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Good luck!
Now I'm feeling a constant slight vibration when braking, and there's an occasional knock from the back - and it's not something rolling around the cargo area. This is starting to make me nervous. The bumpy braking feeling is worse. Any idea what's up?
I recommend Brembo rotors and OEM (Toyota pads).
As far has the bumping in the drive train. This is a common problem. If you have Zerk fittings on the u-joints make sure they are lubed. Most 2WD do not have Zerks, but 4WD - 4Runners do.
I don't want to get in to a long explanation on the drive train. But there are other forums on the net where this is covered. Do a search. But it is really nothing to worry about.
Three days later, the exact issues came up again. This time they finally determined the head gaskets were bad. There was leaking of coolant which crystalized and then acted a s a sand blaster, damaging the plugs. Lots of carbon in the engine etc. The truck had not been running hot.
They said the timing belt was fine. They specifically checked. They said if it was a timing belt issue it would have been very sluggish. After calling numerous shops and Toyota, they determined it was a gasket leak that was between No. 1 and No. 3 which led to the coolant being in the engine which led to all of the carbon. They resurfaced the heads. The valves were OK so they don’t think the issues were caused by the timing belt. They did adjust the valves. They also replaced all of the plugs.
Seems like the initial 90k service may have led to all the problems since they were dealing with the water pump etc. Seems like they may have simply misdiagnosed the injector issue (spark plug wire issue?) twice, but that was about $1,200 worth of misdiagnoses. Odd that it ran rough immediately after almost running out of gas.
Seems like at best, they misdiagnosed the problems 2-3 times and at worst, their original work caused the issues. Common for a 2001 Toyota 4 Runner to have bad gaskets, injectors? Is there any way I can legitimately establish any of that? What do you think? Just a series of problems that all started right after the 90k service.
It sounds like your mechanic is not familiar with Toyota 4Runners and are trying things at your expense.
When it's time for replacing my timing belt. water pump, transmission fluid, etc. at 100K it's going to the dealer.
MOST good dealers know what they are doing.
Thanks!
I had a few problems with it: car died @ 11000 miles. Computer just died for an unknown reason. The dealer replaced it but since the car was out of service for 21 days, I had the lemon law complaint ready to go. Also a few days after the warranty expired I had a filter in the exhaust system go for $600 and change and the serpentine belt replaced for another $600 and change (but that might have included a service visit, I can't remember).
That and the notorious transmission clunk (a heavy clunk when I would step on the brake at a stop light.
The only comment I have is that the front end seems to be hard to keep in alignment. Or is it my wife hitting every pothole? :confuse:
Whatever.
Remove both ft and rr drive shafts and throughly clean both the male and female splines.
apply liberally GM part number 12345718 grease ,cost, about $50.00 for 16 oz can from a GM dealer parts counter.
Reassemble and your clunk will be gone.
It has worked for me sofar for 15000 miles.
I hand packed the grease in an inexpensive small grease gun and will pump in some when or if the clunk reappears.
BELIEVE ME THIS REALLY WORKS. UNTIL I DISCOVERED THIS GREASE I HAD TRIED EVERY KIND OF GREASE KNOWN TO MAN AND ALL WOULD WORK FOR ABOUT 300 TO 500 MILES THAN THE CLUNK WOULD REAPPEAR.SEEMS THE LAST GENERATION TAHOES HAD THE EXACT PROBLEM AND THIS WAS GMS FIX AND I WORKS ON 4RUNNERS AS WELL.
The $330.00 for front pads and rotors is not an unfair price. Very important...make sure they are OEM pads.
Please help!
So, any ideas? Any further info I need to add to clarify? I don't know a lot about engines, but can follow directions and have a reasonably good head. ;o)
Thanks again . . .
Thanks again for your help!
Has anyone heard of this?
You were smart to turn it down and it was especially clever of you to ask to see proof that the dealer had been waxing the cars on the lots twice a month.
A lot of owner's manuals just recommend washing of cars and don't even recommend that you wax them, much less spend big bucks on some kind of aftermarket paint protection (which ultimately is just some sort of wax). link
Enjoy your new 4Runner!
The worst I ever had was in finance when the payments were $50 more a month than I expected. When I asked him he said that was the life insurance. I told him I didn't want the life insurance, he said everyone takes it. I pointed out that it was because he doesn't tell anyone it's tacked on to the price. i was 23 and it was my first new car purchase. If it happened today I would walk out on the deal.
This is a '96 4Runner with about 175,000 miles on it. We bought it in '98 with about 40K, and thought we were having all of the maintenance and repair done properly. The tech says that there has been a coolant leak for quite some time, which contributed to the current problems.
Long story short, we simply can't/aren't going to pay that much to fix the rig. If it was significantly less, there might be a chance. I'm going to try calling around to see if anyone else can give me a reality check . . . do those numbers sound really high, or is it just a ridiculously hard repair? (I'm nearly clueless on engine construction, although I know the basics of how they work.) Our current bill is $700 just in tear-down time. I know that replacing a head gasket is a big job, but it was done in an afternoon back in '98 when they had the head gasket recall.
