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about 45k miles and they still have incredible bite and no warped shudder or fade from highway speeds. I took several trips to the landfill in the fall pulling around 3k lbs. and it handled stopping with ease.
about 45k miles and they still have incredible bite and no warped shudder or fade from highway speeds. I took several trips to the landfill in the fall pulling around 3k lbs. and it handled stopping with ease.
Awesome thanks for the heads up! Probably just gonna do it I need brakes bad and this comes all in one kit too easy lol
oil, filter, and tire rotation. Plus I replaced my muffler and tailpipe. These had been been leaking and getting louder. The muffler had some pretty big scabs around the seam and the tailpipe had rotted one of the bolt perched off the flange where it meets the muffler. Some new Walker metal, gaskets, and hangers and this thing is super quiet. Like I can’t tell it’s running quiet.
oil change and filter and tire rotation. Basic maintenance. I forgot to record changing the drivers side fog light. I am thoroughly impressed by the Deka unit from rockauto. The original had slowly snapped all the bolts that hold the chamber closed with the bulb. I think it was $80, the fit and finish is top notch. I may replace the passenger side soon if the bolts break when I replace the bulb.
The heater unit occasionally doesn’t respond to dial inputs. I reached out to the company that repaired it before, it is out of warranty with them and their service rate has more than doubled. I’m not sure if this occasional inconvenience is worth $150 yet.
I’m going to try to take out my driver’s seat. If I’m successful, I have a cloth spare to use for a while while I install heating elements under the leather.
The heater unit occasionally doesn’t respond to dial inputs. I reached out to the company that repaired it before, it is out of warranty with them and their service rate has more than doubled. I’m not sure if this occasional inconvenience is worth $150 yet.
You might want to check the water control valve, out on the firewall, that the dial adjusts. My mechanic recently touched the one on my 99 4Runner, while removing the intake manifold to replace the knock sensors. It disintegrated on him. He replaced it, for free. His guys touched it, and destroyed it, so it was technically his fault. He has a great policy about that.
Those plastic valves are kinda cheap, and get really brittle over time. Check yours is attached to the cable properly, and the alignment is correct. Make sure it allows the correct amount of water flow for the dial position. Make sure it doesn't disintegrate on ya
Make sure that both the inside AND outside of the heater core in the dash aren't clogged. The fins get clogged with dust, dirt, leaves, and so forth. Some compressed air blown back through the fins will often clean them very nicely. Wear safety glasses, and a dust mask, though. That stuff can fly all OVER the place!
The inside can be cleaned, usually, with a chemical flush for the radiator and cooling system. Make sure the heater core, and the rest of the cooling system, is well burped after flushing, though. A little air can get trapped in it, and cause problems.
If I'm saying stuff you already know, I apologize. I'll shut up now...
Pat☺
You might want to check the water control valve, out on the firewall, that the dial adjusts.…
Those plastic valves are kinda cheap, and get really brittle over time. Check yours is attached to the cable properly, and the alignment is correct. Make sure it allows the correct amount of water flow for the dial position. Make sure it doesn't disintegrate on ya
Sorry for the delay, I know what mixing valve you’re referring to, but my issue is with the EATC (electronic automated temperature control) module. Basically the temp and fan controls are handled by a digital display. That is the part that malfunctions. The knobs and buttons don’t do anything. The readout freezes. I think there is some dodgy solder inside that needs reflowed, I’m not 100% sure what the repair involves.
i had it done once before and it was $65. Now that it’s $150, I’m less inclined to just ship it out.
My drivers seat has been showing signs of being 20+ year old leather. While trolling eBay, I came across some replacement leather seat covers that were reasonably priced, $45 shipped for each bottom. This started gears in motion in my head, because not only would I like to recover my seats, I have a seat heating element kit in the garage that I was supposed to install in my wife’s car and never got around to it before we traded it in.
So here is where I started:
You can see the leather was cracked and in rough shape.
Removing the seat is pretty straight forward. The drivers seat is held I. With 4 bolts, 1 at each end of the 2 tracks. The rear bolt near the seatbelt anchor is always troublesome because the under side of it is outboard of the frame rail in a pocket between a body mount and gusset. So I sprayed it with PB Blaster every few hours for a couple days before I broke it loose. The. I did the 1/2 turn loose, 1/4 turn tight, and back and forth dance to prevent it from snapping.
With the drivers seat out, I tossed in a cloth seat donor so I could still drive.
Nothing screams classy like 3 leather seats and a cloth one. 🤣😂
With the leather seat out it was time to break it down and start. The bottom cushion is held onto the seat frame with 4 bolts.
With the cushion off it’s time to remove the hog rings that hold the cover to the cushion frame. There are a bunch around the perimeter, and then a bunch along the creases in the field of the cushion. For those you have to roll the cover up from the side and then weasel your hands and tools between the cover and the cushion.
::LESSON LEARNED::
Like a bonehead I was trying to open the hog rings to reuse them. This wasted 2 hours of my day and ultimately didn’t work. Cut those things with wire cutters and be done with them. Zip ties will save you.
With the cover off I inspected the cushion and it still looked really good. Had good density and no pieces missing. Now I could lay the bottom heating element on and start installing the new cover.
Along the edge of the seat cover there is a plastic band. You poke a hole thru the fabric that holds the band on and run the zip ties thru that hole. Then you snug up the zips and everything gets locked into place.
Next seat the cushion back on the seat frame. Cut holes for the bolts (the new cover didn’t have any holes). Bolt the cushion to the frame. Attach the plastic side covers and controls. Prepare to install the seat back in the truck.
So the seat bottom turned out great and the cover was pretty cheap. So back to eBay to buy more goodies. The drivers seat back, the center console arm rest, and the passenger seat bottom.
The console was pretty straight forward. It is held in with staples.
The picture shows a little wrinkling, but it has settled in looks smoother now.
The seat back comes apart like the bottom. You take the plastic side covers off, there are 2 bolts on each side near the hinge, and then the trickiest part is the tubes for the head rest. You have to reach in the inside and squeeze these duckbills that hold the tubes in place and then they pop out.
The biggest hiccup was the seat back upper. I got it from the same company that made the bottoms which I was really happy with. The seat upper was baggie and didn’t fit well.
The cushion bolster just didn’t fill it out the way the bottom did. I contacted the seller and they refunded me which was nice, but the competitor was 2x as expensive. So my $45 seat bottom project has ballooned to nearly $300 for both bottoms, a seat back, and console.
Hit the auto-start to warmup the truck and leave work. Get in to find the CEL on, scan it to find P0300 general misfire, P0301 #1 cylinder miss, and P0302 #2 cylinder miss
Got home and rescanned after a detour to a co-workers house. Miss moved to cylinders 4&6. So I ordered up plugs and wires and will do those tomorrow when they get here.
After a fresh set of plugs and wires we are back to starting on half a turn and lots of pep.
The plugs didn’t look terrible, even after 70K miles, the wires had some spots that could have been chafing, that’s what did in the last set. So wires will be a 50k mile service, probably plugs too.
02-10-2021 | 06:33 PM
