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

True that.

I know a guy that acted like a dick when he took his quad in for valve adjustment and they "lost" it for a week.
I told him it served him right.

Ive been rebuilding/servicing/customizing/modifying a used quad I picked up last spring and although I have yet to visit the shop and say hey to the techs (theyre always busy and the shop is a seperate building) the parts guys know my smiling face, we always have a good time, talk quads and dirt bikes and riding. I usually call 1st but most times walk in with part # in hand. I listen and gain from their knowledge, and every one of those guys have bent over backwards more than once to get me a hard to find part.

 

Couldnt be easier actually.

The only pita is the front drivers and only because its impossibly hard to unclip.
An 1/8" more wire would have made it much MUCH easier.

Excellent write up here

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-spark-plug-change-1-gr-fe.30479/

Pass side w/intake or remove airbox is like old school chevy v8 all 3 are right out in the open. Dont even have to remove intake if you have one....


Drivers side just remove 1 bracket and 1 vacuum line. Then its just a matter of wrestling that front connector off and rotate the coil the right way as it comes out...

 

Hey thanks for the link and info. I think it's an expensive service at the shop so would be nice to do it myself.

 

Super easy, I installed these to my AAL packs to get just a little bit of rake with my lift kit. the only thing you might have to do is cut off the excess bolt sticking through the leaf pack if its a significant amt. I had a ubolt flip and superbumps and in there was extra space so i didnt have to cut.

I did the same also, i had JBAs waiting to install, went to pick up the rear shocks from Toytec and they talked me into the SPC's, even knowing some of the issues ppl have been having with a 'clunk' with the new updated style of x-axis somethin or other with them and ended up returning the jbas. So far the only noises ive heard are from wheel rub on the fenders i havent trimmed yet. Almost sacrificed a pair of undies when i first heard the rub backing into a parking space.

One tip that helped us out with installing, someone mentioned to take the whole front grille off, this will help big time with getting the through-bolt out. Youll have to get some bigass channellocks to bend some of the panels outta the way, but with a little muscle and an extra set of hands to tap it through you shouldnt have a problem. Also remember to wait to fully retorque that uca bolt once you have the truck back on the ground, not while its up on stands.

I gotta go back through this weekend and re check torque, its been 2-300miles and about 2 weeks so everything should be settled. Plus I want to try and see if i can straighten back out my rear, I think when I did the AAL, because i did one side then the other rather than both sides at the same time, I rebolted everthing back up a tiny bit crooked cause my toe on the rear was D +.2 and P -.2 at the alignment

 

Np
Piece of cake really.
You can do it.

 

I'm with you. these plugs are easy to get to.

 

Yep

So easy, I did it outside my apt complex in about an hour (first timer and kept checkin back at youtube video and the forum post on here to make sure). you can rent a torque wrench from Oreillys or Advance also if you dont have one to make sure youve got them torqued correctly. Make sure you have a long enough extension for your socket as well, and tape the socket to the extension so it doesn't detach in there.

 

This.

 

Definitely not a stock swap, lol. Yeah it’s crazy though cause I probably have done most of the changes to it in the last three years.

 

I have to end my Phone calls on the screen sometimes. I get hung up in the same loop of nothingness when I try to end it from the wheel. Although I disagree that rebooting the phone is the answer. If I reboot my phone after its already connect to the running truck; it will not re connect unless I turn the truck off and open the door. And since I stream all of my music from Spotify, that really pisses me off!!

I got my last set from a Lexus dealer on eBay, out of AZ, for $18.00 shipped to my house. And I agree, the Tacoma plugs are way easier than some vehicles I have worked on.

Just make sure you have a long enough extension. I put a swivel in line right above the top of the valve covers. It made changing the plugs a breeze. The last 2 extensions are not really necessary, it just allowed me to make full turns.

 

I sometimes bluetooth music through my phone but usually have a thumb drive loaded up and running and it pisses me off when I forget to turn bluetooth off and a voice call interrups the tunes.
You can turn off notifications for everything BUT a voice call wtf!

Why do phone manufacturers assume voice calls are the #1 priority when Im on a road trip???
Dont bother me Im rocking a road trip right now!!!

Can never have enough extensions imo.
Allows you to swap and change them as necessary based on how much reach is needed.

Also make sure the plug socket has the rubber up in it to hold the plug from falling back in and a gap gauge is cheap.
I dropped a plug one time doh! Checked the ceramic (have carpet on my garage floor) everything looked fine. Finished the install and fired it up, had a crazy knock that wasnt there before. Shut er down immediately.

Thought about it and pulled the one I dropped and sure enough the electrode was closed from the fall.
Kind of an extreme case for double checking the gap but I always set em at .040

 

Three years later, having to redo my plasti-dipped rims. Not bad for only $25.

 

A lot of great advice on this topic and in this thread, thanks. I'll be changing them soon as they have over 125K on them (PO).

I dropped a 7/16" socket down the distributer hole of a 327 Chevy. It only clunked twice so I didn't think it fell all of the way to the oil pan, it didn't. I heard a few more small clunks starting that *ucker up, lol, a couple of years later I pulled the oil pan for a stroker kit and the socket had a decent dent in it. I warrantied the socket through Snap On.

 

Now ditch those led headlights....

 

I think its interesting that there is so much hate for LED headlights.. I had a pair in my taco before I did the retrofits and they had a perfect factory cutoff when installed properly. Most of the LED headlight bulbs that you can buy now are built with a cutoff shield on the body so that you dont get the crazy light.. I've been on the receiving end of LED's that don't have that cutoff plenty of times, but that's somewhat outdated. See the attached picture for reference..

 

That's great to know!

 

Same here, I have the Phillips LED headlight bulbs and they have the exact same cutoff as the factory halogen because of the cup and narrow blade design

Edit: A guy I used to work with has the cheapo ones and they are blinding as hell. But he's young and doesn't care

 

I have not heard anything negative about adding the 1/2” shim to drivers side leaf springs. I did an AAL a while back with no issues. Raised front using 5100’s an inch. My front of truck is level—always was level. But after about 1000 miles had to do the ECGS replacement. The AAL raised the rear about 1-1/2”. But the rear always had that 3/4” drivers side lean before and after the AAL. I have talked to Toyota mech about this and they said a 1/2” increase on drivers side won’t make a difference in the driveline. If there was going to be any vibes it would have happened when I did the AAL.

 

I haven’t begun the rabbit hole of motor swaps and not well versed in that. Trying to stay away as that is a more expensive game then armour and suspension (generally).

look forward to hearing more about it.