Excited About Wife's New 4Runner

[Delta]

Didn't pin-stripes die off in the 90s? Who still wants those on a car?

I just received a roll of pinstripe for my 2021 Tacoma...

I'm an old soul apparently...

 

[LouC]

I agree. Whatever the spec is, the dealer grossly over-tightened it. I replaced with aluminum just to avoid any potential cracks or failures from the abuse, and because aluminum was available for the Tundra engine.

Composite isn’t, in itself, a bad design choice. I put new composite housings on my both of my 2002 Volvos in 2007, when I bought them. Oil change goons had used pump pliers on them and gouged them up.

Those composite filter housings look great over 14 years, and roughly 25 oil changes, later. Torqued to spec with a proper tool, composite housings work great. But they can be damaged by goons with a wrench.

The key with those composite plastic housings is to lube the threads and the o ring, and look carefully at how the o ring makes the seal. On our '17 Wrangler with the Pentastar, the filter cap tightens till there is no gap between the housing and the cap, the o ring is between the sides of the cap and the inside of the housing, it does not have to be compressed like a regular style metal filter to make the seal. Just get it seated and snug, is all. Some people tighten these as if they were a traditional oil filter, but the way they seal is different.

 

[AutoMechanic]

The key with those composite plastic housings is to lube the threads and the o ring, and look carefully at how the o ring makes the seal. On our '17 Wrangler with the Pentastar, the filter cap tightens till there is no gap between the housing and the cap, the o ring is between the sides of the cap and the inside of the housing, it does not have to be compressed like a regular style metal filter to make the seal. Just get it seated and snug, is all. Some people tighten these as if they were a traditional oil filter, but the way they seal is different.

Most of the time the breakage is because someone tightened it down too tight. On Toyota it is 18ft pounds or 25NM and the threads stay dry if you put something on the threads my guess is it would need to be less. I always advise to replace with metal. I myself have cracked my fair share of them so that way there is guaranteed to be no issues. Also people use the wrong tools on them all the time too causing breakage.

 

[LouC]

On the Chrysler ones its the same spec. 18 ft lbs but if you choke up on the ratchet you will feel when its seated and won't overtighten it. With delicate stuff I always use a short 3/8ths ratchet for tightening. If you crack one of these it's a big job because the oil filter housing is part of the oil cooler assembly and that can't be changed without removing both the lower and upper intake manifolds on the Pentastar.

 

[AutoMechanic]

On the Chrysler ones its the same spec. 18 ft lbs but if you choke up on the ratchet you will feel when its seated and won't overtighten it. With delicate stuff I always use a short 3/8ths ratchet for tightening. If you crack one of these it's a big job because the oil filter housing is part of the oil cooler assembly and that can't be changed without removing both the lower and upper intake manifolds on the Pentastar.

Yes I have heard about those. Definitely not simple like most.

 

[HM12460]

I believe you are making a wise choice.

 

[Zee09]

TL Did R.
Congratulations

 

[john_pifer]

TL Did R.
Congratulations

Thanks bud! We’ve had a lot of fun driving the 4Runner around town, and on a couple of road trips to Memphis and N. IN.

And, of course, I got to drive it the 700 miles back from Arlington, TX., which was fun!

Installed a 4K front/1080 rear 2-channel dash cam setup (Viofo 129 ProDuo), and planning its first oil change next weekend after it hits 3000 miles.

Eventually plan on a set of aftermarket wheels, and some new Toyo Open Country AT3 all-terrain tires for it.

Will also eventually need a good rooftop cargo carrier, and probably also a hitch-mount cargo rack, when we have another kid, and have, potentially, 2 child safety seats in the middle row.

Might eventually even upgrade the stock suspension, since there are SO many aftermarket options! But probably won’t do that until the stock suspenders wear out, which won’t be for quite a while.

 

[dblshock]

I'd dial back the A/T tires, Toyo makes the Open Country HT/2 (sweet) which makes alot more sense on your set-up.

 

[john_pifer]

I'd dial back the A/T tires, Toyo makes the Open Country HT/2 (sweet) which makes alot more sense on your set-up.

