February 21, 2018. Not all that long ago, the truck got a gear change - from the 4.10 factory gears to 4.88's - meaning that it's now easier on the engine to turn the bigger tires as it climbs up hills, over rocks, and generally towards adventure. Within a couple weeks of the gear change, I'd driven far enough to get 500 miles of break-in complete on the rear diff and changed the oil - and everything there seemed A-OK, which was nice. And then on our trip to Death Valley, we ran as much as we could in 4WD…
2 CommentsCategory: Tacoma Maintenance
General catch-all category for content relating to 2000 Tacoma maintenance.
February 21, 2018. I've had a rattle for a little over four months. I first heard it (I think), when returning from The De-Tour at the beginning of October, or else maybe a week or so after that. It sounded like a loose heat shield, or other piece of sheet metal, rattling away under the back half of the truck. But I knew it wasn't a heat shield - it only happened at speeds above about 15-20mph, and changed when under load (vs. coasting) and there were certain throttle/speed/terrain combinations where I could almost get it to go away. Of…
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Having travelled the requisite 500 miles to break in my new 4.88 gears (you may want to read "New Gears - 4.88's and an ARB front locker" and "the first 500 mile break-in" if you haven't already), it was high time to change the oil in the rear diff - hopefully uneventfully - to clean out any metal and other gunk that may have been present as a result of the break-in. Toyota conveniently calls for 90W oil in the differentials, and that's hard to come by - at least for me, locally - so I decided on Lucas 80W-90,…
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September 09, 2017. With a low mile truck that's been stored in ideal (covered, underground) conditions it's entire life, maintenance for me has been minimal. With regular oil changes (done at the dealer until 2016) and services, I've pretty much done nothing. But the last couple years have seen more off-road use of the truck. And, knowing that more use means more maintenance, I've started learning to do things myself… because dealership maintenance is not cheap. So, I decided that my next order of business was going to be to grease my zerks. And I decided that because it's fun…
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One of the things about starting to use the truck on more trips is that it ends up with a lot more miles. And more miles mean more frequent oil changes. In the past, I've always taken it to the Toyota dealer. I figured, "Why not, it's only $29, and then I don't have to worry about having the right tools, spending the time, and they'll do it best - with a lift, etc." Of course, what really happened was that they cross-threaded my OEM skids several times when they re-installed them (it's easier to change the oil if you…
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