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In older engines, the valve timing is fixed. That is the relationship between where the piston is when the intake and exhaust values open and close is fixed. The problem is that this is a compromise. With VVTI (and other similar engines from other companies), the opening and closing of the intake and exhaust valves can be advanced or retarded with respect to piston top-dead-center at different RPMs. This allows the engine to generate more horsepower, but still have a broad, flat torque curve. In simpler engines, the manufacturer generally has to choose between higher horsepower and lower torque, or lower horsepower but highter torque (particularly at lower RPMs).
Basically, VVTI involves a differnt valvetrain and assorted bits. It is effectively internal to the engine.
In contrast, the TRD supercharger does not change the valvetrain at all. It is effectively external to the engine. The supercharger pushes more air into the engine.
No, you cannot add VVTI on an aftermarket basis.
What octane are you using? The salesman is telling me to use regular and the mileage would go up.
It is a good thing Toyota has finally put the 5-speed auto in both V-6s and V-8s. The '05 is a real bargain now compared with the '03, which had either less power or less speeds in the trans, not to mention square plastic cladding on the early models, all for about the same price the Runner is today.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
The negative is if it fails, your piston will hit the valves.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Regarding VVTi, is this a proven Toyota technology or something you should wait on for the bugs to be worked out?
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
As for the reliability of VVTi itself, Toyota, Honda, and BMW (and probably others) have had this technology out for a number of years. It's well proven.
Get the Runner if you need that extra space though.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Cheers
Pat
Now if you ever tow, or if you will be offroading or carrying max capacity passengers very often, you will probably want the larger engine.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I am considering some window deflectors because the vehicle design allows water to drip in. Do they work? What brand do you recommend? How about wind noise? Are you pleased with their performance? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Get the Runner if you need that extra space though."
Extra space of the 4Runner? That is one thing where the Pilot has the definite advantage. The is much more cargo room, passenger room, and head room in the Pilot.
The 4Runner wins on many points, but not space.
The two vehicles are very different. It all depends on your needs.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
If you are looking to pull a trailer or go offroad, I'd pick the 4Runner. If all you care about is taking the kids to the mall when there's 3" of snow on the ground, then the Pilot will do just fine.
Anyway, read up on your choice(s) & you'll find what suits you best. Good luck.
I'm about the purchase a '04 V6 Sport, are there any concerns that I need to keep in mind before I drive off the lot?
I've been internet shopping for a vehicle that will make me happy personally as well as serve the needs of my new profession.
I need something fairly roomy, nifty image, reliable, and basically nice enough to be like a 2nd home as I'll be driving around quite a bit.
I'm trying to 'have my cake and eat it too'.
The vehicles I've narrowed it down to:
4Runner Limited RWD w/ 3rd row seating, leather, V6, and other nice options.
The other vehicles are Chrysler 300c Infinity G35 Acura TL as far as cars...
Pathfinder and Highlander as far as SUV's.
As you can see- I'm a bit conflicted.
I feel the 300c suits me best as far as cars go and strikes a great balance between a big vehicle and something fun.
On the other hand it would be nice to be able to drive around a large group of adults who come down from NY to FL for a weekend house hunt...as my friend did.
Can the 4Runner be a nice place to spend several hours a day? The reason I'd lean towards and SUV is the extra space and I feel an SUV would be more functional as a mobile office.
How truck like is the ride in the 4Runner? Yeah- the Highlander has a smoother ride I'm sure...thing is- it's really _boring_.
I won't be buying until January 05...so I have a while.
So, can I get into a 4Runner Limited V6 with lots of luxury options under 40k? Would the 4Runner be a good choice?
TIA
Dean
The 4Runner ride is pretty good, for a truck. But it isn't a car and certainly is not in the same league as the cars you mentioned.
I will try to explain my sunroof (moonroof,whatever) problem. Has anyone had any experience with the sunroof motor clicking to open further all by itself when driving down the road. My sunroof, when fully open often times will sound like it is opening more, sometimes it will open by itself to fully open position if I had it around 90% open, other times when it is open 100% it still will try to open further at odd times, today in 15-20 minutes worth of Fwy driving at around 75mph, the sunroof had the sound of trying to open 5 or 6 times in 15 minutes of driving. Seems odd, sunroof operates ok when I push the open or close buttons.
