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

I took a photo!



Better view of the wheels and headlights/foglights

 

And now onto taillights. Upgrading from 2003/2005 to 2006/2009 taillights:

 

Lookin sharp!

 

Fudge me, I can’t get the left taillight turn signal bulb to seat properly (seems to be a problem with this ‘upgrade’) so 1. My left blinker doesn’t work and 2. I’m not 100% certain my reverse lights work, as they are all interconnected. I’ll mess with it more tomorrow. Otherwise, they look fantastic! Brake lights are way brighter.

 

Do they not line up with the bulb holes in the body for the older design? I haven't done the upgrade myself but would like to. Since they are all controlled via the brake/tail wire in the center, cat you pull the tail light, seat the turn and reverse bulbs and then reinstall the tail light and insert the brake/tail wire?

 

That’s what I’m gonna have to do. The bulb socket does fit in the new taillight no problem (my passenger side all works perfectly), I may have broken a little part of the drivers side bulb socket twisting it in too hard. There are these little metal tabs on the bulb socket and the taillight that need to make contact so the electrical signal can continue on its way and for some reason I’m having an issue getting those pairs of tabs lined up correctly. Thankfully, I know it WILL work since my passenger side is fine. Just need to fiddle with the drivers side more.

guess this is what I get for trying to cram this in during my kids nap… always a sense of urgency to beat the ‘clock’ haha

 

Threw on an RCI fuel tank skid today. URD headers going on tomorrow

 

I will be prepping my former 2003 V8 4Runner for sale purposes. I sold it a couple of years ago to my buddy who just threw money at it LOL. It has 4.88 gears front and rear with ARB lockers and on-board air. Poor thing was beautiful when I sold it to him, but he pretty much beat up the body . Still an awesome 4Runner, and the V8 can almost lift the front tires off the ground in a street race due to the lower gears. Just posting this out there if anybody has any interest.

 

Got it working, the turn signal bulb socket contact tabs I think were too flat to make contact with the taillight contact tabs so I bent them out a little bit and now everything works.

 

I just had to do the same thing last night. Had someone tell me my left brake light was out on the way home from work. I have LEDs in there so was surprised. When i went to remove the wires from the socket, the LED fell out into the tail light , so I had to pull the whole assembly off to fish it out. Once I got it out, I tested it and it was a very loose fit into the wiring socket. So same as you, I bent the contact tabs out to get the LED to fit tighter.

 

Adding headers for performance reasons or did your oem ones crack?

 

Performance reasons mainly, but the front cats are needing to be replaced as well, so it’s a good time to upgrade

 

Are they used? I didn’t see any URD headers in their website for our 4Runners. Maybe they discontinued them?

 

They were not listed for a while but recently were added again. My 4Runner is the v6 flavor though so I am not sure what they have for v8s

https://urdusa.com/urd-spec-u-lt-headers-for-1gr-fe-tacoma-4runner-fj-cruiser/

 

I’ve used NHUC for the past 4 years but this year I used up the rest of it and plastered my whole under carriage with used diesel truck engine oil. Looks fresh off the lot lol

 

Installed some 3rd gen Tacoma hitachi shocks and springs today. Before the lift, from the center of hub to bottom of fender was 19”, and after it’s about 21.75”. I am hoping it settles a little, but we will see. I also got started on the URD equal length header install. Got the more difficult driver side one installed, which required disconnecting the steering shaft. Started getting dark after that so I’ll finish up tomorrow. Things should be downhill from here hopefully.

 

Happy to say patience paid off this year as far as Black Friday strategy. Got free shipping on a Lost Trails lo-pro winch bumper, which fits perfectly with my "stealthy stock" mod style; a Warn 10K lb. EVO winch from Northridge 4x4 for $279 after a $150 rebate (still available through 15Dec); and picked up a new-in-box synthetic rope and fairlead locally on FB marketplace. Next up is painting the bumper and swapping in the synthetic for the steel cable on the Warn. Looking forward to getting everything installed. Pretty stoked b/c this is the end of the major mod journey - suspension, skids, sliders, and now winch.

Here's what the bumper will look like installed:

 

Went to big bear this past weekend with the fam and dog so had to throw on the rooftop storage:



anyone know where to buy OEM carpet floor mats? The Toyota emblem finally peeled itself off on my passenger mat. I checked Toyota (discontinued) and eBay (couldn’t find any carpeted ones)…

 

Washed and photos...just got it Friday evening. Tires and inspection tomorrow!

 

Changed my spark plugs. I follow the Toyota recommendation for 30K miles and use Denso plugs. Two of the driver’s side ignition coils looked like this. Fluid was black and didn’t smell like oil. Also including a pic of the rearmost plug on that side. Truck runs great. Thoughts on this?

 

Replaced all 8 coil packs, had one go bad recently at 224k so may as well swap all of them out. Andddd new head lights off Amazon. Overall not bad but I think the driver side bulb is rattling, I can see the light output bouncing as I hit bumps. Cheap crap but they look good so

 

New inspection on Monday. To pass I had to replace my inner left Tie rod. $400 with an alignment but it seems to ride better.

 

In depth vehicle inspections are wild. Glad we don't have those in California! Then again we might see less jalopys on the road...

Swapped in new sway bar bushings yesterday. So that's where that clunking was coming from...

 

My car has more needs than I have money for sigh.

 

Well in the past few weeks I have repaired both front cv axles, replaced front wheel bearings, inner and outer tie rods, installed a rear diff vent extension, new rear brake rotors and brake pads. Currently sitting at 279,674 miles. I just received the replacement seat covers and will be installing them soon.

VA vehicle inspections sucks, every year I have to remove the fog lights from my bumper in order to pass inspection. Fog light either have to be factory or covered and not with tape or foil. My light bar is fine.

 

After 17 faithful years of service and more than a few battle scars, the lower part of my ‘07 4R’s bumper has announced its retirement. It wishes its successor, my new Lost Trails Overland winch bumper, the best of luck.

 

Washed and waxed her. Was too dark when I finished to take a photo.

 

Took her for a swim. This was actually a valuable lesson learned. I made my own problem with too much speed. It wasn’t that deep but I drove as if it was mud - where some momentum can really help - instead of water. I’m deeply grateful that the lesson wasn’t a much more expensive one. Could have easily stalled or ingested water. The little breaker is when it hit the scoop.


This is at Tennessee’s awesome Windrock Park.

 

Here’s the dashcam video: