Tacoma Owners

While we're on the subject of Tacos, has the driver seat comfort been improved? I'm 6'3 and my back hurt on longer trips in my 2003 DC or bouncing around in the hills
Yeah they suck for long trips. I have taken trips from S. Texas to Virginia in mine and after a while it can be a grind. I just consider it a trade-off with the other attributes about the Taco that I like. From hauling a few cattle to the sale barn to running up the east cost for other stuff, if I look at the miles I have put on it vs the single shop repair I had for a sensor, it has been an amazingly good value for what is close to 500K miles of use.
 
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Impossible. Our resident "expert" stated earlier that FI gas engines won't last that long./s
My 98 is feeling stronger the older it gets. Might be a great sign or something not so great ? When I drove my Uncles 66 Vette I had access to barrels of VP Racing Fuel.
I’d cut it 93 Octane Shell or anything 93. Now I’m cutting mid grade unleaded 87, top it off with Lucas Octane Booster. With fresh plugs and cold air ( not now 🥵) , she’s still an Ego Buster 🤛🏻 posted this picture before.
When I first installed the SC everything felt strong. The 98’s have a speed limiter/governor that limits it 108 mph. When you undue the limiter from the trans , no limit BUT no speedo.. Had a friend with a ZL-1 Vette follow me down a 2 mile flat open road…. No Speedometer now …had AT tires . Got her up to a tad over 130 mph. Was pulling strong , just didn’t want to spew parts. With smaller tires ..135 ish ?
Always kept Mobile 1 Synthetic on time , 3 timing belts …stuff 😳
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I helped TRD with the development and testing of those superchargers. The dealership I worked at wasn't too far away form their office by the airport. Myself and another tech participated with the TRD guys to make that kit. We worked on one for the Camry/Avalon too, but it had issues meeting emission requirements. I haven't seen one of those in a long, long time.
 
I helped TRD with the development and testing of those superchargers. The dealership I worked at wasn't too far away form their office by the airport. Myself and another tech participated with the TRD guys to make that kit. We worked on one for the Camry/Avalon too, but it had issues meeting emission requirements. I haven't seen one of those in a long, long time.
Cool 👍
I got all my TRD mods from Sterling McCall in Houston. Can’t remember the parts rep that hooked me up , super nice guy 👍
 
I put a Corbeau heated suspension seat in my FJ Cruiser, it's not rocket surgery at all.

Buy a new seat if you want, you can spend $500 or you can spend several thousand depending upon your desires. Mine was certainly close to that $500 area, though this was 8 or so years ago.

I've thought about doing this. I've tossed around the idea of a new taco many times but never liked how low the seat sits so my thought was just replace the seat like you have. I have an '07 FJ that I've put over 200k hard miles on, lots of trails and abuse and the seat is fine for me but not the taco.
 
As a former Toyota master tech I will say the older 90's 3.0 V6 was garbage. Some lasted, most did not. Constant head gasket issues, terrible exhaust manifold design...lots of issues and totally underpowered. I replaced a lot of cylinder heads that were cracked. Hundreds and hundreds of head gaskets before the recall. By the time the recall happened they had revised the head gasket design 7 times. #1 and #6 pistons had to be replaced a lot when the head would go. We had an on the block boring machine to slightly overbore those cylinders during the recall. Way to go Toyota.

First gen Tacoma's had their issues including weak frames at the coil buckets (2WD). We replaced the frames on a couple of trucks and I don't know how many reinforcement plates we welded in for the recall. The 3.4 was a good engine, but they had a head gasket issue early on, but that was resolved pretty quickly. The later 3.5 seemed to be somewhat based on that engine but I don't know for sure. I was out of the auto repair side of things when the later models came out. They seemed to be pretty reliable with some slight improvements made after 2017. The 4 cylinder was legit and came from the Previa vans which seemed to last forever being mounted turned 90 degrees. The only issue was if you ran shit gas carbon would build on the top of the piston and cause the engine to knock like it had a bad bearing. It was carbon actually contacting the chamber in the head. A little GM topside engine cleaner solved that problem.

From my experience with Toyota never buy the first year of a new model. There will always be issues and Toyota is good about making corrections and running changes later. I would say wait a year or two before getting the new generation. That allows Toyota time to make needed changes. I will give them credit. When there is a known issue they work quickly to improve the part or design causing the failure.

Also get rid of the pink coolant they come with when new. Flush the system out and go to normal old school green coolant. Myself as well as all of the other techs at the dealers I worked with were convinced the pink coolant caused more harm than good. We sure seemed to see more coolant leaks and head gasket problems with that stuff than the regular green coolant. A lot of deposits, the scaly looking stuff would build up in places you don't want it. One of my friends that was a tech did that on a new truck. Ditched the stock manifolds on the 3.0 V6 and went to a short header to get rid of the cross over pipe behind the heads. He never had a head gasket issue. The last time I talked to him he was at 235k and no failure yet. We never had seen one go more than 80-100k without failure.
LIES!!!! Toyota NEVER break anything! They don’t even sell parts for them! You don’t need them if NOTHING breaks! They don’t even have a mechanic or garage at the DEALERSHIP!
 
