The Story of my 1998 4Runner

Figured I might as well start documenting the life of my 1998 4Runner - so here it is!

She was bought brand new in 1998 by a family friend who had it special ordered. It came from the factory with a 3.4L V6, the SR5 package, 4x4 & a 5-speed manual transmission. If only he had ordered a locker - damn !

They enjoyed the truck for a few years, and in 2006 when my older brother turned 16 it was bought for his first car. He daily drove it all throughout high school, college and well after. I remember being a kid and riding in the back with him blasting some early 2000's rock. Good times!

When I finally got my stuff together as a teenager and got my license there was no other car I wanted. I had to have the 4Runner. I had dreamed of owning it for years and I honestly couldn't even begin to tell you why. My senior year of high school I decided it was time to try to buy it from him. After talking to my brother about it over and over he agreed to sell it to me and I bought her from him with 146k miles on the clock nine years ago on January 15th, 2013. First thing we did was rip off the stock running boards, and I took the first picture of my new (to me) first car!




I drove it as it was for a few months, falling in love with it more and more as I drove it. I wheeled it on some mild dirt roads as is, but really wanted to get it lifted and capable to do whatever I wanted with it.



After saving up funds from my first job I was able to start looking online at a lift and some new wheels and tires. In April of 2013 I was scrolling through craigslist where I found some 265/75/16 BFG K01's mounted up on 16" Mickey Thompson Classic III's for $200 bucks plus stock tires! Blown away that I even found this deal, I messaged the guy and met him at our local Toyota dealership where we did the deal. Other than the fact that they rubbed at full lock, I couldn't be any happier!




With my new shoes on the 4Runner, I forked out the other $200 to buy a cheap spacer lift kit on eBay. Within a couple of weeks I was ready to do one of my first big mechanic jobs. Thinking back on it now, we totally had no idea what we were doing. I remember my buddy stepping on the lower control arm to try to get the shock bolt to line up. Ohh how far I've come as a mechanic lol.

Despite having no idea what we were doing, we successfully got the spacers on and were extremely happy with the end result - and better yet no more rubbing!

 

With the lift on (albeit a really s***ty one) I found the 4Runner to be extremely capable. After I graduated a month later from High School, I was able to go out and do some longer trips in the 4Runner. We went everywhere - all over Tucson and even beyond. In June of that year I took my first long road trip up to the White Mountains where we have a cabin. I remember the first time driving on the highway - how nervous I was let alone going by myself. Despite my nervousness I knew that the 4Runner would get me there, and it did with no issues.







While I was waiting to hear back from the insurance company on whether they would fix it or not, I saved some money to fix it myself just in case. With the news that the insurance company was going to fix the fender and the bumper, I went out and used my money to buy a brand new OME lift kit and some tires! With the OME kit on, I spent every free moment I had going on adventures or planning one. Here's a few pics from all the trips we took:





Then in 2015, 50k miles and three years since I bought her I made the awful decision to let her go. There were a few issues, and I had somehow talked myself into wanting something bigger and more badass.

And on November 13, 2015 I watched the new gentleman get in the driver seat and drive away. My first car - gone. All of those high school and college memories going with it. My first "build" driving away off into the sunset never to be seen by me again.

Since I sold it in 2015, I have been through the following cars never loving one as much as I loved that 4Runner.

• 1994 Ford Bronco
• 1984 Jeep CJ-7
• 1994 Toyota Pickup
• 1991 Jeep YJ
• 1980 Toyota Pickup
• 1989 Jeep Cherokee XJ
• 1987 Toyota Pickup (KLF Special!)
• 1978 FJ40
• 1990 Toyota 4Runner
• 2000 Toyota Tacoma
• 2004 Toyota Tacoma

With every car I owned I advanced my mechanical skills, especially the eight months I owned that CJ-7. It was a total pile that I replaced almost every thing you could think of. Every time I got a new car I just couldn't seem to enjoy it or love it as much as my 4Runner. They were all too different. I found myself yearning to have it back.

Even with it gone I would keep up with it. I'd run a CarFax every year to make sure it was still on the road and not in a junkyard somewhere. I saw it was sold in 2018 and it went from Albuquerque to Boulder City in Nevada.

