New to 1st Gen Tacoma

hello
i just got a 1998 Tacoma after my old 2000 ford ranger was ripped off. (had it since new) I have a camper shell for the ranger that is at a different location and I am wondering if the range cap might fit on the tacoma? I haven't been able to get to the location of my campershell to get measurements.

I have only driven the toyota to smog and DMV and home but it is a great ride , it seems much smoother than the old 2000 ranger. the tacoma has a good ole bench seat which i think is great but i have short legs so any one riding with me will be smash!

I may need to find some type of pillow to go against the back on the drivers seat as I prefer to set up more straight ( for neck purposes) and the seat seems to be a bit too reclined for me.

Looking forward to getting to know the tacoma . You know the funny thing when i was looking at trucks in 2000 I really wanted the toyota but couldnt afford it. the Ranger was quite abit less to drive it off the lot at that time. Now I have the toyota I wanted in 2000.!
if anyone has any clues about the camper-shell fit give me a holler. please.
thank you

 

Welcome!

My uncle has a 2017 Tacoma, and the BesTop soft collapsible canopy from his Ranger fit it.

 

Welcome to The Forum!

 

I bet the camper will be a fit. The bed dimensions are the same, the only thing I’d worry about is the angle of the front of the camper and the back of the cab matching perfectly. As long as you’re matching a 6’bed or double cab short bed, you should be fine, but that’s the only flag I’ll raise.

Welcome to the forum & the yota family. Post up pics of your rig when you get em!

 

@OP Welcome to the forum! Concerning the truck bed: I think the camper shell from your Ford Ranger should fit. You'll have to measure it to see if it will fit on your truck. I believe the Tacoma's bed is around 6' 6" (66")? Concerning your bench seat: I have the 60/40 bench seat with the arm rest and it's ok. The design of the OEM seats leave a lot to be desired whether it's the bench, 60/40 bench seats, or bucket seats. You may want to locate 4Runner seats with an adjustable lumbar that some of the people have done or if you want something much nicer, get yourself a set of Corbeau seats with a lumbar & heater options.

 

Do a search for seat swaps. You can swap in toyota bucket seat or even 60/40 seats pretty easily.

 

thanks for the great details about the camper shell. surprising the little 2000 ford ranger was found and pretty much unharmed except for a popped ignition and the passenger lock.
needing some help with my toyota.
was driving yesterday and noticed after 20mins of errands the engine seemed very very warm. maybe even "hot" I only found out because I learned to take the relay out so no one can steal it.
after parking i went to take the relay out and noticed the hot engine and even the relay was pretty warm when i pulled it out. since i am new to all this I have no idea if this is normal or not.. Was reading on the forum here about using a Scan Gauge. I see a couple models out there.. Scan Gauge II for over $100 bucks and a "compact" scan gauge. if i just want to check the engine temp will the less expensive work, and what might be any drawbacks to that unit? Also anti - theft suggestions aside from pulling the relay out? thanks for the help? wondering also if i should post this in a different thread? thanks again!

 

@OP. I’m glad that your truck was recovered from its theft. There’s always going to be damage in an auto theft, depending on what the thief intended to do with your vehicle. Most of it will involve the ignition/disarm alarm/steal items of high value from the vehicle or the vehicle itself.

Concerning the engine temperature, I’ve always used the stock gauges on my dashboard and never installed or used a Scan Gauge. Of course, that depends on your needs to monitor what’s going on with your vehicle. If I had a supercharger on my truck, then I would want a Scan Gauge and some other monitoring system for the supercharger. Is your truck leaking coolant? Are your hoses cracked, worn out or leaking? Is your water pump leaking? If these things were happening, then I would be concerned about temperature. I don’t understand exactly what you’re looking for concerning temperature.

Concerning anti-theft devices: I have one myself. I recommend the Ravelco anti theft device:https://www.ravelco.com/

 

If you're handy, you could do something creative for alot less money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUhXLsrZiE0

 

An even cheaper way to monitor your ECU for things like coolant temp, fuel trims, intake temps, engine codes, etc. is to get a OBDII plug in transmitter off Amazon for ~$15 and then download the Torque app on your phone for $5. The Torque app will show all the same info that the Scangauge does. The advantage to the Scangauge is that it is always there and always showing you info, versus the Torque app you have to plug in the OBDII dongle and use your phone. But it is a lot cheaper.

I highly recommend getting something like that to monitor your engine temp, the gauge on the dash will only start to rise toward red once you are in dangerous overheating territory. If it ever touches the red you're pretty much guaranteed to have caused damage.

