hey yall

man, is it me or is the 03+ 4Runner/GX470, & 05+ Tacomas section dead. not much activity here. ive had my 03 4r for a month now and im loving it. its nice to have more a luxury suv (compared to my 91 pu) to drive to work and around town. took it wheeling for the first time saturday. does real well. only did a few rutted hill climbs. good to get back on the dirt again. so sad though, now im so concerned with scratches and stuff. i avoided each bush like the plague while i was wheeling LOL. o well. got to play with all the doodads in the 4th gen. not used to the electric dial transfer case. can u believe it, i actually grinded the tcase gears in an auto. i switched to 4wLo and in my excitement i popped it into D before it was done switching and ewww what a wretched sound. gears grinding! OOPS. it climbed the rutted hill nicely. on the way down i switched on the DAC to try it out. should i turn off the VSC/center diff lock while in DAC? ive never used the DAC before and it scared me the first time coz of the weird braking noises.

all these doodads, what will become of 4wheeling? someday ull be able to cross the rubicon by just controlling the gas!

speaking of gas, any one out there with ideas to improve mileage? im getting OK mileage... my Ave MPG gauge says im getting around 18mpg... but i dont think its that accurate. what can i expect with the older V8. neone do a deckplate mod? i havent even really craked open the hood to check out the air box. any other ideas?

j

 

when you're on a dirt surface you're better off locking the center as it sends power 50/50 and also turns off the vsc.

dac only works in 4lo and in 1st gear which helps to maintain downhill speed around 5mph. sadly that's too fast for my comfort when you're going down some steep grades w/ rocks. but for the average going down steep grades dac does work well.

18mpg is rather high btw. Just be happy it's bone stock cuz once you go crazy you'll be loving the 10-12 that I get

deckplate mod is not possible because of the limited space - check for yourself. you can do the true flow air filter which I highly recommend and get an aftermarket exhaust if you're looking for performance. no headers at the moment but I hear some are working on something.

good luck!

 

yeh, for the dac, the descent was a lil fast for my liking so i kept on breaking which canceled the DAC the second u touched the break. pretty cool though.

yeh, i want to lift it and put maybe 32s or 33s on it but prob later. im liking the stock feeling right now. i still have my lifted 91 pu so i can drive that around too. i do a lot of long distance traveling on the weekend so i cant afford to have BAD gas mileage. ill look into the true flow air filter and exhaust.

thanks!
josh

 

Enjoy your new 4th Gen 4Runner!!! I know I do. Mine isn't built quite as much as Lance's is (Hi Lance!), but it's fairly well built. I just need to re-gear and put some lockers in, probably next year, this thing has drained my bank account already!

But here is a picture of My034runner (Black), and a picture of Marks (Expat) white 4th gen. We were both climbing Ring & Pinion Falls.

Oh yeah, go to http://www.toyota120.com and check us out also. Most of us have 4th gen 4Runner's, and we all use them. Plus, there's a wealth of info as far as tech, and build ups on there as well.

 

Hi Lance!!

 

Stock, I get about 15.5-16mpg... I've gotten it as low as 14mpg before.

 

yeh, when i calculate from a full tank and then how much gas i put in on a refill and calculate from how many miles i went, it comes out to around 16mpg or so. but the avg mpg calculator from the 4r says i got 17-18mpg. i never really trust that onboard calculator.

 

Gas mileage???? What's that??
I gave that up a long time ago!
But I'm not complaining!! I get to go where I want!!
So that's the trade off.