AR15xAR10s N180 Winter Beater/Party Truck 2000 Highlander 5spd

Happy birthday @PineappleBoi

 

Recently i did the Tundra brake upgrade with napa calipers and centric rotors/posi quite pads.

I also had a cooling issue where my coolant temp got up to 230° in a drive trough and then wouldn’t go back down below 210° so i ordered a denso radiator and a 170° thermostat. Got it all in and now it hasn’t gotten past 196° I used valvoline asian premix coolant and got rid of all the peak brand junk coolant i had in it.

Now i noticed my power steering is getting worse and the pulley is bad, so i ordered an OEM pump and pulley. Hopefully that fixes the problem since they are original and the rack/lines were replaced 3-4 years ago.

 

Reman Denso alternator from Rockauto is already taking a shit....

and my ac idler pulley may also be dying prematurely again as well...

 

She’s definitely a little saggy in the booty department:

 

Let me know if you’re ever in the Midwest!

I’d say anywhere in the western half of North America haha but we are ramping back the big trips for a year and a half. Big one planned for May 2022 though if you’re around then!

 

lol I had big plans for trips but the world has gotten crazy.

The list so far of travel wants is:
Yosemite
The big 5 in Utah (all offroad)
Grand Canyon
Glacier National Park
Blue Ridge Parkway
Skyline Drive
Maine

Do you still have the little truckster?!

 

You can hit 80% of those in one trip! Right before all of this idiocy we did 6,500 miles over 30 days through the entire SW USA. South Dakota down to Texas, over through AZ and Cali, up through UT and CO and home. Was awesome. All BLM land so the only cost was gas. Nothing else expense wise ha.


Still have the Pickup! It was supposed to be my daily while the wife drives the 4Runner but she likes the Pickup more so most days she drives it to work/school/whatever.

We had two trips to Alaska and one back home to the Islands (my wife is from Palau and had family in Guam) all ruined by this airline travel crap AND they wouldn’t refund our money so it’s just sitting in “standby” for future flights which irks me because we just moved and over a grand would be nice to have ha.

Anyway. Glad you’re well, man! The wife is saving up for a Grom and I’m on the hunt for a Tundra (05-06) so if you have either of those (rust free haha) I’ll take em. But I’d say keep your 4Runner for as long as humanly possible. We love ours. Haven’t found a place we wanted to go that we can’t yet!

 

Thats awesome to hear, glad you guys were safe. No way I could do all that traveling in one year lol

I’m so glad she likes that little truck, I still love that thing.


Groms are great but i like the Monkey more lol. and used groms are for sale everywhere, almost zero reason to buy a new one lol.

I’m not a 2nd or 3rd gen Tundra fan so i can’t really help you on that one lol.

I hope you’re still doing photography too, next step for me is build a PC, get a drone and a full frame camera. I did graduate this past spring as the madness started and got my Bachelors degree in the mail (i preferred it that way, over going to another graduation).

What I ultimately wanted was a manual daily driver. I absolutely love driving a manual every day. But now that I have that, and i’ve basically gone over everything on it but the trans, I realize how much my heart truly wants another 4th gen. But I also want an FJC and those things are DISGUSTINGLY high in value still. It baffles me how basically the same vehicle as a 4th gen 4runner is 3x the price still. Someday, someday. #triplewipergang

 

@BuzzardsGottaEat https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...y=c4017&newUsed=3&newUsed=2#listing=276981658



Green Manual comparable to mine: https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/inven...lectedEntity=d290&newUsed=2#listing=278452523

 

Yeah! We still drive the Pickup daily!

I like the OG Grom, personally. The New one looks too crotch rocket for me. You know I'm a dual sport guy ha. Wife will get a used when she's done saving up for sure. We don't buy anything new ha. We'd rather put that money into retirement or savings.


I'm looking for a 1st Gen Tundra. The newer ones (and 4Runner) are way too big for my taste. Just not enjoyable to drive at all.

I already have a Bachelor's but the wife and baby brother are both going to a tech school for the next two years so I looked at what programs they have and got myself signed up for the Pilot program. Excited to finally get my Pilot's license and be a CFI. Something I've been meaning to do for years and was just never in one place long enough. Sucks being stuck in SD for two years with less travel, but at least that will come of it.

Wife is going to school for OTA and the little brother is doing the graphic design, digital art, marketing or whatever. So I'm helping him start a business.

I still do photography. Just did an engagement shoot.

Once the old school Yotas and manuals are all gone I don't know what I'll drive.

3rd Gen 4Runners are getting harder to find. 1st Gen Tundras didn't have a manual (unless you got the 4.0 V6). The 2015 Taco was the last real 4x4 manual transmission vehicle I know of... sucks ha. My good friend has an FJ. I'd personally just get the 4Runner. More room to sleep in haha.

 

Going to get this thing aligned and the wheels and tires road force balanced before winter.

also bought 2 more cans of rustoleum undercoating to touch up the underside before winter.



A bunch of the POR15 has pealed in various places so I’ll just clean and degrease the underside and coat stuff again

 

Still ticking along just great. Except for a small seep from the waterpump

 

I think I need a new coil pack and there’s more spots on my garage floor than there used to be haha. I wish it would warm up so I’d stop saying “I’ll do that later” haha.

I’m waiting for you to get a first Gen Tundra...
we always end up with the same everything anyway

 

Bahahaha i’d rather have that little single cab of yours. Full sizes are just too big for me.

I’m actually getting into a bit of a tough spot and may not be able to keep this particular vehicle for the long term. I may need to turn it into house fund money. we’ll see how the next couple months pan out.

 

Let me know if you sell it! Dibs (and I’ll hold it for ya if you ever want it back)!

 

I’ll keep you in mind. If I do end up putting it up for sale, i’ll make a post on the forum here and tag/share it all over the place because these manuals are hard to find and I already have a price in mind since this thing is completely sorted aside from needing a timing belt and waterpump kit; also the only two things that don’t work are the power antenna (common) and the rear seat heat because I deleted the lines to it and looped them together.

 

PM me the price you’re thinking quick only if you want, just so I can tell you if it’s in the budget or not. It’ll go fast for sure!

 

I can do that...

 

I have not read thru the entire 27 pages. Why the Moog springs on the rear, it did not appear to be sagging.

Are you happy with the KYBs? Here’s my 2000, pretty much mint but need new shocks. I did just dodge a pink milkshake, radiator water pumped into the tranny. I caught it within in minutes and saved the tranny. Will be adding and external tranny cooler in the spring, bypassing the radiator.

 

The moog springs were $36 a set. Cant beat it. The KYBs in the rear are great. No complaints. Thing rides like a dream for its age and mileage. The springs and shocks i replaced were the originals at 230k and they bounced bad enough to make the vehicle lose control at any kind of speed. So they were replaced for safety

i highly recommend by passing the radiator.

on my tacoma, i continued my tranny cooler in series with my radiator and the aftermarket cooler so that i’d still have the warming of the trans fluid by the engine coolant in the winter, and the additional cooling capacity in the summer. But second gen tacoma radiators are almost bullet proof compared to 3rd gen 4runner radiators. So i dont blame you.

fortunately, my 4runner is a manual and cant have any milkshake problems