well, i picked it up for free about 2 months ago. starter wasn't working properly. so i checked out some forums, stumble upon this one and learned about the contacts. a new starter here in Japan is about $800 just for a rebuilt unit (yeah, i know). i fixed mine for $9 thanks to this site. anyways, started doing a few light (no pun intended) mods and now it sits like this:



i keep debating a lift. BJ spacers and coils, body lift. just basic stuff as i'm not going to have this truck for long and i'm not too fond of being really tall. so i'm thinking about just trimming the front fenders about an inch, finish my snorkel, finish my exhaust and paint it flat black. anyways, i'll write more later. the wife is starting to nag.

 

Nice pick up for free. Looks like you might also have a power steering pump leak.

 

looks great, does that lens actually act as a projector or does it simply distort the light?

 

lol, i know. it started about a month ago, so i replenished it with PS fluid. then i read that it takes ATF, so i swapped it out. the leak stopped, i just haven't cleaned it in a WHILE!

Belize: it kind of just distorts the light. they don't really work well at all. oh well. lol! if i get tired of them, i'll just swap back to the OE lights.

 

Dude thats awesome. I saw one on the net that was blue and in mint condition but the guy sold it. But I am jealous of yours. Its sweeet

 

hahaha, same exact thing here... I think a lot of us have done that

what's with that skid plate, is that stock on a surf? it looks a little bigger than normal... maybe it's just the picture...

Good looking ride man!

 

On the lid on my little fluid holdy thingy it says Power Steering fluid.... do some years alternate which fluids they need?

 

maybe it's just that Toyota's default power-steering fluid is ATF?

 

Man it might be. I just went and looked again to be sure and under all the Japanese characters it says "Fill with Dextron Type power steering fluid".

 

dont think that skidplate is stock, bleeder...
and i wonder if those headlights suck because your truck is tall or because the black background(yes, i realise that they are projectors). they arent legal for onroad use here in the US, but the reflective background ones are...

looks good tho...

 

nope, skid plate isn't stock. i made it out of some 1/8" thick aluminum that i "acquired" from work. i hate the look of the factory piece, so i fabbed that one up one day during my lunch at work. works pretty good! i slammed pretty hard into a rock when wheelin up by Mt. Fuji and it held up. gotta love free!

space-junk: they aren't really projectors, they're just little ghetto pieces of curved glass mounted on with some crappy aluminum hangers in the back housing. they were like $20 on ebay. they work when you get about 4 feet in front of them. LOL!

superbleeder: that's what i'm told.

 

also, only thing that i know is different on a Surf SSR Limited (SR5) from the 4Runner is that Surfs have an LSD.

 

keep in mind that a cruved piece of glass is all that a projector is...
Regular headlights have a light refractor pattern built into the lense to distribute the light onto the roadway in a certain pattern, concentrating it where it is most useful and least obtrusive to oncoming traffic... Projector headlights have a concentrated beam style that is generally noted by the lense face.... looks almost round and without the refractors... They often refract light off of the headlight assembly which will focus lighting in a different and concenrated area...

that is why yours are so dim is because of the black housing, and its also why they are illeagle in the US for onroad use... you have to have the reflective backing to make lights work properly...

/rant

sorry, i didnt mean to threadjack, i jsut did a report on these 2 months ago for my college english class...

 

well, no offense, but i already knew that. and i know what a projector is. these are just cheap projector-look lights. and i know that the black ousing is causing the light not to reflect and intensify. they don't really make the light go anywhere. i used them before on my old Hilux p/u a while back. had them on for maybe a week cause they were the only lights i had. i have plenty of light coming from the front of my Surf, so i'm not too worried about it. and i am very aware of what is legal or illegal in the states. i'm from California.

 

wow man. im at yokota too. i bought a blue surf from another guy and apparently im guessing you already left because i saw your red surf at the dorms and talked to the guy that owned it and evidently it crapped out. he was gonna junk it but i got him to let me part it out first. i got the seats out of it cuz mine was shot. i also got the tires too. they were in almost brand new shape so i wasnt gonna let him throw them away. i thought about takin the lights and light bar off but they were beat. i got some other things from it too before he junked it. im sorry to inform you that your surf is in some japanese junkyard.
well, i guess i could thank you for the parts.... the exhaust is really nice too. just lettin you know that it didnt completley go to waste.
small world huh?