Thinking hard about picking up a 2023 Tacoma TRD Off-road. The 2024 models are only available with turbo 4cyls. I’m not really digging that.

Any Tacoma owners on here? I don’t need anything bigger at the moment. The Tacoma should handle the farms and hunting needs for me here in PA.

I've got a 16 with fox shocks. It's OK but there's a couple things that have bugged me over the years. Oil leak on the front timing cover. Weird vibration at certain speeds (drivetrain balance?). Rattles. Windshield seal gave out. Gets about 20mpg.

Will be selling it or trading it in on an F150/possible raptor haven't decided yet. Want something with either more power/space or something much smaller with way better gas mileage for commuting.

Oh yeah NEVER buy a white toyota. Fucking paint falls off like a 1980s GMC.
 
I got an 07 earlier this year. Always had full size chevy trucks, last one with 326k miles on it, but don’t haul much anymore so wanted to drop back to mid size. Use it for truck stuff, not a daily. So far I like it a lot. To the OP, the tacoma world link posted earlier is a great resource but beware, you can fall down the rabbit hole of mods if you hang out there much, I already got a FJ transfer case to do a twin stick mod and put in to eliminate the stupid switch activated 4wd/hi/lo
 
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Thinking hard about picking up a 2023 Tacoma TRD Off-road. The 2024 models are only available with turbo 4cyls. I’m not really digging that.

Any Tacoma owners on here? I don’t need anything bigger at the moment. The Tacoma should handle the farms and hunting needs for me here in PA.
I had a 22 SR Access Cab 2WD 4 cylinder, I didn't like it.

I now have a 23 SR Access Cab 2WD with a V6. I like it much better. I will probably keep it.
 
The only Toyota I ever owned was a 1975 Corona, 20 R engine, bought it in 1978, with about 20,000 miles. In 3 words I will describe it..........a piece of shit..........I will never buy another Toyota...............

I did own a 1975 FJ 40 that was solid.......
 
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I helped TRD with the development and testing of those superchargers. The dealership I worked at wasn't too far away form their office by the airport. Myself and another tech participated with the TRD guys to make that kit. We worked on one for the Camry/Avalon too, but it had issues meeting emission requirements. I haven't seen one of those in a long, long time.
Super cool. Who'd did/do you work for? And what was the reliability/life expectancy of a SC motor vs. the same naturally aspirated?
 
My girlfriend has a 2021 TRD offroad longbed that has been an amazing truck. It's got over 40K on it now with probably 10% of them being offroad between national forests and places we find to fuck around and that little truck impresses me. I intentionally buried it on a sand dune on an uphill grade (probably 15% grade or so) and let the crawl mode do it's thing and it climbed itself out going up hill with the tires at 34psi. I couldn't believe it, I thought for sure we were going to be backing it out downhill in crawl mode or getting pulled out. It's done a long road trip up to Maine and basically every national forest and park in between, and several trips up to north GA and VA towing a 3k lbs camper with the bed and cab loaded down with gear.

Personally I wouldn't hesitate to buy a 4cyl turbo and would probably prefer it if I had the option. It's not like the V6 is a big block low end torque monster or anything, the motor likes to rev and doesn't make a lot of power down low, it's actually pretty gutless until you get over 3000RPM. The 4cyl turbo will get better fuel mileage around town and on the highway and tow better considering it has the same HP but + 52ftlbs over the V6. Being a toyota I wouldn't be the least bit concerned about reliability on the new motor, it's not like turbo 4cyl are new technology, they've been factory options for decades across different vehicles.
 
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Super cool. Who'd did/do you work for? And what was the reliability/life expectancy of a SC motor vs. the same naturally aspirated?
No change. There is some dude, he has near a million miles on one, i dont recall much about it, like what has been replaced or is original, but last i heard he was in the 800k mile club and still going.

If everything is right, it doesnt effect the engine negatively.
 
It’s just “just” a 4cyl turbo. It’s a 4cyl turbo with an electric motor in the drive line. Sounds like more shit to go wrong. Will this setup last 3-400k? 🤷‍♂️
 
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Then get the V6 and have less power and worse fuel mileage if that's what you want. Only the Hybrid version has an electric motor and it also has a lot more HP and TQ and isn't even an option on the TRD Offroad.

Toyota has been putting 4 cyl turbo gas engines in trucks since at least the 80's, maybe earlier. The Hilux had a 2.4 Turbo as an option and they're like the most indestructible trucks on the road. There's plenty of turbo diesels that have millions of miles on them. There's absolutely no reason to believe that the 4 cylinder turbo will have any shorter of a life than the V6. There's also no guarantee the V6 is going to last 300-400K either.

I would buy the turbo motor.
 
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You can also call up ProCharger and see if they've got something for the current 6, their site notes up to 2021, I don't follow new vehicles to know if there's a difference or not. 35-40% gain in Horses

If a guy wants more power...

I've thought about doing this. I've tossed around the idea of a new taco many times but never liked how low the seat sits so my thought was just replace the seat like you have. I have an '07 FJ that I've put over 200k hard miles on, lots of trails and abuse and the seat is fine for me but not the taco.

