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Tacoma BS Thread

151K views 834 replies 56 participants last post by  hotajax 
#1 ·
Starting a BS thread for us 2nd Gen guys and gals...in case you didn't figure it out from the thread title.:D

I'll sticky this soon but want to give you a chance to see it before moving it up there.

I know Dark Taco was going to change his oil today, anyone do anything interesting?
 
#701 ·
Dang, I am slacking. 11.5 yrs, and only 185k+. Of course, its not my daily driver anymore, so that accounts for a bit.
 
#703 ·
Hi guys,
Thought I'd jump in here and see what's up?
I also have a Gen2, (14) just picked it up. TRD sport.
Looking for a drivers seat? the owner b4 had a big.... but anyway. :grin:

It's a good truck. I had a Gen 2 (07) in 2010 and sold it from a divorce.
Time to come back to the truck I've always loved.

Thought I'd say HI, looking forward to meeting more of you.
-Chuck
 
#705 ·
Replaced the brake pads in the Tacoma this morning at 85,565 miles. I knew they were getting thin but figured to get a little more out of them... but I already had new ones here and, well, I got bored. Turns out it was time, the wear indicators were extremely close to contacting the rotors. Without a doubt those are the easiest pads I have ever replaced, by a long shot. :thumbsup:
 
#706 · (Edited)
Deer Hunting or Snake Hunting

Forgive me, Father. I have sinned. This has nothing to do with Toyota trucks, but I thought my Tacoma buddies would like this story. Yell at me, it's still funny. So I'm at the ammo counter in Walmart today. This young guy walks in with two gorgeous girls about 20, both with some of the finest shock absorbers you've ever seen and they weren't Bilsteins, either. So being the gentleman lecher that I am, I scope out these honeys, and I discover they are twins. One of the girls says, "Can I buy a hunting license here?". I mean, I gotta give this kid credit. Telling his mother he's going deer hunting and taking these two lodge bunnies with him. I'm sure he'll be up at 5 am sharp for first light. Didn't know whether to give him a high five for pulling off what I never did (twins) or ask him why he was being so greedy. Wish I was 20 again, that's for sure.
 
#709 ·
Changed rear diff and TC oils today. Had the common problem of the hex slipping inside the drain for the front diff. Might be time to find a welder to weld something into the hex plug. Can it be welded in place, or will I need to get it out first?
 
#711 ·
Me neither. If I had more room, I might be able to break it free hammering on it while turning. Or maybe put my impact screw driver with the hex socket in it to see if it will jar it loose.
 
#712 ·
Hammering or using an impact driver could be a great way to damage the oil pan. Welding I have no idea.

If the hex is sloppy, you can often jam feeler gauges or tiny allen wrenches into the gap and make them work.

Then replace the plug
 
#716 ·
I now have never-ending gas in the tank. It’s a miracle! No matter how many miles I travel, it never drops below a third between the 1/4 and 1/2 marks. :ugh3:
 
#718 ·
Looking forward to winter. The hot, smokey summers in Calif get old.

Splicer, staying out of the smoke? Two years in a row that you’ve had a fire east of you.

Changed the oil today. 217,170 miles.
 
#719 ·
Looking forward to winter. The hot, smokey summers in Calif get old.
Understatement of the year, and something I find myself saying more often all the time!


Splicer, staying out of the smoke? Two years in a row that you’ve had a fire east of you.
We've been lucky so far, it's smoky as far as you can see in all directions but I've seen much worse. There's been several impressive pyrocumulus clouds to the east of us over the past few days. We're safe so far but it's been creeping closer. No evacuations here yet but the Tacoma is packed just in case. :ugh3:
 
#721 ·
Started the 90K service on our trucklet today. Changed the plugs, rotated the tires, replaced the engine air filter & cabin air filter, and greased the zerks. Need to get a couple more quarts gear oil for the rear diff -- think I'll skip the t-case and front diff fluid this time. I'll change engine oil & filter and that should wrap it up for now.
 
#722 ·
Got my new Duratracs installed yesterday (late afternoon appt) at America’s Tire. Had them throw an old one of mine onto the spare so I at least have the same size in case I get a flat on the rear...don’t want to have to swap tires around to the front due to the LSD (been there done that).

But they broke a stud on the rear. Next week I have to call a wheel shop. At least they pay for it by policy. The good news is they balanced them correctly. It’s rare not to have to go back after getting on the freeway and having a wheel shimmy (or shake violently as happened with my daughter’s new tires). I also like that they swap out winter/summer tires at no cost (on same wheels, so mount and balance free). We did that with my daughter’s old tires this summer. Weren’t good enough for snow, so we ran them out more in summer.
 
#723 ·
Got my new Duratracs installed yesterday (late afternoon appt) at America’s Tire.
:thumbsup:


But they broke a stud on the rear.
:thumbsdow Did they say what the lugs were torqued to?


I also like that they swap out winter/summer tires at no cost (on same wheels, so mount and balance free).
I'll be darned, I didn't know about that. My LTXs have 7/32" tread left. Hate to waste 'em but that's not enough tread for winter. And I really have no space to store an extra set of mounted tires.
 
