Excited About Wife's New 4Runner

Congrats.

I had a '97 I bought new and owned for 22 years. The only repair was a hydraulic clutch hose. $20.00 or so and a bit of my time to replace was it. I sold it last year for waaaaaaaaay above high book.

I bought a TRD ORP to replace it. Only 1300 miles so far, but I don't plan to sell it anytime soon.

I recently did it's first oil change myself. I didn't think it was a problem at all. The '97 had skidplates, the new one has skidplates. The canister filter just means it's easy to inspect the filter element, without having to cut open a filter. I would suggest getting a tool to remove the canister cap, like the "MotivX model MX2320" available on Amazon. IF you do use the 2 year/25k "Free maintenance" I would suggest removing the skidplates yourself beforehand, as there is a good chance that dealer lube techs will strip fasteners for the skidplates.

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02SE, I’ve enjoyed reading your posts about your T4Rs and your experience as a Toyota dealership tech at one time.

Thats a beautiful TRD ORP! We’re getting the gray, but that blue was the wife’s 2nd choice.

Thanks for the advice about the oil changes. I’ll be doing all the routine maintenance myself. It won’t darken the garage door entrance of a dealership service dept. if I can help it!

I think I’ll take your suggestion and order one of those tools
 
Yes, I was very disappointed, when I opened the hood of the forerunner in the showroom of the dealership, and did not see the remote mounted oil filter boss, like my taco has.

But, I guess it is better to have less waste.



Haha, thank you sir!
You are definitely one of the few left that still open the hood lol. When I worked at the dealership the salesman told me nobody looks under the hood anymore unless they are really old school and then when they see plastic they start ranting lol 😂. I too look under the hood when buying a vehicle and everyone looks at me like I’m strange.
 
You are definitely one of the few left that still open the hood lol. When I worked at the dealership the salesman told me nobody looks under the hood anymore unless they are really old school and then when they see plastic they start ranting lol 😂. I too look under the hood when buying a vehicle and everyone looks at me like I’m strange.
Strangely, the oil fill cap had been left off of it. Luckily no oil had come out. I pointed it out to one of the salesmen.

As far as my truck goes, I’ve found all the servicing to be ridiculously easy. It’s another reason we Chose the T4R. Much of the hardware is the same.

I can tell you that I am looking forward to not having to deal with drum brakes on this!
 
Strangely, the oil fill cap had been left off of it. Luckily no oil had come out. I pointed it out to one of the salesmen.

As far as my truck goes, I’ve found all the servicing to be ridiculously easy. It’s another reason we Chose the T4R. Much of the hardware is the same.

I can tell you that I am looking forward to not having to deal with drum brakes on this!
LOL. Wow oil cap gone from a new car? And yeah drum brakes can be tricky 5 out of the 7 cars I own have drums and one of them has drums all the way around.
 
Our much-loved 1990 4 Runner. Bought in 1995 from a friend. Every service record since new. The Tundra was a replacement for this truck. It’s been 4 wheeling in Colorado, Vermont, the Outer Banks and the woods of PA. Crossed the country a couple of times. Many epic ski and camping trips. All three of my kids learned to drive in the 4 Runner.

Shown here in the summer of 2016, the day I cleaned it up and gave it to a friend‘s kid as his first car. Roughly 280,000 miles as shown. It’s since changed hands, and is still on the road.
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LOL. Wow oil cap gone from a new car? And yeah drum brakes can be tricky 5 out of the 7 cars I own have drums and one of them has drums all the way around.
They aren’t bad, really. This Tacoma is the first vehicle I’ve owned that had them. I can say one thing - the shoes don’t need replaced often. I think my Taco had 180,000 miles or more before they needed changed!

I just like discs so much better, not only for performance, but for ease of maintenance.
 
Our much-loved 1990 4 Runner. Bought in 1995 from a friend. Every service record since new. The Tundra was a replacement for this truck. It’s been 4 wheeling in Colorado, Vermont, the Outer Banks and the woods of PA. Crossed the country a couple of times. Many epic ski and camping trips. All three of my kids learned to drive in the 4 Runner.

Shown here in the summer of 2016, the day I cleaned it up and gave it to a friend‘s kid as his first car. Roughly 280,000 miles as shown. It’s since changed hands, and is still on the road.
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Excellent photo - the coloured truck on the monochrome background is striking.
 
You are definitely one of the few left that still open the hood lol. When I worked at the dealership the salesman told me nobody looks under the hood anymore unless they are really old school and then when they see plastic they start ranting lol 😂. I too look under the hood when buying a vehicle and everyone looks at me like I’m strange.
One of my friends, years ago, was a real "car guy" but was not at all interested in the mechanical side of things. We would look at vehicles, and he would actually get mad at me for pointing out how easy or hard it would be to change oil, air filter, coolant, water pump, alternator, belts, etc.