I lifted the seat when I put it in, I rigged it so my head is just south of hitting, allows me to see around the rig better.
Installing the aftermarket seat was nothing, though my factory seats nor my Corbeau are electric in how they move, the Corbeau is heated though. Don't know if there's a big mess if a seat has electric controls or not.
 
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Do some research, but I believe the engines in the '24s are not "new" or "first year". They have been around in Lexus lines for a few years already. All of these "techs" who don't know that make me wonder if I should take my 23 to a dealer or not... May be other first year gremlins, but as long as the engine and transmission are pretty solid, it is all minor.

My '23 has been a great truck for hauling junk and a bed full of rock and furniture. Would do it again, Would also consider the 24 if I had to get another vehicle.
 
I really don’t get why you keep bringing up the electric motor when the hybrid doesn’t even appear to be an option on the model you’re looking at, let alone standard equipment. If you don’t want the hybrid then don’t get that option, it’s as simple as that.
 
Here you go, the hybrid is available as an OPTION on the TRD off road. The standard motor is a 2.4L Turbo non hybrid with NO ELECTRIC MOTOR.

 
2020 TRD Pro here. V6 ,shitty mileage 16 on regular ethanol. Then you tow something. 11-12MPG towing a UTV trailer..My Tundra gets better mileage towing.

Extremely good off road for what I do. Zero problems and have 55k on it.


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FWIW- several reviews on youtube. No mpg figures yet that I've seen. The seats on a couple of the models look badass, but these trims are likely 50-60k + . Personally I'm not really interested in a hybrid, and definitely not an EV.

 
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I have twin turbos on my Ford Expy. Lots of power but turbos are hard on the motor. Hard on oil, lifters, cylinders, etc. yeah swapping a new turbo onto the Tacos motor isn’t cumbersome….but what about all the other wear and tear on the engine that’s more costly to overhaul.

The V6 is a solid core. Tested. I have buddys with 300k on their tacos. If the 2024 was available with a V6 I’d be waiting. But that isn’t the case now

We're also not living with the metallurgy or oil quality of 20 years ago.

If it makes it to 300k toss a new long block at it. Chances are it'll be a rust bucket long before the engine is actually worn out.
 
I would love to find one in 4WD with the 22RE. Slow, but reliable. The manual trans are super easy to rebuild should they need it. Use the factory heavy duty clutch in them and they last forever. The only thing I would add is a locker for the rear, maybe the front too.

And head gaskets. The number of them I've seen driving around blowing steam out of the exhaust because the owners are too dumb to fix them is staggering.

They're also mind bending slow by today's standards.
 
Super cool. Who'd did/do you work for? And what was the reliability/life expectancy of a SC motor vs. the same naturally aspirated?
I worked for a dealership called MacPherson Toyota. We were close to the tech department building with all of the super smart techs we called when we couldn't figure out an issue. I ended up working with those guys a lot and they felt I had the right mindset to help the TRD guys. So myself and another guy went after hours to help them with the testing and development. They offered me a job on the Indy team later but I was young and dumb and didn't want to give my life to TRD. Looking back I should have taken the job.

As far as longevity I can't say. I left that dealership and went to another. I ended up leaving that to build modern Mustangs for road racing and street cars. Then I left the auto industry completely and work for a fishing manufacturer. One of my friends has a 4Runner that we did the supercharger on. He still drives it to this day. I have no idea how many miles he has on it now. They were pretty low boost units, I think 6 pounds if my memory is correct. That low of boost should mean they will last a long time.
 
You guys keep throwing around 300K miles like it's some kind of a guarantee. Sure some motors make it to that, but not most. There are old chevy V8's that have a million miles on them, do most of them make it that far? Fuck no, not even close.

200K is a realistic expectancy for the 3.5 V6 along with most decent modern motors with proper maintenance. There have been plenty of the Toyota/Lexus 3.5's that have taken a shit long before 200K and there's a few known issues with them like high pressure fuel pump failures as well as #5 and #6 rod failures when operated on steep inclines. Toyotas 3.5 V6 is damn good but it's not the bombproof 300K+ mile motor that some of you are hyping it up to be.
 
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Press release. Infomercial or something

 
As far as pedal lag and acceleration woes ...

You may wish to try something like this to go ahead and take care of that. They don't add power, they for all intents and purposes simply re-configure throttle response, as you can see, they get good reviews. They'll have 4 different modes but inside those modes you have several finer levels of adjustment as well. So, from "I want to get 6mpg and burn my tires bald, to 20mpg and fall asleep."


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Or more money, for bluetooth

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Thinking hard about picking up a 2023 Tacoma TRD Off-road. The 2024 models are only available with turbo 4cyls. I’m not really digging that.

Any Tacoma owners on here? I don’t need anything bigger at the moment. The Tacoma should handle the farms and hunting needs for me here in PA.
Don’t look down on the turbo engines they use now. My Lincoln Navigator has a V6 with twin turbos that pumps out 450 horsepower with 21 MPG. My wife’s Lexus LX pumps out 409 horsepower with 479 ft lbs of torque 19 mpg. Amazing power in small fuel efficient engines.
 
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