Bought my roommate's truck and damn, it needs some help.

Hi there,

I spent the afternoon reading various threads here to familiarize myself with precisely what I'm getting into. I picked up my roommate's 2001 4x4 TRD - with 256,032 miles on it - mainly to get it out of my way in the garage. But I got a very nice price on it and I'd been thinking about something I can "camp" in, and this seemed like a good way to go. He'd set it up for dirtbagging, so it's got a platform in the bed (under the topper, naturally) for sleeping, and even a deep-cycle battery to run the fridge. But he's not really a car guy, and it's kinda hurtin. You'll likely see threads from me about how to make it hurt less, but I'll throw a quick run-down on what I've noticed so far.

It's currently outfitted with 285/75R16s - big-ass BF Goodrich offroad tires with maybe 10% left. Noisy as hell and more extreme than I need. Not that I never took my trusty Impreza places it really shouldn't have gone, but I'm not anticipating any serious four-wheeling in this. So those will probably become 265/70R16s (Yokohama Geolandars look like excellent value to me).

Now changing direction with those bigass tires is another thing entirely. The power steering pump makes lots of noise and not a lot else. So far as I can tell the steering is completely unassisted. I'm probably gonna just put a remanned pump on it, clean the reservoir screen as best I can, and hope the steering gear is solid. But if anyone has a better suggestion...

Turning the tires needs some help, too. There's a substantial shudder under heavy acceleration between, say, 1600 and 2500 RPM. And it doesn't seem to have the power I would expect from 190 horses, either. So plugs and wires are my first order of business. I don't know that they've ever been done.

I haven't yet crawled under it to look at the frame, but I think this has mostly been a CO vehicle, and we're not known for rust the same way other places are. But, depending on how far I get on the other mentioned projects this weekend, I'll be under there looking for the grease points.

Oh, and it has some janky after-market alarm system with a disemboweled fob that requires way to many presses to disable. That's gonna go - I just hope that whoever wired it in did it such that it will be easy to wire out.

Hope that serves as an introduction! Thank you to everyone who has created the wealth of information on these forums! I'm looking forward to turning a wrench again!

 

Welcome

 

Welcome to TW

 

Welcome to TW! We have a pretty active community here in CO, so check out some of the local threads. Easy to find someone to lend a hand on repairs/mods.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/colorado-b-s-thread.131441/

 

Welcome to TW! Sounds like you have a good project on your hands.

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Welcome to TW ....Good luck!!

 

Welcome! If its lacking power I would do a quick check of the timing belt. I've worked on other cars with the timing belt off and saw a big increase in power once it was fixed.

 

Welcome!

 

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

I don't really have any that do it justice at the moment. I was hoping to grab a few this morning, but the weather turned and the shots turned out dreary and uninspiring. I could probably post the shots I took of where the neighbor backed into it Monday night (less than a week after I bought it) but, well, I'd rather get off to a better start! I'll try to get something up here, soon.

 

Welcome