Looks like it should again, and not having to worry about the antenna will be a good thing.

 

mileage: 198,xxx

After I replaced my seat covers a few years ago and really spruced up my interior, I was left looking at a funky, worn, and rough steering wheel.

Old wheel cover


Just years of sweat, sun, and grime had wrecked the cover.

I came across a Reddit recommendation for East Detailing replacement wheel wraps. And for $50 I figured, why not?

 

After cutting the stitching of the original wheel wrap.






Cleaning the underlying surfaces, you add a bunch of double sided tape to the back of the new wrap to hold it in place while stitching.


Now you stretch the new wrap over the wheel and start stitching. Prepare yourself. You will be here for several hours.


It’s tough to see, but you don’t actually stitch thru the leather as you go. There is already a set of stitches bonded to and thru the wrap. So your stitch is really just thru all those loops. I started with the bottom, then did the long top section, then each of the thumb holes. It took me WAY too long to unlock the column and turn the wheel as I did each section. My foolishness was trying to stitch at weird angles with the wheel upright.

 

Keep working around and you get the hang of holding tension on the string while you thread thru the next gap. When you are done, there is a plastic tool that helps you tuck the edges down between the wheel and the airbag pad.



I circled my mistakes or issues. On the too section, I pulled too hard and broke my thread. So I knotted it together and you can feel the knot. I’m hoping over time it will press into the leather. I didn’t feel like unlacing 45 minutes worth of work to run a single strand again.

Also on the upper left spoke, I think the leather was cut maybe 1/4” short. There is not a ton of extra material to tuck in between the airbag pad and the spoke.

Lastly I chose a color that wasn’t the same as my seats. The website colors didn’t really match what I had originally. Although I think it compliments the “wood grain” of the limited dash accents.



Not a bad quality of life improvement for $50 and about 4 hours of time. It is super soft now and doesn’t get tacky with humidity.

 

Mileage: 199,xxx

I Heard- a slight grinding occasionally from the front as I came to a stop. I knew my brakes were down to probably 2-3/32 when I rotated my tires last and was waiting on parts. It turns out, the lifespan of slotted rotors is when the surface wears down to expose the rust line at the bottom of the groove, and that rust line just so happens to shred through the last of your pad material like a cheese grater.

So in like 2 days it went from

this, when I first started to hear a scrape.

To this:




Luckily the Amazon truck showed up with some fresh meats and I had a slow workday.




82k miles of service. I can’t complain.

I also took the opportunity to flush my brake fluid:

 

Now that the front end was under control, and I was under the hood, I noticed my air filter was no longer red. It was black.





It took 3 rounds of washing to get it clean and then a recharge of fresh K&N oil.

 

mileage: 200,000

I joined a new club

 

Congrats!

My Hilux is at 327,000. I have a habit I developed. I put all but 30,000 on it, BTW. I've had it since 88, and put almost all those miles on it. Every time I'd hit a 100,000 mark on the ODO, I'd pull over right where I was, no matter where I was, and do the "Happy Toyota Dance" around my little truck. Every time, I'd get a Arizona Dept. of Public Safety officer (highway patrol) pull over and ask mewhat the heck (or close) I thought I was doing. When I'd explain it to him, he'd laugh his tail off. All 3 of them. They'd get back in their car and tell me to carry on. When I'd get back in, and take off, they'd still be laughing hilariously.

So, welcome to the club, and don't frget to do the Happy Toyota Dance Around your truck! They appreciate it. My truck is still rocking along the highway!
Pat☺

 

Mileage: 200,xxx

With the front brakes done, it dawned on me I don’t think I’ve ever replaced the rears in the 120k miles I’ve had this old gal. So I decided to change that.

Man do I love any manufacturer that puts threaded holes in their rotors and drums to push off.




As always, some before pics to remind myself where all the hardware goes if I get interrupted. You can see the leading shoe was getting pretty thin. Both sides were WAY out of adjustment too which may be contributing to my higher mpg on the highway.



Cleaned everything up and reassembled. New shoes, drums, and hardware. Ready for another 100k miles of neglect 😂

 

Mileage: 201,xxx

oil change with high mileage valvoline and a D3 filter

my check engine light came on with a P0136 which I believe is an upstream O2 sensor. Now to crawl underneath and swap them out. On the ground. In November. awesome

 

Mileage: 202,211

Replaced the front (Denso 234-9002) and rear (Denso 234-4153) o2 sensors. While since my truck is Cali spec, technically it’s an upstream air/fuel sensor and downstream o2 sensor. I’m pretty sure they were original. I know I haven’t changed them and I’ve owned this truck since 83k miles. The threads on the exhaust studs are completely gone, so I looped bailing wire around and snugged/spun them tight with safety wire pliers.

Now to reset my CEL and see if it stays out.

