What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

I use the weathertech as well , running the heater on high to the floor helps too

 

Are you getting it installed by the same place? I had a heavy duty clutch that got installed backward by some shop and was toast in a matter of days.

Also keep in mind it's especially important with heavy clutches that they get broken in properly (easy driving for the 1st 500 miles or so) or else they do fall prematurely.

 

@BartMaster1234 etc... with all that recent talk about high flow filters. Proof of why I preach that high flow filters are crap for offroading, only good for the street, & is why I use a stock replacement filter that looks to have the most restrictive element for the dirt. Front side covered in dirt, backside clean.

I usually check the MAF every year or so but it's been years since I checked it last. Been a number of times I've been offroading with my K&N drop in cause I forgot to swap it out or couldn't due to spur of the moment trips. See, no oil & I just cleaned/reoiled my K&N a week ago.

Just snapped a pic cause I wanted to check the MAF. Got a code for the upstream sensor last week, just a pending code, didn't actually trip the CEL. Hopefully cleaning will cure that but then again I've never had to replace the upstream sensor yet, only downstream.

 

I know it’s bad. I do 99% street and city driving so dirt or dust is really no issue to me.

I may swap back to stock one day.

 

Well, I was going to add at the end of my post "not an issue for Tyler since his truck never sees dirt". Decided not to cause I figure you can only take so much abuse from the guys.

No need to swap back to stock permanently, just a good idea when offroading. I run my K&N most of the time too, has saved me lots of money, & I have it so why not. Filter replacemets for the 3.4L around here are almost $30! Not sure if that what replacement filters usually cost but it seems expensive. This is the first vehicle i've had that I've actually bought stock filter replacements for. I've always ran some sort of high flow filter on all my past vehicles.

BTW, home from the bay area now. Man I don't know how you guys do it. I was only in Berkely, Alemeda, & SF for 3 days & the driving around drove me nuts. Glad I wasn't in my truck, was driving my brother's Mazda 6 around. Damn new cars have so many driving aids on them now it's crazy. Also seen a bunch of 2nd gens, many of them had Tacoma Beast stickers on them.

 

I’m used to it. Haha.

You were getting married, right? How was it? I forget who it was.

Tons of Tacomas here. They are EVERYWHERE. Especially 3rd Gens. Crazy how popular they are here. You’re right about the driving though. It really does suck. Defensive driving is an imperative here to be a Bay Area driver. Berkeley and Alameda are nothing compared to San Francisco. People just don’t know how to drive in SF - especially the Uber/Lyft drivers.

Also every gardener, contractor, and their dog drives a 1st Gen 5-Lug.

 

In fact this almost happened to me when I was picking up my leaf springs from @Dan8906 up in Concord.

Guy in the Tundra almost hit me head on from driving too fast in the rain.

 

Haha, yeah I guess you do get used it eventually. I mean LA traffic sucks too but the bay area gave me headaches. Parking sucks! I now know why my friend always takes me around on the BART when I used to visit him.

The places I went I mostly saw 2nd gens, not too many 3rd gens, not as much as I see down here. Yup down here 1st gens are the same, I don't see too many nice ones anymore.

It was my youngest brother getting married. It's was great actually. Thanks for asking. His wedding showed that you don't need an expensive fancy wedding to have a great & memorable one. He has so many great core friends that made the wedding awesome. Can't believe I'm saying this here but I almost teared, I was so happy for him, after all it's my little brother, nothing but love for him. It was worth all the stress. Lol

 

Well my 3RZ-FZE seems to really enjoy the 10W-40, lots less clacking from the timing chain tensioners and oil pressure light goes off faster now. The 3RZ is known to have very low oil pressure to begin with, and age doesn't seem to help that at all. But she's much quieter on the 10W-40 and with 265,xxxmi and boost I'm sure it's no issue to be thicker.

 

Upstream sensor on your model is an Air/Fuel ratio sensor, and it likely does need to be replaced at this age. They don't read accurate forever

 

Did my spark plugs on saturday, for some reason 2 and 3 were hand tight and there was a lot of carbon on the coils and plugs.

 

That's carbon tracking from your excessively worn plugs causing the spark to find an easier escape in the plug well, time for new wires and plugs

 

Yep a/f sensor. Damn I didn't want to hear that! I knew that time was near but was hoping not yet.

I suppose I should go ahead & do it soon, after all I have been in a maintenance mode these past months. I wanted to spend money on new door speakers first though. Any recommendations from you guys? I started a new thread. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/speaker-brands-these-days.567613/

 

oh, interesting, I thought it was just some sort of blow by on the exhaust stroke. I got iridium ngk plugs but not wires.

 

If you aren't going to replace the boot tips then at least wipe them out well and use a good gob of dielectric grease to make sure this doesn't happen again, it causes misfires

 

I've been running 10W-30 & 10W-40 ever since I got my truck with under 30K and is what i always run here in hot sunny SoCal. Past years have been 10W-30 cause it's cheaper at Walmart. Just wanted to note that I always stay away from high mileage formulated oils. Not sure if it's trye but I believe they have that crap in it that makes seals & gaskets swell to help stop leaks. I hate that stuff.

 

Alright cool, thanks, I don't need coils right? Just wires and clean up the boots?

 

Yeah lots of the high mileage oils do have seal swellers in them. If the Valvoline MaxLife (Ashland Oils) does it is very light blend cause I've been using it for 3 years and haven't had seal issues. But I like that the Zinc content is so high and tests on BITOG show that it holds up well over the course of its life in terms of viscosity and friction modifiers.

 

Oh that's right you have an 01-04, so you don't have wires, just coil on plug. Yeah Toyota should sell just the rubber coil tips that go around the spark plug, you just need new ones of those. Or you could do as I suggested and clean and dielectric grease the ones you have and see if that lasts.

 

ok awesome, thanks, I was looking at wires and going hm.. this doesnt look right lol