I just bought my first truck.

And for that matter, iit's my first Toyota. (I'm more of a Honda guy, overall, but the Ridgeline wasn't in the running very much.)

I'll add a picture later. At this moment I'm enjoying a tasty pale ale from a nano brewery in Blue Ridge, GA.

I am (I think) the 3rd owner of a 2004 Mall Queen. No, hold on, I think it goes by another name. It's the 4X4 WanneBe Extreme. Dang it, that's not right either. Can you tell I'm really more of a car guy?

PreRunner SR5 Double Cab V6, Impulse Red / Oak

A nice deal, below book value from my research. $9K, 127,xxx mi. Everything else was half again (or more) as much, usually for more miles. I can give up "pretty" for a truck, thanks.

The wife disagrees, says it was priced merely "OK." -- it's not as pretty as she'd like, has dings and dents and cigarette damage inside. Normally I wouldn't have bought that sort of thing either but damn it runs strong and I'll not have to worry about banging it up myself!

I have OEM floor mats on the way. Picked up and programmed 2 new OEM remote fobs. Picked up OEM side steps. Got the front door windows tinted with 3M's Crystaline 40 (good heat rejection, yo.) Picked up 2 keys from the dealer (retail: $20, got for $13 ea.)

This 1st gen Tacoma is my favorite - looking Toyota truck; late 70s being a close second.

The 4 of us + dog just did 10 hrs in it this weekend. Surprisingly quiet on the road. Need to steer clear of deep rut lanes. Wow.

 

Welcome. Congrats on the truck. At that mileage, you should check if the timing belt has been replaced as well as some new shocks.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome!

 

Timing belt's been done already (at 90K). Dunno anything about when shocks would be expected to be swapped ... I come from the land of cars, where modern ones don't wear out their shocks.

 

^Shocks do wear out on Honda cars, too. At least with the Tacoma you don't have to deal with rusted wishbone forks. How did you verify the shocks are worn? Is the truck oscillating for too long after going over a bump? Are the shocks leaking or making noise?

Another rule of thumb for this generation of Tacomas and 4Runners is to replace the radiator after 10 years if the truck is an automatic. The seams in the radiator separating the coolant from the trans fluid can develop leaks, causing the coolant to contaminate the trans fluid and kill the transmission in short order.

 

Congrats and Welcome to TW!!

 

Thanks Ken. Yes I know shocks on all cars can wear out ... I suppose I've been lucky (with my various Hondas, in fact). Let's not get into that here.

How did you verify the shocks are worn?

I didn't; that was DriverSound's suggestion? But no, nothing seems amiss. This is my first truck and it rides about how I expected, bouncy at times unladen. Deeply rutted highway lanes send it sorta all over the place however. Another thread I read said new rear springs help with that, but I'll read some more. I'm less concerned with that than I am hooking something up to the hitch and seeing the ass-end sink down ...

re: radiator and trans

The radiator was replaced recently. Or part of it was. Can't remember if the seller said it was re-cored or if the core is original and the top/bottom replaced. Maybe the whole damn thing is new. It all looks new and the core's fins don't have a lot of bent pieces from bugs etc.

I was under the impression from reading online, that the "strawberry milkshake" issue you reference was a 4Runner phenomenon, not a Tacoma one?

I checked trans fluid today. It's light brown; I didn't really expect to see red color but I'd like to change it before I add my trans cooler. I asked if the fluid had ever been changed and the seller said that it had, once. That's probably better than most old vehicles!

 

There is an urban myth of epic proportions!

Anyway, welcome, and yes, the 1st gen is a nice body style, size and has a great turning radius.