What have you done to your 3rd Gen 4Runner today?

GD Turkeys!!!!

 

I’ll see you June 6th Bushytail!!!

 

Got rid of the ugly sticker wood grain, changed the shift knob to a weighted one, changed the valve cover gasket, grommets, half moon pieces in the cam, spark plugs, oil change, air filter, new brakes, new rotors, changed a seized caliper, cleaned the engine bay, added a double din radio and got rid of the ugly sticker bomb the previous owner put in the trunk. Only owned the car for only 3 weeks so far. Ordered some FN 5 star rims, OME lift will be ordered this weekend and tires will be ordered when the rims come.

 

NICE you've been busy. How much of a pain was it to pull the wood grain crap off?

 

Fucking horrifying, your best friend is just a heat gun to remove the “wood” and then regular rubbing alcohol and elbow grease to remove the residue. I made 2 major mistakes unfortunately, I was first using some lacquer to remove the residue which worked great at first but then I ended up removing some of the paint from the dash board around the driver side heating vent closest to the window and I also burned a hole in the cloth trim around the passenger door handle but I was fortunate enough to find a replace cloth at a junkyard and had a friend install it so I couldn’t fuck it up. So definitely remove the pieces with the “wood” and then hit it with the heat gun to avoid burning any miscellaneous surrounding trim/cloth.

 

Not gonna lie, this was NOT the answer I was hoping for hahaha

 

Honestly the worst parts were the center dash trim and the window switches for front driver and passenger since those were the biggest pieces so there was ALOT of residue to remove. The heating vents, door handles, and window switches for the back seats were really easy to clean off. Just take your time, I was just rushing mine like an idiot. Also be wary that the rubbing alcohol will fade out the black on the trim so you’ll want to hit it with some plastic shine or even consider repainting after.

 

Just came in, also found a guy parting out a 2000 4runner and managed to snag fender flares, the scoop hood, center console with the cup holders with the kicked over ebrake, a TRD shift knob, rubber trunk mat and rain guards for a steal

 

Great score!!! What’s that round thing on the table? Is that for those cigarette sticks humans use to smoke? God I want one so bad but know it will just taste like crap...,

 

Haha yea it’s an ashtray unfortunately. And good for you man stay the hell away from them.

 

Installed both front window felts

 

Changed the interior dash lights out today. I can finally see my hvac system at night, also moved the alarm light and rear window switch to the dash for when I install the cup holder center console later this week.

Things to note:
Apparently when installing the dash lights as in the speedometer lights you can’t check to see if they work unless that dimmer knob switch is also plugged in. Same goes for the turn signals, can’t test them unless the hazard switch is plugged in. Don’t know if anyone else experienced this but I did and didn’t figure it out until 2 hours into troubleshooting.

 

Tried to pull the buzzer off on door chime, so I put two layers of gorilla tape over the buzzer hole, now its much,much quieter,
Its solderd in ,so didnt think ripping it off was good...

 

Started her up in the driveway for a heating cycle. She warmed up and idled down to about 750rpms. Nice, quite, and efficient. I’m ready to tow a boat.

 

Swapped to my “Limited” 20’s, w/ ZR rated GT Radials....

 

Sick, in that picture idk why but it kinda looks like you chopped the top an inch or 2

 

It’s the super wide angle camera lens on the 11 Pro Max...

 

Today I battled with my LCA bushings. Got creative at times to get around seized nuts and bolts. I went for the bottle jack method for pressing them out. It's safe to say they had well and truly disintegrated. That explains the pull to the left I had whilst braking.

 

Another day and another job ticked off the list. Right hand side lca bushing sockets cleaned up and treated with rust converter then new bushings pressed in. This was no easy feet as the bottom strut bolts have rusted into 1 solid hunk of steel. Meaning this was all done under the truck. I've got the battery on charge today as well. Seeing as it hasn't moved since the UK lock down began.
Tomorrow it's time to get the other side as undone as is possible. I'm using the strategy of a little bit every day. This help with her indoors losing her rag over me spending to long away from the our almost 2 year old child of chaos and destruction.

 

After many hours of profanity I finally have all new LCA bushings. Next step is outer tie rods as they have turned into a rusty solid mess and refit the anti sway bar along with new links. Once that's all done I can move onto sorting out my rear brakes as they are set up all wrong. Then I can get my MOT( UK test for road worthiness) retest. Then I will be finally mobile again. Woohoo.

 

I finished laying down the killmat sound proofing material throughout the front and backseat area. Tomorrow gonna lay down my new vinyl flooring and install my seats. And we'll see how it turns out.

 

I've been on hold due to wet English weather of late. Today though I managed to get some dry time to do my outer tie rods. One side I had off and changed in under 30 mins. The other side isn't playing ball at all. I've been giving it PB blaster for days in preparation. Will it budge, will it f@@k. I've wailed on the wrenches, I've had a torch on it. Wailed on it some more. More torch, more wrenching. That thing ain't moving. If its dry tomorrow I'm gonna try and drill the lock nut off. The inner isn't in to bad a condition so fingers crossed I dont have to admit defeat and change that as well just to get the outer off.

 

My 96 has little over 200,000 miles runs great no codes but kinks for over a year.
High tack & gas smell @ start up , miss stumble during warm up especially during cold weather & gas mileage decline.
Installed new upstream o2 sensor couple months ago which helped some but didn’t completely resolve issues being had.

Pulled maf sensor today finding wires within in very bad shape - loose & corroded.
I found replacement Maf @ Pick&Pull on 97 Avalon with 90,000 miles of use.
25.00 Score!

Minor clean up , Installed & after 5min ECU learn start issues are no more.
Throttle response has greatly improved truck is now running outstanding.

 

You can't complain for $25. Result!

 

Right on but think it’s even better.
97 Avalon Engine bay was very dirty yet maf sensor looked new displaying shiny Toyota-denso sticker with no heat damage.
Air box had new air filter.
Remove sensor take look within finding clean & shiny wires.
The combination leads me to believe maf might have less then 90,000 mile of use.
One thing for sure , it’s working fantastic money well spent lucky find.

 

Today's jobs were inner and outer tie rod on the drivers side( passenger side to you) I didnt want to do the inner but there was no way to separate them. I also rebuild my rear brakes. This all means for the first time in months my gen3 is sat on all four wheels. I had to resist the urge to drive over the neighbor's car as he's become used to parking over my drive way whilst it's been on axle stands. I even started her up.( I didnt dare whilst up on stands just incase) I have to say she started well and ticked over nicely. All in all a good day.

 

Nice simple job today, brake fluid changed for new and bleed. It's good to have a firm brake pedal again.

 

Picked her up from CJ’s Concepts, a guy from TW. He made me a custom drawer setup, turned out super sweet!

 

I bought mine!

2002 Limited 3.4L

Total newb but glad to be part of the T4R family!

 

Nice!