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

Was driving in sand (in 4hi) earlier and something started to smell hot, no burning just pretty hot. Probably the transmission? Its temp light never went on and the engine temp never rose either. I got onto hard pack, put it in 2wd and got some speed on the way back to the camp site. There i popped the hood and left it running to keep the fan/radiator doing their thing. Should i worry about it?

 

check your fluid levels.

 

id say yes, let the truck cool off for a bit and check fluid levels on all things you can open starting from what it smelled like.. each fluid has a distinct odor.

Start with the radiator, check brake fluid and clutch under the hood.

if you can look for leaks under there from things like head gasket or lower.

if you can open the front diff and check levels, this requires you to drop the skid plate.

Check transfer case and transmission then make the way make to the rear pumpkin.

You shouldn't smell anything burning on normal use. but it could be something easy and quick to fix.

 

Engine oil, brake fluid, power steering are all good.

Transmission fluid is a dark red color and doesn't smell burned what so ever I'm just not sure what color is supposed to be lol..

Steering rack is the only thing that's leaking but I've known about that.

No clutch, auto trans this time.

Where do you check the transfer case?

I've ever had an auto or 4x4 before this truck

 

This is probably a dumb question but can i top off my coolant reservoir with prestone 50/50 extended life coolant? Everything I've read is about Toyota red

 

Fill plug is on the rear face, near where the rear driveshaft attaches.

Level should be within 5mm of the lip.

 

Still got to get around to wiring my led demon eyes up. Tested them out

 

Your transmission fluid should be bright cherry red (if it's clean). If it's looking dark brown/red, and smells funky, it's time to change it. Driving in deep sand provides a lot of resistance to your power train, meaning your torque converter is working harder to shear fluid, as it will never go into lockup mode (especially at lower speeds).

You don't have to flush your transmission though, I just drain it from the pan (and occasionally drop the pan to change out the filter) and then refill through the dipstick tube. It should drain about 5 qts - just add back as much as you drained out. Don't mix up the oil pan drain with the tranny drain plug (people seem to do that a lot around here.)

 

Went from this...


...to this.

 

Thanks buddy. It will go good with my color changing halos once I get them wired

 

Sweet man

 

Finished up my bumper I made from plate steel and DOM tubing with the license plate mounts and finished the wiring for the winch and am stoked! School starts next week and this was my goal over break!

 

Awesome.

Time to dye your shifter boots black, so you can go from this:



To this:

 

I kind of like the two tone
Although, the black shift knobs look pretty cool.

 

orrrr if you wanna get real schnazzy you can go from

this



to this




by using this mod
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/285332-gear-shifter-leather-boot-carpet-mod.html

 

Get out of here poser. You don't own a 1st gen anymore

 

Turn signals moved to corner lights mod in progress

 

I did that mod. Thanks to you

 

You need to spray your steering wheel

 

How big of a job is it to pull the tranny pan and replace the filter then refill it?