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This past weekend was the first time we had the truck in cold conditions (10 to 20 degrees). This time the tailgate refused to stay open even with the window in the up position. Sure enough, when the afternoon hit and the temps raised to about 45 degrees the tailgate worked fine again. That night and the next morning, same issue. Cold outside = tailgate not staying open. I actually had to stick a ski pole between it and the bumper to keep it open.
Has anyone heard of this problem? Better yet, do other people's tailgates stay open with the window down? I'm thinking my original assumption about the flawed design may be incorrect...maybe I have a defective tailgate. Thoughts?
Chris
Please note that my '03, V8 4Runner has nearly 9500 miles on it so far, and to date there've been only a FEW occasions when I detected only a FAINT sulfur odor coming from the exhaust, and those RARE occasions have always been in my garage, after shutting off the engine and exiting the truck. (I've yet to ever smell this odor in the cabin.) In fact, my truck's exhaust almost always has the usual and rather pleasant odor I would expect.
So then, am I just lucky here? Maybe so. But then again, might there be something I'm doing (or not doing) that's helping to keep my truck's exhaust from reeking of sulfur?
I routinely use high-octane (i.e., 91-93 octane) fuels from reliable name-brands such as Shell, Sunoco, and Chevron. Since I've yet to have a problem with this particular odor with my 4Runner, I have speculated in one or more of my previous postings as to whether this widely reported "rotten egg" exhaust smell complaint might be related to not only the overall QUALITY of the brand of fuel being used, but perhaps equally or even more importantly, whether it might also be somehow related the OCTANE rating of the fuel being used. So far, it seems my previous speculations regarding this matter have been largely ignored, and those who've responded have merely opined that unless engine knocking develops, using a premium high-octane fuel is surely unnecessary at best, and a waste of money at worst.
After reading the "garbage" and "enjoy the stink" comments earlier tonight, I decided to do a bit more on-line digging on the this subject. Here's a link to a discussion about gasoline from Sunoco's web site: http://www.sunocoinc.com/market/transportation_fuels.htm Pay close attention to Table 4 (especially), and you will see some interesting figures regarding the sulfur content of their fuels, with respect to octane rating. In brief, a perusal of this data would seem to indicate that their 93/94 octane fuels are reported to have a >50% reduction in sulfur content (measured in parts-per-million) when compared to their 87 octane fuels. A further examination of this data would seem to suggest that at least for Sunoco fuels, the sulfur content may be (roughly) inversely related to octane rating. That is, the LOWER the octane rating, the HIGHER the sulfur content?? While I could not find similar on-line data from Shell or Chevron, I can't help but wonder if the Sunoco data might well be generalizable to gasoline coming from many refineries?
For those who would scoff at Toyota's recommendation to use high-octane fuel in the 4Runner unless knocking develops, Chevron's web site had this to say http://www.chevron.com/prodserv/fuels/gas_qanda/api_octane.shtml (A quote from this last link is as follows: "Your car's octane requirements are mainly determined by its basic design. In addition, variations in engines due to manufacturing tolerances can cause cars of the same model to require a different octane of several numbers. Also, as a new car is driven, its octane requirement can increase because of the buildup of combustion chamber deposits. This continues until a stable level is reached, typically after about 15,000 miles. The stabilized octane requirement may be 3-6 numbers higher than when the car was new. Premium or midgrade fuel may be advisable to prevent knock..."
In my opinion, it would make no marketing sense for Toyota to recommend more costly high-octane fuels if they didn't believe it would necessarily result in the best long term performance of the engines in question. I welcome your thoughts here.
It looked to me like you could easily buy the heavier hitch and swap out the lighter one. I think there was even a post from someone in Canada who had bought the heaver hitch from Toyota and done just that. I don't know if the heaver hitch receiver mount is the only difference between the 5000 lb. and 7000+ lb. towing ratings, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Of course, I could probably always take pics of the underside of my hitch and post them here. I'll probably do that if it's inconclusive. If worse comes to worse and I want to tow more than 5000lbs, I suppose I could always contact Toyota directly with my VIN....hopefully they'd know.
Thanks everyone.
It looks like a big job to remove the JBL unit from the dash, so I was hoping the amp was in a more accessible location. Thanks for any input.
PS. I've had absolutely no sulfer smell since I purchased the vehicle, I use 87 octane fuel, which in Colorado is mid grade, regular is 85 octane.
Sulfer smell; I have a 93 Grand Cherokee in which I use premium (91\92) gas, because performance and mileage are better with premium. Rarely, I will get a sulfer smell. It comes and goes unrelated to anything I can figure out. My assumption is that it has to do with the gasoline used. I used to use exclusively Texaco, now Shell; same station but merger forced them to change. Perhaps slightly different formulations or whatever. It also seemed to happen more when going uphill. Hope this may provide some clues.
