What can go wrong with my truck - or RysiuM build

Looks like tape

 

Hmmm... I would have to put a steel bumper, off road tires and beefed suspension on my house to have it qualified as a "build thread" on TW .

Yes, the building code in Poland is different than in USA. It was some shock to me too. In general it makes framed houses much more energy efficient and safer than California cookie cutter houses. There are however some standards I do not like and I think USA is much better. For example electrical outlets. In USA they guarantee correct polarity and will not allow for plugging any high power or ground required equipment to improper electrical outlet. And electrical pugs and outlets in Poland are plain ugly comparing to USA. Oh well, I can't change that.

Answering your question about exterior wall construction it has the following layers (from the outside)
1. Silicate stucco (to be put on my house yet) - about 3/32 inch thick. That stucco is already colored and water repelent so it never needs washing or painting. This is what they say, at least
2. Primer for a stucco (to be put on my house yet).
3. Insulation water-seal and under-layer for stucco (gray stuff on my walls) - about 1/16 inch thick. Makes a water tight barrier protecting the exterior stone wool insulation.
4. Exterior stone wool insulation 4 inches thick. Similar to ROCKWOOL COMFORTBOARD.
5. House wrap
6. Particleboard MFP - it is water resistant load bearing board 1/2 inch thick. It is not a Particle Board you can see in Home Depot. That thing is completely water resistant, you can submerge in water and will not change its properties or dimensions.
7. Framing of 2x6 with fiberglass insulation inside
8. Vapor barrier. The black/white squares you see on the picture is a tape used to glue sheets of vapor barrier also around the door or window frames.
9. Installation layer. Made of 2x2 framing filled with fiberglass rolled insulation. All electrical and plumbing is inside that layer. If a wire has to poke through the vapor barrier (for example in the ceiling going between rooms) the place is sealed with the same black/white tape.
10. Drywall

All interior not load bearing walls are framed 2x4 but there is a sound proofing fiberglass or stone wool insulation inside framing. Load bearing walls are 2x6 also filled up with sound proofing insulation.

The ceiling insulation is similar to exterior walls. From the attic:
1. Water and air resistant membrane (same as used on the roof)
2. Framing 2x10 filled with fiberglass insulation
3. Vapor barrier (same as the one on exterior walls). It is glued together with vapor barrier on walls making the house airtight.
4. Installation layer. Made of 2x2 framing filled with fiberglass rolled insulation. Same as on exterior walls.
5. Drywall

The floor is not bad either. There is total of 10 inches of extruded foam insulation between the concrete slab and the floor.

Of course all windows (three-pane) and exterior doors are air tight, with R values exceeding 5 times of Energy-Star requirements in USA.

As you see the energy efficiency is a huge deal here. Floor, walls and ceiling have R-value over 40. Because of the air tightness my HVAC system has additional fresh air intake that will provide 10-20% fresh air of each circulation to the house. Even fireplace is air tight. It uses only the outside air for the wood burning (as a dedicated air intake). Same for furnace and water heater. That is completely different from what I had in my 20 years old house California.


But to keep this post from being thrown out by the moderator here is the latest picture of my Tacoma at the construction site

 

That is impressive. Basically, you're spending money on building materials vs fuel. Utility payment is built into mortgage payment from higher material costs, but after the mortgage, you can at least get some of that money back in utility savings.

You are a rich man,...excellent house AND a perfect condition 1st gen Tacoma!

This post is about the condition of your Tacoma.

 

Speaking about Tacoma it is not just a matter of building cost vs fuel. One is a comfort - I'd rather spent a day in quiet environment instead of AC blowing full speed all day long. Also with good insulation I do not need big AC or furnace - that lowers the building cost too. The fiberglass or rock wool insulation is darn cheap and last forever.

By the way I feel bad about my Tacoma not giving her enough attention. I should fluid film her soon again, but all my time is taken by the construction. I'm practically working two shifts - one for making money at work, the other for spending it at construction. Sleeping is optional.