I ran my most recent CarFax in December of 2021, and after many nights spent laying awake I figured it was time to see if I could get it back. It was now or never.

 

Once I made up my mind to get the old girl back, I started by trying to call the gentleman that I sold it to, hoping he had the new owners information. Tried the number and unfortunately a girl picked up saying she knew nothing about it. Not a great start honestly!

Back in August I had posted a few pictures of it on the Toyota 4Runner forum hoping maybe a member had spotted it. Ideally the new owner would be using it as I did so I'd think someone would find it. I BUMP'd the thread and nobody had seen it so that was turning out to be a dead end as well. I did have the Title # on the CarFax and thought about calling the Nevada DMV but I knew they would never give out any sensitive information.

After all of this research I thought about hanging up the hat as finding this thing on my own was going to be next to impossible. I thought about it for a few days and decided that my last hope was to find a PI that had access to the Nevada DMV. I made a call to a local PI up in Las Vegas who told me that it was possible and they would look into it.

The next day I got a call from them with the owners name and a number! I was ecstatic - it was still on the road driving around. I called the owner who's name was Robert on the phone, and nervously waited for him to pickup. Would he be interested in selling it? Was it even in good shape or was it destroyed? So many questions went through my head. He finally picked up the phone, and after the initial explanation on how I found I made him an offer. He had bought it to be his son's first car so he wasn't sure if he'd let it go - but told me he'd send me some pictures and would talk to his son about it.

Ten minutes after we hung up he sent me a picture of the old girl:




To my amazement - she was still in really nice shape! The previous owner decided to very badly rhinoline all of the bumpers and the bull bar, and replaced my awesome MT Classic wheels with some 17" wheels off of a FJ Cruiser. They also installed a pretty hefty roof rack made by Whitson Metalworks. While I didn't like some of the changes, I was just happy that it was still in really nice cosmetic shape.

I waited another two days, very nervously when I got a text from Robert saying that his son agreed to sell her back to me. I booked a one way ticket to Las Vegas with my girlfriend and two friends to make a little trip out of this.

I flew into Vegas on December 18th where Robert picked us up from the airport and drove us to a nearby Chase Bank where his son and the 4Runner were waiting. After an extremely nostalgic test drive I paid them and drove off to the hotel where we'd hang out the rest of the weekend. We left Sunday morning and made the 7 hour trek home to Tucson where the 4Runner did awesome! In the six years I sold it only 50k miles were put on it and Robert took great care of it. Aside from the changes I noted above it was in the exact same condition inside and outside as it was when I sold it, save for a few small dings here and there.

This was also my older brother's first car, who regretted not buying it from me back in the day when he could've. Over the years we've both talked about how cool it would be to find the old 4Runner so when I did find it I kept it a complete secret from him and my family. The night we got back from Las Vegas we had already planned a family dinner so I drove the 4Runner over there. I parked it outside and told him that I needed a hand grabbing something I got from Vegas. He came out and I opened the garage door where the 4Runner sat in the driveway.

He was pretty pumped that I bought a 4Runner, and I told him I bought "our 4Runner". He was still pretty confused until he opened the passenger side door and saw it was a manual - and then he completely freaked out. It was a moment that I'll never forget. Usually when I buy a car I would hear my family gripe and say "oh why the one you have is so nice" - this was the first time they didn't say anything. They all knew what this truck meant to my brother and I.

Now that I had it back I sold my Tacoma and was ready to build this thing up the way I always wanted to when I was a kid with no skill or money.

 

With it back again I made a list of everything I wanted to do to it for the time being:

• Replace the lower & upper ball joints
• New OME lift kit
• ARB front bumper
• New outer tie rod ends
• New Steering rack bushings
• Change the oil
• fix the valve cover gasket
• Timing belt
• Ditch the roof rack

Pretty lengthy list but I figured with 230k on her it was time. Once I had gotten back to Tucson (where we have the worst roads) I did notice that the front end and suspension was pretty tired. Started wandering all over the road and had awful bump steer.

