Some help with repairs and oil advice...

I got my 98 tacoma 2.7l 4wd about 6 months ago and I need to do some minor repairs. This is my first vehicle and I want to do as much of this myself as possible. I would appreciate some advice on how to go about doing this.

1# I need to replace the clear coat on the hood. I'm wondering if I should remove the hood altogether or just tape it off for clear coating.

2# The interior door handle on the passenger side doesn't retract properly. IE: It sticks out a about a 30 degree angle and it should be flat when your not pulling on it. Not sure if I need to disassemble the door to fix this. Either way, what part/s should I be getting to fix this? Advise?

3# The dome light flickers if you push on the inside of the ceiling just behind it, or if you play around with the switch. I think this is just a worn out switch, possibly something I can fix with a pair of pliers once I disassemble the dome light. It could be a short in the dome light wiring though, anyway I can tell for sure before I take the dome light apart?

4# The AC button is stuck down. Is there anyway to replace this without disassembling the dash?
EDIT: Does anybody know what the part number for this button is? It's driving me crazy trying to find it...

4b# If I do have to disassemble the dash to replace the button I want to pull the instrument cluster too and replace the bulbs. Anybody know how many bulbs and what size they are? Also, how about replacing the clock? I'd prefer the clock to match the ice white bulbs I want to install.
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5# I'm planning on getting a 5th alloy wheel for the spare, does anybody know if the alloy wheels for the 98 will fit properly on mount for the spare? It looks like I've got enough clearance for the tires I'm using, 31x10.5 on a 15" wheel, just not sure if the alloy wheel will fit the center mount there. I'm using this tire size both because it's what the previous owner had on there and because the larger tires help so much when your driving through deep snow. Stupid random Colorado blizzards...

6# I've got a fairly hard vibration at specific speeds, 45-55. I've also noticed that I need to keep the wheel tilted about 3 degrees to the left to keep the truck going straight. I was looking around for a fix and was wondering if this was worth a try. http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/te...-vibration-fix-write-up-may-work-you-too.html

7# This truck's got 218k miles on it. I was thinking about switching to a fully synthetic oil, but I've heard you can cause problems with your engine seals with high mileage engines. Thoughts?

Quite probably some of these are stupid questions, feel free to tell me so.

 

Alright, I've been looking for the stupid ac button online for like 3 hours now. Any suggestions on how to locate a replacement so I can fix the ac button on my dash?

 

The AC button is square right? It should come out easily. You can use a small flat head to pry it.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyo...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item2eac5578e7

 

Your a lifesaver, I was ready to tear my hair out looking for this thing.

 

#1 I would remove my hood to re clear coat.
#2 Mines like that only on the driver side instead Not sure on how to fix. I think its just a broken spring. Never really bothered me.
#3 If it's a short then it should blow the fuses. It might be an old switch. Mine comes on if i got it on a "sweet spot".
#4 http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1s...o-has-changed-color-their-cluster-lights.html Some good info there I did an LED swap into mine.
#5 I'm sure the Alloy spare will fir there. Just check the Bore size on the hub.
#6 Try getting an alignment yet?
#7 Not sure on this I'm only at 150000, I switched to Synthetic at 124000.

#8 WELCOME TO TW!

 

Thanks Out of curiosity, can you dim your led dash lights?

 

yes you can.

 

Dude..... YOU need to get a good repair manual , I mean, your asking all the right questions for the most part . I don't know how many instrumentation bulbs it takes or what part no#. , lol, c'mon now !!

As for the door handle sticking out , maybe someone has taken the door panel off & didn't align correctly when pushing those stupid,plastic "guaranteed to fuckin' break" little tension pins back into the metal door frame & inner panel, but if it isn't in sych with the door handle mechanism (anyone who's taken a Toyota door handle & hardware off knows what a motherfucker it can be, it goes 1 of 2 ways.... Either a piece of cake or a mind numbing experience in futility trying to get it to its "Factory original location" Same with the A/C button, theres a square tension clip on the back of it that holds itself & the button tight to the plastic its protruding thru. If the button is loose to the touch , that tension clip is done & almost no amount of bending & tweeking the clip with regain its normal shape & tension rate, now if the button IS tight , then the depress button( the one you push) has either taken out the return spring inside, or the plunger has broken or somehow its out of alignment (probably broke) , I don't know the part no# for that one either haha If you go synthetic, stay synthetic in regards to engine lubrication, I've heard from several guys I know that really know their shit & they all seem to agree that starting synthetic oils in high mileage motors isn't the problem, problem starts when its not consistent & the owner doesn't pick 1 brand ( for example if you start with Mobile1 Synthetic 5W-30W, that's what you have to stick with, for the rest of the life of the engine if you want it to last, something to do with those same synthetic properties reacting to each other ( brand A & you switch to brand B ) even residuals left in engine when changing oil......Maybe it gets acidic & eats at the metal its supossed to protect ..