 

My Tacoma, after being neglected since the construction of the house started, decided to have a little bit of my attention. I'm sure she misses my TLC. I miss it too. So today I was having a lunch at the construction site and decided to listen to some audiobook in my truck. It was hot so I started the engine and put AC on. After few minutes of idling i heard some belt obviously slipping making squeaking noise. Just for a try I turned AC off and the squeaking stopped. So why out of the blue the AC belt started to slip? I turned AC on and the noise came back. Yep, AC belt it is.

I paused my audiobook, put my lunch away and checked under the hood. I saw the upper radiator hose squirting a coolant directly at AC belt. A lot of it. No wonder why the belt protested. I shut down the engine and released coolant pressure (I have aftermarket radiator cap with pressure relief valve). The radiator hose next to the engine bulged and somewhere there was a hole. Funny, the engine temperature gauge was showing normal (no wonder, the coolant was still flowing) so the only indicator of malfunction was a noise from AC belt. Clever design from Toyota .

So I am alone in the "middle of nowhere" 27 miles away from home with crippled truck. First thing I did was calling Toyota parts and ordering upper and lower radiator hose. When upper gave up after 25 years, the lower is probably also at the end of its life. Of course no such parts in Europe, so it is special order directly from Toyota Corporate - waiting time about 3 weeks.

Having this out of the way I left the truck to let it cool down. After an hour when everything was cooled down, so I could touch it I removed a clamp and inspected the hose. The rubber in very good condition, soft, no cracks, just a bulge on the engine side and large pinhole in it.

So the second thing was calling my wife. She supposed to come in few hours anyway to meet our "tiles guy", so we could explain what and how we want our bathrooms done and to get a quote. So I asked her to bring a gallon of distilled water. When I removed the hose I caught about a cup of coolant that was left just above the engine outlet level. The other cup poured to the ground. That was good thing, as the coolant level was still above the engine head so there should be no damage to the engine.

Then I inspected what I had at the construction site. There was some sticky tape used for vapor barier - that thing can stick to anything. And there was a roll of enforced sticky tape used for stucco work. It is less sticky, but does not stretch. So the first tape was used to cover the hole, the second to keep the first tape tight. Then I put it all together. Ghetto repair, but I was hoping for it to last 25 miles.

My wife arrived, we meet our "tiles guy", and after we were done I went to fill up the coolant. I cut one of empty drinking water bottle in half and made a funnel of it. It took about 1/2 gallons of water plus a cap of coolant I caught when removing the hose. That included the overflow reservoir as it was empty too. I guess the hose broke on my drive in the morning, but I did not use AC, so I did not get the alert.

I burped the engine a bit but there was not much air in the system. Cabin heater was off so it did not drain. On the way home I used AC on as a "coolant squirt indicator" and from time to time I was turning cabin heater on, to check if there is still enough coolant in the system (the first symptom of low coolant is the cabin heater stops working as it fills up with air). Back home I was happy to see that the "band-aid" worked. There was some seepage of coolant from under it, but not much - it got me home.

So my truck is now grounded for few weeks before new parts arrive. I will say "hello" to my 4Runner, and will be driving her for a while.

 

Yesterday the upper hose arrived. The lower hose order status is still unknown - meaning probably in 2 months it will be ready. But really now I care only about the upper hose, as this one grounded my truck. Toyota did not have red concentrated coolant on hand, so it was ordered too - will arrive tomorrow. That is OK as as I had some 50% spare to replace the water in overflow reservoir, and I will need to replace no more than 3/4 litter of coolant in the system with pure concentrate. I can drive with a a bit more diluted than 50% for few days more.

Replacing the upper hose was one of the easiest repairs I ever did. It took less than 30 minutes total including draining some coolant to the level below the upper engine outlet, replacing the hose, refilling and burping the system. So here is the busted hose - it looks and feels normal (no hard or soft spots, no cracks) just the bulge next to the engine outlet and some pinhole not even visible when it's not leaking. That black/white "Flextape" I used to fix the leak was holding so strong, I had a hard time with removing it.



And the new hose installed



My home made funnel for refilling and burping the system - if duct tape could work on Apollo 13, so it will work here on earth too:




While at it I have also checked all fluid levels and quality - all good like new. The engine oil level was exactly the same when I replaced it last year - that engine does not burn any single drop of oil. Amazing.

