What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Spent the day at the shop working on getting my new fromt fenders fitted and primed. Few more tweaks to make but the old truck is looking good. Will have to wait to fit the full front end until after the 2UZ swap.

 

CEL come on, code P0420 (260k), freaked out about doing the CAT, started putting the mid-grade fuel in and then the CEL went off, yay.

 

Well, after reding this "Addressing some common misnomers of the P0420 code" in sticky, it may have had no bearing. Lots of terminology in that thread I didn't understand so IKD

 

that code can be caused by having a bad cat, one of the O2 sensors being bad, or an exhaust leak. I chased that one around for a while and replacing the cat ended up fixing it.

 

That's a common one I get, I just reset it every time. I find it's most common when I don't blow the cobwebs out every couple days of driving it. The trucks way of egging on the 16 year old in me.

 

I'm glad my truck can't make P codes anymore

 

It'll find a way

 

Nope. P codes are all in the imagination of the OEM ECU. If his throws a CEL it wont be a p code.

 

CEL inception. Aftermarket EMS gets better and better and more and more offer software features to have a CEL like functionality themselves (even MegaSquirt!). He might actually invite CELs back into his life, but on his terms haha.

 

Yeah I do have malfunction messages. They're just much more verbose and targeted than a p code plus I don't have monitoring on for a lot of pointless systems that I've already removed

 

I got the special odo today, but the Apple version I guess.

 

New door day! While I started to like the red door, I came across a perfect opportunity on Marketplace and had to jump on it. So now we're looking fresh. Still have the cab dent so at some point I might get that stud welder/puller from the Harbor and give it a go, but it seals up nicely and looks great!

 

Even though my vintage spare has no dry rot, and still holds air, I figured I should probably swap it out, so I guess I'm good for another 25 years?


Tires Manufactured Before 2000

For tires made before 2000, the date is represented by the last three digits of the DOT code. The first two digits represent the week of manufacture, and the last digit indicates the year within the decade. For example, if the code reads "229," the tire was manufactured in the 22nd week of a year ending in '9' of that decade, such as 1999. Unfortunately there’s no way to tell which decade you’re looking at, other than it’s before the year 2000.

 

Only has to work once

 

Buy a $50 used tire

 

Installed the offroam wireless charging phone mount today. Been waiting for these to come back in stock - easy install great mounting that fits in between the dash panels and has rubber to secure it. Will be swapping the radio to a wireless carplay model and then wiring up the charger. Quality feels awesome the magnetic mount is really strong.

Link for anyone: https://getoffroam.com/products/toyota-tacoma-1996-2004-magnetic-wireless-charging-phone-mount

 

I noticed some odd feathering on the shoulders of my tires a few weeks ago so I pulled the trigger on my front end suspension refresh with all OEM parts that I've been planning for the cool weather season.

I changed the upper control arms, upper ball joints, lower ball joints and outer tie rod ends. I even put some new bushings in the sway bar end links.

Job took me 8 hours - which I figure isn't bad for my first time doing this. Surprisingly problem-free job!

Post mortem: The Senkei 555 lower ball joints were clicky and nearly seized from lack of grease. Kudos to Zane for helping me install the ZERKS a few years back, but I never bothered because they were kind of hard to reach. The Dorman stock UCA bushings were cracked. Dorman UBJ's were smooth but the boots were cracked. OEM Outer tie rods were smooth but one side had a torn boot and was losing grease.

Tomorrow I get new Michelin Defender LTX M/S and a front-end alignment.

Check out thhis USA-made ball joint press I bought with the money I saved on labor.

 

Did the press come with all the right cups too? If so, please tell which kit you bought.