The Dutch Man

I have an 03 runner with 13K. Truck has been great so far. One thing that scared me recently is the power steering. Seems only when the truck is cold (It's been below 20 F here for a while) the pump whines for the first few minutes going down the street until the truck warms up. Now it only whines when you turn the steering wheel, not while sitting at idle or going straight. Only under load. So, it's definatley the pump, not the belt. Once it's warm, the truck is silent as a mouse. Is this because the fluid and pump are cold? Is this normal on the 4th gen? Can anyone check this out on their vehicle. If it's not normal, I will mention it to the dealer at the 15K service.

spyder

I've got an 04 V6 SR5 with 3k miles and haven't had any noise at all. It's been as cold as -2 here.

The Dutch Man

Anyone else who has the V8 setup experienced this. Anyone willing to start theirs in the AM and give a listen for me. Otherwise, I'm off to the stealer next week

EDGE

No noises here but I'll listen extra carefully next time I start it up, but my e-brake now drops to the floor when depressed and no longer holds the truck, now I have to return to the dealer which I hate

The Dutch Man

I appreciate that Edge. That's a bummer on the E-brake. Stuff like that drives me nuts and wastes a whole day at the dealer. I asked the dealer to tighten my e-brake and they said it was fine. Normal operation. Seems to me that the brake on this truck goes down way to far! Keep me posted with what you find. I made an appt. for next Monday anyway.

EDGE

I'll keep you updated, seems the e-brake always went far down and went down further every so often, think right now it's right off the floor, no longer holds the truck at idle or on a hill.

Anyways Im tryin a new dealer so I hope the service should be better, the last dealer took 4 hours to do a 20 minute job and the test drive, the tech play chicken with your vehicle :pat:

When I had my Pathfinder, I never returned to the dealer in over 3 years

Sac State

Hijacked post....

I've had my ebrake adjusted twice. It is now needing another adjustment. Before the first adjustment, the brakes squeeked like a bus. They are somewhat better now after the initial adjustment.

Wish Toyota would put back in a handle ebrake like on the Honda CR-V.

HOK

I think I have a small hum from the pump when i start it in -20C. But its nothing I have worried about. How loud is the whine.

EDGE

Makes you wonder why the GX has a hand brake and the 4Runner has a floor brake, my ES has a floor brake and it's as tight as the day I got it

fourunnabilly

I have experienced exactly what you talked about many times here in MT, in even -20 degree temps. Even has felt like my power steering fluid is somewhat frozen. Once the vehicle warms up all is fine. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Billy

EDGE

I park in a garage that does not freeze and in extreme colds never really drops below 50degrees, but the few times I have left it outside for long periods it has made odd noises but I just always considered that normal freezing cold start up noises, no different from other vehicles I have owned

Dutch Man
took the truck into service at about 4pm, the hot service writer said no problem do you mind if we look at it right now waited 10 minutes and the tech took it in, was fixed and I was out of their all with 40 minutes, she said the brake was really far out of adjustment now it's freakin tight, when the truck was new it was not this tight, maybe my truck was built on a moday or a friday

So I think I found a new dealer cause waiting 4-6 hours in the other place was killing me, my faith has been restored and Im not hating the toy dealer anymore

The Dutch Man

Hok and Fourunnabilly,

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like the "Power Steering Warm Up Whine" is normal. My while only occurs when the truck is damn cold. Steering is a little bit harder. After 5 minutes of warming up, no whine and fluid seems to have warmed up making the steering easier. Seems to be the case with all the 4 Runners

Edge,

That's sweet to know. I will add the e-brake to the list of things getting fixed on Monday. I noticed the e-brake not holding when towing my father-in-laws boat this summer. It doesn't seem to be all that tight. The dealer near my work told me the brake was fine. I will let the dealer I purchased it from take a look Monday. So here's my Monday list....

1. Check out the power steering whine
2. Fix the rattling tailgate
3. Fix the rattling driver side seat (Yeah right!)
4. Adjust the parking brake

Thanks for the posts Gents! I will keep you posted if anything comes from the seat fix, maybe?

nrgetic99

Hey Bud,

If they don't fix the seat rattle, check my list of TSB's and let them know there are currently 4 TSB's addressing rattles.