I have not taken it back to the dealer yet, curious about others out there. Thanks
Very annoying if you ask me.
Thanks for the answer, at least I know I am not dreaming of this noise.
Has anyone put in an after market stereo in to a 2004 4Runner? What brand has a good sound and look good in the dash???
Any suggestions
Thank you in advance
Visit a few car audio shops, and you'll likely find that most any of today's aftermarket
head-units (i.e., CD player/radio tuner/cassette deck) look pretty ridiculous, since they seem to be targeting a consumer market consisting mostly of teenagers, hip-hoppers, gangsters, and assorted wanna-be's. These aftermarket
head-units are typically festooned with all sorts of garbage, including many highly obnoxious and gaudy flashing lights, illuminated displays, etc. In addition, they're also typically festooned with an excess of tiny, silly buttons and many useless bells and whistles. Good luck finding a reasonably priced aftermarket head-unit that looks and functions like something a mature, sophisticated adult might want in their vehicle.
So then, what is one to do? Well, when I had the stereo system upgraded in that 2002 Explorer, I elected to keep the stock head-unit in place. (I'll return to this strategy later on in this discussion.) I then had a local (and well regarded) car audio shop install a power amp made by Precision Power Industries (http://www.precisionpower.com/default.asp). This shop pulled out the stock head unit and then connected its output jacks to a nice set of aftermarket interconnect cables, which were then routed to the power amp situated in the rear of the truck, below the floor. (The newer Explorers have aft, below-the-floor cargo spaces that are ideal for this sort of power amp. The new 4Runners don't have a similar compartment, so you'll have to get creative if you decide to add a power amp. Also, adding an aftermarket power amplifier requires a significant amount of wiring under the vehicle's hood, which I left to the experts.)
Next, I had the stock speakers in the front doors and rear side doors replaced with good-quality aftermarket speakers, along with upgraded speaker wires. Keep in mind here that it's really the front-door speakers which are the most important in terms of obtaining better audio quality for the front cabin occupants. On the other hand, the rear door speakers are less important, since they should only be providing a bit of pleasant "rear ambience" sound for the front cabin occupants. [Just like home audio, car audio usually sounds best when most (if not all) of the reproduced sound emanates from the FRONT speakers, since this is apt to create the best psychoacoustic illusion of soundstaging and stereo imaging in which the listener feels as though they're correctly situated in FRONT of the performance.]
Thus, it is often wise to choose the best sounding aftermarket speakers you can afford for the front doors, while spending less on the rear, side door speakers. (Of course, you might just leave the existing rear speakers in place, since they're really not that important for the front cabin occupants anyway.) Because the front-door speakers are situated low on the doors, consider a set of aftermarket speakers which may possess a bit more midrange and high-frequency "brightness", such as certain Rockford-Fosgate speakers.
By retaining the stock head-unit and using it to drive a good-quality aftermarket power amplifier combined with high-quality aftermarket speakers, one is essentially converting the stock head-unit into a sort of *pre-amp*/CD player/tuner/cassette deck. Of course, this strategy relies upon the stock
head-unit having fairly decent electronic performance to begin with, and chances are good that it's probably just as good or even better sounding than most of the overpriced aftermarket garbage head-units being hustled these days.
There are several advantages to the above mentioned strategy, including:
(1) There is no need to worry about trying to install and cosmetically fit an aftermarket head-unit with incompatible dimensions (and objectionable looks and features?) into the vehicle's console. Do you really want someone taking a saw to your vehicle's console, and then gluing on faux plastic spacers in an effort to make it look "stock"??
(2) Car stereo thieves are often highly adept at recognizing the cosmetic cues and clues that may give away the presence of an aftermarket head-unit. (This, in turn, is an incentive for car audio dealers to try to sell you an annoying and overpriced car alarm system.) On the other hand, by retaining the existing head unit and mating it with a well-concealed power amplifier and upgraded in-door and/or in-dash speakers, a car thief will see nothing but what appears to be just another uninteresting stock audio system, and there will be no clues as to the existence of the power amp and upgraded speakers.
