TruKnight's Autobot Build

light and codes came back on, I dont fully understand the purpose of this system or where the fault is in it, whats the worst case if I just ignore this and never fix it?

 

I had that code for awhile and it went away. In California, it probably would've affected my smog testing, but otherwise neither performance nor efficiency changed

 

im going to continue to ignore it then, no soviet smog testing here, and perhaps someday ill have it fixed. thanks!

 

I recall reading that it affects fuel economy. Because it throws a CEL I had to get it fixed to pass the PA annual inspection.

 

thanks for the info! unless it drops to 2 mpg I cant justify the expense right now. fortunately there are no soviet annual inspections here.

ill put it on the list to fix along with the broken plastic toothed gear that controls the air conditioner recirculating vent that ive been ignoring for years because I dont feel like taking the dash apart just for that.

 

Maybe mine is just too bad to notice the change

 

log entry 2-9-23
replaced squeaky wiper blades with new oem part

 

cant help but notice how much the 4th gen trd pro looks like the gen 2.5 pro, only more angry. this is what the 3rd gen should have been.

am kind of digging it, at least for a '25 model, dont want the first year model, let someone else work out those bugs. the interior matters too tho, no leaks yet of that.

but also not digging it, because given how much prices have shot up it would cost twice what I paid for my '10, just guessing tho since no pricing isnt out yet, but im not looking to take out a second mortgage level payment just for a truck.

and ive enjoyed having that paid off for the last 8 years its made getting through the last 3 sucky years alot easier.

it is pretty tho, slap some 285's, roof rack and a toolbox and id be more than happy to have two tacomas in the garage. just a daydream tho.

 

Well said! I couldn't agree more, it's crazy what they want for these trucks now.

 

thx homer. I crunched some numbers in excel just for my own curiosity and id have to only buy food and soap and nothing else for several years to make that math work. and since we on this forum are the highest probability of people to buy one, I dont know who they expect to sell these to.

 

well, after watching 50+ videos on the new 4th gen pro ive identified my future second tacoma. (except for the color)

they did a really good job on this one, its a true next level up and not just a mediocre iteration like the 3rd gen. only nitpicks are that the center display isn't integrated into the dash and there is no drivers side grab handle.

starting yesterday it looks like ill be buying only food and soap for the next 12+ months in order to save enough up on what I assume will be a 60k msrp. and then I expect ill be saving/waiting a few more months on top of that because I think all the 24 pros will fly out the door on day 1 regardless of the markups and also the long waitlists I see forming so I wont have a chance anyway.

12-18 months away is a long time tho, and a lot can happen in the world of mice and men, so ill just be saving up and keeping tabs until an opportunity presents itself.

keeping my 2nd gen of course, they would look awesome parked beside each other and I could alternate between the two.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

so after seeing the blue on the interior of the new 4th gen sport, it got the wheels turning in my head and after 1 hour, 20$ worth of vinyl wrap, some creativity and a steady hand, this is what I came up with:


I also found a use for the tailgate badge that I took off 8 years ago, hit it with some gunmetal grey and some e6000 on the back and there we have it!


yes yes the edges arent the best, ill work on that later, but for the time and cost I think its decent and I like it alot. the blue is deeper than swb of course but thats ok too. might give you guys some ideas about what you can do to add a dash of color in your own trucks perhaps, tho I may not be the first to do this, im not sure I didnt check around. I am really appreciating how the 2nd gen interior is a model of elegant simplicity tho, its just past that awkward 90s era but before everything became a screen era.

ive also a few months back wrapped the wheel with alcantara, again not a pro job on the stitching but it feels really nice in hand and I like it alot.

random thoughts only for the build thread:

lately tho, now that the euphoria of the 4th gen announcement has worn off, ive been taking a retrospective view on the last 13 years, and how much I am really still pleased with my truck every day I drive it, its one of the best decisions I ever made and by extension to be in the tacoma/toyota community also. you are all great people and ive had a good experience here.

also, ive been watching some vids about the 80s-90s toyota trucks and its great to see the passion people have for those, its a shame so many of them rusted into the ground, one of those mid to late 80s models look kind of sick because of the body size to tire ratios. if I had it all to do over again one of those would for sure be my first vehicle.