When I sold her back in 2015 the front end was pretty wonky and it appears the buyer did replace the ball joints with Moog aftermarkets - which was NOT okay with me. These 3rd gen 4Runners and 1st gen Tacomas have a faulty ball joint design to begin with and I've heard horror stories about aftermarket parts. I ordered all new OEM parts and got to work rebuilding the front end. Installed new OEM ball joints & tie rod ends along with some TRW steering rack bushings.

The guy I originally sold it to did some small mods on the interior, namely installing white LED's in the gauge cluster, red for the climate control and blue for the small buttons. This drove me absolutely crazy so I replaced all the LED's with OEM bulbs with the green covers brining it back to stock. While the dash was apart I replaced the crappy Pioneer deck with a newer Alpine.

My brother and I tracked down a 1996 in a junkyard and robbed the engine harness & the ECU for our 1990's 3.4 swap. Lucky for me it was a manual in the same interior color so I grabbed the rear cup holders, shifter knob & rear hatch light from it as they were all broken or missing. The rear cupholders had always been broken as long as I owned it back in the day so fixing that was extremely satisfying.




With the interior pretty much buttoned up it was a waiting game for all my new stuff to come in. I went back to the junkyard and pulled a stock roof rack to replace the Whitson that was on it. Nothing against the rack at all - but I never use them and would prefer to sell it and use the money towards other stuff like the bumper and the lift.



I was able to get the old one off and re-painted the new OEM roof rack. I don't have any pictures of it on because my new OME lift kit, wheels & bumper arrived! So that next Saturday we got to work installing all of our new parts - starting with the lift kit.




It took us a total of three hours to get the lift kit on, a major improvement from the two days when I put the spacer lift on! With the lift on it was time to rip off the old bull bar and start to install the ARB.

Unfortunately for us somewhere along the way someone had welded the bullbar bracket to the frame and then a bolt to that. It was one hell of a task to get it off which also resulted in the sawzall blade bouncing off the bolt right into the radiator.



With it and the stock bumper off it was time to cut the frame rails to make room for the ARB bumper!





While my brother and law painted the frame rails, I re-wired the chinsey plastic connectors for the turn signals with some nice weatherproof ones



We got the bumper on later that night and within one day she had undergone a complete transformation:




I did take it to get aligned that following week where I found out that the lower control arm bushings are shot - so she's disassembled right now as I'm replacing those with some White Lines. After that is done it should be time to put her to work!

Thanks to anyone who actually read my incredibly long winded build thread and story - and yes I do know I'm an absolute lunatic for hiring a PI to find my first car!

I'll keep you all up to speed with what I do with it in the future!

 

I'm just here to say...if you decide to sell it please let me know lol.

I've come across several manual trans 4x4 T4Rs out here but they're usually crazy high mileage or beat to hell.

I would love one of those unicorns, awesome rig

 

I'm honestly amazed with how nice this thing still is - it was was well preserved.

That being said I can't think of a number in my head that would make me want to sell this thing. I've had six long years of regret over it and I definitely don't want to do that again!

 

yeah I don't blame you haha

 

Took a little bit of time today to press out the old bushings on my lower control arms. I don't have a press so I used the old bottle jack and heat method.




I applied very little pressure and a s***ton of heat. The first one came out like butter and the second one took a little more pressure but came out too. As I was getting ready to push my new bushings in I noticed that one of the welds on the control arm had bent.

I measured the inside diameter of the other side and compared it to the one that I pressed and noticed it was off by a whopping 1/4"!

So DON'T do this with crappy aftermarket lower control arms. Have them pressed out professionally or buy some used OEM ones. I was sick of messing with this so I bought OEM lowers with bushings already installed. While it hurt the wallet I feel WAY better about the quality of it over my old ones - definitely way heavier.

Here you can see how bent the other one is:




With the new lowers I was able to get them slapped in and set the camber decently. It'll be towed to the alignment shop but I think this finally wraps up my front end rebuild. Look at all these nice shiny parts in there!




Really looking forward to seeing how well it drives now. It was extremely sketchy before with the bump steer so bad a pothole would send me in the other lane!