Haven't seen him in some years. Good guy, but what a weird thing to get mad about.
 
One of my friends, years ago, was a real "car guy" but was not at all interested in the mechanical side of things. We would look at vehicles, and he would actually get mad at me for pointing out how easy or hard it would be to change oil, air filter, coolant, water pump, alternator, belts, etc.

Haven't seen him in some years. Good guy, but what a weird thing to get mad about.
LOL. I’m the exact opposite. To me that isn’t being a car guy lol
 
Our much-loved 1990 4 Runner. Bought in 1995 from a friend. Every service record since new. The Tundra was a replacement for this truck. It’s been 4 wheeling in Colorado, Vermont, the Outer Banks and the woods of PA. Crossed the country a couple of times. Many epic ski and camping trips. All three of my kids learned to drive in the 4 Runner.

Shown here in the summer of 2016, the day I cleaned it up and gave it to a friend‘s kid as his first car. Roughly 280,000 miles as shown. It’s since changed hands, and is still on the road.
View attachment 38594
Astro, I guess this is the first time I’ve seen you post about your own T4R (Though I recently read your commentary in another thread about 4Runners).

That is my favorite body style T4R. And that’s a really cool color, too!

What did they call that color?
 
02SE, I’ve enjoyed reading your posts about your T4Rs and your experience as a Toyota dealership tech at one time.

Thats a beautiful TRD ORP! We’re getting the gray, but that blue was the wife’s 2nd choice.

Thanks for the advice about the oil changes. I’ll be doing all the routine maintenance myself. It won’t darken the garage door entrance of a dealership service dept. if I can help it!

I think I’ll take your suggestion and order one of those tools
I added a pic of the '97 to my first post. It was a great truck. I'd still have it if I hadn't been offered too much money to ignore.

Among the immediate family, we have the color range pretty well covered.

Sister has a Magnetic Grey Limited
Nephew has a Silver TRD OR
Nieces husband has a Super White TRD ORP
Another Nieces husband has a Barcelona Red TRD ORP
 
You should get many years of reliable service from your new 4Runner. Congrats.

As for the new things like radar cruise control, it’s the only way to go in my opinion. Don’t fear technology.
 
Regarding the skid plates underneath - (if the 2wd has them)

Put antiseize on the bolts or go more permanent and swap all of them out for proper machine screws. I believe the factory skid plate bolts are all self tapping coarse threaded, and sooner or later you'll try threading one in and it'll bind up and then be impossible to remove.

There's an article here: https://www.top4runners.com/ja/2007/skidbolts.html
 
It's actually a pretty common misconception that the 4Runner and Tacoma are similar!

They're built in different countries.
Different engines (4.0 vs 3.5)
The 4Runner has bigger brakes like the GX, the Tacoma has smaller brakes and rear drums.

Most importantly.. the 4Runner shares a higher quality fully boxed frame with the GX460. The tacoma has a cheaper style C-channel frame, it's pretty common for them to get bent during a rear end accident.
 
You'll enjoy the 4Runner. Just be certain of your 2wd choice since it may be more difficult to resell later.

Regarding the skid plates underneath - (if the 2wd has them)

Put antiseize on the bolts or go more permanent and swap all of them out for proper machine screws. I believe the factory skid plate bolts are all self tapping coarse threaded, and sooner or later you'll try threading one in and it'll bind up and then be impossible to remove.

There's an article here: https://www.top4runners.com/ja/2007/skidbolts.html
The skid plate bolts are not very problematic in my area, but I guess it depends on the climate. The main issue with the design is because techs/owners overtighten the bolts and/or cross thread them during install.
 
LOL. I’m the exact opposite. To me that isn’t being a car guy lol
This is one of those guys who reads lots of car magazines, watches TV shows about cars, likes going to the local show 'n' shines, likes going to the drag races, and owns maybe a Fuller multi-driver and an adjustable wrench, takes the car to the dealer for service and repairs, and doesn't know the lefty-loosey/righty-tighty rule.

It's unlikely he'll show up on BITOG and recognize this description of himself. :unsure:

Good guy, just not interested in wrenching.
 
They aren’t bad, really. This Tacoma is the first vehicle I’ve owned that had them. I can say one thing - the shoes don’t need replaced often. I think my Taco had 180,000 miles or more before they needed changed!

I just like discs so much better, not only for performance, but for ease of maintenance.
Except drums lasts like 3 times a long. My 2005 Silverado has had one rear drum brake job done in 202k miles. Our 2010 Tacoma in the work fleet has original rear drum brakes at 125k. Just one set of front brakes. They're definitely a pain to do but the length of service intervals makes up for it.
 
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