I spent about half the day with a Toyota Engineer who designed 2nd gen! How was your day? :)

Never said that! This is 1 on 1 first person! If it turns out he is not who he says, its on me!

 

He lives in Carenco not Abbeville.

 

All i can respond is.... LOL! I wish I was so lucky. Retire early, and have fun doing what I want to do with no worries.

 

Meaning info told thirdhand is always convoluted and questionable regardless of who is who.

 

I think the fellow is as full of shit as an elephant standing at a ex-lax machine with a bent quarter. But that's just me.

 

Honestly, he's not that type of guy. He is a people person. I can ask, but seriouly dont think he would have any intrest in online question and answer or anything online. He has an email address, but when I send an emaiI he calls back. I can't express this enough... "Great Guy!"

 

Why did they did they change the 4x4 shifter to a knob on the dash? I could see the knob for my wife's Lexus gx470, but it has a shifter.

 

Good point. I did not think about that, I will ask THAT specific question. Thanks!

 

When I had my VW GTI there was a list of "approved" oils that were recommended for the specific engine design. Not sure if VW tested the oils or just looked at the specs pertaining to additives, detergents, etc., but there were multiple companies and viscosities included on the "502 00" list for the FSI engine.

Nice post OP. Even though I don't have the 4.0L engine, it is an interesting read and a refreshing break from the usual discussions in the 2nd gen section. Not that they're bad, they just get a little monotonous after a while

 

Jboudreaux, could you ask him what the thinking was where it concerns certain parts of manual transmissions? Why is the bell housing/pilot shaft aluminum, and the release/TO bearing that rides on it, STEEL? Why did they make it so the pilot shaft is molded to the bell housing, and so cannot be replaced without costing a assload more money? My understanding is they went from a removable pilot shaft in earlier transmissions, and then went with this one instead in 2nd gens? I could be wrong about that last part.

At any rate, here's why the above is a problem:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/throwout-bearing-again.17819/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/chirping-while-in-neutral-and-driving.423341
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/what-the-heck-is-this-noise.445031/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ring-release-bearing-issues-v6-6speed.120059/

Before I realized that this was a design issue and found the above, and many more links like it in these forums, I forked out for a clutch & throwout bearing repair. When the chirping noise returned I nearly compelled the shop to do this work a second time thinking the clutch package was faulty. This would have been repeated again and again because it would never have remedied the main design problem. Thank god for URD's kit, which has (mostly) saved my sanity.

 

and yesterday, I talked to the REAL Santa Claus. He's the real guy because the Easter Bunny told me he was.

 

My SR came with the 2 speed. For ~$100 and 15 minutes of time I now have intermittent wipers. Look it up on here, a lot of threads with the part number for the intermittent stalk and it is a direct swap out and replace. I also added the backup camera and compass mirror since I was pre wired for those things.

 

Toyota did a similar thing with the 22R block in 1985. The 1981 to 1984 block had a taller deck and there are different head and piston combinations but they're all still called a 22R/22R-E from 1981 to 1995.

 

Bump. Reviving the dead thread... Any more info from Mr. BBQ? Thanks for sharing.

 

...

 

Ya gotto flag the guy...
@jboudreaux1965 ???

 

That shifter in the GX470 is sexy

 

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