What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

I thought my 2020 drove just fine when I got it, especially compared to my 2017. Boy was I wrong. Biggest thing for me was removing dead spots in the pedal. If I pressed harder on the pedal to speed up, the truck increases RPM's now rather than pressing more and more until it finally reacts and down shifts. Could I have lived without it? I did with my 2017 for years. Still my #1 mod in my opinion. But, because you don't like/want it, there's an extra $800 in your pocket for something else.

 

Find someone in your area who flashes the tunes and save some money. @Shellshock did mine and I'm much happier with it. I'd love to do it myself, but he flashed it to exactly what I wanted (5.29s/AGM) and unless something dramatic happens, I'm not likely to change tunes. You don't really *need* the whole kit unless you want to change tunes frequently or tinker, or can't find anyone to flash it.

 

I have a problem with the $800.

 

He's actually been assisting from time to time when I ask questions. But I got it flashed last night on my own. Read through a few hundred pages to see what everyone was changing and made a free tweaks.

I'll be heading up to rincon today or tomorrow, so if you spot an AG pro out in the wild, give a wave.

 

Agreed. Not the most fun I've had spending $800 on the truck, but worth it considering the amount we spend on mods otherwise.

 

I am in the Denver area if anyone wants help tuning their 3rd gen. $150.

 

We have the Destination A/T's (265/75 16) on the 5th Gen 4Runner and they are quiet. That's our long-distance travel car and it sees a lot of freeway miles.

 

No I recently upgraded to a Tacoma from a Corolla so it's great to me! I have already towed plenty just with the ECT PWR no problem. To me she has plenty of power, but as I said I trust Toyota engineers. Why try to push in more power just to degrade the life of your truck? If you really want more power I would just get a v8.

 

I would counter that there have been 7 updates to the transmission in the form of TSB's since 2016, as stated in this post here.

 

Well I got them once they were released, but somehow my wife misplaced the package

 

Yeah I was very much considering a more powerful truck after driving the taco for 9 months. The tacoma is the right size for all the trails out here in Colorado. Bigger trucks (with more power) don't fit down half as many trails. VFTune pushed me back to keeping it. Doesn't really add more power per se, but does make the pedal and responsiveness much better. Thats good for around town, but it is still underpowered on the highway. For having added a lot of weight to the truck, that is definitely a factor here as well. I am not sure there is any degradation to the lifetime of the engine with the tune? I do trust the Toyota engineers to squeeze every last MPG out of the stock tune. I do not trust them to make the best driving experience possible via their stock tune. I do trust VFTune for having been working on this for many years. Engineering is engineering, whoever is doing it.

 

Will do.

 

Post pics when you get it installed please.

 

Yikes, that sub is turning into a dumpster fire everyone demanding 2.1 while 2.0 isn't out. With a new engine/trans I would expect there to be some changes, but I will agree toyota did drop the ball on the 3rd gen release. From what I've read they have since corrected alot of those mistakes though.

 

Didn't do anything to the truck today but i did finally pull on a lift setup from Ironman. They're local so i may just head down to pick it up rather than wait to ship. When it comes to waiting for truck parts, i have no patience.

 

I get it at dealer cost (been a dealer since 1978). But the shipping still hurts (I usually wait until I need enough items to make the shipping cost fall in line). About $4.25 / can.

It truly is worth the cost!
Back in '95 -ish I worked in a Plating Shop. Had access to the very best methods of metal surface preparation (hot degreaser, sand blaster, acid dip, steam cleaner, etc.) and did an experiment. I had a bar of soft steel (high carbon, easy to rust) that was about 10" long, 2 " wide, and 1/2" thick. I put it through all of the surface preps & cleaning. Got it down to bare raw metal and taped off five spots.
I covered all but one spot and applied a product (all products tested had to say the same thing "protects from rust, displaces water, lubricates"! The non-lube products are like wax and therefore were not fair to this experiment). I did that four times and left the fifth space bare, untreated metal.

The products were LPS-1, Starrett, WD-40, and MP.

I mixed up a spray bottle of table salt & hot water. I sprayed the whole bar and then laid the bar flat and pooled up a bit of the saltwater in each of the five sections.

**** the WD-40 rusted BEFORE the bare metal area did! Within mere hours. *** Horrible stuff (back then anyway).
The LPS took a couple of days to start showing rust.
The Starrett a week or two to rust.
And over six months later the MP still did NOT SHOW ANY rust what so ever. Best damn stuff made for that purpose. I will admit that it's not the best for squeaky hinges though.

The HD MP is fantastic for undercoating of the frame! But not convenient to do large areas with as it can only be supplied in single spray cans. This is intentional - to allow the chemical composition to be sprayed on and then dry. But convenience be damned if I want the best protection I can get.

 

I did my (own) first oil change (first real was at dealer, no charge)

I changed over to the Lexus metal filter canister and Toyota filter. Super easy oil change, easier to drop the thin protector than the plastic belly pan on the WRX. The plastic filter can was tight as the devil. I needed a breaker bar!!! But came off. I used the little metal filter drain gizmo. Worked awesome, not even hard to clean. All in all given the gizmos and o-rings, bone easy oil change.

Filled with Amsoil, good to go.

 

I believe that is correct for the 2020

 

Chrome lug nuts had to go.

 

Got these in the mail today.
I ordered

$173 PL8535 POP & Lock – Power Tailgate Lock for Toyota Tundra, 2007 to 2021 Toyota Tundra, Truck OEM Lock, Anti Theft, Truck Tailgate Lock Replacement, Easy to Install, Made in The USA (PL8547TUN)

PL8535 but they emailed me saying they are no longer making that series, instead they’re changing it to the heavy duty PL8547. They told me since I already ordered and payed for 8535, they’ll just send me the 8547 and not charge me the difference, and that it would still work with a 2020 Tacoma.
Anyone have any experience with this one?