So finally I can service 4Runner - it is due for the oil change.

 

Just for the update, my truck is now my daily driver as I'm putting over 1000 miles a month on my poor girl. And being so busy at the construction site I have no time for any TLC. I think my girl understands it, as it serves me well without any complains. I have a list of stuff that is overdue, and I promise that as soon as the crazy time is over she will get my well deserved attention. 331k miles already rolled on the clock, and I think it will be 2-3k more before I finally stop that crazy commute.

In the meantime I learned to take her easy when the road is wet. BFG KO2 wil loose a grip on straight line when accelerating on the second gear on wet pavement. Same thing on roundabout. But despite that I would never trade KO2 for Michelin I had before. These tires are tough as nails, fantastic grip on muddy field and still very quiet on the pavement. Here is my girl at the construction site



No, not the "The Witcher" guy, the truck in the background

 

I always wanted take the lighting pictures of my truck at night. Well, it's getting dark early and with the DST time off today (In Europe it is one week earlier this year) at 6pm it was completely dark, when I was returning from my house construction place. So I took four pictures (the same camera setting) each light separately. Camera setting:
Aperture: 1.7
Shutter Speed: 1/17
ISO: 1072
Field Of View: 69.4 deg
Focal Length: 3.9 mm (35 mm equivalent: 26.0 mm)
Hyperfocal Distance: 2.00 m


Some explanation about my truck front lighting so you can understand it better.

For front markers I have polarity switching LED (work as a supporting blinkers (check the post https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...k-or-rysium-build.457350/page-6#post-18920494). They are just LED markers (5 LED chips in each) that give no more than 100 lumen , so I do not expect any lights to see around. Their role is just to be visible when the truck is parked on complete darkness.



Daytime Running Lights - They are legal (certified for Europe) OSRAM LEDriving PX-4 (check the post https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/osram-ledriving-px-4-for-drl-in-95-tacoma.482787/). Each lamp is 6.5W (that is about 600 lumen each). They are not designed to provide a light but to be visible during the day. So while they provide some light around, they are useless while driving at night (hence DRL). They do not give much lighting but they are very blinding to other cars at night, so DRL are turned on only when all other lights (position and headlights) are off - that is legal requirements.



Now the headlights. I stil run Autopal 200mm lamps "Euro cut" with Sylvania Silver Star H4 bulbs. I have a pair of HELA still on the box, that are waiting already four years for Autopal go bad. But they never dit. Autopal lamps provide so good lighting (pattern and output) that it did not feel right to take them out. Here is how they light in high beams. Notice that the hot spot starts far away from the truck. This is to not blind the driver with close up hotspot (quite often seen in crappy aftermarket headlights). Now I have to add that high beam (and low beam too) work together with front markers which are reflecting of my hood protector (the same what you can see in the first picture).




Finally the picture of low beams. Notice the almost perfect cut off especially visible on the left side and the center of the image. Euro cut (hence European legal requirements) have a rising cut off on the right site so you can see the side of the road better (pedestrians and road signs on the side of the road). This is why you see bushes and trees still lighted high up on the right side. Just to proof for the near perfect cut-off notice that the reflective band on the road pole on the right side of the road in the distance (visible in the picture above) is completely dark on the picture below.



In my opinion is is the best you can get of a reflector type housing (with incandescent bulb of course). Last year I drove rental 2019 Toyota Corolla with LED projectors headlights. While they look f** bright, the visibility was not even close to what I have in my Tacoma. That is correct - besides being f** bright and cool looking, these LED projectors were completely useless for driving at night. That experience stopped me from looking for any LED replacement for my Tacoma headlights. If they are legal, they can't be any good at all.

 

I really want to have this construction finished so I can spend more time with my Tacoma. Today I encountered another malfunction, and really I do not know for sure what the reason was.

I started my truck this morning and while it started with no problem it did not sound well. RPM should be at 1500 (cold) but it was around 1100rpm. Also the engine was shaking. It took me few seconds to realize it is running on 3 cylinders.

