High mileage observations... 2015 Tacoma

I’ve got it backwards- new serpentine belt is behind the back seat, old one on the truck! I was gonna change it, took a look at what needed to be taken apart to get at it... decided I was too lazy. Maybe I need to revisit- sounds like it’s pretty easy. I put the front hubs off for a long while and that was a piece of cake.

 

Oh dude, yeah put the new on on. You dont want to have an old belt go tits up in a bad spot, and often times they go and get wedged between the front main seal and balancer eating the seal up. Its maybe a 10 min job, i believe its a 14mm wrench, just pop that on the bolt of the tensioner pully

 

I’m on it. Gonna do it this weekend.

 

my wife let her serpentine belt go for a long time. failure mode was amazing. i went to put windshield fluid in her car and happen to look at the belt. it was "ribboned". it didnt shred or snap. it basically came apart longitudinally. it was like many serpentine belts. i swapped it out, and should have kept the old one for a keepsake. i was shocked the failure was not catastrophic.

she keeps records and typically will tell me when things expire, but she let it go.

 

I definitely agree with the statement about usage. The lifespan of just about everything (not just Tacomas) depends on how it is treated. Maintenance makes a big difference but the only way to compensate for abuse is to replace stuff... eventually the whole truck. My 2wd sees about 5% dirt and gravel miles in N.California and sleeps in a closed garage most of the time. I am confident that it will live 400,000+ miles (if I keep it that long).

 

This was a great, confidence-inspiring thread to read. Here I am with only 102 K on my '13, just had all the drivetrain fluids changed, serp changed at 75 K (preventive), brakes all around done at 85 K, original plugs. New battery last year because the old one was barely getting the job done on winter starts. Also, around here two major companies use '13 4 cyl autos, color white of course, as fleet vehicles.

 

When do you guys typically switch out suspension parts? Do they even need to be swapped out? I did a full fluid flush at 50k but I don't think I'll do anything major until I hit 80k, might need to do brakes and fluids again then.

 

I’ve done shocks and struts every 100k, leafs were replaced long time ago under a tsb, might replace those one day

 

Good question-

I lifted my truck at around 30k miles and I’m on my second set of 5100’s.

 

Hope your getting the 57.5 cents per mile you should be getting from them for mileage. You should actually make money on business miles, it definitely doesn’t cost 57.5 cents per mile to operate these trucks.

 

Here your mileage example: 2000 miles a month x 57.5 cents is $1150 in reimbursement. If you get 300 miles per tank. That approx 7 tanks. Let’s $50 per tank x7 = 350 gas that month. 1150-350 your plus $8oo. Ask how I know. And also that reimbursement is 100% tax free. That’s approx 14k in reimbursement for the year minus the gas cost. The difference is tax free income.

 

So- good question, and it’s a little less than a straightforward answer. Here’s why-

My drive to/from the office is ~86 miles, that’s mileage I can’t/couldn’t write off but my employer was allowing me to submit at the end of the year (I keep a log) So back a few years ago (before the current administration got rid of the mileage deduction) I was getting somewhere in the neighborhood of a $4000.00 tax write-off... I was more than satisfied, low payroll deduction, more take home pay- and I still ended up not owing on taxes.

When that deduction went away I ran into trouble. The year they yanked it, I made something like $6k less for the year but ended up owing over $4k in taxes. Totally sucked, had to majorly adjust my deductions to correct that and that’s when we started our new arrangement... the techs who work for me all collect the 57.5¢ per mile but I do not. There’s a reason, and it has to do with the early days when we started this company- I formed my own LLC and contracted to owner of what is now the company I work for, so when I “officially” came on board we had to find a way to compensate me that more or less matched what I was billing out as an LLC... and my drive in those days was only a few miles- when I moved my employer knew I’d need some incentive to make the drive. We came up with the monthly stipend and company card for fuel. Still tweaking it yearly but it seems like a fair deal now.

 

Awesome. As long as you both consider it a win win, that’s all that matters.

 

Nice! I have been considering one of those, a kit like this? https://www.headstrongoffroad.com/store/p452/HS_Coil/Bilstein_5100_kit.html Does it increase your payload at all?

 

Payload won’t increase, but your ride height will!

 

Okay thanks, no UCAs or any other parts needed for the 5100s right?

 

Not at 2 or 2-1/2” it’s not mandatory. If you want really good alignment numbers they are. You don’t need super fancy ones, I used the freedom off-road UCA’s and was able to get my alignment numbers to whatever I found posted here as “good numbers” and I’m over 3” of lift. For my wheeling (logging roads, firewood missions, pulling fords out of spots they should never have gone) they are plenty for me.

 

@Kyle01 cool dude thanks!

 

That's why we buy these heaps. I'd replace that 200K serpentine belt though. They can still look 'ok' after tens of thousands of miles, but be ready to snap at any moment.

 

Crazy thing- I was working in Dallas a few weeks ago and rented a new Colorado. It had less than 8k miles and there were at least 2 things that rattled so bad on the interior it drove me nuts!! My 200k mile taco has zero rattles. None. Solid as hell.