It's been another few months, and more than half a dozen trips! As usual, the Tacoma has performed well, though it's certainly starting to show its age in a few places... mostly having to do with the emissions system.
Of course, these summer months - and trips - were also the only time of year that the Tacoma is at tome here in the Pacific Northwest, and as such, the best time to perform any preventative maintenance and modifications that will carry it through the winter and into next spring. As such, in addition to the items that I've mentioned below, I also took the opportunity to:
Maintenance
- Change the oil, twice. Once at the beginning of the summer, and once just before embarking on the trip back to Las Vegas.
- Rotate the tires, twice. I always do this at the same time as I change the oil - it's a good activity to do while the oil pan and filter are draining - and much easier to do now that I'm back to a 5-tire rotation.
- Grease the drive train, twice. This job is a lot like the tire rotation.
- Topped off the coolant; added ~1/2 gallon.
- Flushed the brake fluid with the help of @mrs.turbodb. (Thanks Dan @drr for pestering everyone about this on TacomaWorld; you had no idea, but my fluid was green!)
- Replaced the spark plugs and wires (188,000 miles after the first time I'd done it).
Mods
- Upgrade the alternator and Big 7 Wiring in the engine bay, mostly to support charging the LiFePO4 house battery at higher currents using the Victron Orion XS, which can charge at up to 50A.
- Swapped in a 4Runner headlight stalk and a matching Camry wiper stalk in order to add a fog light switch on the stalk (and free up the space that the previous custom switch occupied).
- Added a switch to disable ABS when I'm offroad.
TL;DR - I replaced my greaseable SPC upper ball joints with the "lifetime" variant that SPC now offers. I'm not sure I believe that it's a lifetime part, but time will tell.
How can a ball joint never go bad?
TL;DR - I tried to swap back to my OEM Tacoma seats because I wanted their functionality, but it only lasted one trip; the scheel-mann are way more comfortable.
Original TL;DR - I'm swapping out my scheel-mann seats and going back to the originals. Their functionality (sliding, folding) is better, and they weren't that much less comfortable.
Back to stock seats.
Nevermind.
TL;DR - I had driveline vibes that I thought were a result of the center carrier bearing, but I now think were due to a bad u-joint. Both were replaced and the vibes are gone.
U-joint. aka "little f#ckers."
TL;DR - The spot where my NMO ham radio antenna mount punches through the roof has been rusting for years. I think this was due to poor design of my original antenna. I've cleaned up and repainted the roof, and I think the antenna I use now will not cause the same problem again.
"Factory"-ish.
TL;DR - I've needed to rebuild my front coilovers for a few months now but have procrastinated the job since it's rather time consuming. However, when I heard my front lower spherical bearings starting to make noise, I knew I couldn't put it off any longer.
Time for a rebuild.
TL;DR - The lithium system provides so much more power than I know what to do with, that I find myself turning off the charger so that the battery has a chance to cycle below 90%. The cabinet that I built is good, but needs a few updates.
This battery is a beast.
TL;DR - I've started seeing P0420 and P0466 check engine lights (CELs) as often as once a day on trips.
Easy to clear but still annoying.
Seemingly solved from previous Rig Reviews
- A Horrible Discovery: I Wired All My Electrical Wrong. Fixed by rebuilding all the wiring harnesses noted in the previous review.
- A Loose Alignment Cam Reveals Bad SPC Upper Ball Joints. The alignment was fixed as noted in the previous rig review. I've also replaced the UBJs as noted above.
- My Northstar AGM Batteries are Dying. I've swapped over to a lithium LiFePO4 house battery, which seems great so far!
Unchanged / Still an issue from previous Rig Reviews
There are some things that have been featured in Rig Reviews that are - as yet - unchanged from when I originally reviewed them. Rather than highlight those things again, I'll simply link to them here.
- Skid plate attachment could be better
- The Sequoia wheels and Kenda Klever RT tires aren't as great as I'd hoped.
- The jury is still out on whether the 5th gear swap was worthwhile (still collecting data).
- My Cats are Empty [P0420 Check Engine Light] Still get the light. Still resetting it. Wallet still full.
- I've Worn Out My TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) [P0120 Check Engine Light]. Still have the new-to-me TPS waiting to go in.
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Always enjoy reading your rig reviews. New things to think about and reminders to take care of things I have put off. Will be following how your new SPC Ball Joints hold up. I installed SPC UCAs in 2013, then in 2018 replaced Ball Joints with their new and improved joints. Didn't know they had come out with "Lifetime" ones. Thanks again for all the effort you put into informing the offroad community.
I think "lifetime" is a little ambitious, and really means 3 years/30K miles the last time I chatted with SPC. I think it's really a case of "we hope you don't check them" before those "lifetime" limits come up, but I'll be checking for sure!
Top tip for the P420 and P430 codes. Stop by Autozone and pick up a can of CRC's Guaranteed to Pass elixir and dump it in the tank (1/2 full or less). It has not failed once to clear that code on my wife's '17 Honda Pilot which now has about 140K on it and has started throwing the code a few times a year for the past few years. I figure $17/can a time or two a year is cheaper than replacing the catalytic converter. Liqui Moly also makes a product that has worked for me.
Thanks Todd; I'll keep that in mind if the cleaning of the MAF and O2 sensor doesn't resolve the issue! 👍
You said, "I've been getting a P0420 check engine light (CEL) every now and then for about the last three years. It's been infrequent enough that I've mostly just cleared it using my Kiwi 3 OBDII Bluetooth Adapter (here's a cheaper alternative) and kept on with my day." I few weeks ago I started getting similar "check engine" alerts. Last week had my truck serviced and checked out, mechanic replaced the sensor and cleaned the system and it seems to have cleared everything.
Awesome, that gives me hope that my fix - cleaning the MAF and replacing the O2 sensor - will solve the issue for me as well!
i was rereading your trip to Iceland , a place we would like to visit also.But i am not sure there is a lot of overlanding.
The wilderness was the reason i am still in the usa( ok , because my wife first!). In Europe no overlanding! Forest roads are out of reach to traffic and usually gated.
Your mechanic skills are impressive , is it your dayly truck? i can replace shocks and tighten bolts but replacing axel , balljoint etc will really challenge me. the funny story is that i downloaded youtube videos for the day i will have to do it on the trail.Can you tell me your experience with tires . I have the open country trail, not sure they will make it to 15000Milles !
My favorite trip was the one you did in BC.
leaving Sunday for Az trip, weather looks good.
I think there's more overlanding in Iceland that in Europe - they have roads in Iceland called F-roads (maybe for "F"orest roads, as in Europe) - but we didn't explore any of those, as we only had our rental car. There were plenty of overland vehicles - much like these - that we saw while we were there, and I think a lot of the northern side of the island is good for overlanding. For us, we'd have to rent a vehicle there, and that's less compelling than using our own setup here in the US/Canada.
Thanks! I knew almost nothing about working on my Tacoma when I started all this in 2017, but I've always been handy and "quick" to pick things up (if 8 years is quick), so it's been fun!
I've only run 3 types of tires.
That was a great one. Actually, all the trips to BC have been amazing. What a great place to explore.
Have fun!