What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

No pics, but spent the weekend cleaning the undercarriage from salt after spending a week driving around in snowy/salted Knoxville.

 

Finally had both time and reasonable temps to look at this today, decided to do the old squirt a little water on the ribbed area of the belt trick, the squeak immediately shut right up, so I figured it has to be the belt. Only thing open was AutoZone, so got a Duralast belt for $30, and it seems fine. Not sure what the click was the other day that led me into thinking there was more of a problem, so I'll keep an ear on it. It was absolutely frigid that day, and now it's a good 35 degrees warmer out, so who knows.

Idler pulleys don't seem to have any excessive play to them, and there's no more noise than usual now (I mean, it is a 3.5 DI V6 Tacoma, it ain't exactly silent on it's best day ).

The original belt had no cracks, but felt harder and seems to have stretched a little bit compared to the new Duralast belt. 2018 with 33k miles. I'm not mad at it.
Might have preferred a different brand, but for $30 what the heck. At least I can drive the truck to work tomorrow instead of the Corolla.

I'll probably grab an OEM belt to throw on the shelf for next time.

 

Installed these (link at bottom) today (assembled coil overs from wheeleveryweekend; stock height and spring rate). Had them since 7/29/24 and USAF son asked to help (saw box setting on floor). So, knocked them out today. Watched a few videos and did a modified version of this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9N1fvbGAEw

Modifications:
(1) Used Sharpie to mark lower control arm-to-frame “washer” positions (washer’s used to perform alignment but wanted to get it close so drive to alignment shop wouldn’t make my brain crazier). NOTE: Each LCA has four (4) of those washers, one under the bolt head and nut of each of the two (2) bolts PER SIDE.
(2) Installed already-assembled coil overs so removed the 3 nuts holding the assembly to the upper mount vice the single nut holding the shock to the coil over assembly.

After doing the job and watching the video again I now have the confidence to save some $$ next time and replace just the shocks.

ODO: 71,000

Why’d I do it? There was a 'thunk' noise on the front, passenger side when going over pretty good ’transitions'. And, since my wallet is bigger than my brain (the bar is low!) I decided to easter egg and see if the assembly fixed the ’thunk’. Mild off-roading that followed installation didn’t reveal the ’thunk’.

https://www.wheeleveryweekend.com/p...a-4runner-2003-2009-toyota-tacoma-2005-2023-1

 

Applied some CERAKOTE® Ceramic Trim Coat on the fender flares and windshield cowl. Ran out of packets before I could do the bedcover so I'll do that next weekend. Installed some windshield wipers and generic tow hitch plug, then proceeded to paint the silver wheel rings on my TRD beadlock wheels.

Last item for this weekend was installing the new-to-me Miller Cat catalytic shield cover I picked up off FB marketplace for $100. With this truck being lifted I didn't want to make it easy on any thieves looking to steal the cats.

Just a photo from their website, but ya'll know what they look like.

 

Pulled out the decked drawers and replaced with a half cargo glide to have more vertical space in the bed with the cap on - did this a few months ago and very happy with the change. Also moved the max trax inside the bed to make room for some solar panels in front of the tent.

 

Beautiful set-up!

 

JBA

Unnnnfff portals

 

Curious, how did you reproduce/isolate the radiator support bushing squeaks?

 

Starting to get ready for the outdoor season. Bed rack for new RTT that shipped today, still have to source a bike rack attachment this week. Oh and as wash….

 

Added the RAV4 blind spot mirrors, which are actually more useful than I thought they’d be and got some German made Phillips H9’s which I need to mod to replace the H11 headlights. Also ordered some fluids in preparation for the 60k service.

Been doing a lot of small things to try and make myself hold off on new suspension until I really need to do it.

 

Spent a bit of time doing this the past couple days. Not an awful lot of salt up in the mountains by me, but I’m also prepping for rust treatment that I plan on doing in the near future.

Living in SoCal, rust proofing is probably overkill but I have noticed some small rust spots here and there on some seams on the frame/cross members. Planning on keeping the truck for a long time so I might as well set it up for longevity.

As tedious and annoying as it is to clean/wipe down the underside, it’s satisfying in a sort of masochistic way.

 

At $70, I just couldn't justify the cost of OEM tails, haven't seen any fogging yet and if they get bashed on a trail I won't be that upset.



Also got a significant gift card for Amazon from work to make the cost of the only heated steering wheel option worth it. Finished up the

$165 MXT275 MicroMobile® GMRS Radio – 15 watts Two-Way Radio with Integrated Control Microphone – Overland Caravanning Tractors – Detachable External Magnetic Mount Antenna - 8 Repeater Channels

MXT275 install as well.

 

Slapped on the rears. I was able to use 100% Ti hardware. Drilled and tapped the frame instead of using the chinesium self tappers provided for the reservoir brackets. The difference between good hardware and cheap hardware is huge. Going to replace all the hardware on the leaf packs with 316 stainless. Ti is a bit pricey for an M10x1.25x90mm bolt.

 

A lot of shaking. I grabbed the front bumper bar and shook the front end up and down until it recreated the squeak, this let me hear that it was mostly coming from the passenger side. Then grabbed the passenger wheel well and again started rocking the truck side to side and listening. Had my wife rock the truck from the passenger wheel well also and was able to tell it was coming from forward of the suspension so that removed all of that from the suspects. Started looking up others with a similar squeak in similar place and found a video that had my exact sound. They replaced the bushing and fixed their squeak so I made the determination that would be my fix. I guess it wasn't a definite thing, but worth the money/ time to test.

 

In case anyone is interested. The MESO stealth pro shifter is finally back in stock. It has been out of stock for a year plus.

https://mesocustoms.com/collections/toyota-tacoma-3rd-gen/products/stealth-pro-shift-knob

 

Getting your moneys worth outta that tread

 

I think that you are running a little too much tire pressure there.

 

Calm down guys, they’re racing slicks

 

Got the H9’s put in (shoutout to @crashnburn80 for his super informative thread) and just had to remove the green tabs from the headlight connectors. Also went ahead and took the air dam off (again) and gonna see how the mpg looks after a few weeks. I’ve got an Amazon TRD skid that I’ll put on if I can deal with the MPG decrease. I also think I’m gonna take off the badge overlay and try a piece of tint on it instead to darken it and not make it look so chrome.

 

90k mile oil change, lube driveline. Going to get a mini-detail soon which it is in desperate need of.