READYFORTHEGRIDLOCK

Hey gang,

Newbie here and i need some info on how to best take care of my 2002 4-Runner - Limited Edition (4-runner has approx. 39k.)

Best motor oil & filters? (i am currently using Toyota filters & motor oil 5w-30)
Best tranny fluid? (i've heard Royal Purple is a good)
Best Diffy fluid? (Royal Purple?)
Best tires to use?
Best air filter? (a filter better than stock but not quite K&N level)
Best spark-plugs?
Best coolant? (currently using Toyota stock coolant)

That's all i can think of for now. I am also looking to purchase the auto repair manual. Any good online Toyota parts websites that anyone can recommend?
All help and advice much appreciated!

cheers.

HaveBlue

Welcome, Noob!!!

Before anyone flames you, you might want to hit the search button.

Otherwise, there's an argument for each question. I have a '96 4Runner with 149,000. I use an oversized Wix filter (#51512) and Mobil 1. I switched to synthetic at 110,000 miles. No leaks. No problems.

Best tranny fluid? Once again, I use Mobil 1. But others here swear by Amsoil.

Best diff fluid? Again, I use Mobil 1. And again, other swear by Amsoil.

Best tires? What do you want to do? Off-road? Street? Long trips?

Best air filter? I recently switched from a K&N drop-in to an aFe drop-in. No difference in power. But I hear they filter better and I have a friend who sells them.

Best spark plugs? NGK hands down. Avoid Bosch +4s like the plague.

Best coolant? Toyota hands down. But don't mix red and green.

Anything else?

READYFORTHEGRIDLOCK

Thanks HaveBlue for being a firewall! (helping me not to be flamed and all! ) As far as the fluids, i might go mobil-1 or Royal Purple. Don't have a local dealer who sells Amsoil. I'll stock up on the aFe air filters and NGK spark plugs (thanks for the advice.) As far as tires, i need a tire good for both street and long trips (i usually go to Yosemite 2wice a year - which is about 1500 miles round trip from home- and do some local trips to Grand Canyon and such - 600 miles round trip from home - and i just want a great tire.) Also need to know of a good online parts supplier that sells parts and repair manuals.

Thanks for all your help!

Bob_98SR5

i'll say it again:

SEARCH!

all your questions have been answered more times than you can imagine.

bob

98LimitedCustomized

As far as fluids go pretty much go synthetic and you comparing apples to apples, except Grannysmith to Braeburn..... in which I mean I have run Mobil 1 oil for years, and others have run X for years.... they're more or less the same thing, with of course slight differences that may or may not be negligible. Get the Haynes repair manual... it will teach you a lot about your Runner and also allow you to save money on trips to the shop/dealer for repairs that you'll find you can do yourself.

HaveBlue

No problem!

You don't really want to stock up on the aFe filters. They're $45 each and washable/reusable.
If you don't do much off-roading, a set of Michelin Cross Terrain SUV or LTXs will be perfect for long trips and general street use. If maintained properly (i.e. rotated regularly, pressure checked often, etc) you can expect 80,000+ miles. They really are good tires. My uncle had a set of LTXs on his '97 Tacoma. He traded them in with 30,000 miles on them and 80% usable tread left. The only reason he traded them in was because he needed something a little more aggressive for off-road use.
If you can find one, get a Haynes or Chiltons (or both) manual at Wal-Mart. Here, they're $13. Otherwise, Pep Boys and the like carry them for ~$16. A field service manual is the cream of the crop but typically around $150 or more. Occassionally, you may find one on Ebay.
Online parts suppliers - there's a bunch of them. I'll list a few that I've used:
www.partznet.com - bought my supercharger for half the cost of a local dealer
www.toyotaparts4u.com - bought some other TRD parts there
www.xtremeoff-road.com - Owner, Mike, is a member here, too. He's a cool guy to deal with. Mostly off-road stuff
www.urdusa.com - 5VZ performance experts
The list goes on. Checkout my website for links. I've spent some time lately updating pages with links.