 

Went on a one day trail run last weekend in Southern Arizona - the 4Runner did great! Didn't get too many pics but did sneak into a few shots!

 

Great story, what's fascinating to me is apparently even in Europe they are enamored with these old Toyotas. I like to watch European detective shows and on this Italian one "Though shall not Kill" the lead female detective drives a late 90's 4Runner. They even showed a scene where she took it into a shop for repair and the mechanic says he cannot get parts.

On another French Netflix series, "Blackspot" all of the cops drive Series 80 Landcruisers if you can believe that! Even showed some serious off-road where one got stuck.

 

Haven't done much to the old Runner since I got the front end sorted out. I ended up replacing the Cragar steel wheels with a set of used Pro Comp alloys - just didn't like the way they looked.

I also installed a Scangauge II with a Spiker Engineering mount to help monitor the coolant temp and voltage which I would honestly recommend to anybody. It's a tad on the expensive side but I've found it to be very reliable and an excellent scan tool if any check engine codes come up.

In bigger news, I just completed a two day trip up to Flagstaff with a bunch of other rigs and had an awesome time! Camped the first night in the Cinders OHV area which is northeast of Flagstaff.



Then we hit the highway to make our way to the Grand Canyon via Diamond Creek Road!

 

On my way up to the Grand Canyon a few weeks ago - my A/C stopped working right outside of Phoenix. I was finally able to set some time aside to diagnose it and fix it this weekend.

Hooked up my new A/C gauges and the high side reading was unbelievably high – hanging around 400 PSI. Normal operation should be around 150-250 so this indicated I either had a blockage in the system or my expansion valve had failed. Given the fact that my A/C was intermittent beforehand I had a sneaking suspicion that my expansion valve had failed.

Ultimately though, at 234k miles I decided to buy once cry once and get the whole system replaced. I bought a new Denso compressor, condenser & expansion valve along with a Dayco Idler pulley, A/C Delco Drier & a Murray evaporator. (Would’ve gone Denso on both of these but was short on time). Started disassembly on Saturday morning and would’ve been done that day had Amazon delivered my compressor on time. Nonetheless I got it on Sunday and wrapped it up. Here’s a few pics documenting my install:

Pulling the evaporator:





Man that thing was gross! Good thing I was replacing it anyway. Here's the failed expansion valve, along with the rusty bolts connecting it to the evaporator. I cleaned them up with a wire wheel before installing.




New condenser & drier






I don't have any pictures of installing the compressor, but I found it really easy to remove. Everywhere I read online said you should remove the PS pump to get to it. I'm happy to report that you do NOT have to remove the PS pump! Disconnect your transmission cooling lines (don't have any since I have a manual) and remove the two 12mm bolts holding the power steering hard lines in place. Once you've done that the compressor can come right out the bottom. This made the removal/install much easier.

All in all the job was not very difficult at all and the results are fantastic - my truck now has a alternative use as a freezer.

 

Now that the A/C is buttoned up I'm starting to focus my efforts on the interior again. The old leather steering wheel has been disintegrating from the sun long before I sold it and it was time to get it replaced. Definitely feels weird having a new one on there but way overdue!

Before:




After:


It feels like a brand new car again! I still need to buy a new middle console lid (which is still available from Toyota) and some new center air vents as one of mine is busted.

 

Bought the Marlin short shifter kit last week and got it installed:




Loved the way it shifted but absolutely hated how much taller the shifter was



So I took it to a machine shop and got it cut back down to factory size and now it's perfect!

 

What was the first polished bush-guard or bull-bar that you had on in the early stages? It is so simple and elegant, I have been scrubbing everywhere to try to find something like that.

Beautiful Runner m8, inspiring me to get my rig done and get out there

Cheers from Oregon

M

 

Honestly couldn't tell you! I got it on craigslist used for like $80 back in the day. It was actually still on the truck when I got it back but it was rhinolined pretty badly. I sold it to a guy I knew so I could have him check to see if there was any manufacturer name on it if that helps.

Get your truck done and get a build thread going man!

Edit - Here's a better pic of it if it helps you find one!