Believe me, I agree with you.

I have always run Michelin LTX M/S-II (and, recently, since they changed the name, the LTX Defender M/S-II), on my 2007 Tacoma PreRunner (it’s 2WD), since it’s my DD, and almost exclusively on pavement.

This is a highway-biased, P-rated, truck/SUV tire, and it’s very good in rain. Very quiet. 70K warranty. Decent in snow, though it doesn’t carry 3PMSF badge.

Something like that would definitely be the practical choice for a 2WD 4Runner. But not every vehicle choice has to be the practical or logical choice, right?

The 4Runner is the wife’s, and, even though its primary duty will be as her DD, and won’t see much, if any, off-road, she likes the look of the beefy, gnarly, A/T tires.

Ive explained to her that there she will sacrifice some of the quiet and smooth ride of the OEM Bridgestone Dueler H/T’s, and she’s willing to make that sacrifice.

One of the big reasons we picked the Toyo Open Country AT3 is the fact that they’re very light in comparison with the OEM highway tires. They’re within a pound of the OEM tires. And the wheels are pretty close, too.

It will look pretty sweet! And she’ll definitely be able to hop some curbs at Kroger and flex on some folks down at Target, right?

Here are the wheels we’ve picked out. We’ll be going with the bronze.

 

[dblshock]

I'd dial back the A/T tires, Toyo makes the Open Country HT/2 (sweet) which makes alot more sense on your set-up.

Have these tires on Lexus with refurbished stock chrome rims and 20mm spacers, small 3/4" spacers give that subtle
edge to an otherwise stock appearance...

I'd recommend stock rims but if any change in rims be to a Toyota TRD brand specific to your year, spacers and new alignment if you wish but end it there IMO.

 

[harrydog]

I had a first generation 4runner - 1987. Had it for 5 years, beat the heck out of it and never had anything break or any other issues. I loved it. Great vehicle for it's intended purpose. Held it's value well and I sold it for a very good price too.
In recent years I've thought about getting another one but two things hold me back. The handling leaves much to be desired. That's just the nature of things that have a primary design goal of being a rugged off-road vehicle. But the main reason I haven't bought one is that they don't have particularly good crash test ratings. Take a look at the small overlap IIHS pics.
For a vehicle that won't ever be used off road (2wd) and is your wife's DD it seems like a very odd choice.
When the redesign comes out in 2 years I hope they keep the body on frame architecture while improving the on road dynamics and the crash protection.

 

[john_pifer]

I had a first generation 4runner - 1987. Had it for 5 years, beat the heck out of it and never had anything break or any other issues. I loved it. Great vehicle for it's intended purpose. Held it's value well and I sold it for a very good price too.
In recent years I've thought about getting another one but two things hold me back. The handling leaves much to be desired. That's just the nature of things that have a primary design goal of being a rugged off-road vehicle. But the main reason I haven't bought one is that they don't have particularly good crash test ratings. Take a look at the small overlap IIHS pics.
For a vehicle that won't ever be used off road (2wd) and is your wife's DD it seems like a very odd choice.
When the redesign comes out in 2 years I hope they keep the body on frame architecture while improving the on road dynamics and the crash protection.

Thanks for the comments.

I watched the IIHS video of small frontal overlap crash testing of a modern-gen 4Runner. It wasn't pretty, but I also watched a video of a Highlander, which got a "good" rating from them, and it was ugly as well. Running a vehicle into a fixed concrete and steel immovable barrier at speed is just not going to be a good result with any car, truck, SUV, or van, and is not all that representative of real-world situations anyway, in my opinion. A head-on collision, say, if someone crosses the centerline on a 2-lane highway, is going to suck, bad, for both parties, in any situation.

As for the 4Runner's crash worthiness, I'd refer you to the recent pileup due to ice in Ft. Worth, in which at least 2 4Runners (and, incidentally, an FJ Cruiser), were badly crunched, and their owners survived. Trust me, they're solid vehicles. In my opinion, the body-on-frame (BOF) construction makes them more crash-worthy, and it's one of the reasons we wanted a BOF vehicle.

