What have you done to your 4th Gen 4Runner today?

Ordered new headlight assemblies from Nilight... should be able to pop them in pretty quick as I've got a trip to St. Pete this coming weekend...

 

Finally installed my Victory 4x4 Blitz steel front bumper and Smittybuilt 12K winch with synthetic cable. I knew this thing was pretty low profile, but even lower pro than I thought

 

Looks sharp!

 

Yes, I know it’s a parking lot, but I got my Wi-Fi “trail cam” installed, and this was a good opportunity to judge the field of view both R to L and close and far. You can see my shackle mounts at the bottom on each side and part of the hook, and the white line is just ahead of the front bumper so I think this is going to work pretty well.

 

Replaced my Michelin Defenders LTX M/S2 today with a new set, the last set had 60,000 miles on them with some thread left so I could of gotten another 20,000 out of them easily but one of them had a big screw hole that I plugged a few years ago but developed into a ply separation recently and was leaking, so I choose to replace 4 saving one old one for the spare.

 

My heater blower fan has been making some noise and stopping. Would work intermittently. Usually I could pound the dash with my fist and get it going . A few days ago it completely stopped and punching the dash no longer worked haha.

I called around today and looked at prices for new fan blower assembly’s.

Pulled it apart and cleaned it out real well. Nothing really in there. Put it back together and is working again with no real noise so I avoided having to purchase a new blower assembly….. for now lol.

No pictures though unfortunately, but today was a good day.

Now on to continue more 4Runner projects on my days off and more to come.

 

Got my RCI sliders w/top tread installed last night. These things are 65lbs each, so definitely feel the weight lol. The week before I installed my Victory 4x4 Blitz steel bumper w/ 12K winch and definitely felt that weight increase on the very front.

These things are massive and of course most of it is underneath the vehicle mounted to the frame. My neighbor saw the first one on and asked what those were. He couldn’t believe these were the sliders as there’s not much to them that are visible.

Later this evening or tomorrow, I’m going to wire up some LED strips for approach lights underneath the sliders. I had them on my prior steps and very useful, plus it looks cool too

 

Man I miss my 4th gen 4runner V8. Bitch was fast and was a nice truck. I feel like the 4th gen is THE most underrated 4runner. Thankfully that means the vehicle cost used will stay low. If I ever sell my Land Cruiser will probably get another 4th gen 4runner.

 

That's a Grand update!! Nice work on getting them installed!! You've armored your truck well in the last month!! Woot woot!

 

100% in agreement!! The small chasis v8 is hard to beat!! I love ours and it is zippy and powerful on the trails! I sure wish it was optioned with a locker, tho...still, a forever truck!!

 

I threw on some Perry Parts front bump stops. I'm running 33s and have a full bumper and winch on the front so I optioned for the 52mm version, which reduces up-travel and thus some rubbing on extreme terrain. These Perry Parts bump stops are beefy and feel SO nice, installed!

I also threw some on my Tundra and its been a treat having them on...a surprising realization is the 4th gen 4runner OE bump stops are so much more robust than my OE Tundra OE bump stops! Guess which one is the 4runner's:






**yes, I see my DS CV axle is throwing grease and I need to address the boot clamp

 

I changed out an original H11 headlight bulb this afternoon. I took delivery at the end of May, 2009 but the build date is September, 2008 (apparently, no one in Southern Ontario wanted a plain white SR5 with a plastic steering wheel). Not bad for a headlight bulb.

 

Does anyone have any knowledge of how many pins the harness for the rearview mirror has? I received a dash cam for Christmas from a family member and I know there's an adapter harness available for power tap, but I am not sure of the pin count in the harness...I did a cursory check by dropping the console light and couldn't see anything...I didn't try too hard but if someone knew offhand or had a photo, I'd be grateful!

 

Here’s what I’ve done to my 4Runner the last 2 days.

Put some LED strips inside my RCI sliders that I just installed a couple days ago. The LED’s are tied to my interior lights (same place I tied into the MAP Light mod) so they come on and off as the doors open/close/lock & unlock. They work well for courtesy and approach lights. Work awesome when working on or underneath 4Runner as well.




BTW, it’s my driveway that’s angled terribly, which is why it’s leaning so bad.




Installed a couple 3.0 chargers. One inside my center console and one on the center portion. The one in the console was put in for the wireless charger I bought from Etsy.



