6) is there anything mechanical I need to be aware of or keep an eye on?

I’ve only done about 600 miles on my TRD but I seem to really like it, looking forward to getting it out on the trail. Any tips or advice would be awesome thank you.

 

Lots of these questions can be answered by searching the forum and online, checking your owners manual, and looking under your vehicle, but i will answer what i can from the top of my head, the rest is up to you...

1. Not sure about the oil filter as i have not put enough miles on mine yet to look at it...

2. Its best to just use 0W20, its not extremely likely that you would encounter problems with a 30 weight but oil viscosity is determined by the engine tolerances, and 0w20 will flow more quickly and into more of the tight tolerance crevices than a higher weight oil.

3. The transmission is indeed sealed, more and more vehicles are coming with sealed transmissions. Id change the transmission fluid according to the schedule in the owners manual.

4. Id just follow the guidelines in the owners manual for changing fluids. If you understand american 4wd systems and transfer cases than you should understand these as well, they are all pretty similar.

1st 3.52
2nd 2.042
3rd 1.4
4th 1.0
5th/overdrive 0.716
reverse 3.224
diff ratio 3.727
transfer case high is at 1.0 low is at 2.566

5. Not sure what you're asking... Without knowing what wheels and tires are on your rig now its hard to begin to answer this..... but.... With stock suspension and stock wheels you can put a tire on that is 275/70/17 in size. Switching wheels makes it more complicated as offset then comes into play. If you just want a more aggressive tire you can switch to an AT tire. Lots of choices but the most popular seem to be BFG KO2, Falcon wildpeak, Cooper stt maxx, Nitto terra/ridge grapplers, and Toyo open country.


6. Follow the maintenance schedule in your owners manual. Enjoy the reliability.

 

Backwoods pretty much hit everything on the head...

As for question 1 stick with OEM filters. Toyota makes some of the best oil filters amongst the OEM manufacturers...not aftermarket. And I would be willing to bet they are better than most aftermarket as well. There are numerous tear down videos and pictures on the web. Check them out! I have used OEM filters in all my Toyota’s for over 10 years with zero problems...

And finally they are a P.I.T.A. to change. Messy and time consuming job. My best piece of advice is DO NOT rush it and leave ample time. Additionally cover your driveway or garage floor.

 

Thanks for the input and advice, I really appreciate your responses.

 

Welcome. I personally haven’t had the “pleasure” of changing my T4R oil and filter yet (dealer is doing it for the 1st 20,000 miles). Cartridge filters like what T4R uses are very old school technology (I’ve replaced many filter elements on International Harvester 304ci and 345ci engines and Ford 534ci engines back in the day) but it has been tried and tested for decades. From what Oey12 said, sounds like Toyota is saving money on not having to make new disposable housings to put the filter material in, but is instead, spending the saved money on a better filter element itself (and isn’t that the point of a filter).

One thing I read on a post somewhere is that close attention must be paid to reassembling the filter with the other internal filter parts. Washers can stick inside the housing and not come out thereby ending up with an extra washer when the new one is added (or the other extreme, the washer is forgotten and not installed at all), the spring can be put in the wrong sequence, or the o-ring seal gets pinched, forgotten, or doubled up. Apparently, if something isn’t put back together correctly, the filter element can distort or collapse under operational pressure and flow (which may or may not be oil viscosity related) and block the flow of oil thereby starving the engine of proper lubrication.

Anyway, if you decide to do it yourself, take your time. There should be an exploded diagram with the new filter that shows all the parts on the proper order.