I popped the hood and immediately saw the problem. One of high voltage wires going from the distributor to the spark plug (cyl No 3) was broken in half. Actually the insulation was cracked exposing about 3/8 inch bare wire on each end.

My first thought was it is very possible that some rodent got into it. So I looked around checking for any other rodent damage, but there was none. Usually rodents don't eat just one wire, so maybe it was not an animal damage.

The second possibility is that the insulation cracked in that spot (it is on the wire tight bend) and the the wire finally broke. I do not know, I could be driving with cracked wire for some time as I did not open the hood since I fixed the radiator hose. Maybe a hot coolant was spraying on that wire damaging the insulation and now it finally gave up (the crack was just above the upper coolant hose exactly above where it developed a pinhole. I can only guess now.

I did not have a spare cyl 3 wire on hand so I crimped the broken wire together and wrapped in many layers of insulating tape. I need to order new wires, but till now it should do it. Anyway with that ghetto fix the engine fired right up on all cylinders, so I was able to take my commuting trip today.

 

I was wrong. It was a f*** rodent. I went to my truck this morning but before even starting it up I decided to look under the hood. Here is what I found:



The blue insulation tape was the repair I did yesterday, two more wires chewed up. One completely separated, the other one still hangs by the thread. My truck was parked outside in the muddy area as it rained quite lately. So on Distributor cover I noticed muddy footprints of that guy.



Same footprints were running over the air intake pipe



New wires are on order now. I wiped this area and other elements under the hood with some rodent repelent (I don't know if it will help) and stuck a repellent soaked rug under the hood. I did the same for my 4Runner. I really want to finish my new house so I could park my cars inside away from rodents and environment.

 

Use dryer sheets, or some soap or something that smells good

 

I used some mixture dedicated for rodents especially martens (which is the most common vandal here in Poland). It actually smells like bathroom stink repelent. I checked this morning - no new damages, no muddy footprints in either truck. Maybe it is working. I fixed these chewed up wires and drove to my construction site without any issues.

 

Another thing that "could go wrong with mu truck" is a leaf spring. Original suspension while it was tired a bit, still held up quite good ... til now. Passenger side second leaf spring broke in half, exactly under the front u-bolt.



I suspected something like that long time ago, but was hoping for the best. And it worked for many years. First thing I did was I panicked, then I called my trusty local Toyota dealer. And the is when the bad news started to flood. First of all, the part is no longer available, not a single leaf spring, not the whole assembly. When it was available, the whole assembly cost over 1300 dollars out the door plus about 200 dollars for the installation. That's not including additional parts that might be needed.

So I started to look on-line for aftermarket springs in USA shipping to Poland. Thanks to friendly help of TW users in the thread https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...af-springs-for-1995-4x4-ex-cab-solved.695026/ I selected General Springs, as a source. And then the next bad news: the shipping alone was over 1200 dollars.




I checked alternate parts and the best I came out was shipping of 400 dollars for not so great springs. The whole thing started to look bad. I checked on-line springs manufactures or fabricators and came with zip for consumers. I can buy a set of springs for 30-ton dump truck or the whole railroad car, but nothing for small pickups.

Then I talked to my friend, who apparently knows everything, and if he doesn't , he knows who does. Just tow words: "Blacksmith Brohow" (Brohow - is a small industrial district in our town). I called "blacksmith" and I found he is fabricating all kind of leaf suspension for trucks - the smallest he is making is a pickup or van, and Tacoma qualifies. I drove there so he can see what needs to be done and came with estimate - a bit less than 100 dollars for replacing broken leaf with the new one made exactly to the spec. We made appointment for the next business day.

I arrived at 7am and he took it right from there. Drove the truck over the oil pit - the smallest he had, which was just enough for Tacoma to be from the edge to the edge. For a jack he used an airbag, which lifted my truck like it was nothing.



Thanks to being former California truck, all bolts were going out, seems like they were pit over there last week. Not a single spec of rust. Just dry mud.



The leaf was broken, and I have a picture to prove it .




As you can see, it was the second, "supporting" leaf that cracked in half. That was good, so the primary leaf was still holding the rear axle in place. Otherwise it would be funny driving truck. From the look of the crack I think the crack developed some time ago and either did not break fully or did not move. I noticed it when I started to hear the squeak in rear suspension, that got me worried.