Look here

David

P.S> My bad, 5 now !

toybox

I get the same whine for about 5 minutes when under freezing and starting it up 1st thing in the morning. I have an '03 V8.

The Dutch Man

Ah, the infamous whine seems to be common place on the 03 V8. Now the millon dollar question. Is it normal? Do the V6's and/or the new 04's do the same thing?

As for the seat, I don't have the creaking everyone complains about. However, If you hold the front of the seat, you can rattle it up and down. It's always loose. Do the 04's do this too? I didn't notice it until I read some posts here. Figured I mention it to the dealer while it's going in.

I will also check on the new driftshaft to fix the clunk when stopping. See if the dealer has any info. My guess is probably not.

Which brings me to my last petpieve. The driveline whine at 75-85 mph. We'll see what they have to say about this.

I probably will get at lot of "cannot duplicate" on my paperwork!

spyder

04 (purchased in November 03) SR5 V6 3k miles

Started looking hard last spring for my runner and read all the posts regarding 4th gens at that time and since. So far I haven't had any of the problems reported here. No rattles, whines, clunks, etc. at all. Mine has never seen a garage (two kids and between my stuff and theirs the garage is full). We haven't had consistent cold (Indianapolis IN) but it has gotten down below zero. I am mechanically inclined (MX/street bikes, quads, snowmobiles, built '64 Malibu, built '78 IH Scout that saw more mud than asphalt) and do notice things that don't sound/feel right. So far I am very pleased with the runner except the VSC and traction control. Both seem to work very well but they sure take the fun out of getting loose in the snow! Gas mileage is also another bummer, 13.4-14.4 so far this winter. I did get up to 16.5 before the cold set in and it wasn't even broken in yet.

The Dutch Man

Update!

Truck is at the dealer today. They said the serpentine belt needed to be adjusted. That was part of the whine in the morning. If the whine occurs when cold, it's normal according to Toyota. How do you adjust a belt that is on auto tensioner pully???

As for the seat bottom and being able to shake it up and down, they said it's normal. Nothing they can do to fix. They said they looked at the others on the lot and they all do the same thing.

Anybody done their 15K serivce? What did they do and how much did you pay? Dealer quoted me $199, which included the tire rotation, oil change, air filter, and transmission service. The other local dealer quoted $238, and they did all of the above plus cleaned the throttle body and change the tranfer case and differntials. Do you really think this should be done at 15K?

EDGE

Concerning the 15k service visit, I have never done anything to a vehicle till at least 40-45k, if not longer, I believe in maintenace just not over doing it.

Im almost at 12k and it will be another 3 or 4 months before I hit 15k so Im undecided if I might just pass it by and wait till 30k to have everything changed, the 15k service I might have it done so I can have another tax write off

I've gone to 2 different dealers and the 2nd dealer the better dealer has much better prices for what they do being actual work, on their maintenance sheet they don't even have anything done in the 15k list, they have everything down under 30k, they list 15k as inspect, and 30k as service/perform.

Dutch Man you got access to a fax machine I fax you the sheet I have cause I don't want type it out

The Dutch Man

Edge,

I have the list from two different dealers. They vary somewhat in the services. Like I said, one dealer for $238 includes changing the tranny, transfer case, both diffs, air filter, tire balance, tire rotation, oil and filter, and throttle body cleaning. The other dealer for $199 does not do the transfer case, diffs, and throttle body. I asked them about this today. They said to wait until the 30K. Then they quoted me $39.95 for the transfer case and $39.95 for the diffs. Makes sense to me to have the first dealer do the service. Plus, I have a 10% coupon off a major service. PM me and I'll give you my work fax.

Dutchman

TechWrench

I've got an '03 V6 and nearing 13k, and haven't noticed any power steering pump noise yet. We just went through a long cold spell here in upstate NY, and I park outside all the time. But, I am waiting for the serpintine belt/idler pulley noise to start again when the temps begin to moderate.