First time maintenance on my 98 Tacoma (280,000 miles).

This is my first post, so here it goes......This may sound crazy but I have never done any upkeep on my Tacoma. It has 280,00 miles on it and I have only changed out the tires (3x), battery (3x), Belts a couple times, oil and oil filter every 5-8,000,brake pads and rotors (fronts only) and my thermostat. That's it. I still have the original clutch. I am just now starting to put some money back in her and I was going to start with replacing the fluid in the differentials. Any suggestions on type of gear oil. Is there anything I should look for that I should be concerned about since this will be the first time it will have been replaced. I know there are a lot of other things that I need to check/replace but this is where I am starting. Any input on what I should be doing to my truck to make her happy would be greatly appreciated.

 

Wow, I was scared there for a second...by "first time maintenance" I thought you were implying that you hadn't even changed the oil yet, but at 280,000 miles that wouldn't make any sense lol.

That's the beautiful thing about our trucks (especially the first gens as they've withstood the test of time), with regular service they will run forever. Have you had the transmission fluid serviced? Definitely do that along with your differentials.

How in the world are you on your original clutch still??? That's impressive...but I'd probably look into changing it out because it's way past it's life expectancy. Getting stranded somewhere because your clutch goes out isn't any fun, been there done that.

Welcome to Tacoma World!

 

these are the questions you should be asking your owners manual.............. or a toyota specialist. call your local napa auto parts and ask if they know of any toyota specialists in the area other than the dealer. find a good tech and keep with 'em. so long as they're ASE certified with several certs (maybe along with some toyota certs), they will do you good. good luck.

 

Timing belt, water pump, ball joints, tie rods, steering wheel bushings, spark plugs and wires, differential oil, transmission fluid. Check shocks too

Theses are all the things I replaced in My tacoma when I bought it with 185.000 miles...six months ago.

 

Yea, you're kinda due for a lot of stuff. Unless you want to be a test mule for ALL factory parts.

I've combined changing parts as they fail with doing some PM work and most parts I've changed were still perfect @ 200K miles. EXCEPT most rubber seals were rotted from age. (BTW my boss just got 250K miles on his "05 clutch before it started slipping.....you're prob. looking at that soon)
If you're not wanting to do a lot of over due work just replace all fluids and hoses and fix ANY leaks soon after they pop up so nothing fails from lack of lube.

So you've never greased your U-joints......impressive.

 

If you have the 4-banger, then you don't have a timing belt. Do you have any rattling noise from the timing cover?

 

if when you said belts you also mean cam shaft timing belts

I would do new radiator immediately if it is an automatic

throttle position sensor

....then gee if nothing is throwing codes, run it

 

Grease your poor driveshaft u-joints!!

 

There's good stuff here. At this point it's not only maintenance, it's preventative maintenance, replacing things that seem ok but only have one long ride from home left in them.

Radiator is good advice. And cooling system components-hoses, pump, rad cap,etc. can easily leave you stranded.

I passed a Tacoma the other day getting towed in a parking lot- lower ball joint broke. The above mention of ball joints and tie rods was good advice.

Pull your rear drums and look at the brakes and make sure axles seals aren't leaking.

Change the air filter too now and then

 

+1 axle seals they do leak eventually

and

when replaced you have to be PERFECT not all mechanics who know how to do
an axle seal, know how to do a 1998-2002 toyota axle seal, it must be done with absolute precision.

 

Just changed the gear oil in my rear differential. It was dark but clean. I have a lot of cleaning to do underneath the front just so I can find the fill and drain plugs for the front differential. I think the mud is holding my truck together. I'm kinda worried that by cleaning underneath will open a door to problems. But it needs to be done. And no I have never greased my u joints. That will be done this week along with other things. I'm also running on the original timing belt so I am going to look at getting that replaced soon also. I'm not taking my truck to a mechanic for I am going to try to tackle everything myself. If I think i will be getting in over my head on something (timing belt?) then I will find a mechanic. Thanks for the input.
It is greatly appreciated.

 

we can talk you through that easy enough. They're easy on a RWD vehicle. And really very little to get confused about on timing. Toyota is GREAT in making maintenance a priority.

 

Lol i bet dust will shoot out when you grease your u joints!!