So cutting the story short, it took less then 20 minutes for a single guy to remove the spring - all nuts unbolted with hand ratchet tools. The he grabbed a matching leaf blank of the same size and worked on bending it to the right shape. After that few holes were drilled with seriously looking drill press (it took good 5 minutes per hole). Finally he assembled the pack and everything fit perfectly. Next 20 minutes took him to install the spring in place. he took time to clean parts and apply generous amount of grease to each bolt. The the final moment, after the truck was lowered. The difference between height of left and right side was less than 1/2 inch. That was freaken amazing. This way I did not need to change anything on the driver side. The driver side leaf was still good and the "blacksmith" told me that it does not make any sense replacing it "just because". If I ever need to do anything with my rear suspension, he is open for business.

Now the really good part: The whole process from driving in to driving out took less than 2 hours - I was out driving home on my new spring 10 to 9am. And this was after paying the bill: $74 for everything.

I learned a lot about this guy's business. Most of his work is not a repair job, but redoing suspension to adjust for specific load of customers trucks. For example some truck company has a 1 years contract for hauling a cement that is heavy, so they come over there to replace springs in their trucks to carry more weight. After the contract is done, and for example they get a new contract for hauling wood, they come over again and redo the suspension for lighter load. Because this is easy, cheap and very reliable, his customers prefer the suspension change over the airbag install. Airbags are not reliable as a steel springs, he told me. And I believe in that.

He told me, if I need to make my truck to sit higher for longer travel or sit the same but have a suspension to hold 1 ton, he can do it no problem. For my needs however I will keep the stock suspension but install the airbags I bought, as 90% of my driving is empty, and very occasionally I will want to load more than half ton of stuff. It this changes, for sure I will come back to his shop to get my suspension made. This guy is great find and a keeper.

 

I did not have much time for my truck and it needs some love for sure. Just before Christmas I gave her a nice warm bath washing out a year-load of mud. I fixed dome light switch (old dirty contacts stopped conducting electricity), and adjusted a hand brake cable. The swing arm, that is distributing the hand brake force equally between wheels (that thing mounted on the diff) got dirty and does not swing freely anymore. I will have to dive under and clean it again. If not, the truck will not pass the annual inspection that is due next month. Just the weather is not cooperating at all - if it's sunny it's cold, if it's not freezing, it rains .

Speaking about the annual inspection, my wife's Nissan and our 4Runner passed it with no problem. I think it is the last time I had no problems. The issue is that the regulations changed, and now all inspection stations are under big scrutiny from the "Department of something". Starting January 1st they supposed to fail "american headlights", the headlights that don't have the sloped cut-off on the right side. My 4Runner and Nissan both have flat cut-off line and it suppose to be no-go. We will see how it develops during the year 2021, but if it will be the reason for failing the inspection, I will have to convert both cars to projectors. Tacoma already has Euro-cut headlights, so she is good there.

The other change is that "short" license plates (the American size) are not allowed on cars that have enough room for European size plates. If someone got "short" plates for his Porche or Mercedes, they will not pass the inspection. They lied to the department of motor vehicles to get that "cool looking" plates, now they are in big doo-doo. Cool dudes got these short plates, because it has just 4 characters: One letter for voivodeship, and the sequence of three letters/numbers.

On the other hand the bumper on my Tacoma can't fit European size plate, so I am good to go in that matter too (my licence plate obviously is not "TACO" but it has just 4 characters). That makes my truck even more unique in Poland - all these farm tractors that are called "Hilux diesel" have long plates.

 

It's my understanding that 95-97 tacomas can interchange pickup rear springs

 

The annual inspection time. The weather is awful - temperatures hovering below freezing at night and above freezing during the day. Rain with snow almost every day. The snow does not accumulate, just creates more and more cold mud.

Having no garage I decided to just go for the inspection, only making sure that none of light bulbs is burned out. I suspected my e-brake might be off a bit as I had no chance to fix it. And I was right - left wheel had significant less breaking than the right side when using a hand brake. With normal (hydraulic) braking all wheels were perfect.