#727 ·
Quite the week. Last Friday, get new tires on. They break a wheel stud (which is inside a lug nut, so that gets tossed). They refer me to a local repair shop they use and tell me the parts should be there next week...that they'll order them on Tuesday. That means it should have been there by Thursday for sure. Inconvenient because the first time that shop had time to get me in was a week and a half later. So I pick up and install a wheel stud myself. Putting the 12mm bolt in that holds the brake line/ABS wires and it snaps off just as I begin to tighten it. So Thursday (yesterday) rolls around and it's my day to drive into the city. On my way back, I swing by americas tire just to pick up a single lug nut that will match the ones they used (their wheels). They don't have one. "Try the shop to see if those parts are there." So I just drive over to the shop and no parts. The guy says you're the second person to come looking for their parts. "I don't know what the hell they're doing over there!" Sounds like Americas Tire is falling down on the job of ordering the parts. So today I will be going to autozone to purchase lug nuts (which is where americas tire says they get them from). Keeping my fingers crossed.

But yesterday after all those stops, I swing by a friends to work on getting the snapped off bolt out of the hole. I sprayed it the night before. Got it without too much work and installed a new bolt (he ordered one the day before for me and I picked it up yesterday). While we're there, I glance across to the driver's side from underneath and see what looks like a wet LCA. Go over and discovered torn boots on the CV. Now I have to deal with that too! That's going to have to wait until October because September is just too busy. At least it's the axle I replaced with the front diff bearing back in 2011, so it'll be covered under the lifetime replacement from Autozone. It lasted just over 100K miles before the boots tore. Guess they're not as good as Toyota's boots since the passenger side has 218K miles on it with no tears.
 
#729 ·
I visited autozone and oreilly today. Neither have these in their system. So Monday I call that repair shop and if the parts never arrived, then back to America’s Tire. It’s downright ridiculous what it takes to get a replacement lug nut for their wheels!
 
#730 ·
Well, I think America’s Tire has lost us as a customer. I’m going to buy my wife’s tires elsewhere. Unfortunately, I’m stuck going to them for free tire balancing. This whole wheel stud/lug nut situation is going on 2 weeks as of tomorrow. My parts finally got to the repair shop this week and I picked them up today. Lug nut fits and is correct for the wheels, but they ordered a locking one needing a key. It doesn’t match my key (much smaller) and did not come with a key! So an unusable part. F$&! them! I now will have to make another trip. Next is to complain online.
 
#731 ·
Sorry to hear about that, Jim. Sounds like you've been dealing with people who lack experience..... or are incompetent...... or just don't give a damn. If I was treated that poorly, I would do my best to contact Corporate and give them an earful. If you were closer to Redding, I'm sure it could have been handled properly at the store there.
 
#732 ·
And I finally have lug nuts. Called today and the second guy I talked to said they had them in stock. He gave me a box of 24 lug nuts all locking. My old lug nuts were 20 regular and 4 locking. Now I have my old non-locking lug nuts as backups.
 
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#734 ·
Changed CV Axle today. Also swapped out my old lug nuts for the new ones...except for one on the rear. Yep, America’s Tire cross threaded one back there, and it snapped off a wheel stud trying to get it off. Now I know it was an inept worker that probably cross threaded the front one snapping it. Basic stuff to hand thread them on first! Now I have to go buy a rear wheel stud and deal with that. :facepalm:
 
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#735 ·
Just when ya thought it was safe to come out of the garage and play in the sun GEEESH! Sounds like those guys couldn't treat a customer right if your were the only one there.

I had similar experience -the Last- time I went in to Discount Tire (a sister company to America's Tire). Only mine was the Tire Pressure Monitors. Went in for the a free tire air pressure check, low and behold, a bad TPM was found. Let them fix it. 2 days later low pressure warning dash light. Took it back they said yep "their" new monitor was bad. replaced it. 1 day later dash light! They "fixed" that one (again this #2). Next day: Dash Light! Take it in and surprise it now was a different wheel! So I bought one new monitor. Fix it once an' for all- I said to myself.

So with "my" new monitor+ the new monitor they installed = 2 new monitors. For those following along that leaves 2 original tire monitors on the truck.

Next day: Dash Light! They checked again and it was the tire with "their" newest monitor. They got another "new" monitor and replaced "their (now 3d) new monitor". Got in the truck to drive home: DASH LIGHT! The manager who was "working " with me on this checked and found "my" new monitor was at fault. SHASBOT! Well it had been a week after all and it was Ok when they just checked the tires right before replacing this latest monitor.


So I took the truck down the road to a Firestone Dealer and just asked them to check my TPMs and they found the latest Discount tire monitor (just installed) was faulty!

I don't really have any clue as to how these things work, but it almost seemed that the tire store was going to 1)sell me all new monitors or 2) their tester was programed to find a fault no matter what or 3) they kept rotating the "bad monitor-tire" around.

So the up shot was I went to my Toyota dealer bought 3 new monitors ("my" new one on the truck still checked good) because they would be OEM approved- had them install them and

Ta-Da! no dash light


Whatever. Discount has lost a 20+ year customer and I'll find somebody else next time I need tires Regardless I'm sure I'm the only one to have had any problems with them an' I'm sure they are glad I wont be back to upset them any more.

Keep on Truckin' the sun will shine tomorrow- damn drought.
 
#736 ·
Either Toyota changed their brake pads, or I’ve been stopping more. While changing out the front diff bearing today, noticed front pads are almost at the squeal tabs. Only have 35K miles on them. They usually last almost 60K miles. This will be my fourth set. At 219K miles, rotor thickness is now at 27mm. Orig was 28mm and minimum is 26mm. I still don’t have to turn or replace the rotors! Rears shoes and drums are still looking great too.
 
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