3rd gen (1997) 4Runner

[Stelth]

My son wants to give me his 1997 4Runner. I offered to buy it, but he wants to give it to me, so OK. It's been sitting in his driveway for about a year, during which time it's been started once or twice. I'm going today to do an overall evaluation, and see what needs to be done before I start driving it regularly. It's an SR5 with the 5VZ-E engine, two wheel drive. I'm in Southern California, temps at my house go from slightly below freezing (enough to get occasional frost in the winter) to about 105 F (during Santa Ana conditions), so not too extreme.

Owners manual says 10w-30, Dexron II or III in the tranny, and 90w GL-5 gear oil in the differential. I don't think this one has the pushbutton locking diff, I'll check today. It also says ethylene glycol antifreeze, should I use the green universal stuff?

So. What fluids do you guys recommend? If the engine is dirty, I figured I would run Valvoline S&P to clean it up, otherwise maybe Supertech Synthetic unless something else is significantly better. I'd like to use a good transmission fluid, I was thinking Valvoline Synthetic or Mobil 1. Spark plugs? Just use the recommended Densos?

I'm hoping to get the maintenance records, my son says the previous owner was pretty meticulous, and then I can see what needs to happen.

Also, how often does this engine need a timing belt? I'm hoping there is a record of the last replacement.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Look for a label stating TB service, if you don't have receipts. Good luck.

 

[supton]

Should be Toyota red coolant for this vintage. If doing the TB I'd change to that, if it was mine and it didn't have red in it. Take a look and see what color the coolant is.

Agreed with Jeff, look to see if they applied a TB sticker to the cover. Or have it noted in the log (if you get those, eventually).

I'd run regular ST in it, not think twice. Maxlife for ATF, seems most are fine with that in Aisin transmissions of this vintage. I'd go Denso for plugs, why mess around. Based on age, do a brake flush too, maybe think about doing rubber brake hoses.

 

[02SE]

How many miles? The 5VZ-FE is a very durable engine, and can run for hundreds of thousands of miles with just regular maintenance.

Since it's 2wd, it will not have the E-locker rear diff. Only 4wd 4Runners could be optioned with that. Although someone could retrofit a rear axle with the E-locker into your 2wd, I've never heard of anyone bothering to do that on the 4Runner forums. I used Mobil 1 products in the entire drivetrain for the first 10 years, then Redline products from then on. Any decent oil is fine.

The 5VZ-FE came with Denso sparkplugs in one cylinder bank, and NGK in the other. Using all Denso is fine, as is using all NGK. The ignition system is a waste-spark system, so each sparkplug will fire twice as often as a regular ignition system. So sparkplugs wear twice as fast. With that in mind, Toyota recommends dual-electrode sparkplugs. I used single electrode NGK Iridium plugs. I would suggest buying from a brick and mortar legitimate seller, as opposed to say Ebay, where you'd stand a good chance of getting counterfeit plugs.

As for coolant, I used Prestone AMAM in my 4Runner from the early 2000's until I sold it. No problems.

The Aisin A340 transmission isn't picky. Any decent Dexron ATF is fine.

Any decent Timing belt (OEM, Aisin T-belt kit, etc.) will come with a sticker to be placed on the Timing belt cover, with the date and mileage of the change.

Toyota recommends every 90k for t-belt replacement. However the most mileage I saw on a 5VZ-FE T-belt, was around 350k on a T-100 that had been used hard, but was only three years old. I saw it for water pump seepage, so just replaced it all. If you do replace the T-belt, I'd suggest a new OEM crankshaft pulley bolt, and torque it to 217 ft-lb. Initially the crankshaft pulley bolt torque was speced at 184 ft-lb. Toyota revised that to 217 ft-lb, along with the strong suggestion to use a new OEM crank pulley bolt.

One thing I would suggest inspecting closely, and replacing preemptively, are the lower ball joints. They are mounted in tension and can feel fine until they suddenly fail with bad consequences. I would suggest legitimate OEM ONLY on those. But from an actual Toyota dealer, as there are lots of counterfeit parts out there. Aftermarket LBJ's former mechanic colleagues of mine have seen, are all crap. So OEM ONLY on those.


For the record I owned a '97 4wd, SR5, V6, 5-speed, E-locker equipped 4Runner for 22+ years. I'd still have it if some guy at a gas station who knew what it was, hadn't offered a stupid amount of money to buy it.

 

[Donald]

Take a good look at the entire frame before you do anything. It says you are in Calif. Where has the vehicle lived?

 

[Andyd95]

I have an 02 with 295k on it
5W30 M1
Take your pick of Asian red coolant - I use Pentofrost
Delco Dex 3 ATF
Denso dual electrode however the NGKs are fine too.

Replace radiator with a Denso and lower ball joints with OE Toyota. Honestly I’d do that before a timing belt - it’s not interference.

 

[Stelth]

Thanks, guys! Son lives about 80 miles from me, went up and looked today. Engine purrs like a kitten, AC works great, haven't driven it yet. My son is (hopefully) going to try to smog it now that I've pumped up the tires and so on, and we can move to the next step.

Total unit mileage is about 360,000 miles. He says the engine was rebuilt or replaced in the high 200k range. I hope he can find the paperwork. Timing belt has about 50,000 miles on it, so I'm not worried about that at this point.

As far as I know, this is a SoCal vehicle. I was under it today, but didn't examine the frame. I was looking at, actually, not very much because there's a skid plate there. Looks like it will need to come off to change the filter.

Paint isn't great, but that can wait. I'll probably change the lower ball joints before I take possession of it.

 

[D60]

2Runner

 

[JZiggy]

If you look up Timmy the Toolman on YT he has an excellent and fairly exhaustive video series all about 3rd gen 4Runner repair. Great source for some of the basics you'll encounter with a new-to-you vehicle: transmission fluid change, timing belt, radiator replacement, brakes, etc.

 

[Stelth]

If you look up Timmy the Toolman on YT he has an excellent and fairly exhaustive video series all about 3rd gen 4Runner repair. Great source for some of the basics you'll encounter with a new-to-you vehicle: transmission fluid change, timing belt, radiator replacement, brakes, etc.

Thanks! I’ll check him out.

 

[lbhsbz]

02SE is spot on with everything.

 

[D60]

I've posted previously about a '96 I service w 526k freedom units on the original engine. They've owned since new. They still drive it a couple hundred miles every weekend.

I ran down a short in the liftgate that kept blowing the wiper fuse. Not at the accordion boot up top but deep in the gate itself under rear window and far left side.