The inspector gave me a little grief about my short license plate in the front. While the rear bumper obviously had no room for standard size plates, the front looks like it might fit (it had standard size plate before). But I argued, that if I put a longer plate at the front it will block the airflow to the radiator and AC. The plate would cover the lower grille completely.

He suggested to mount the plate on the bumper, but I dismissed that idea immediately. I am not going to drill holes in a chrome bumper and relocate the license plate from original factory location to there. The regulation for using short (American size) license plate is clear: If car is made in USA or Japan and it was designed to carry American size licence plate and have no room to accommodate European size plates, the short plates can be used. My truck was made in USA and factory location for front and rear license plates do not have enough space for European size plates. Rear because of the curved bay in the bumper is shorter than European license plates and front because full size plate would interfere with engine cooling. That is my statement.

After we discussed that the inspector gave my truck clean bill of health with oral recommendation to fix that parking brake as soon as practical. I am good for next year.

 

I must admit, that I have not been driving my truck since the annual inspection. The reason is simple - at the annual, when the guy told me, how many miles I have driven last year I realized, that this was all and some since the last oil change.
I did my calculations, and it was almost 15k miles since I did the last oil change . Driving to the construction site of my new house almost every day added miles very fast. So the last week I drove her for the last time before the general TLC - moving the truck to the new house. Now it is waiting for the spring to come - so far the weather is still not cooperating (cold and damp). I can't do the work in the dedicated spot in the new garage as the floor in the garage is not finished yet. Yes, waiting for the weather.



Tacoma still drives fine with no issues, but I know it's borrowed time. Besides the oil change I still need to replace spark plug wires, that were chewed up by some rodent and replace the lower radiator hose. Both parts are on the shelf waiting to be installed. While at the spark plugs I might as well replace them. It's been over 50k miles since they were installed. And I think I am about 250k miles overdue for the valve clearance check. For that job I will need to get the valve cover gasket and valve cover washers from my local Toyota. I have also Firestone airbags in the box to be installed in the rear suspension. I bought these airbags during my last visit in USA over 18 months ago but since then I was fully dedicated to the house construction.



Now, after I moved in I can spread my time between other things too. Don't get me wrong, it is not like I have nothing to do - besides my paid 8 hours full time job (working from home) I'm working around this 3.8 acres property (fencing and landscaping), and still finishing the interior of the house. But the good thing is I finally cut my commute, which will save my 4Runner to (4Runer is my DD for now). After airbags are installed Tacoma will be used just for local commute and light work. For heavy work I'm thinking of buying a used small farm tractor. Yes, this one will be a classic diesel .

 

I just ordered set of parts for upcoming maintenance:
1 Valve Cover Gasket: 11213-75030
10 Washers: 90201-12222
4 spark Plug Tube Gaskets: 11193-15010
4 Spark plugs: DENSO K16R-U
1 gal 5W-30 Toyota engine oil

The first thing on the list is the oil change. As long as it is not F** cold I can do it outside. Valve clearance check must wait for a room in the garage or summer to come. Can't believe it, it's April and it is still snowing with freezing temperature. Bloody weather.

 

Just in case someone thinks I'm dead I must say "not yet". However the truck still sits outside the garage. Actually garage is now ready, just I don't have time to start working on the truck. I already wished few times I did, as I needed to bring some stuff with my truck, but I am not going to move her till all the maintenance is done. So I use my 4Runner. I know it's shame, to use SUV for trucking but I don't have other option for now. I's just so much work on landscaping my new property and it needs to be done before winter comes.

OK, One thing I did - I washed her.

 

The truck is now in its own parking spot in the garage. After so many years parking outside finally it is protected from the environment, bird's dropping and rodents. Well, she deserves it.




By the way it is "true" three car garage, not wat they call it a "three car garage" in real estate offering where you can fit door-to door two Fiat-500 and motorcycle. It is not Jay Leno's garage, but for sure very comfortable where I can walk around all three parked cars without holding my breath. And still have a room for 2ft deep shelf on the wall.









This way I can comfortably work on my truck and not interfere with the other parking spaces.