Jezzuuss, ya wore me out !!! j/k

 

as for the hood just take it off it will save time as far as i know if the clear is peeling or delaminating the only way to properly fix is to sand the clear off the entire panel not just where its peeling

 

I've actually got the chilton for my truck, but it's for multiple years and is kinda sketchy when it comes to the instrument cluster and other minor controls like the ac button.

Hmm, good to know.

After I pulled the ac button out the tension clip was entirely missing and it looks like something inside the housing was broken off. Somebody had wrapped electrical tape around edge of the button so it wouldn't fall out. I ordered a new button and housing.

It seems like I had heard something along those lines before. I think the way around it I heard proposed was to use an intermediate organic oil without additives to kind of flush the incompatable additives out before switching to a new synthetic. That's a fairly hazey memory though so I could be totally off.

The issue I had heard of with high mileage engines was that once the cleaning agents in a synthetic had really done there job the smaller size of the synthetic oil molecules would allow them to pass between the engine seals. Most of the info I was looking at seemed to indicate this was an engine specific problem though, owing to the variance in how tight the seals in different engines are. So, the issue wasn't exactly with high mileage engines. More to do with the wear, and manufacturing tolerances of the engine.

I'm still not sure how many bulbs I've got in the instrument cluster, but apparently the upward # is 6 for the cluster, and 2 seems to be pretty standard for the ac panel backlight. I still ordered 3 for the ac panel just in case. I ordered led bulbs from superbrightleds.com as I was very pleased with the replacement dome light I bought from them a couple weeks ago. I'm also planning on taping off the transparent sections of the cluster panel and painting the back side of it with a high reflectivity paint. That should help more of the light refract to the actual display portions of the panel.

I don't really want to disassemble the dash twice, it looks moderately annoying to do. That's why I wanted to know how many bulbs I would need. A variance of 4-6 for the cluster is a small enough one that I can just order 6 bulbs for the cluster, same with the ac panel bulbs. Usually 2, but at least 1 person reported needing 3.

The issue with the dome light flickering wasn't specific to the leds. Same issue with original incandescent bulb, it just makes more of a difference with the led's.

The clear coat wasn't so much pealing as totally worn off. Your right though, the whole panel needed to be re-coated.

My truck had one of those plastic wind guards the previous owner put on. When I pulled that off prior to refreshing the clear coat, I found some fairly nasty damage to the paint there. Water and dirt collected behind the guard. I also found more actual damage to the paint on the hood then I was really expecting. I hadn't taken a really detailed look at the hood before.

What I decided to do was sand down the damaged edge under the wind guard and paint a strip along the front of the hood black. I also painted a strip on either side of the hood above the wheel wells to cover more damage. I used the bend in the hood as a guide for these. So, some painters tape, paper, sand paper, black spray paint, and 2 cans of clear coat later I have a moderately crappy custom paint job on my hood. I actually like it better then the factory paint on the hood, but I'll need to pull the hood off and put another layer,or two, of clear coat on later.

Thanks for the advice/tips/etc everbody!

 

synthetic, it may be a little more expensive but i like it for the peace of mind and protection

 

Here's what the hood paint looks like if anybody is interested.

 

I just finished replacing my dash lights with leds. I used wled-xhp5's in white for the instrument cluster. It took 4 bulbs. I also used 2 74-xhp3 bulbs for the ac panel lights, also in white. Both of these are from www.superbrightleds.com

I was going to paint the back of the instrument panel with a high reflectivity silver paint, but I found that wasn't necessary. They are plenty bright the way they are, and no hot spots. The dimmer knob doesn't actually dim these bulbs though, which could be an issue for some people.

The difusion behind the ac panel is actually better with the led lights then it was with the stock incandescent bulbs. It still has hotspots though, so I will be painting the back of that panel with reflective silver paint. That should help with the spottiness. I hope...

Here's a picture of the instrument cluster with new lights. I tried to take some of the ac panel too, but my camera went wonky and wouldn't take any.

 

Thanks

 

For oil I use Mobil 1 Extended Performance (synthetic). Mobil 1 guarantees that you that the oil will perform well for 15,000 miles...meaning you do not have to change your oil but every 15,000 miles. Now even though they tell you that, I don't let mine go that long between oil changes...I may go up to 10,000 but they guarantee it will protect your engine. It will cost you around $7 a quart....Cha-Ching!