 

been in a retrospective mood lately, and after watching many videos on the new 4th gen and well as the old 80s and 90s trucks, I thought that I didnt appreciate what I already had enough, cause the 2nd gen is a nice sweet spot in the spectrum of the last 50 years. Also ive not thought about modding this truck anymore than it already is, until now, so ive had some fun looking around at all the new stuff thats been made the last few years, most of it was for the 3rd gen, but some things caught my eye. more to come on that in future posts.

for today, I went down the catalog and found a few oem things that I hadnt really known existed before, so of course I bought them.

first up we have an oem black chrome exhaust tip (part numbers photographed for your convenience):



of course it came with zero instructions of any kind, but it only goes on one way:



bolted right on, one of the easiest mods ever!

next up I got the oem cargo net:



I mean it has a blue tacoma in the picture how could I not?



I found out what these 2 bolts are there for now, to secure a bracket at the back for the net, never actually noticed them before.



it has 4 more clips to attach to the bed cleats. you can see the oem cargo net I already have had for years sitting below it attached to those cleats, been super useful.



ive needed this a ton of times in the past 13 years, its my own fault for not looking at the accessories list I guess. it would pull tight at the end but my toolbox is taking up that space. I may replace the toolbox with a sport bar at some point if I find one that I like enough.

ill go ahead and tell you I got the oem bed divider too but its not here yet. not the oem tailgate extender tho, that would have only come in handy a few times over the years and id rather spend that cost on something else.

will post updates as they arrive in the mail and I install them. most of them are little things tho, not looking to go full rock crawler here, just something to give me an excuse to work on my truck really.

ill update the front page too as I go.

 

more parts have arrived!

my 13 year old floormats were showing some age so I looked around for replacements and I found these trd pro mat set for access cabs:



I had no idea these even existed but I like em. a bonus is that the have holes that match the locks that were on the newer 12-15 black carpet that I changed out years ago when I did the 12-15 conversion so now they are secured in place. my old mats moved around abit and I never liked that so this kills 2 birds.

part number for those that want some:



next up I finally replaced the a/c recirculation door actuator after procrastinating for way too long.



no more popping noises YAY!

shout out to this guy for showing me how dead easy it was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMR1bfLfIrc

and thank you 2nd gen toytoa engineers for making it accessible without taking off the dash!

next up I installed some blue led footwell lights from vleds, a nice plug and play kit, pretty painless install:



its hard to capture it on camera, it looks much nicer in person:



went with blue for obvious reasons, they had other colors tho.

next up, I installed a matte black bull bar with led light bar:



Barricade 3.50-Inch Bull Bar with Skid Plate and 20-Inch Dual Row LED Light Bar; Black (05-15 Tacoma)

now before you rip on me for putting on a bull bar, I did first look at getting an integrated plate bumper for the lower black part of the bumper, but after factoring in the costs and additional purchases of lights and me not having a need for a winch, I opted for this instead because its not messing with any of the front end its only bolted onto the crash bar so its reversible with no harm. the more integrated solutions I looked at weren't that tight on the fitment either, at least at the price point I wanted, and this was alot cheaper than that and came with the light bar and harness included, so yeah.



I got a switch for it too.



I havent wired it up yet tho, but I did put it into the open spot. below it is the switch that came with the harness, I stuck that on the lower empty switch spot for now, it has 3 wires and the new one has 4 so I need to find a wiring diagram for it. (a project for another day, along with finding a way to wire the blinker mirrors to actually work too)

the bed divider should come later today so ill put that in tomorrow. ive also ordered some decals for the tailgate too, its acquired some paint scratches and dents over the years that id just as soon cover up with something. going with a classic 'toyota' on the back and some other simple graphics.

also did an oil change today since it was time.

still have a few things coming in the mail tho.

 

today I installed the oem bed divider:



a very solid piece of kit!



fits nicely on those rails.



I think I have enough bed storage solutions now.

I also replaced the led's I bought years ago for the dome and map lights back to incandescent. the light they put out was too harsh and bright for actual use at night for my taste.

also I now have both tailgate graphics, but I want to think a day about how to arrange them.

have another 5 mods still in the mail tho.

 

yesterday I installed the tailgate graphics



I think it came out decently well. covers up the worst of the scuffs and scratches anyhow.

today I installed some black emblem covers from runnin4tacos for the doors since those are the only 2 I kept. I was going to paint them black but this is a nicer solution.



after that I installed some alpharex luxx taillights in black



very nice looking and easy install for both of todays mods.