As far as handling, we're very happy with the handling, for what it is (and, having owned a WRX, and having spent a lot of seat time on high-performance motorcycles, I know what good handling is). It's RWD, which is another reason we wanted this over something like a Highlander. Neither my wife nor I care for the handling of FWD crossover-type vehicles. They just don't have good steering feel, or the confidence I like when hustling a vehicle around a curve.

We wanted something that would last 15-20 years, as we tend to buy vehicles and then keep them for a long time, and, having owned a Tacoma with this powertrain for almost 14 years now (236,000+ miles) with very few problems, I knew the 4Runner was one vehicle that was capable of doing this. Plus, I'm familiar with all the basic maintenance, having done it all myself on the Tacoma.

It also has a lot of interior room, and, since we got one with a 3rd row, we'll have 7-seat capacity when needed (we just had our first kid, and would like to have more).

We also like the cargo-carrying capacity it offers with the roof rack (we plan to get a rooftop cargo carrier (open to suggestions on what model), and 2" hitch receiver that allows us to tow up to 5000 lbs, or use a hitch-mount cargo carrier, or bicycle rack.

We didn't feel we needed 4WD because we don't go off-roading and we don't get a lot of snow here (funny enough, we just had our biggest snow event in 5 years or more - about 8-10", and it shut EVERYTHING down!). Not having 4WD means, yeah, we won't be going rock-crawling or schlepping our nice new 4Runner through deep mud holes and severely rutted-out trails. It doesn't, however, mean that we can't explore mild-to-moderate gravel or dirt fire roads in the mountains from time to time while camping, etc, which, we do plan to do.

We also appreciate the bump in fuel economy and better acceleration we get by not lugging around the extra 275 lbs that's added by the 4WD hardware. And then there's the simpler maintenance...

 

[harrydog]

I didn't mean to impugn your decision making, and your explanation makes sense. It's a great vehicle and one of the very few with all of those attributes. But I still disagree somewhat regarding the crash worthiness. There are always anecdotal examples to support any position and I'm not saying the 4Runner is a death trap - just not as safe as some more modern designs.
IIHS crash testing uses real world crash data to help them design their tests, hence the moderate overlap and later the small overlap test. In fact they are supposed to have a new test for 2022 based on their ongoing research. Any high speed crash is going to be a mess but some vehicles are going to protect the occupant better than others. I am certain that the next generation 4Runner will be significantly improved in that area.

 

[john_pifer]

I didn't mean to impugn your decision making, and your explanation makes sense. It's a great vehicle and one of the very few with all of those attributes. But I still disagree somewhat regarding the crash worthiness. There are always anecdotal examples to support any position and I'm not saying the 4Runner is a death trap - just not as safe as some more modern designs.
IIHS crash testing uses real world crash data to help them design their tests, hence the moderate overlap and later the small overlap test. In fact they are supposed to have a new test for 2022 based on their ongoing research. Any high speed crash is going to be a mess but some vehicles are going to protect the occupant better than others. I am certain that the next generation 4Runner will be significantly improved in that area.

That would be great.

It will be interesting to see what direction Toyota goes with the next-gen 4Runner.

 

[wildcatgoal]

It will look pretty sweet! And she’ll definitely be able to hop some curbs at Kroger and flex on some folks down at Target, right?

With my Tahoe, I hop curbs and anything that isn't obviously going to crunch up my truck and being able to do so has probably saved me a year of time. Stuck behind someone who won't inch up a little to let me turn right? No problem. Major potholes that everyone is avoiding with their cars? Got it. Road flooded out thanks to the local city being unwilling to do their m'fing jobs and keep sewer drains clear of debris? Don't worry. Road closed due to 5,000 car pile up and the only way off is over a curb and into the muddy median off-roading a 1/4 mile to the prior exit? Done and done. Need to make a U-turn on a rural highway because you just realized that Wendy's pretzel burger you ate a while ago is about to shoot out your backside with rocket like force and you just passed the only building that likely has clean public restrooms but there's nowhere to make a U-turn unless you drive through a huge grass and dirt center median with a steap incline down and up? Made it. And I washed my hands.