Not posted anywhere else yet, but it's time for me to move on from my beloved Tacoma X-runner. I've had it from new for over 14 years. Many of you have been for ride alongs and enjoyed the nonsense that is the Japanese Race Truck. I still think it's the perfect vehicle. Stuff goes in it. Everything is overbuilt to Toyota truck standards. It's surprisingly light ~3500 lbs, and the CG is down low for what it is.
What the hell is an X-runner anyways? Toyota for some reason built a 6spd manual sport truck benchmarked against the 350Z. Mostly they were sold stateside, and eventually only available in Hawaii. It's somewhere between reliable overbuilt Toyota truck, and oldschool muscle car. There are no driver aids other than ABS.
Good Things:
1 Owner, dealer/professionally maintained, enthusiast owned, quality mods. By and large the interior is new looking as I rarely have passengers in there.
Bad Things:
The paint is shot. Stone chips, dings, rust starting. The windshield is trashed on the passenger side from a large hit a few years ago. If the glass comes out, the roof should be repainted as that's the main rust area from stone chips. Frankly it'd be easier to repaint the whole car and do it right.
Mods:
Breathing: AFE Intake, URD Long tube equal length headers (decatted), equal length Y-pipe and exhaust. Dyno backup for the headers alone was something like 12% power gains; I could hunt those down if anyone really cared.
Suspension: Front progressive rate lowering springs (ride like stock) and 2" lowering blocks in the rear. I'm getting too old for the ride quality to be honest as 99% of my use is highway commuting. I have just replaced the upper control arms and swaybar end links up front as one joint had some slop in it. Factory Bilsteins still present and working fine, but look crusty.
Drivetrain: Uprated Stage 2 clutch installed by Cam & Co @ Carline. A steel sleeve with upsized throwout bearing was installed at the same time. This is the chronic weak point from the factory and starts with a squeaky bearing but can progress to a broken transmission casting. The sleeve is a must-have remedy. The rear differential is an Eaton Tru-Trac.
Wheels: Work Wheels in a staggered 18x9.5 and 18x10.5 with 275 section tires all the way around. One of the rears is curbed to my shame. AutoX corners can be a bit tight for the wheelbase but highway and most city driving is just hilarious. I cannot get ABS to activate with the summers on, it runs out of brakes before tires. Stoptech slotted rotors up front, factory pads.
Major repairs from the past few years:
I have changed out the front control arms as mentioned. Brakes inspected and healthy.
The driveshaft U-joint failed and e-brake cables seized, both replaced. During diagnosis Toyota did a compression or leakdown test and everything came back good. I have paperwork on that somewhere.
I will change out the serpentine idlers and put a new belt on in the next few days (one just failed).
Winter tires are Michelin X-Ices, 18mo old on factory alloys. Summers are tired but sticky still and fine in rain. Wintertime 3rd and 4th gear drifts are very rewarding.
Milage is right around 230,000kms and going up daily.
I'm thinking $15k with some wiggle room.
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April 28, 2024, 08:02:16 AM