Even if you do nothing but upgrade the front-door speakers with a pair of excellent aftermarket speakers, the sound quality will likely improve considerably. That said, adding a great sounding power amplifier will likely improve the sound even further. Also, it is worth noting that the real sonic advantages of installing a high-quality power amplifier have little to do with "loudness". Rather, it has everything to do with achieving greater "dynamic range"; more authoritative and precise control of the speaker elements; greater sonic clarity; and greater immunity to amplifier "clipping", a condition that may quickly destroy speakers. In other words, a higher powered amplifier is less likely to destroy speakers than a lower powered amp, since the latter will tend to "clip" much sooner. Clipping is tantamount to dumping DC (direct current) into the speakers.
In 2wd mode, the noise was not there.
I know this was normal for that vehicle at the time because I drove others and noticed same thing. Also, mine had a very basic non-center differential type system meant for non-dry pavement only.
Has anyone noticed anything like this on the '04/'05 V6 4wd 4-runners? (I believe the V8 has a different, always engaged, AWD system?) Is the vehicle just as quiet when 4wd (hi) is engaged as driving in 2wd mode? Or is it noisier like my old Pathfinder. I have searched this forum and didn't really see this issue mentioned.
Sorry I can't help regarding your V8....Perhaps someone else here can?
Send an email to me at: gmello@anteon.com, and I'll send you the actual TSB you can print and take with you to the dealership.
First off, consider yourself lucky that you didn't spend the money on the JBL system, it is overpriced for what you get.
I do disagree with kheintz1 on one point. There are many head units available which aren't TOO flashy and actually are tremendous when it comes to user interface design. I personally have always like Eclipse head units for their clean design and extremely high quality. They aren't the sort of head units that you will find in Best Buy or Circuit City though. You'll have to find a more local high-end shop. I highly recommend checking out a few shops and getting opinions. Of course they will try and sell you, that is their job, but I garauntee you can find at least one honest/good/reasonably-priced shop around. Tell them what type of music you listen to, and the sound you are looking for. You should be able to get away with one good amp (PPI, JLAudio, etc.), a good high-end headunit, and some mid-end speakers for under $1200.
Oh, and you don't need 10 speakers to get a good sound. Buy 5 GOOD speakers for the price of 10 crappy speakers, and feed them with a good amp, and you'll be happy. Plus, you'll save on the installation costs.
I promise you that 4 JLAudio or MBQuart component speakers (or two for that matter) can kill 10 JBL speakers.
-Jared
My owners manual states that my vehicle has a total capacity to carry 950 lbs. of passengers and luggage. But the 2004 brochure states that the vehicle has a payload of 1260 lbs. With that said, I am trying to figure out if I can carry one adult passenger if I tow a trailer and load weighing 5000 lbs. The total capacity for the weight of the truck, passengers, luggage, trailer and load is 9600 lbs. I am trying also to determine which of the above two statements is correct, (950 or 1260 lbs.). I weigh 200 lbs and it appears that if my calculations are correct, there is not sufficient weight left over to carry a passenger weighing 200 lbs without overloading the vehicle using the 950 figure. My vehicle has a weight carrying hitch with a capacity for 5000 lbs. Would someone with a knowledge of towing advise me. Thanks. Bob.
But on a side note, I noticed no problems like vibrations, smell or rattles and the '04 V8 Ltd I test drove was very responsive I'm very impressed. Can't wait til '05 V8's come out.
Here's the news release: http://www.iihs.org/news_releases/2004/pr102804_1.htm
After experimenting with the 4Runner's stability control in some very slick conditions (but not in traffic!) around the turn of the year (I posted a summary here then) I can also say that stability control should also help keep you out of the occasional ditch. It's a good complement to traction control and ABS, and I'm happy that Toyota chose to include the whole set in the 4Runners.
"The back window opening program by wireless remote control can be changed or disabled. For details, contact your Toyota dealer."
I figure this means there is someway to raise the window via the remote -- how handy would that be?? Sticking the key in the tailgate to raise that window is a bit of a pain. So, if anyone knows how to change this, let us all know!!