I've owned my '95 for 17 years and it's given me relatively good service, but I don't feel good about long road trips in it any more, or for putting the wife on the road alone in it. I figured on moving up to a 4th or 5th generation 4Runner, but a friend told me about a 2002 that I want to go have a look at. 2WD with less than 100K miles on it and it's supposed to be very clean. Now, I've had 2nd gen tunnel vision for so long that I know next to nothing about the 3rd gens. What are the trouble spots and specific things that I need to be aware of? Questions that I need to ask?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Third gen is best gen!

I could say a bunch of stuff, but this link says it all:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-ge...ers-guide.html

 

Tremendous write-up. Thanks!

 

Casual observations (other than the nuts and bolts):
- the 3rd gens are a lot more rust-proof. They use salt on the roads here in the winter. This is very hard on cars. The 3rd gens are pretty old by now, so there' less of a relative age gap between them and the 2nd gens. But just basing it off the cars I see driving around, it's rare to see a second gen without visible rust on the body. At the same time, it's rare to see a 3rd gen with any visible rust at all (bumpers excluded, lol, tinfoil).
- the 3.4 is a much better motor than the 3.0. No that the 3.sl0 is terrible, it just didn't move the 2nd gen around very well, and it tends to blow HG's. The 3.4 finally got the oomph to move the truck around, and it pretty much never has problems.
- 3rd gens are quieter, drive better on the road, are a lot safer in a really bad wreck, all with no tradeoff in off-roading ability at all.

 

Thanks again, Jomoka, for your comments. As a 3.slow owner for these many years, I have always felt it was a shame that this is the engine with which this otherwise well designed truck was saddled. (My head gasket blew at around 155K.) Mine has had its share of issues, most of which I've successfully worked through and are chronicled on this site, but the lack of guts has always been disappointing. After 17 years, I think I'm ready for an upgrade. Funny thing is, though, it's still a great looking truck and works just fine for local driving. In my opinion, it's the best looking 4Runner ever.

But, a good friend has owned a 2002 for a long time and has done very well with it. It suffered the "strawberry milkshake," but evidently he got to it in time because the dealer did all the necessary repair work and he's put over 50K on it since then. I'm thinking that this generation will suit me well IF I can find a good, low mileage one. The newer ones, for all their upgrades, seem to put less emphasis on the rear cargo area in terms of space, and as my name suggests this has got to be dog friendly. The rear seats in mine are down 90% of the time, making a good sized space for the dogs. The 3rd gen seems to be just as useable in that regard.