Here’s the full deal on the truck including maintenance, shape, and history:
My mom bought it on 6/18/05 at 194,944 miles with the idea that my little brother would drive it. Well he didn’t care for it, said it was too slow (what Toyota isn’t?), so then my mom started driving it. I drove it and wrote the slowness off to being an automatic, I’m used to my 5spd. She found my little brother another 4Runner that was a naturally aspirated automatic model and it had a lot more pep, so he took that and now drives that. I drove it before he took it and it made me rethink why the turbo 4Runner was slow. I started looking into the turbo and checked the boost pressure, and there really isn’t any there. The truck at the time also had a leaky exhaust manifold gasket, so I swapped new exhaust manifold gaskets, hoping that would solve the turbo problem. Checked the pressure again, and still no boost improvement, so the turbo will need to be rebuilt or swapped for a T-3, which in my opinion is a much better option. T-3’s tend to last longer, are easier to find, and cheaper to maintain down the road. It should be noted that it still runs and drives fine, its just a little slower than normal.
Here’s a list of all the maintenance that was done to the vehicle since my mother has owned it. All the work was performed either by myself or a close friend of mine who is also a Toyota freak.
New valve cover gasket, camshaft, changed rockers (used a good spare set), brake master cylinder, cv shaft boots, distributer cap, rotor, alignment, changed console for a good one (old one was cracked and worn), paid 212.50 to have R12 recharged and it blows cold, new idler arm, air filter, spark plugs, oil change, exhaust manifold gasket, and other little stuff like broken interior light covers, etc….
As far as options go, it has power windows, but the switches need the contacts cleaned. They will always go up, but not always down. I has a similar problem on a friends 86 4Runner, and a little contact cleaning took care of it. It would have been fixed by now, but I haven’t had the time. It also has power mirrors that work, power locks that work, rear power window (like all of them) that works fine. It has the factory cruise that works, as well as the rear heat (in the console) that works as well. Rear defrost should work, but its never really been checked, the light does light on the switch, so its at least good to the relay. It has a power antenna, but the antenna is broke off, so that might use some tinkering, or a swap. Its also got the SR5 sport buck seats with the adjustments that all work. The digital dash all works and doesn’t have any problems. The only other thing is the cable for the passenger seat that retracts the seat is broke, so you’ll need a new one (the dealership still sells them; I had to get one for my 4Runner).
Interior condition is great for its age. The seats have a few stains, but what 20 yr old cloth truck seat doesn’t. Besides that, everything is complete and in good shape. Exterior, it has some rust above both front fenders and the rear passenger fender. All the rust is shown in the pictures. There’s a dent in the front passenger fender, but its nothing major. There’s also a small dent in the tailgate, you can see it in the pics. Frame is in great shape, nothing to be worried about. I don’t have any pictures, but would gladly take some of the trouble areas (around the spring hangers and the very rear of the frame).
Heres a link to pictures of the truck:
http://www.pk-designs.com/temp/cory/Let me know if there are any more questions, I’d be happy to answer them!