Just wanted to see if there are others out there in my situation. I have a 03 4Runner, and its been nothing but a problem since I bought it. It has a lot of small issues which I won't waste your time going into, but it seems to be a very "dainty" vehicle.
After only 11500 miles, the all wheel drive made terrible sounds and had to be replaced. Now the vehicle has a very bad gas odor coming from where the new differential case was installed. Its going back to the dealer again. During the latest cold snap, the engine apparently won't run when its under 10 below zero. Its starts but keeps stalling when driving because of a "lean mixture" code detected by the engine. Tried premium gas, dry gas, but it has something to do with going up and down hills too. Dealer had no solutions for me. Had to tow it twice!
Also, I may add, the vehicle skid control system appeared to freeze up as well, and I got some exciting braking vibrations and lights on indicating the anti-skid was on even though I was it Park. Doesn't Toyota test its vehicles in cold weather??
Now granted it was damn cold out, but my 89 Toyota pickup with 200,000 miles on it, started and ran fine.
Bottom line, I never expected this poor of vehicle from Toyota, and I will probably never buy a new car from them again. I know its a new model, but I also bought the new 2001 nissan Pathfinder when it came out, and there were zero recalls with it and I did not have one problem with that car.
Maybe I am just an odd case that got a bad car, but I am wondering if there are more of you out there?
At any rate, I cannot reccomend the new 4Runner to someone that NEEDS 4Wheel drive, it just doesn't hold up.
I always bought gas (92 octane) at the Amoco around the corner from my house and Amoco gas whenever I could when on the road. My Dad raised me this way. One day early last month I go to pull into my beloved Amoco and the wrecking ball is coming down on her in order to build a bank. Old man Lewis finally sold out. OMG, I thought, the world is coming to an end. I limp over to the Chevron around the corner, and begrudgingly fill 'er up with 93 Octane. Well, let me tell you, me and my 4Runner are stinky no longer. I try to make her stink; can't do it. The kids are bummed, too. Oh well.
BTW I think you have 4 wheel drive, not all wheel drive. In the V-6 you have to switch to 4 WD from 2 WD.
If your 2001 Pathfinder was so good, why did you buy a 2003 4 Runner ? Just curious.
It feels "wobbly" in slowish turns and the behavior can be stopped by swapping F<=>R (like when you rotate the tires).
The dealer says they can have Dunlop warranty the tire(s) but ONLY for the one(s) that are bad. My problem is that my car has 20,000 miles on it. So getting 1 or 2 new tires and using them with 2 or 3 existing tires with 20,000 miles on them seems rediculous for the following reasons:
1. Harder on the drivetrain
2. Worse traction on ice/snow
3. Worse gas mileage
I was thinking that short from giving me 4 new tires, that they should at least give me a pro-rated credit on the tires that are still good. That way I could get 4 new tires and not feel like I was being forced to throw away tires that still have life in them.
I don't even want Dunlops anyway. I'd rather have the Michelin X-Terrains.
Does anyone have any experience or advice in dealing with this type of an issue?
Thanks,
Eric
As the information at this web site describes, this process basically involves In other words, tires and rims are never perfectly round, and there are occasions when a given tire's high spot has been inadvertently seated over the high spot on its tire rim. (A similar misalignment may occur with the low spots on the tire and rim.) If this sort of mismatch occurs between a given tire and its rim, the result will be an elliptically shaped "wheel" that rolls along rather like an egg, and even if a given tire and rim are otherwise correctly COUNTERWEIGHTED, no amount of conventional tire balancing will solve the problem because the underlying problem rests with the overall "wheel" (i.e., tire+rim) being too "elliptically" shaped. Conventional tire balancing methods can only detect and attempt to correct problems related to counterweighting; it does nothing to address the potential underlying problem of the tire's shape being mismatched to the shape of the metal wheel rim it is mated with. Only "road force" balancing can address this rather common problem, but unfortunately, many service shops do not own road force balancers because they are expensive, which is really no excuse since these machines tend to quickly pay for themselves and bring in lots of revenue over the long term! (Expect to pay ~$70.00 to have your tires "road force" balanced.)
