Over the holidays I finally had some time to spend on some of the routine maintenance projects I have been putting off. I did the following:

Clutch fluid, brake fluid, manual trans oil, transfer case oil, fuel filter, and rear diff breather extension.

My 4runner has about 90K on it and what I found was very interesting. The brake fluid was not bad but needed to be changed. The clutch fluid was terrible. It was extremely dark and dirty. My clutch is still very strong, it does not seem to slip at all, but I had significant clutch shudder problems. Before I took it in for a new clutch/flywheel resurface I wanted to give the fluid exchange a try. What I found is that by changing the fluid, the clutch is much better the shudder is significantly less. It?s still there but it?s tolerable (it wasn?t before).

The trans and transfer case oil still looked ok but the Mobil 1 synthetic is better/smoother shifting.

The fuel filter is what amazed me the most. There was quite a bit of sediment stuck in the filter. The gasoline catch pan looked like someone took a small handful of fine sand and threw it in the pan. My first thought was that someone did stick something in the tank but my tank locks. I should have taken a picture but I didn?t.

All these jobs are easy, cheap and necessary. Just thought I would post my findings.

 

Want to help a fellow YT out and give a little direction on the fuel filter issue? Also how often should you change that filter? and where is the gas catch pan?

 

Bob has a great write-up

http://www.4runners.org/articles/fuelfilter/

I am not sure how often it should be changed. I have heard it's a lifetime filter. IMHO it's not. I would say somewhere around 60K. I've read that others say as little as 15K?I think that is overkill. The gas catch pan goes right under the filter (it's not attached to the truck, sorry if my words misled) so that you can catch the gas that comes out of the filter when you loosen the bolts.

 

Ditto.....It is definately NOT a lifetime item. I change mine at the 60K interval as well (although I am currently due).

 

Im not due just yet, but I have no idea of PO treatment of the truck, and its time for oil change anyway, so why not go ahead and hit up the fuel filter too. I think Im at like 55 K or so....any other things I should check? 2WD Auto 3.4 (04 Double Cab)

 

It may be lifetime in that the engineers have determined that upon 1 million miles with normal wear and tear, the fuel filter flow will still be within spec.

Just because there is dirt on the inflow side of the filter does not mean the filter is bad. It means the filter is working. That said, periodically changing the filter is a very easy PM, so why not? I did mine at 100k. Dirty yes but I could blow through it...

 

I see that I have 2 fuel filters. One is mounted on the frame near the gas tank, and also one mounted on the passenger side of the engine block. Do you guys change both when changing?

Rob

 

I've heard to use a flare nut wrench (line wrench) because the nuts on either side are relatively soft and round easily. That's pretty much the only holdup for me, seeing as I already got the fuel filter but stopped short because I don't have any of these wrenches and don't want to round off anything.

 

I got a set of three at Advance Auto for something like 8 bucks. Any parts store should have them. You could do it without the wrench but I don't think it's worth the risk.