I was sold as soon as I saw that pattern.

but ill be keeping my oem takeoff taillights so I have them for whenever these age or break then ill put them back in but ill run these until they break.

may or may not try the alpharex headlights, still debating.



am pleased with how it all looks together.

couple things still to come tho.

 

installed the climate knobs from atj design, black w/ blue screws of course.



had their shift knob for years and loved it. wanted to get the climate controls to match. a nice upgrade.

thats all for now.

 

installed oem trd pro grill yesterday, time to change up the look a bit.



yes I know they make cheaper aftermarket ones but if toyota already makes the part I want I prefer to get it from them cause the fitment is always tight and I know its going to last. keeping the other grill tho, I still like it, just want to run something different for a while tho. I had to wait a week or so before they could even find one somewhere. I think I will get some other odds and ends now before they become too hard to find in the future.

updated the first page with all the other mods im planning on adding in the next week or two. ive strongly considered trying the alpharex headlights, but they are kind of expensive, and ive always liked the orange daytime running lights alot, not sure I want to give that up for the more 'modern' white led drl yet.

over this weekend I want to wiretap the turn signals in the mirrors to the drl lamps and have them work that way instead of the more complicated way of tapping the harness wires because I cant follow any of the writeups ive seen others do. I have only to figure out which wire goes where, its only 4 wires total so it cant be too hard? it would be nice if there was a plug and play solution for this by now, but alas.

 

well that was an interesting several hours, but its done, my turn signal mirrors are now directly hooked into the daytime running lights and everything works.

ill have to get more pics when its darker but the orange tinge you see on the edge of the mirror is it working.



for anyone that finds this on a search later, im going to share my thoughts about this, it might help you:

by far the hardest part was routing the wires through the rubber door sleeves, but after an hour or so of struggling with that, let me save you some trouble. what you want to do is get a long zip tie, and work that through the rubber sleeve, once you have wiggled it through the other end, duck tape the ends of your wires to the end of the zip tie then pull it through. you will have to loosen both ends of the rubber sleeve btw then put it back in, you can keep the zip tie on there to thread your way through back into the cab or back up into the door, depending on which way you came from. you need to remove the side panels by the door inside the cab too, just one screw then pull off.

I did the wires both ways, from the headlight to the drivers side then from the passenger door to the other headlight, its a pain both ways, but I suggest you do the drivers side first. you will need alot of wire, make sure you leave alot of slack on both ends before you connect things so you can get it all nice and tight and tidy. I had 40 feet of wire, it was enough I think I only used 30. the passenger side takes a much longer run since you have to go through the same place in the firewall as for the drivers side and alot more zipties to keep the wires off the engine.

now, after you remove the door panels (2 screws, 1 push tab then pull up and around the edges) to see the mirror connector, there are 2 empty slots in the wiring connector to take the 2 new wires, but I hate molex pins, the small ones I can never get to crimp right despite having the tool for it. I opted to snip the 2 wires for the light and connect them that way and just bypass the white pin connector. its easy to tell which 2 wires you want, its the top 2 the white and pink one, the bottom 3 are for the power mirror movement. the white wire is the ground or negative, the pink wire is the power or positive. I couldnt find that info anywhere btw, I had to snip and strip the wires and use a 9v battery to see which one was which to make the light come on. I made some temporary connections for the drivers side from the drl straight to the lights to see if this was even going to work before I did the permanent wiring for it, and it did, so that was a relief.

as for the drl wires, the center white/white with black stripe wire is the ground for both lights, the one labelled 2 on the plastic, and the other yellow on the driver and the greyish blue on the passenger one is the power. just wiretap those and run the wires with alot of zipties to/on the nearby cable runs and then into the firewall, just keep it away from the engine. you can prybar back the rubber grommet on the firewall and use more zipties to thread your way into that too. the excess wires in the cab tuck behind the panels and behind the carpet.

I think thats all the info I would have wanted to know that I couldnt find despite reading every thread on tw I could find about this mod over the past few days. the trouble was most of it was for 3rd gens, and thus not helpful for my best gen. im glad this mod is done finally, but it was still a pain, and why I put off doing it for the past 8 years despite having the mirrors, perhaps too long. I did learn a few things about wiring tho, so there is that too.