What have you done to your 5th Gen 4Runner today?

Did this a couple weeks ago but wanted to share in case other people occasionally work under the hood at night. Bought a set of small LED light housings (20 for ~$15 on Amazon), bolted 4 of them to some 1/2" flat bar aluminum, wired them together into a single strip, then mounted it under the hood so it faces down when the hood is open. Connected it to my power distribution block with an in-line 10A fuse, used a spare green halo latching push button switch that I mounted to the plastic cover on top of the grill/radiator, good to go. I also made sure to use a waterproof 3-pin connector so I could disconnect it when I take off the plastic cover. Now I don't have to hold a flashlight at night! The picture of the engine bay is at night with no other lights on nearby in the area, just the new lights under the hood

Edit: swapped out the switch with a smaller one (16mm), and made what is essentially a black plastic washer between the switch and the plastic grill cover, so that way it kinda matches the plastic retaining clips already there.

 

Hey bud

I wanted to do something similar to this n was wondering if you had a part list and/or write up
(You mentioned a few of them)

somehow, someway…I always work on my truck when it’s dark, bad weather, last minute…less than ideal conditions haha

this would be a perfect addition to help me along my chosen difficult path…

 

Dom @ Dr. KDSS includes stickers, great products, he earned the window slot

 

I'll write one up here in a few minutes. Going to try and make it as detailed as possible so give me like an hour

Edit: Life got in the way, I'll try and post a writeup with some pics tonight

 

Got my TRD skid plate installed yesterday. Pretty straight forward. Might change the colors on the lettering later on. But for now, I like it.

 

Not so much me… had a pro do it and the wife’s X5. But dig it

Front tints

 

Were the rears factory? They look darker but maybe it's just because you had the fronts done.

 

Rears are factory

fronts are 25 ceramic

 

Great! It looks like the factory air dam stays off, is that right? Do you notice any difference in wind noise?

 

Thank you! Been looking to have mine done as I live in the desert and sun beating down on me is making the ac seem weak and I'm hoping that the ceramic tint will help with that... although I wonder if I'll have to do all of them and not just the fronts

 

I'm interested in how my 4R will fare in AZ, where it will be spending a lot of time. In my initial impression, the AC is less than overwhelming, but it hasn't really been put to the test. My standards aren't high. I didn't have a car with AC until I was 40.

 

Meso Customs map and dome lights.

 

I think it's just the size of the interior and the amount of sun let in by the huge windows. But with the ac blowing pretty good if the sun is on me it isn't doing much. I should set up an appt for the fronts before we take the 7hr drive to Disney in a few weeks (my toddler found out Super Mario land opened and had to go haha)

 

You're going to want to go to Universal Studios for Mario and not Disney.

Otherwise your little one will be very disappointed.

 

Oh don't worry we're hitting them all ... it's putting my mods on hold haha

 

Well. What the shop told me , which was very interesting, Was the the back seat and rear were dyed tinted for the factory which offers little to no heat/uv protection

He may have just been trying to sell me more but figured I’d let you know

Supposedly my new front ceramic provide like 60% UV heat reduction

He offered, of course , to do the rest ion clear ceramic to provide that reduction

I passed on that

 

I like that. The red light option seems great for camping and not wanting to kill the night vision.

 

Ordered up front. Rough Country bumper, pro-skid and a cat shield. Not a bad day of online shopping lol

 

He might be right. I thought the tint was in the glass itself. At some point I got a bad scratch on one of the windows. Hard to tell in the picture, but the glass looks clear within the scratch.

 

Hmmm. In any case, I'll be paying attention to what people say about heat management.

 

All done!

I used a jack not only to support the sway bar, but also to support the skid plate during reassembly. Here are my overall observations about the process:

• The Apex video covered everything well. There were no surprises.
• I should have removed the air dam and skid plate from the start. It made reassembly much easier.
  
• At the initial mounting, I was dubious about the fit, but it improved considerably as the bolts snugged up. I did use a hammer to position them better.
• 70 ft-lb on the 19mm is a fair amount of torque. I'm glad I used a torque wrench because I wouldn't have pushed it that hard if I were guesstimating. Maybe if I pushed that hard on a regular basis my guess would be better.
• If I had to do it again, on the ground without power tools, I think it would take 40 minutes to disassemble and an hour to reassemble. Grinding and painting (2x primer + 2x finish) added 1 1/2 hours + drying overnight.

 

Thanks for posting. Now I don't have to. Did the same a couple of days ago.

 

Got the OTT tune

 

Looks great.
I'm seriously considering making my front end look very similar to your original instead of going with the pro grill. Two questions:
What raptor lights did you use and how did you mount them?
Did you use paint or black vinyl for the black-out of the middle bar and valance?

 

like “Stoney Ranger”
Did mine yesterday, n for the first time in awhile, just in general, BLOWN TF AWAY!

But I was gonna mention an issue I had…
(Map) I’ve seen the reflector removed/or not
Didn’t want to if it didn’t need to be(just in case)
When I used the tape method to twist n pull out bulbs, one of the housings dismounted from circuit board making it impossible to plug in Meso connector feed
Had to peel back reflector a lil to fix(rotate housing back to locked)

Sooooo…anyone else doing this try to just pull the bulb out

 

I’m also looking to get ceramic tint and debating if I should do just the 2 front windows or everything

 

I did keep it off. As far as wind noise, that's a negative on wind noise. The old skid plate and air dam are gonna go in storage "just in case.

OAN:

Started the process late this afternoon putting replacing the OEM fangs by the foglights with some sequential turn light fang lights. For anyone who has the TSS sensor on your 4Runner, and decide to do this, there are TWO bolts anchoring the rest of the grille. You still unplug the sensor, but DO NOT forget those bolts. I had everything else undone except those 2 bolts. Was driving me crazy trying to figure out why the bumper was still "latched on."

Front bumper removal:


Bolt location:



Old fangs:




New fang lights:




I finish up tomorrow (Sunday, May 14) after Mother's Day lunch and such activities.

 

That's how it goes for me - there's always another bolt I didn't know about.

 

Yup I have the ceramic on my front windows at least with the uv protection. I had them match the shad as best they could.

If I lived down south where it’s warm and always sunny I would probably do the entire vehicle like you guys.

 

I had the windshield 'tinted' in clear specifically for the additional heat/UV rejection.