What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

Jumped on the Redarc bandwagon. I’ve never used a brake controller before. Holy cow what a difference!

 

Just got her washed up after getting her back

 

Picked up a used 2 person rtt. It’s small and weighs next to nothing in terms of an rtt (95 lbs). I’ll build some 6” rise bed bars for it that’ll tie into the bed bolts.

 

Used it for an elevated shooting bench

 

A nice young lad made his own entry way to get my laptop I forgot in my rear floorboard while visiting family in Louisiana. So I bought a new piece of glass from carparts.com for $50 and had time to install today. Bunch of vacuuming and good as new. Pretty nerve racking for my first time finagling that new glass in trying not to break it and starting all over..

 

Maintenance day: new break pads, new rotors (survived 119k), oil change and cleaned up the drums.

 

ahhh my lucky number

 

I washed my engine bay today. First time in like 3 years. Lol.

 

Decided to swap out my superbumps for sumo springs. Bottom photo is weight on wheels. Expect these to be nicely progressive in normal operation.

 

Took care of the transfer and front diff fluids. Transfer oil was fairly clean at 53,000 miles but that front diff was pretty bad as others have mentioned. Seems to be a different oil from the factory. It was pretty black and but not from being burnt. Almost a graphite shimmer in it with it being pretty gooey on the magnet. Curious if it was some sort of additive. Anyway, happy both are now filled with some new oil for the next few years.

 

Borrowed my dad’s 2nd gen AC TRDOR to enjoy the snow in NW CT. Got some new tires on too: 265/70 R16 Duratracs.

 

I just bought the same oil for my diffs/transfer case. Where did you get it from, I'm curious to compare price.

I got mine on Amazon for $58.99 per jug.

 

Yep, got mine at the same place and same price. Breaker bar for the front is recommended for the first time but I was able to get without. Just take your time. Replaced with new factory washers too.

 

Got it, thanks for the info and tips!

I also ordered a Lexus front diff plug to replace the stock one for a "more robust" plug. Hopefully the stock one isn't too stuck, but I've got a breaker bar just in case.

I know Toyota has "special" washers for various fluid plugs, but I've always used generic copper washers on all my vehicles when changing fluids. 1/10th the price and has the same form/fit/function.

 

If you have a LSD in the front there is LSD additive but I don’t remember the consistency of it. May be able to look that up but when I do the front differential I generally squirt the whole thing of additive and then the diff fluid. This is recommended somewhere but would need to dig it up.

 

Yeah I saw that but not needed for for my 2014 I’m pretty sure. This Red Line does have something for it anyways according to the label. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Haven't managed to do a whole lot lately because of classes. But I finished finals, so I did a quick wash of the truck today and stopped to admire what I've had the chance to do to it thus far. Engineering is a tough college course subject to begin with, but couple that subject matter with online-only instruction, and it has not gone smoothly for me.
That being said, I'm glad to have a break now to enjoy working on this truck and my daily 1998 Corolla which is need of an engine swap. Time to source a junkyard 1ZZ-FE and learn how to rebuild an engine.

 

Finally got around to installing my Firestone Ride Rite air bags.

 

Looks great, what did you use?