So how do road force balancers work? Basically, the tire and its rim are placed in the balancer, which rolls the tire and also applies a "squeezing" force or an amount of "road force" pressure (on the order of thousands of PSI) to the wheel in order to simulate the actual stresses and weight being seen by the wheel in real world conditions. At the same time, suffice it to say that as the wheel rolls, relative changes (dips and spikes) in PRESSURE are measured and recorded. Once this is accomplished, any marked high spots and low spots within the tire and rim are identified, and the tire is then resituated on the rim in such a fashion that "...matching the stiff or high spot on the tire with the low spot on the rim cancels vibration caused by radial force variation and provides the smoothest ride..." On the other hand, if you truly have a bad tire or rim, then replacement would be the best solution.
From what I've learned through experience, when a competent service advisor hears of persisting complaints like yours (that are not solved by conventional rebalancing), they should next recommend road force balancing, even if this requires sending you to another shop or tire dealership that has a road force balancer. They may not be willing to foot the bill to have this done, but if it solves the problem it will still be much cheaper than buying new tires. And by the way, I've learned that when buying new tires, it's often worth it to have them road force balanced at or shortly after the time of installation, especially if there've been previous problems with ride quality. Opinions may vary here.
Thanks
Rick
Good luck.
If you 'air down' the tires, can it perform in sand?
You may do OK, depending on how well packed the sand is, but I can't recommend it. If you do go out on the sand, I would recommend you get the number of a beach tow service, have a cell phone, have some extra bottled water, and carry a tow strap. The people I meet out on the beach are extremely friendly and would help out anyone stuck in the sand.
On second thought, maybe the audible warning was that awful noise coming from the truck about a 1/4 mile later
Good luck.
Wonder if Toyota's documentation department wasn't communicating with the engineering department? At this point I'm really tempted to contact Toyota directly about this.
Not a problem for now, my tow load on Sunday will be less than 5K lbs. Probably not much over 2500 or so. Can't wait to see how it tows....there's very little this vehicle can't do, except get decent gas mileage.
Thanks for checking. As mine is factory installed and the manual indicates up to 7000 lbs with AWD and an equalizing hitch, I think I will stay with the OEM product. Some aftermarket units require trimming the fascia.
I tow a bit more than 1 ton, so will have no problem. I am also interested in gas mileage, and theorize that the V8 should not be working too hard, and therefore should not have excessive fuel consumption. My former 240 hp Pathfinder resulted in about a 5 mpg difference with towing my trailer. Let us know how the fuel draw is.
Thanks
I described the differences in detail in post #7580 in this thread, and the hitch versions were truly very different and easy to tell apart. However maybe things have changed for the new year, and even the hitches with the heavier capacity are using just the two bolts? Maybe someone could do as I did in '03 and just stop by a dealer and compare the V6s and V8s to check the type of hitch and labeling.
BTW the aftermarket ones do come heated or non-heated.
424shake, I will go aftermarket if an OEM ssmirror isn't available. Thanks for the link.
I read post 7580, and in no way does my hitch resemble the unit you described. Aftermarket hitches such as Hiddenhitch are similar to what you described. I did not see a weight bearing sticker on mine, but will try to see if the dealer in my small town has a V6 model in stock, and look for differences in constuction. It is possible they are the same, and the V6 model may simply not have the oil cooler and other features standard on the V8 model.
And to keep this on topic, this is what I'm towing on Sunday to pick up some big furniture:
http://www.uhaul.com/guide/guide_template.html?trailer_6x12
I bought the 4Runner for the better 4wheel drive options, anti-skid, downhill assist, as I live in the mountians in the NE, and Pathfinder just has plain ole part time 4high and 4low(at least at the time I was looking). I also got stuck a couple of times in the Pathfinder in 4-high, so I was looking for something better.
Believe me, I love Toyota, have an 89 Pickup with 200000 on it, still runs like a top, but this 2003 4Runner has been very disapointing in terms of its reliablility.
Someone else quoted on this board about a bunch a recalls on the pathfinder, but in truth my 2001 Pathfinder did not have one recall for the two years I owned it, and that beats this 4Runner which seems to be in Techincal Service Bulletin heaven.
Guess I'll have to get the updated hitch or an aftermarket 2nd one if I end up needing to pull that 5300lb load....
I complained to toyota USA. They told my dealer to get a new receiver and install it. The first receiver worked with the Toyota ball hitch, but nothing else. It had a block on it to keep the ball hitch from hitting the spare. The new hitch has no such block. It is a bit larger, maybe 1.98 inch. The size of the receiver is not one of the 4Runner good points.
glb5 - you couldn't locate the tranny dipstick because,... there is no tranny dipstick on the '04 V8's! Toyota has them on the '03's, but the newest 4Runners have, "Lifetime" tranny fluid, hence no dipstick. I discovered this when talking with a Toyota tech (Longo Toyota - So Cal). Toyota did the same with the '04 Sequoia. Wouldn't be surprised to see this across the line in the future.