Unless we wanted to tow it out of there, we're up to $2,300 to put the new head gasket in and put it back together. Then someone else will need to tear it down again to fix it.
Do we have any other viable options? What will happen if it's driven with cracked heads? I'm frustrated that our last shop didn't see the coolant leak when we had it in earlier this year, and it wasn't mentioned at any of the oil changes we had done locally.
If we did pay the big bucks to get it fixed, is there any chance of selling it to make up the cost? :confuse:
I know these are a lot of questions, but I don't know who else to ask. Being new in a big city seriously sucks. :mad: So does being dependent on others to take care of your transportation . . . but with a passel of children and a business-owner husband, that's how we've got to do it right now.
Online resources would be great, as well as advice and experience. Thanks so much, anyone, for ideas and help.
Either pay the balance on the repair or roll it in to the new loan.
Keep us posted!
Maybe we can get it towed and sell parts on Craigslist. Or maybe the dealership would buy it from us. I'll have to check 'round and see.
Thanks again . . .
the engine is totally warmed up it only reads 1/4 to 1/3 warm. In the past it has
alway read almost to 1/2. I thought that my thermostat may be stuck open
making it hard for the engine to reach optimal operating temperature but after
replacing the thermostat there is no difference. What else could be contributing
to this other than a faulty temperature gauge???
I have been hearing noises coming from stock one-CD CD player. When I do not have any music playing, the cd player makes noises (not too loud) that sounds almost like the cd is moving back and forth in the player like a DJ moving an album but less noise. It even does it when a cd is not in the player. It doesn't do it every time I drive it, but it does it most times I drive it.
Any ideas beyond my CD player will probably break soon?
Thanks
Thanks
I'm having some issues with my 2006 Toyota 4Runner SR5 2WD with 29,000 miles which I've had for 2 years. It's driven perfectly up until about 22,000 miles. It started with a steering wheel vibration at highway speeds. I initially thought the steering wheel vibration was an out of balance tire. Tires were rotated and balanced by the dealer - it seemed to go away for awhile but came back intermittently. On a whim after a few thousand miles, I stopped in at Discount Tire to have them check the tires and thinking maybe I lost a wheel weight. About this time, I started to get noticeable creaking/popping from the front end when turning while braking (into driveway, parking spots, etc.- slow turns).
Took it back to the dealer stating all the same issues again. They kept my car for the whole day and only applied some lube to some bearings or bushings on the front end in addition to rebalancing for the third time in four months. Well the creaking stopped for about 3 days and now I'm getting an odd clunking up through the steering column when I hit rough spots in the road - like the whole steering column shakes and rattles - not just the steering wheel. The highway speed steering wheel vibration is still there and is more of a shimmy - not a resonance/buzzing. This doesn't seem like the same vibration that a whole thread is devoted to.
I will be going to a different dealership for this next attempt because I don't want to hear it's just the road anymore or that I just need to get used to the ride of an SUV (I've driven SUVs for the past 7 years). Does anyone have any ideas of what this could be? It seems like it's getting progressively worse and this isn't normal no matter what they say. :mad:
Would appreciate any help/insight/advice....
http://www.redwoodgeneraltire.com/balance.htm
A mechcanical problem is remote. Something that goes away and then comes back will not be mechanical. Most likely it's one (or more) of your tires.
I would not let the dealer handle the balance. You need to take it to a wheel tire shop that understands how to correctly balance a tire.
Is the dealer using the "lug centric" adapter? The tires cannot be balanced correctly without using this. What tires are on the vehicle? The Dunlaps are very poor tires.
The tires currently on the vehicle are Bridgestone Dueler H/T 840s. I've read quite a few reviews on them that they are poor tires - especially in wet conditions. So I'm thinking about new tires. I had Michelin LTXs on a Pathfinder before the 4Runner and they were great. But they were 16" and I have 17" now. What's your opinion on Michelins?
It doesn't matter if they have the right machine if they do not use the lug centric adapter. If they balance the tires using the center hole in the wheel-it does not balance correctly. Also at this point you must demand a road force on the tires.
1) How long do the Michelin Cross Terrains typically last? I might have another 6k left.
2) How long do the original brakes last? I have not had any brake work done
3) When rotating the tires, one dealership rotates all 5 (spare included) front to back and across as well as "Force Balance" the tires. The other dealership closer to home rotates the 2 front tires with the 2 back tires, does not include the spare or cross the tires left to right. Which method is correct?
Cross Terrains should go a minimum of between 40,000 and 60,000 miles. Remember, when you get down to 2/32nds or so this really handicaps your wet traction and stopping ability.
Either rotation sequence is correct. Most shops don't want to bother lowering the spare, and then putting the other tire on that "little round thing" and cranking it back up. It's a tedious process. Obviously, your will get a little more wear rotating in your spare. And after 5 years you will not have to by a new spare (due to aging) when you didn't even use it.
Hope this helps.