Quality of products between 4Runner lifestyle and car trim home

Looking at a couple different products like the heritage grill and the carbon fiber trim pieces for the interior does anybody have experience with both of these companies?

 

All chinese stuff.

 

Hit or miss on quality and fitment...

 

Stickers are good quality, TEQ hoodies are high quality, the stick-on velcro console pocket thingy's didn't work very well, but the customer service folks were very quick to respond and send out a replacement for me to try.

So, some wins, some fails, but overall great company to spend $ with so far.

 

Which one? OP listed two.

 

Sorry! Haha. 4runner Lifestyle is who i’ve dealt with.

 

I have the various carbon fiber covers from cartrimhome and few pieces from 4Runner lifestyle. End up installing only the cartrimhome pieces as to me they seem superior and look more intergrated like OEM vs. the stick on's from 4Runner lifestyle.

 

I have the Mirror-Folding, Indicator-Mirror, T9, and Handle-Cover kits from CTH. They've all been of good quality except for the T9. While it works, it is way more of a PITN than it's worth, IMO. My next head unit will be a brand name. You get what you pay for, buy once cry once, etc.
I hate buying CHICOM crap and avoid it when I can (next to impossible these days), but when the non-CHICOM version is 3-4x as much $$$ as the CTH, well...

 

How do you like the folding mirrors? I debating. Did you install yourself? Was it hard? Whats wrong with the T9 it seems like a nice unit and plug and play.

 

I installed the folding mirrors maybe 10 days ago. As I work from home, I don't drive much, but so far they are behaving as they should. Same goes for the wide-view indicator replacement mirrors. Those definitely give me a better field of view than I had with the OEM mirrors and the little stick-on mirrors you can get.

In terms of installing, it wasn't difficult so much as involved. I found a good instruction set over on Trail4Runner which were absolutely indispensable. You DO have to take both front doors apart, and feeding the wires through the door grommets can be a pain, but I had both units in and working in about 3 hours, with the second assembly going MUCH more smoothly than the first (experience counts). I installed the updated mirrors AND the Meso puddle lights at the same time, so it was a hair more involved.

There is a similar kit available somewhere else (can't remember where), and the components are made of metal apparently. I bought mine well over a year ago when they were the only option. If I were purchasing again, I'd probably go the metal route, but I'm weird...

In my case, I bought the folding-mirror kit simply because when I park in my garage, I like folding the mirrors to give me the ability to park closer to one side and to walk between the vehicles. Doing it manually was a PITN. The fact they close when you lock the vehicle is simply a nice bit of protection when parked.

One weird thing is that if you hit the unlock button ONCE and get in and start the vehicle, the mirrors will NOT unfold. In that case, you just press the "fold" button on the dash and then undress it, and presto, they open. Similarly, you have to press the LOCK button TWICE to get them to fold once you get out. Not a deal breaker, but a little odd.

Pleas be aware that the kit wires into your OBDC port, so if you are like me and have a ScanGauge AND a BlueTooth OBDC dongle AND an OBDC splitter, you will end up with a wee bit of a mess under your dash.

Hope that helps!

 

That's a great feedback thank you. I very interested in the folding mirrors but I also want to do few other things once I open up the doors. Dynamat, new speakers, folding mirrors, and the new puddle lights would be nice but hard to find. Preferably would like to do it at one time as well.

 

One more question, can the folding mirrors also be folded manually with your hand or via the motor only.

 

I've purchased from both...overlays from Lifestyle and mirror signals from CTH. I've heard the overlays from Lifestyle are crap and the CTH signals are decent but you can tell they're not as good as OEM. I'd probably purchase the KTJO folding mirrors over CTH.

I think power only.