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

More from Venture Unknown's Winter Wonderland @ Windrock '24 event last weekend. I took my truck through some terrain I never thought I would (this is one of the milder rock gardens). Our trail captain, Brad of Prodigal Overland, was great at making us feel comfortable being uncomfortable.

Truck was in 4LO locked and my new Toyo AT3s were aired down to 15PSI. I have factory skids plus the RCI Offroad t-case skid; 4X Innovations welded sliders; and my latest addition, a Lost Trails lo-pro winch bumper. I did a lot of clangin,' bangin,' and scrapin' over the two days of guided rides but didn't even find a dent underneath when I checked at home. Brad's wife, Lauren, is the other voice in the video and she's a great spotter as well.

 

245k oil change

 

Dam I trade in @ 70-90k!!

 

She runs strong!

 

Last weekend @ 251K:

 

Still going but she's leaking!

 

Waste of a perfectly good vehicle IMO.

I don't have a recent pic of my odo and my daughter has my 4runner right now so I can't grab one but it's over 342k miles now.

 

Opinions are like ...holes everyone has 1 & most of them stink. It's not waste cause someone who wants a used vehicle gets it.

 

This. I bought my 4Runner with 96K in 2014. My mechanic: "96K? It's just getting started."

 

What’s she leaking?

 

My 2018 TRD OR had 63k when I traded.

 

Removed the spam from my quote.

A throttle controller such as this will NEVER improve gas mileage. It will only change how quickly or slowly the throttle responds. Period.

 

Looks like they're just trying to sell that product!!!Admin.'s Please look into them please because they also were posting the same crap on 4th Gen 4Runners.

 

Pound Sand you used car Snake oil sales men!!!

 

We now return to our regularly scheduled 4th Gen owner updates. Replaced my OEM ignition coils with TRQ's ICA61760 from 1A Auto. No issues with the originals, this is preventative at 252K.



Have to give kudos to 1A Auto/TRQ. I now have their coils and LCAs with a set of tie rods awaiting install. Parts are solid and they get extra credit for their remarkable library of 4th Gen instructional videos.

 

My 6-8 month old battery kicked the bucket this morning. Didn’t have my Noco jumper (in my Tacoma) so had AAA come out to give me a jump. Guy ran diagnostics on the battery and said it should have like 580 CCA and was reading like 120 CCA.

does that mean I just got a dud battery? He tested the alternator too and said it was charging fine. OR, do I have some sort of parasitic draw happening where my next battery will meet the same fate? Is there a way to check that?

 

Batteries today are crap, I only seem to get 2-3 years out of standard batteries. I think I am going to try Optima next.

 

At least Costco swapped it free of charge and didn’t really ask questions (even tho my dad purchased the battery). Installed it today and she fired right up. Let’s hope I get more than 10 months out of this one.

 

Replaced my positive battery terminal and gas cap. Also fixed a ‘crunching’ noise every time I open/shut my front drivers door. Ended up just being the black door stop thingy was loose on the door side, tightened both bolts and it is good to go.

suspension question, and I’ve searched the forum to no avail. Can I 1. Run bilstein 6112’s in a v8? I only ask because I was looking at parts sites and they only list v6’s in the configuration web tools, and 2. I don’t want to lift my 4Runner, would the 6112/5160 combo be a good set up?

edit, posted in the suspension sub-forum as well.

 

V6/V8 suspensions are identical. So yes, you can. The only real difference will be the spring rates on front to accommodate the heavier V8. But it's mostly negligible.

 

Built a sleeping platform in the back to accommodate an RV bunk mattress, 32x75. The rest of that stuff arrives later this week.

With this, I have a spot for my rifle case underneath, cooler to the side, and a lot of other gear storage, plus cubbies and nooks for tools and such. The goal is to be able to bring my cats along for extended trips so I want to sleep with them, inside the vehicle where I can keep an eye on them, and this should help preserve space to that end.

 

Replaced both front calipers with warranty replacements from AutoZone. Both were sticking. Got 66K miles and 3.5 years out of the first set. They may have changed suppliers in the meantime b/c the last set were different finishes. One was silver and the other unpainted. The ones I got today are both painted dark gray. We'll see how long they last. Kudos to AutoZone, they made the swap painless.

 

Wow. I took my car in to rotate tires. Said two front were shot (hardly any tread), then they said the brakes were bad (which they were) then they said the right caliper was stuck. $1700 later.... oh well.

 

New NSK driver rear wheel bearing, Toyota brake caliper, and washed it up today. Also ordered some aluminum side steps from Greenlane off-road. Wheel bearing made a big difference in cabin noise, the old one was in bad shape and the seal was leaking gear oil everywhere too.

 

Looks like we were working on the same thing at the same time, mate. I am glad you are having a good day. My situation is complicated by rust, so it will not be as smooth as I have imagined.


Rust has slowly made its way to mating surfaces of hub.


Cleaned it up a bit the best I could with wire brush.


Axle seal was falling apart.


Part of the axle seal was hanging off the axle. ABS sensor was completely stuck inside of the hub, and ABS sensor stud nut was seized onto the stud.


Parking brake bracket bolts broke off. I will have to drill them out and make a through hole to secure it in place.


Trying to get a stuck ABS sensor, I managed to damage ABS sensor ring. Initially, I was hoping to just change out axle seal that was leaking, but now it will have to be a complete overhaul of both sides.

 

Rebuilt two CV axles with the Off-road Solutions extended angle CV boots and installed them. The first one I had an issue with the retaining c-clip being expanded too far to where it would not compress and go into the front differential. Removed the clip and compressed it a little making sure it still expanded past the gear teeth for locking and it worked like a charm.

 

Man! Rust makes everything tougher than it needs to be. My project was a couple of weekends in the making, I just posted all at once. I messed up the caliper on mine during disassembly so mine was on jack stands for a week while I waited on parts. Stud for the abs sensor also wouldn’t come out, so I swapped to a short bolt that I had on hand. For the abs ring, my NSK bearing changed styles to a magnetic style pickup so I just swapped my sensors over and I was good to go. You might check and make sure yours didn’t also.



here’s the o-ring and seal for the axle housing in case you don’t have them already.

 

That sure is helpful. Thanks for the heads up!

 

I’m looking to replace the fuel sending unit in my ‘04 v8 4runner, anything else I should be replacing while doing this job? Pump?

I think these are the correct PN’s

PN 83320-60440 - sending unit
PN 23221-50130 - pump assembly

 

Yes, might as well do the pump. may be helpful.