 

You can have Torque running all the time. I still my my scanner plugged in now. I ran mine constantly mine for a while until I noticed I wasn't getting any useful info form it. Only thing is the phone tends to time out and lock so you can't look at it *constantly* (not that you should do that anyway...).

@qkcam assuming your temp gauge is functioning, you likely have nothing to worry about. The problem a lot of people have with using "true" temp gauges (vs. the needle on the dash) is they freak out when they see their temps go up and down, but that's totally normal. The temp inside your engine bay can "seem" hotter than normal, too, but that easily could just be you shut it off as it was reaching a slightly higher temp and you noticed right away.

The dash lights are called idiot lights because 1) we are idiots when we ignore them, and 2) because they are "dumb" gauges and (aside from the gas gauge) don't actually measure anything. The gauges only show if a particular reading gets outside a certain range. This makes people assume that the temp doesn't change at all, so when they get a real gauge, they freak out.

So, if you're curious what the temps actually are, get the OBDII thing and Torque ap (or scangauge if you want to spend more), but IMO, it honestly isn't going to tell you a whole lot, except maybe at what temp the warning lights DO come on.

 

I think I need to get a different OBDII dongle...if I leave mine plugged in when I shut my truck off, when I turn the truck back on the ABS light will flash constantly. I have to turn off the truck, remove the dongle, and then restart and the ABS light goes off. It's odd but I've read that some of those OBDII plug ins will do that, I probably just need to get another

 

Yeah, that's weird. I'm got this one (2 of them, actually) and they work great. One in the Taco, one in the 4Runner.

for Android Phones ONLY - Wireless Bluetooth Diagnostic OBD2 Scanner Car Code Reader and Scan Tool for All 1996 & Newer Vehicles ELM327 Compatible OBDII

https://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Product...h&qid=1575664405&sprefix=obdII,aps,228&sr=8-4

The problem I have is that my phone seems to get confused and doesn't like pairing to both of them for some reason. I think because they both have the same bluetooth name. I can't remember exactly, it's been a while since I've messed with them.

 

100% agree... I have a Bluetooth reader set up to the Torque Pro app on my phone.

Actual screenshot of what I'm monitoring.

(The temps are way low because I just turned the truck on to take the screen shot)

 

I don't have ABS so I cant speak to that. But my Bluetooth reader has been plugged in for over a year and I've never had any problem.

 

nice, that gives me a couple ideas of things to add to mine, the compass mostly...that's pretty cool. I also just added the voltage reading to mine the other day, somehow missed it before.

Also added a timing advance window even though I don't really understand how timing should work under different conditions lol, but I'm reading up on it. Fuel trims are nice to monitor too as they'll let you know if you're running too rich/lean for one reason or another

 

I added the volt meter to fill space lol. I have volt meters running directly off each battery and they read higher voltages than the Torque App does. Not sure where the ECU is measuring the Voltage.





Yes... I know my truck is a friggen mess.

 

Looks like I am going to have to finally cave in and upgrade to a "smart phone" I have been so happy with my old cave phone.. LG OCTANE. I really dont want/need the internet when I am out in the world. ah but change is good! I love the idea of a kill switch.. but need to find a place to put that someone wont find it. the only thing they took from my ranger was a couple trader joe's grocery bags I had tucked away behind the seat. I guess it was a homeless person that needed some wheels to get across town. they did mess up the passenger door lock cylinder and ignition cylinder but as far as i know thats it.. it's at mechanic for a safety inspection.

I appreciate the tips about the app to download and run with a dongle. I do have a kindle fire tablet it has bluetooth but i bet it wont work with the app. it' would be great to not have to upgrade phones..my bill is $30 a month .

as far as the engine heating goes.. maybe i put the relay back in the wrong plug. i am going ot have to look up a diagram. I am pretty sure I got it right. but i dont remember the engine or relay being so hot when I took it out the first time last week. lots to learn..this is great!
thanks

 

I have ABS, and it's not a problem for me either.


Jesus man, wash your truck

 

If that's the case, you don't need a PHONE, you can use a small tablet too. Get a GPS enabled one (like the Galaxy Tab A 8" or something, like $150), and load Torque Pro on it. You can also load aps like Backcountry Navigator (GPS mapping ap).

I think there are even cheaper ones than this one: wi-fi, gps, and bluetooth.

8.0" Samsung Galaxy Tab A - 16GB Smoky Titanium

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZY7ZUIG/ref=psdc_1232597011_t1_B0161UWH76