that woodgrain is definitely not factory. i just got rid of my 97 and it had the add-on woodgrain, which i took off. it covered the exact same areas, which are not the same areas covered on the 96 and 97 limited models.

as far as the check engine light, it does appear the motor is running in that pic and there is a light on-hard to tell if its CEL or something else. I do recall on my 97 that the CEL was more orange colored whereas parking brake was red.

good luck-if i can help any more let me know

 

I can see the power door lock switches now...That is crazy! I have never seen anything llike that before. I would need to see it up close to be sure its factory, but it looks like it is!

That has to be the most rare 4Runner package I have ever seen. It has rear heat, but doesn't even have mounts for the cargo cover! WOW!

 

Exactly!! The door locks are factory which is totally weird and I noticed the same thing for the cargo cover! The sunroof is factory too or so it appeared yesterday. I'm going to check out all the door tags to make sure they match up with the vin number on the dash, maybe these were swapped out from one of the base model years? Even so, it seems like it be a pain in the ass to rewire electric windows in a non-electric base so I don't know why they might have been swapped...just a thought or possible explanation...

I'm heading over there in about an hour to take it for a test drive and in-depth look at it.

I don't know about the "beastermaster" part of the sales pitch either....haha. Crazy stuff...

 

Alright, well went and drove it this afternoon. Its a rare setup without a doubt and the vehicle was relatively clean. However, it needed some work such as brakes, timing belt service, AC service (not real cold),engine light (o2 sensor), and had some considerable rust underneath (more than my current 4runner anyways). Also, where the engine coolant line ran into the engine, there was a small puddle right on top of the tbelt cover which I found to be a little odd. Also, after doing a carfax, it told me it had been in a wreck with a deer back around 108000 miles but only had two owners and the original owner had it all its life until this past owner (who worked at the dealer).

The good, everything worked, 4wd worked fine, the tranny seemed smooth no slippage and the engine pulled strong. There was the notorious evap noise though...also, when the truck first started up I thought the idle was a bit high like above 2k rpm which seemed wrong but it idled back down after it warmed up. The check engine light also went away after it warmed up so I don't know.

The past owner worked at the dealership and he was able to give me some insight as to its history. He was a nice guy, didn't rag on it or anything. It was serviced at the dealer and they gave me a print out of the records which told me nothing that I hadn't already figured out from looking and driving it.

All in all it wasn't too bad...but it did have some issues. Lets put it this way, I wouldn't pay more than 6500 out the door with all the taxes, title, and fees. Even then I don't know whether its worth it, the rust would make it a bear to work on. Granted it had 14000 less miles than mine, I don't know if it'd be worth the trouble of starting over even if it did have more power.

 

To give you a comparison, I recently bought my 97 Limited, V6, fully loaded except RR diff lock, garage kept, spotless undercarriage, well maintained including tbelt, 160k, for $6600 from a private party. Needed absolutly nothing.

 

Well it took me a long time to find a 5sp with my options,clean carfax, and no rust anywhere. I only saw one other one for sale in the state the 3 months I was looking. The difference in pick up and fuel economy and the simplicity of manual sold me.

 

That sucks that the runner didnt really work out. Its kind of like the first one i went to go see (needed water pump and timing belt, clutch, and transfer case seal) i offered his price minus the price to fix everything, but he didnt take, until a week later after i already got mine.

If your interested low ball them a good amount

 

Yeah, honestly though...I don't know whether its worth the problems. I think I'm going to hold off and find a better one.

Thanks for the input guys...just too many potential problems with that one unless they drop the price a 1000