 

mileage: 204,xxx

A headlight went out on my way to work. I think I should have gotten more than 2 years out of a headlight bulb, but I know materials are crap nowadays.

 

Mileage: 205,xxx

Oil change.

Also some electrical diagnostics. While using a 12v air pump to top off a tire, the pump quit working. When I swapped the pump for my cell charger it too wasn’t working, clearly I blew the accessory fuse…. Or at least that’s what they want you to think.

So my ‘99 has 3 12v ports, the actual cigarette lighter to the left of the ashtray, and 2 12v outlets below the ashtray. Using a DMM I checked all the fuses at the panel near the drivers knee and the panel under the hood. Everything had 12v on both sides of the fuses with the key at RUN. But testing the cigarette port center pin and right side 12v port read nothing and only had 12v on the left aux port. Some digging and asking around the internet informed me there is a fusible link inside each of those ports and I must have blown them. I really don’t want to pull the center bezel again because I think it might the last time for the plastic clips.

 

mileage: 208,xxx

So I asked for a little QoL improvement part for my birthday this year. I carry a ton of stuff all the time; tool box, first aid, recovery gear, work gear, kid gear, etc. and lately I have had it in 3 milk crates in the way back. The problem being anytime I need more space, I have to remove the crates and my regular running gear, so I’m left in a state of either travel or work gear and not both. I’ve been eyeing up Mille Window panels for a while but price was more than I spend on fluff items, and so I decided to use a birthday wish and ask.

As suggested, my wife gifted me a Victory 4x4 3rd Gen rear side window Molle Panel. After a slight hiccup of not having the mounting brackets, everything else went pretty smoothly. I may have missed the mark on one of the rivnuts, but I’ll try to repair that later.

I think I’ll switch to hooks or Velcro straps instead of the bungies I had laying around.

 

mileage: 212,xxx

somehow I missed logging my 210k mile oil and filter change, but I assure you it happened.

My new update is some QoL improvements. The spring clip on the fuel door has been broken for a while now which means fill-ups require sliding my Costco card in the door latch and rooting around until I catch the latch. Not ideal. Plus it’s really awkward to explain to someone else when they borrow my truck. I recently gained access to a mint parts car and decided to fix a few things, namely the fuel door.

2 screws later and I’m back to the convenience of pulling the latch and having the door pop open.


Old door missing the spring

Side by side

New door with a functioning release spring

 

I grabbed an OE sunroof deflector too.

 

Mileage: 214,xxx

i’ve had a clunk and the front end for a while and I’ve narrowed it down to my upper control arms having some play. This is really my fault. When I did my poly bushings, I skipped pressing on the inner washers to the sleeves because I thought it was tight enough. Spoiler Alert!!! It is not, and after several years that play will eat the bushings.

So I’ve ordered replacement upper control arms, my passenger inner CV is shot, so I ordered left and rights, and because of the wear of the UCA bushings my front tires are wearing unevenly along the inner edge.

Now my wheels have had slow leaks around where the tire bead seats. I know the aluminum has some corrosion and no shops clean up rims when they break down wheels. I ordered a set of Kuhmo Crugen HT51s, this will be my 3rd set, they are reasonably priced and I get 50k+ miles out of them. I also picked up a manual tire machine. And let the fun begin.


Manual tire machine, $65 at HF

It needs bigger feet

Look at all that corrosion

After the wire wheel

And now with some rustoleum.

 

Additionally my exhaust has been falling apart. I recently replaced the tailpipe because it rotted just downstream of the last flange. Then after a few weeks it rotted before the flange so that has me replacing the muffler.

Rockauto makes UPS ship anything and everything

Junk aluminized pipe.

 

My donor vehicle I had access to also provided me a new-to-you tailgate. My original gate had a dent from where someone backed into me, as well as paint peeling around the wiper, and the defrost grid had some broken paths.

I did have to swap over the tailgate ECU module and the lock cylinder of course to make the new window and locks work.

Old tailgate

New tailgate installed

Old school emblem salvage with floss

Fresh 3M double sided tape

Cleaned and prepped

Reinstalled

Tailgate upgraded from SR5 to Limited to match the rest of the vehicle trim

 

And here are some videos for dismounting and mounting the tires to the rims.

Here is breaking the bead from the rim:


Here is dismounting the outer bead:

Dismounting the inner bead:

Lubing up the new tire(you can never have too much lube):

Mounting the inner bead on the new tire:

Mounting the outer bead of the new tire:

Wrestling a tire and filling with air to seat the beads:


My videos are broken into pieces as I started and stopped my phone. Ultimately from old tire on the rim full of air to new tire on the rim full of air is about 20 minutes, maybe less. The biggest time suck for me was running the wire wheel on the rim to clean up the corrosion and waiting for the paint to dry. Also this would’ve gone smoother if I had the machine bolted to my garage floor instead of some 2x4s that kept teetering around.