Most maintenance items (oil filters, spark plugs, etc) I can pickup locally cheaper than having it shipped from someone on the internet. The exception to that would be spark plug wires (www.sparkplugs.com - NGK)and the K&N air filter (www.AJ-USA.com - free shipping).

A tip on the tires-
If you do decide to get the Michelins, get 4 or 5 quotes from various tires shops. Make Costco, Sam's Club or Wal-mart one of the quotes. Then, go to Sears and ask them to beat that price. Sears will generally beat the price by 10%. I did that with my Bridgestone Revos. If or when you buy them from Sears, make sure to retorque your lugs when you get home. Sears consistantly over-torques my lugs. Last time, they torqued them to 120 lb/ft+ On Toyota alloys, lug torque should never exceed 78 lb/ft. Any more than that and you'll warp the front rotors.

A few more tips if you're a new owner-
Clean your throttle body. There's a write-up in the Tech section. It's very easy and makes your engine feel peppier and run smoother. It's cheap too. A can of throttle body clean is less than $5.
Deckplate mod. Again, this is found in the Tech section. It works wonders with a drop-in filter like K&N or aFe and costs 300% less than a K&N Fuel Injection Performance kit while accomplishing the same thing.
Sea Foam injector cleaner - do a search on "Sea Foam". Three cans cost less than $20 and do wonders for your engine.

There are numerous other mods that can be performed on your truck. Some as little as $1, and others as much as $4000. Depends on how wild you get. I'll warn you though, modding your 4Runner is like potato chips...can't do just one!

On the bottom of my homepage, there's a link to Top 4Runner sites. It's a list of 4Runner owners with websites. You'll get all kinds of ideas.

Hope that helps!

Nic

Ditto on checking around on the tire prices. I bought some Michelin LTXs a few months back and found that the price varied considerably. I didn't check Sears though, butthe price difference varied by as much as $250.00, maybe even a bit more. And yeah, retorque after a balance and rotation.

READYFORTHEGRIDLOCK

Holy smokes HaveBlue, great post. I very much appreciate all the info. Will very much take notes on your advice and recommendations! I will pretty much keep my 4runner bone stock and take care of it the best i can (maintenance, etc.) It's looking to be that this forum is going to be very useful in finding info on doing repair jobs on my 4runner, which is what i was desperately looking for!

Thanks again for all your help and advice.

READYFORTHEGRIDLOCK

Thanks Nic!

Epic Ed

Hey, gridlock, sounds like you're an AZ resident. I can only think of one reason to take a roadie from AZ to Yosemite twice a year -- you a climber? I'll be making my pilgramage again in June.

Ed

epic37311

What are the best products to use?

Free ones

READYFORTHEGRIDLOCK

LittleRedToyota

i like redline (synthetic) fluids personally.

www.redline.com

i get it from

www.myoilshop.com

i use MT-90 in my manual tranny and transfer case and their heavyweight shockproof gear oil in my diffs...mostly the same stuff 4crawler lists on his site...

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/index.sh...ntheticGearOil

(except i also use MT-90 in my transfer case)

i tried some mobil 1 in my tranny once, but it didn't shift as well. it was a GL-5 oil and that was too slippery for the synchros to work properly. the owner's manual says to use GL-4 or GL-5, but for me--and at least several others--GL-5 doesn't work so well. (that might not be the case in newer trannys, though--mine is a 1994 w56.)

i've heard good things about royal purple, but never tried it since i am very satisfied with redline.

as for spark plugs, i suggest sticking with denso or ngk.

i run wild country radial RVTs (radial mud terrain tire). i love them...and they are way cheap compared to BFGs, etc.

radiator fluid....i like the toyota red.

i use toyota OEM oil filters and mobil high mileage synthetic blend 10w40 (called "drive clean plus" or something like that).

i also use OEM air filters. imho, k&n lets in too much dirt. there have been many debates on that...not trying to start another one...just stating my opinion. actually, there have been many debates on most of these topics...