Replaced my old rear LED’s that were on the tow hitch bar. In a bad spot and just got beat up and bent while wheeling. The new ones aren’t super bright or a broad light, but they are slim and will stay out of the way now. My hitch plug was kind of busted up and just hanging, got it at least zip tied up for now and almost looks normal….ish lol

 

^^^Those are some stout sliders. I would imagine they would also help out with chassis rigidity.

 

They were not fun to install by myself lol but yes they are very stout at about 70lbs each , super solid

 

Video of the courtesy lights in action


https://i.imgur.com/tFFSgJG.mp4

 

I’m interested in doing this on my sliders. How did you run the wiring to wherever you connected into the courtesy lights?

 

I ran the wires through the firewall, down the back of the engine bay, onto the frame and back.

while I was under there, I saw a couple grommets on the floor that would also work, maybe even better. Here’s a few pics. The last picture in the engine bay I have marked with red arrows and that goes to the LED’s underneath.

I ran it to the drivers side first and tied in there, then ran a wire through the frame to the passenger side.

 

Forgive my stupidity, but isn't the frame for the 4th gen and the frame for the GX470 the same? If so, didn't certain trims of the 4th gen have lighted running boards? Hypothetically speaking (I'm not super electrical savvy), if the wiring harness is already there couldn't you tap into the harness for the lighting?

 

Youre right. My 4runner in Limited trim boast running board lights...when/if I ever get sliders, I'll just tap the lights onto them.

 

Looking now underneath the rig iif I had it to do over, I would just go straight down through the floor through the front grommets. That would be the easiest to do and easier than how I had to run mine. There is one on each side which I’ve pictured.

I’m curious how the Limited with lighted steps looks and if this is where they came through?

 

This is really helpful. I truly appreciate you taking the time to take the pics.

 

Added a DIY “awning” on the Wolfbox rear camera to see if it helps in the rain. One of my very few complaints about the Wolfbox is that it’s pretty much useless with raindrops on it. If I had it to do over, I would mount it on the cargo area ceiling just inside the rear window. I hate the thought of moving it, not to mention having to be careful not to sheer it off when loading, but it may come to that if this doesn’t help.

I used one of those plastic dividers that comes with compartmentalized storage boxes. I painted it black and attached it with 3M tape. Went through the car wash today and it’s still there.I’ll post again once I have some experience with the set up. Surprisingly, it does not show up in the mirror view, even if you raise it as high as it goes.



Also got my off-road nav/trail cam display set up. The trail cam is new. This iPad mount is secured under one of the seat bolts and I added a zip tie anchor point for stability.











Lastly, I installed two of the full LED panel dome light replacements someone recently linked. Installation is simple and these things are legit! Cabin is lit like a 7-11 now. LOL

 

Cool mods, nice job. That was me that posted the 7-11 cabin lights lol. They are bright, super bright. So much so that I only put one in the rear seat, was going to get one for the rear as well but it is so bright in my cab it’s crazy, it’s like daytime in there lol.

 

Installed my Bilstein 6112’s w/ Bilstein 650lb springs, and brand new OEM LCA’s as well as had my alignment done today. Gained a little height and overcome all the extra weight I’ve added in armor, winch, and battery recently


5100’s and 600lb springs a couple days ago


Today with the 6112 & 650lb springs and new LCA’s before alignment

 

I just so happened to watch a video on this very subject of the rain on the camera lens, he used a "RainX" type product on the lens and loves the results, try it!

 

I have the 5100s with the original springs on the #2/+0.85" grooves and 0.25" Toytec spacers. Because the grooves are 10 mm steps, the spacers (in my case 6.3 mm) add up to 16.3 mm lift at the strut. It's like a 0.64" spacer overall. Tossing the Toytec spacers back in there was a lot easer than disassembling the struts again to put the spring mounts on the #3/+1.75" grooves (for 20 mm lift at the strut).

 

Thanks, yes, Rain-X was actually my first thought as well. I reached out to Wolfbox to be sure it was safe on the lens and they said yes. It definitely helped, but didn’t solve the problem. My impression is that the mounting spot under the spoiler is related somehow but I’m far from certain.

I’ve got some Chemical Guys Hydroview on there now and I’m hoping that will do the trick.

 

7, see attached