I bought a used '95 4Runner with 108K, it looks to be in excellent condition.

I decide to give it a good once over and make sure all the maintenance is up to date.

I'm not much of a mechanic but figure with a little time and patience I can do most of the work and learn a lot in the process.

I keep running into rusted and seized up things that are just driving me insane.

The truck has a very light vibration when braking so I want to replace the pads and rotors. After a can and a half of liquid wrench and what seems like about 4 hours with a breaker bar and sockets I still have one seized up caliper bolt and the brake line bracket bolts don't even want to think about moving.

The fuel filter doesn't look like it has ever been changed. After constant flooding with liquid wrench and a lot of time I've managed to only loosen one of the two flare nuts to release the old filter.

In order to replace the automatic transmission filter and fluid I had to drop the sway bar out of the way. In the process one of those bolts broke in half. No problem I say, I'll just drill it and use a bolt extractor. All seems to be going well until the extractor bites in and strips the chuck out of my drill. OK, so I'll put a wrench on the extractor...tighter...tighter...snap! Extractor snaps in half...so now there's a chunk of broken bolt AND a broken extractor stuck in there.

This is getting so frustrating. Is it normal to have this many problems when trying to do basic maintenance work? I see some of these sweet trucks on here that have been modified so much it looks like there are fewer original parts than there are new parts...at my rate it would take me about 160 years to get all of that done.

Any tips on dealing with these rusted out corroded parts??? I mean I've gotta be doing something wrong to have this many problems. I'm getting really sick of them.

At this point I'm going to have to take the truck in to a shop and have them get the stinking fuel filter off and drill and tap the sway bar bolt. I still have my fingers crossed about getting the brake caliper off...but at this rate I'll probably have to pay someone to do that too.

So much for the cost savings on doing my own maintenance....grrrrrr.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just ticked off right now.

 

Finally got the last of the brake caliper bolts busted loose. The calipers are off! One small victory, Woowhoo!

Still can't free up the brake line bracket, so I just went ahead and unscrewed the line from the caliper...gonna flush, fill/bleed the whole system anyway.

Now on to the next challenge....how in the heck am I going to get the hub cover off, ROFL...and I thought the caliper bolts were bad. The nuts come right off but those cone washers seem to be stuck in there like they never want to come out.

 

Just wanted to say congrats on the Runner...I have the same. A few more miles (125,400) but hey...its a Yota...RIGHT?!?!

Just got some work done (I am not what you would call a DIY person on cars, but I can do SOME stuff) and now shes runnin real well!!

Post pics of the new (I am assuming its new to you right?) rig!!!!

Welcome to the forums man!!!

 

Hi.

Thanks for the welcome. I love the 4Runner and have only had it for 2 weeks. This is my third Toyota...also have a '00 Tacoma and a '99 Corolla. Will be selling the Tacoma and using the 4Runner in its place because we have a baby boy due in a few months.

This forum and site has been great so far....just reading has answered sooo many questions already

I wish I had a digital camera, then I'd be documenting all of these DIY jobs I've been working on. Mostly it's just figuring out where things are and banging fingers to get bolts loose, nothing technically hard. I found a Haynes manual but it seems to cover too many models so everytime I need a picture it's of a part that isn't on my truck. Between it and the web most things have been pretty easy to figure out, just taking plenty of time. Fun to figure out how this stuff works.

A few smacks with a hammer and those cone washers on the hub popped right out. Gotta watch that though as it can mangle the threads up quick. 4x4wire suggests a piece of brass in between to take the brunt of the abuse. So the brake job is proceeding. Now I just have to pick up a socket big enough to get the bearing retaining nut off so I can replace the rotors. It's getting easy now. Pretty soon I get to put it all back together

So I'm replacing the pads and inspecting the calipers but notice that the outer rubber boot is ripped and torn around a couple of the pistons in the caliper. Lots of dirt and a little rust so I'm wondering if it's very wise to leave them like that. Anybody have some guidelines as to when exactly the calipers should be overhauled, and what it costs? I think I remember reading it's not really worth doing it yourself since the cost to have someone rebuild them isn't that much more than buying the rebuild kit. Is that true?

 

Russell, first, congrats on your upcoming baby boy. second, get some PB Blaster, a tap and die set, a box of band-aids and a few 20 lb sacks of patience. Just kidding, the anti-seize will do wonders for you.
I can relate to your rust problem. This is what I had on my FJ 40, the first one! it's worth it though, just keep pluggin'.